I’ve got a sports bar on my Ram 1500 that comes with a toggle switch to control the bar swinging up or down to stow. I’m struggling to figure a way to wire with a controller instead of toggle switch. The bar motor is just two wires so the original toggle switch just reversed polarity. I tried wiring the same way on my controller and only managed to blow the fuses for each button when pressed. As long as you hold the button, the motor goes up or down. Can you help?

It’s like it needs a way to isolate the wires for each button so pressing momentary button 1(up) doesn’t blow button 2(down) and vice verse in my situation for how I wired it.

I just did an ai search and it seems a diode might work. This is for a 12v light bar on my truck. The controller has numerous amp circuits to choose from 2-30amp so something that works on anything in that range.

 

What you need is some circuit working like h-bridge. Two spdt buttons rated accordingly could do the job. Otherwise two buttons could activate their relay and relay contacts would do the switching (and need to handle load current).

For details lookup 'reversing dc motor'

 

Thanks for the help.

It's an odd setup I’m working with. It’s a light controller board from Auxbeam. It’s all integrated. It controls 8 separate devices, each with its own fuse, that’s controlled by a board inside the truck. Each circuit can be configured as either: on/off, momentary, or flash. I used momentary. I took the two wires to the motor and added a splitter. On button 1 it’s red-red and black-black. On button two, since I need to reverse polarity, it’s red-black and black-red. This is how it was wired to the rocker switch the system came with.

It seems I need a way to stop current flowing backwards to each wire I suspect. That way, when I press button 1, it doesn’t shoot positive back to the negative on button 2, etc. if that makes sense.

 

managed to blow the fuses

What was the fuse current rating?

Since you need to reverse the voltage (and thus current) to the motor, I don't see how diodes can help with the switches you have.

As panic mode suggested, I think you need to add two SPDT relays configured in a H-bridge configuration, each relay controlled by its own button.
Example circuit below:
The Cntl inputs are from the PB switches.
Pressing the Up button connects positive voltage to the Up motor terminal with the other terminal grounded, and pressing the Down button applies positive voltage to the opposite terminal.

The diodes are to protect the relay contacts from arcing due to motor inductance, but may not be needed, depending upon the contact ratings of the relays you use.

 

It sounds like you wired the power directly to the motor. You need limit switches that cut power when it reaches the end of travel. I suspect they were there and were used in the original circuit. If the motor stalls because it hits the end of travel, it will draw a large current, which is why the fuse would blow.

 

crutschow I’ll look this over. BobTPH it blows the second you touch the momentary switch. Thanks.

 

crutschow I’ll look this over. BobTPH it blows the second you touch the momentary switch. Thanks.

The "CRUTSCHOW circuit without the diodes, is a classic, very well proven many times for many people.