Crazy Remote-Switch Setup:

One of the major clients at work has decreed that beacon-switches hidden away in coin-trays or under the dash are no longer acceptable as "the lads are having to take their eyes off the road to find them". I'm not sure why 'the lads' would be looking to turn the beacon on while on 'the road', as it is illegal to use them this way, but ho-hum, what a client wants a client gets and the powers that be have decided remote-switches are the way to go. This isn't a bad idea - it's less holes drilled in brand new cars that have to be sold next year, but they're dearer than normal switches and in its quest to be ever cost-cutting the company has gone for the cheapest, tackiest remote-switches you can buy.

These come in a plastic-box, Maplin style, where you have to drill your own holes for the wires. They also come with no instructions and were a nightmare to figure out, for me anyway. Someone with even basic electronics knowledge would probably find this a doddle, but I didn't frankly, so here is the setup:

The red live from the battery [top wire] is split to both the '12v' on the left-hand terminals and the one marked 'NO' on the right-hand terminals. The red live from the beacon (or whatever) [lower wire] goes to the terminal marked 'COM' on the right-hand block. The earth-wire from the beacon joins to the battery-earth and the left-hand earth-terminal, marked 'GND', joins to that somehow. Syncing-up the remote-fob is mad too. You have to bridge the right-hand two of the four pins at the bottom of the board, using the tip of a screwdriver or something. The board starts clicking. Press the fob button and it stops clicking, but the fob-button needs pressing another few times for the board to recognise it. Also, remove the jumper from the left-hand two pins, or the beacon will only work while the fob-button is being pressed... What a thing.