Making the running lights work from a switch inside the X23B

[johnsoax]

Worked on the camper this afternoon.
Many times when we were camping we would notice that our camper was very dark when we returned to it from the shower or when we were out exploring till after dark.
Our camper has a small yellow light under the steps and the super bright leds under the awning that only works when the awning is open.
I've seen other campers that had their running lights working before and with research found that people usually just stuck a 5amp fuse into the car plug. As an electrical engineer, I could come up with something better.
Bought a lighted switch from an auto parts store. The idea was it would have a light on it when the switch was on, to help us remember that it was on.
Wired it up and the switch smoked. Hmm, that isn't good. Took the switch back and exchanged it.
Wired it up again and everything worked great. That first switch must have been bad. Decided to put an inline 5 amp fuse in to protect the wiring further.
Next I went to check the 7-way auto plug to make sure nothing I did would cause any trouble when we hooked up a vehicle.
When I was doing research about if we would like the lights I used a test lead to jumper the pins in the plug where others throw a 5 amp fuse.
So I plugged in the test lead and it promptly started to smoke. I couldn't touch it as it was too hot and ran over to hit the disconnect on the battery, by the time I got back it was completely melted.
Interesting. What the heck caused that???
The switch I purchased has three connections. 12V, load, ground. Turns out the switch connects the 12V to the load when on, and connects the load to ground when off. No idea who designed it that way, as that is stupid.
I remembered that I had a diode in one of my kits from college. Wired up the diode and now everything works perfectly!!