Positive v Negative switching?

FireBuffing · Post by **FireBuffing** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 6:04 am

Anybody here know the differrence between positive and nagative swtiching in vehicles? My car is negative, and I had to cut both high beam wires for my wig-wags, and need to have the high beams on for them to work. On the other hand, my friend has a positive system, and just needed to cut one wire, and just flips on the switch. Thanks

Res168cue · Post by **Res168cue** » Wed Apr 27, 2005 7:14 am

Positive and Negative switching is quite simply just the way that the electrical system is controlled in a vehicle. They are two entirely different systems and its like compairing apples to oranges, and there is no way to change one system to opperate like the other. It is what it is...

-Nate

FireBuffing · Post by **FireBuffing** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 8:55 pm

I'm not looking to change it to a different one, but a better understanding of how each operates.

KG6EAQ · Post by **KG6EAQ** » Fri Apr 29, 2005 9:32 pm

One controls things via adding for removing the negative side and the other controls things by cutting off the input (or positive side). Pretty simple.

FireBuffing · Post by **FireBuffing** » Mon May 16, 2005 9:03 pm

Alrighty, that's simple enough, thanks for the help

SlimBob · Post by **SlimBob** » Thu May 19, 2005 12:36 am

pretty common on american cars to switch the high beams on the positive side, whereas some forgien cars switch on the negative side.

SonicSounds · Post by **SonicSounds** » Thu May 19, 2005 3:56 am

SlimBob wrote:pretty common on american cars to switch the high beams on the positive side, whereas some forgien cars switch on the negative side.

Hey,

My Subaru WRX (made in US) has positive switching for headlight power (in other words +12 gets turned on to the bulb common lead) and uses negative switching on the individual inputs to determine which filament is illuminated! Take that....

Jon