Hi, I have turned an old X Type seat into an office chair, but I'm wondering how to power up the electrics in the seat?
Is there any circuit diagrams I can find anywhere?

Not sure where to get started
Thanks

 

Corey, I have helped a few people do this to these seats. If you look under the seat, you should have a black wire that leaves the seat and should have a ring lug on the end that would be bolted to the body of the car. That is your ground for the seat. Now, depending on whether it is the driver's or passenger seat, we are now looking for an orange wire with either a green stripe (left hand seat) or a yellow stripe (right hand seat). This is where just because you found 1 of these wires, keep looking. If you have a 2 way seat, then there is only 1 of these wires. If you have the 8 way seats, there will be 2. If the seat is heated, then there will be a 3rd. Of note, if you have a 2 way seat (ie, seat only lays back via the motor), then you are looking for an 8 pin plug. If the seat moves front to back and also moves up and down, then you are looking for a 12 pin plug and an 8 pin plug. If the seat had seat heaters in it, there will be a 10 pin plug for this. I would take the 10 pin plug and tuck it out of the way as making the seat heater work is going to take a lot more work than what you are probably after as this will also require the use of a much larger power source. So, once you have your plug(s), locate the orange wires (with the appropriate colored stripe, connect those wire(s) to the positive of your battery/power supply and the black wire to the negative. The seat should have full function at this time.

A few tidbits that you should/need to be aware of. To make this work, you are either going to need a 12V power supply that is capable of 10 amps or you are going to need a small power supply (only needs to be say a 500 mA source) with a battery that it maintains, with the seat running off of the battery. When you hit one of the switches to move the seat, you can pull up to 10 amps (especially if you are sitting in the seat). So, this is going to be a consideration for your wiring. The other thing is if you look, there is a wire that is labeled "AIRBAG". NEVER!!!!!!! apply any power to that. This will cause the airbag in the seat to perform its function (ie, inflate) which will rip apart the sides of the seat and potentially cause harm to you (has the potential to launch the chair from the floor to the ceiling, if you are in the way, it will hurt). So, I would say at a minimum that wire should be taped up and put somewhere way out of the way.

This should give you the info you need to do the chair. If you need more help, let me know.