holyspatulaboy

i have an electrical panel problem... when i turn switch 1 on the light will turn on... when i turn switch 2, 3, or 4 on light turns off from switch one and nothing works, does the same for all the switches. if you only have one on it will work.. turn on another switch it does nothing works... when you read voltage from pos side of switch to neg on battery it shows 12 with all switchs off... if you have any switch on it reads 0-1.5 on pos side of switch to neg on battery... from my experience even if you have a complete circuit and you read from the pos side of switch to the battery ground you will still get 12 volts differnnce of potential from pos to neg on battery... i am stumped on what kind of short i have since the ground at the battery shows no differnce in potential between pos post on switch and battery neg when switches are closed unless i take the reading directly off the pos post on battery and neg post... any thoughts are welcome

thank you

i have attached simple diagram of what i have connected

shawnvw

What are you running off the switches? is it hooked up to a vehicle?
It really sounds like either a dead battery, or a poor connection at the battery terminal.
Put your meter on the positive and negative post of the battery, and turn on a couple switches...what does the voltage read?

This next test is really only effective if you are using a top post battery connection. but you can use it on all your connections.

Turn on all your switches. use your meter to measure for voltage from the battery + post, to the battery + terminal. do the same for all connections. Measure for voltage from 1 side of the connection to the other. If you read .2volts or more, you have a poor connection and it needs to be cleaned up. This applies to both the positive and negative side of the circuits but I would start with the positive side

holyspatulaboy

thank you will look into..