fluorescent shop lights in basement

trying to string 2 shop lights together and operate off of one switch can get the light to work just cant get them to turn off with the light switch have to turn off with the circut breaker any little bit will help thanks

 

To do other than make wild guesses, we'd need to know more details about what you did. Can you help?

 

i connected the first light to the power source and ran wire from the light to the switch then ran wire from the first light to to the other light then back to the switch hope you can make something out of that thanks for the help

 

99% of posters here have too few wires to accomplish what they want. In contrast, you have too many! You don't want that cable from the second light to the switch. First, remove that.

I'm assuming that all your "wire" is really 14/2 Romex cable. Post back if that isn't correct.

Call the 14/2 power cable "P".
Call the 14/2 cable from light#1 to the switch "S".
Call the 14/2 cable between the lights "L".
b=black; r=red; w=white

At light#1:[list=1][*]Connect Pb to Sw.[*]Connect Pw to Lw to the white from the light.[*]Connect Sb to Lb to the black from the light.[/list=1]At light#2:[list=1][*]Connect Lb to the black from the light.[*]Connect Lw to the white from the light.[/list=1]At the switch, connect Sb and Sw to the switch.

Mark both ends of Sw with black marker. Connect all grounding wires everywhere.

 

thank you very much worked first try one last question for you can i add more lights if so how would like to string 2 more off of them

 

Since you didn't say otherwise, I assume the additional lights you want are switched by the same switch. Simply run 14/2 from light#2 to light#3, and from light #3 to light #4. Connect wires by color.

Don't forget to get a few good books on home wiring so you are aware of numerous other installation details that are important to safety. Making something work is not the same as making it work safely.