Any sparkies??

[feen]

One of my jobs whilst the wife is shopping today is to sort the outdoor christmas lights. There is a string of 30 bulbs, with three wires making up the flex. I'm sure they are wired as three sets of ten, bulbs one and two broke causing the next eight to go out but the other twenty remained on.

Since last year the wind has eventually snapped the flex and I can't find the plug end. This is what I'm left with but not sure how to wire it into the new plug.

Cheers for any advice.

JF

 

[Engineer1964]

you have 3 wires one each of earth live and neutral, What you need to do is find which two supply the bulb holder and to do that you need a multimeter, just set it on continuity and place one probe on the wire and one on the contact in the holder. If you get a circuit then mark that wire, do the same for the other, once you have 2 wires marked the 3rd one would be the earth.

Just wire up the 2 marked wires to the live and netural on your plug and the un marked wire to the Earth.

Finally just check with the meter again before you plug it in

 

[rtbcomp]

Are the wires colour coded? Are the lights connected to the mains or through a transformer?

 

[feen]

Connected to mains, no transformer. My multi meter used to chime with continuity but no longer does, should there be a reading on the screen also?

Ta

JF

 

[wheresmejumper]

reading of 1 is continuity

 

[feen]

Doh!

Could have worked that out if I touched the needles together.

Thanks anyway.

JF

 

[feen]

Finally got around to doing this today.

The earth is the middle strand in the flex above, wired it all up and tripped the fuse in the house. Swapped the live and neutral and tripped again.

Could it be a bulb? They all have their own internal fuses.

Help!

JF

 

[brightspark]

tripped the fuse/mcb or the rccd which

 

[wheresmejumper]

swapping L + N doesnt change much with that type of lighting
is it tripping an mcb or the trip switch (RCD)

^too slow

 

[feen]

MCB (small one) ground floor ring.

Ta

JF

 

[Engineer1964]

Make sure you've got no other damage to the cable as you getting some voltage back to earth thus tripping your switch, are all the bulb holders waterproof?

 

[the snooper]

did these lights use to flash / alternate if so could be 2 positive 1 neautral i dont see the point of an earth when they look totally insulated

 

[Robotstar5]

did these lights use to flash / alternate if so could be 2 positive 1 neautral i dont see the point of an earth when they look totally insulated

Don't think I've ever seen xmas tree lights with an earth?

 

[the snooper]

Don't think I've ever seen xmas tree lights with an earth?

nope me neither even the bigger outdoor decorative mains lights dont as they are double insulated

 

[feen]

Are we getting somewhere???? According to the manufacturer, the bulbs are in groups of twenty.

They were permanently on, not flashing.

Cheers guys

JF.

 

[brightspark]

whats the voltage of the bulbs then if there wired in series work it out .take all the bulbs out and test for a short on the cable and a continuity test to figure the wiring out

 

[the snooper]

12 volt bulbs then