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The light keeps going out!
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Author:  Phosco152 [ Sun Nov 29, 2009 2:53 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

If it has a NEMA cell, it may be a thermal type which has gone out of calibration. The springs eventually go on the bi-metallic strip which causes early on and late off.

Author:  mazeteam [ Mon Nov 30, 2009 1:21 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

The minicell that controls the LED lighting for my pond area is like this. Today the lights were on pretty much all day!
This evening I've been changing things though, and have added an electronic Sangamo timer into the mix... the switchwire either isn't connected somewhere or is broken in the middle though, as the lights aren't working!

Author:  Urbis Saturn Land [ Mon Nov 30, 2009 4:29 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

mazeteam wrote:
The minicell that controls the LED lighting for my pond area is like this. Today the lights were on pretty much all day!
This evening I've been changing things though, and have added an electronic Sangamo timer into the mix... the switchwire either isn't connected somewhere or is broken in the middle though, as the lights aren't working!


Could it be the timeclock that could be interfering with the minicell by any chance?

Author:  mazeteam [ Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:14 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

How I wired the circuit is that a 2core & earth cable goes from the unswitched supply in my outdoor emergency light up to the minicell, and a seperate 2c+e cable comes back from the cell carrying the switched supply into an outdoor junction box. from there the earth and neutral go to terminals where the LED lights are connected, but the live goes into a terminal which is connected to the live of the outgoing switch wire which goes to the timeclock relay contacts. the neutral-coloured wire in this cable returns from the timeclock and then supplies the LED lights.

What seems to have happened is, sometime between me taking down the timeclock from the shed at the other house and putting it up here, the circuit has broken so no power is going to the coil in the relay. I have used a tester on the contacts for the coil of the relay, and while there is a voltage there for the tester to buzz, there isn't enough voltage to click any of the relay switches I have. When I first pushed the timeclock into the base in this shed, it buzzed for a couple of seconds and then stopped, and now it won't work. The programmer is fine, and it still comes "on" and "off" in that the indicator LED switches on and off at the correct times, but the relay doesn't switch and so the relay contacts for the LED lights are effectively dead. Good thing I didn't buy the timer at full price otherwise I'd not be in a good mood... but now I have to find another E850 or E855 for less than £20. And if I can't find one then I'll have to get a central heating programmer instead.
At the moment I'm using a cable as a jump wire between the relay contact terminals on the base of the timer so the LED lights are on.

Author:  Urbis Saturn Land [ Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:20 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

I have a cheap timeclock that I got from wilko's for £1.50, I belive they are now £3.00 and they take a 3 pin plug - you could try that and see if that works as a tempoary measure.

Author:  mazeteam [ Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:06 am ]
Post subject:  Re: The light keeps going out!

Well, for the moment I can keep them on dusk to dawn... but I have a venner timeswitch somewhere, and my huge Horstman spring reserve clock is sitting in one of the high level cupboards in the garage at the moment - if push came to shove, I can use one of those...

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