Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums Modifications Aesthetics Indiglo guages..

The White wire with the Orange Line on it is the Power for the Dimmer Switch that is what I have mine hooked up too...
Not hard to do at all...

Thanks for posting that, Brad... I had somewhat of the same idea in my reasoning behind the "why", but am here not to B.S. on theories and confuse people but to offer something useful that is backed up with facts. So thanks once again for putting something here to back up what I said.

-Jeremy

Just to sum up my many years of experience with electronics (and it is quite considerable):

Do what the manufacturer TELLS you to do. If they say 12V only, then you DAMN well better have a constant 12V source attached to the power wires of that thing.

Seriously, electronics are incredibly durable mechanically, drop em, throw em, hell, you can even put them in water under the right circumstances (DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!!!!! I AM NOT KIDDING!!! DO NOT EVER EVER PUT ELECTRINCS IN WATER... EVER!), but the bottom line is that they are very sensitive and delicate ELECTRICALLY! While, of course, you wont MELT or BLOW OUT something by supplying insuficient voltage, you will DAMAGE components that are recieving incorrect voltages. This could be minor as a substrate craking (a tech way of saying 'busted component') or as serious as bursting into flame. IT CAN HAPPEN!!!! Anyone who doesnt believe me has never worked with electronics.

In closing, ALWAYS FOLLOW MANUFACTURERS DIRECTIONS. If they say place the purle pink pokadot wire to the left handed whatzit, you better hook it up that way.

The part everyone is missing is that the Electrical devices, especially transformers, use power (Watts). Watts= Volts x Amps (on DC, on AC, you have to adjust for impedance, but the principle is the same). As the volts are reduced, the amps increase to maintain the same amount of watts. For instance, I have a 12V to 120 Volt inverter that rated at 350 Watts. At 12VDC input, it draws 29.2 Amps on the 12v side, At 14VDC input it Draws 25 amps, at 10VDC it draws 35 Amps. If I have 30 amp rated wiring, it is ok at 12V and 14V, but could/would melt at 35A. This all assumes a 350 Watt load on the 120V side. Since the indiglos are a "fixed" load, I would assume they sized the components close to the normal full load (amps) rating. By undervolting, you are increasing the amps and if not burning up the unit, at least shortening the lifespan significantly. So, If you expect the unit to last 10 years, you might be shortening the life to 3 years. The fact that you have been undervolting for 1 year with no consequence just means you haven't waited long enough.

There's more to this, input impedance, output impedance, output load, extc, but I just kept it simple.