quick relay question Options

[lagos]

Im hooking up a relay. I have these wires..

White
Black
Red
Yellow
Blue.

From my understanding, white and black are for the magnet that "flips the switch, and the rest of the wires get hooked up based on if you want the relay to be NO or NC.
I wired the white wire to power. However, when I put a multimeter to the black wire (that should hook up to a ground), I noticed that i also get 12v there. This is normal right? I can just send that to a ground without issue to make the relay click on, right?

This post has been edited by lagos: May 30, 2008 - 5:15 PM

[lagos]

well, the relay does click when i give power and ground to the white and black wires... so those are the 2 wires of the magenet inside. I just wanted to double check so that i dont fry anything.

hmm

Here is a picture of the internals of a typical Bosch-style automotive relay. When +12V is applied between pins 85 and 86 the coil becomes a magnet which pulls the lever down making a connection between pins 30 and 87.

It doesnt say anything about applying ground to the other end.

This post has been edited by lagos: May 30, 2008 - 5:31 PM

[BloodyStupidDave...]

well, the relay does click when i give power and ground to the white and black wires... so those are the 2 wires of the magenet inside. I just wanted to double check so that i dont fry anything.

If it clicks when you apply power and the circuit closes (or opens) on the other two pins then sounds like you have everything working just fine. What is it you are doing?