12V switch question

[jakings238]

Hi Just a quick question.

Is there any reason why this wouldn't work:

I'm not particularly hot on circuits.

(The 12V battery is a motorbike battery)

 

[andrewmchugh]

You are right in the way that you have the lights in parallel, this divides the current and the voltage will remain the same. HOWEVER!

The switch is shorted out. The LEDs will always be on, when the switch is off this will be full brighness but when the switches is closed they would go very dim.

You will do it like this.

Note. polls on battery has been swapped.

Red is normally the color for 12v live and Black for ground.

 

[jakings238]

You are right in the way that you have the lights in parallel, this divides the current and the voltage will remain the same. HOWEVER!

The switch is shorted out. The LEDs will always be on, when the switch is off this will be full brighness but when the switches is closed they would go very dim.

You will do it like this.

Note. polls on battery has been swapped.

Red is normally the color for 12v live and Black for ground.

So based on what you're saying I would use figure 2 over figure 1.
Just out of interest would figure 1 work as well?

(just noticed +/- swapped back round. don't worry i understand what you're saying with regards to that)

Figure 1

Figure 2