All,

PowerEclipses I know you could help me more cause I remember you said you bought that varad racerboy shift knob. Well I also bought it and I was wondering if any one of you guys can help.
The knob has a ribbon cable coming from the four buttons on the knob. The ribbon cable goes to a relay controller but after that it says I need a 12 volt relay now I bought a 12 volt relay from radio shack that has 8 prongs on it labled from 1-8. And in the instructions it has a button1 wire going to relay 1 ground output
button2 to relay 2 ground output button3 to relay 3 ground output and button4 to relay 4 ground output. so would each prong on the relay labled 1-8 represent a relay... I mean would button 1 wire go to prong 1 on relay etc.? I will be installing 3 solenoids and a bottle heater so would I just connect each power wire for each device to the appropriate labled prong? example button 1 wire to prong one on relay then take power wire from solenoid and run it to prong one also? Does this sound right or am I going about it wrong. I really need help on this guys cause I would like to finish this.

thanks

Ok... wow... it looks like you may be in over your head here. ALL the control box for the knob does is supply a low voltage ground... that is ALL that it does... it doesn't supply power at all. You need to set up what kind of switching you want the control box to do by setting the dip switches in the control box (see the instructions for this).

The reason you need the relays is because a low voltage ground doesn't do much good (in most cases). Usually you need a +12V source (like to run the bottle heater you are talking about). To trigger that 12V source you will need a 12V source ran to the relay... You put the 12 volt source on one side of the switch of the relay and the signal wire from your varad control box to the other side of the switch. When the varad control box activates a ground you will have activated the switch (applied both power and ground to the switch).

Now that takes care of two of the connections... You also need a +12V source (it can be the same 12V you used to switch the relay above) to the "input" side of the relay. Hook up a wire to the output side of the relay to your bottle heater.

So... with a 4-prong relay - when the control box gives the low voltage ground... the relay activates and puts the 12V "input" to the output wire... hence you have switched power.

Now... As for the 8 prongs on your relay... I think you bought the wrong type of relay (it MAY work...but it will be a lot more complicated to hook up... believe it or not). There are 2 types of automotive relays that you can get. 4-prong and 6-prong. For most applications you only need 4 prong. This is what I have disussed above. The 6-prong relays allow you to have an output when the swith is either open or closed (ground is supplied or not).

If you've got questions... gimme a holla'

right on bro, that just helped me out a lot... you deserve a star... anywho I still have a couple more questions So since I have 4 buttons I am going to use I need one 4 pronged relay for each switch correct?
Yeah I am going back to radio shack today and exchanging it. I take it you are familiar with the varad knob? But tell me this the instruction show that I have to connect 3 seperate wires from the control box to a ground, +12 when ignition on, and constant +12... but I am going to take the guess that it is for the box itself cause it does have a tiny cpu that needs power.

tia

Alright... first off... I said 6-prong relay and I meant 5-prong.

So you can buy these relays in 4-prong and 5-prong. 5-prong is most common, but you probably won't need the 5th prong. If you don't need it, you just won't hook it up... it isn't a problem.

The naming convention for the relays is all the same. I dug one up so you would know what goes where.

85 and 86 - When 12 volts is put to one and ground to the other - the relay is triggered (it doesn't matter how you hook them up as long as one is ground and the other is +12V)
87 - Input Source - this is what is sent to the output when the relay is triggered (most likely your +12V source)
30 - Output Source

For a 5-prong relay you will have a fifth prong:
87a - Input Source that is sent to prong #30 when the switch is not triggered (this is why you probably won't need this one... most of the time you either want it on or off).

About your questions:
- If you want to run 4 things, you will need 4 relays... UNLESS all they need is a LOW VOLTAGE ground to make them work (they may have a built in relay). It is important to reiterate that it is only a LOW VOLTAGE ground supplied by the control box. If you tried to ground something serious with it, bad shit will happen. My guess is that you will most certainly need 4 relays.
- Righto about the control box needing some juice... It has to run that led that comes with it and run the little transistors and shit inside.

If you think I'm worthy of a star... hook me up!

hahaha, i effin hate relays, i had to hook em up for my compressors