Ok so i was trying to hook up a neon to my trunk light. The neon only came with a cigarette lighter adaptor. So i cut the adaptor and spliced the black wire from the neon to the white wire from the trunk light (assuming these are negative) and the black and white wire from the neon to the red wire from the trunk light (assuming these wires are positive). Then I turn it on.. and i hear a pop and the neon starts smoking a little. So I disconnect it and reverse the polarities because i thought they were mixed up. So then I turn it on again and i hear a louder pop and it starts smoking HARDCORE. So i know the neon is ruined, but my question is how can both polarities be wrong? Is it because the neon is designed to run off AC and the trunk light is DC? if this is the case would I be better off running neons of my amp wires?

 

Dont connect the neon to your amp wires when the car is on they are 14.4v which will fry the neon if it can only handle 12v. As far as the trunk light goes check the voltage of it. If its less or more then 12v then it could fry the power supply. Easiest way to find out which wire is which is open up the lighter adapter and look which one goes directly to the part you push in and the part that connects to the skin of the lighter. Hook it up as positive the push in part and the negative the part that connects to the skin.