Wiring question

[grocco]

OK, I raided Radio Shack today and got the parts I needed to fix the lights on my machine (thankfully my Radio Shack still had the 'gadget and doohickey' drawers). Quick question though since I'm no electrician... I've figured out the wiring and my old switches work fine, but does it matter if the switch is on the positive or negative side of the circuit? I have them roughly wired up now (not soldered yet) on the positive side and they seem OK, no hot battery or anything, I just want to make sure.

[owennewton]

I would not worry as long as it works. with it being a low voltage system you are not going to hurt anything.

[ACMech]

Simple circuits, as long as you are running light bulbs and not LEDs, it doesn't matter which way the current flows...

[JACKSJE4]

It really shouldn't matter in a low voltage system, but I always put the switch on the positive side of the circuit because that is a more standard way to wire switches. That way someone after may have an easier time tracing and trouble shooting problems.

[alstonj1]

simpler because your from this side of the pond . I've dealt with a lot of equipment from Europe that was designed switching on the neg side of the circuit .This reminds me of the old positive ground or neg. ground debates in most cases it really doesn't matter to the circuit as long as current is interrupted somewhere in the line . As was stated before as long as the circuit works its fine. to take it a step further if where only talking about incandescent bulbs and switches polarity isnt an issue as an incandescent bulb doesn't see polarity for the most part its a resistor and doesnt care what the polarity is. the same goes for the switches .

[wrkey]

It really doesn't matter as for as function is concerned. It's more about the application and complete wiring. In the original wiring, the jackpot lights were switch on the postive side while the hopper empty switch was on the negative side. Many times as people try to hook up wires to the external connection points, they get them mixed up and end up with everything flashing when the jackpot hits or nothing works or some light stays on continously.

FYI, the grounding switch on the empty hopper side also served as a 'ground signal' back to the operator's board to turn on a light there letting the operator know that a machine was empty and which one it was.