Advice needed on switch wiring please.

[bony]

Hello,

I'm rewiring a couple of bilge pumps which should be a simple job but I find I need a little advice on the subject.

I want to wire in simple On/Off switches for each Bilge pump with separate small indicator lights to tell me which pump is running. The the switches only have two lugs each and the lights are tiny stand alone LED's not built into the switches. They have no wires attached as yet, just two miniscule lugs where the wiring can be soldered onto. 12v power will be supplied to the pumps via my Blueseas fuse panel using 14AWG Tinned wire. I know the positive wire connects to the switch lugs and the ground wire will connect to the Negative busbar but am not sure how to add the lights into the circuit. Can someone tell me the correct wiring sequence please?.

bony

[twinboat]

Hook up one bulb wire to the switch terminal that goes to the pump, the other to ground. The light will light when you flip switch and / or when the float switch turns it on.

[RainDog]

LED use in a 12 volt system

[Zil]

Hooking the bulb from the load side of the switch to ground buss will light when the switch is on. To light when the pump is running requires wiring from the pump side of the float switch to ground. Be sure to use an LED rated for more than 12 Volts.

[twinboat]

Yup and that is the same wire that goes to the switch

[hellosailor]

"and the lights are tiny stand alone LED's "
Hook up a plain LED to twelve volts and it will burn out immediately. You need to know the ratings of the LED to match it with a voltage dropping resistor and do some math and soldering, or, you can buy a couple of "twelve volt LEDs" which are already assembled with the correct dropping resistor built in, to save you the work.

[bony]

Thanks to everyone for the good advice. Wiring a switch is simple enough but my knowledge of LED's is very limited so there was pontential for a stuff up. That weblink will be helpful, thanks again.

bony

[Zil]

My float switch is powered from the on/off switch, Battery to switch to float to pump to ground. I guess a float could be powered direct and the switch directed to the pump after the float.
Much less complicated to obtain the "12V" LED. I can't find the package, but think I bought some 15 volt LED from Radio Shack. They work fine, Red, green and amber.