Ghosts Maybe

Hello everyone,

I am posting here as I have a rather strange electrical problem and don't know where else to turn. I have asked a couple of electricians about this but they have come up blank so far.

I have an aquarium LED lighting unit that has Blue and White LEDs on different circuits powered from separate 55w 1.36a power supplies and the problem is the Blue LED circuit always destroys the plug in timer. I have tried different makes and styles of timer both digital and peg type rated for 3200w or thereabouts.

What happens is this, the very first time the timer is used the Blues come on at the set time and then go off at the set time (as expected) however, the next time the Blues come on the timer gets destroyed and Blues do not go off again.

This is true for every timer I have used, one full on-off cycle then on- & never go off again.

The White circuit is absolutely fine, works as expected every time.

Now for the strange part, I have a set of flourescent T5s which also have a Blue and White circuit and they do the same thing, one full on-off cycle then never switch off.

But now for the spooky part, this only seems to affect the Blue side of both flourescent and LED light units. As mentioned previously I have tried different timers but I have also tried this in different wall sockets in the house always with the same result, the Blues do one full cycle and then kill the timer.

Again, the White circuit is absolutely fine on both fluorescent and LED, on & off as expected every time.

I also tried one of these separate timer & contactor units, normally used in HID lighting, but the results are the exact same, on-off then on & bye bye timer.

I bought one of these electrical wiring tester from a well known Screw and Fixing supplier and, according to this tester, the wiring in fine.

Does anyone have any idea what could be happening? Do I have Ghosts?

Regards,
Campbell

I notice that you say that the lighting sets use drivers,,,,,, have you tried swaping them?

Hi,

Unfortunately I can't do that as the Blue side has a round 2 pin plug and the White has a round 4 pin plug.

Cheers

I'm not into electronics BUT  there are many timers that don't like compact fluorescent lamps .

I think you need to try a timer that has a mechanlcal make - break contact with a 3mm seperation gap .

Hi,

I've tried different brands of mechanical timer but not sure if they had a 3mm gap. How can you tell if they have 3mm gap? 

Cheers

Without some actual numbers test results etc..

any comments on this thread are just speculation...

What actual tests have been done..?

What type of meter was used...?

What are the readings results obtained...?

Could be something on the blue circuit that after been switched on for a while overheats or shorts internally causing a higher current to flow through the timer contacts than designed for overloading the timer, before cooling down again..???

I may be wrong but I am reasonably certain that Blue LED's tend to draw more power than there equivalent sized non-blue LED's...

I bought one of these electrical wiring tester from a well known Screw and Fixing supplier and, according to this tester, the wiring in fine.

Click to expand...

unless this is a multi-function tester costing a few hundred pounds I doubt you have tested much of the wiring...

SO there could still be grey areas here...  or not!?

basically need more info on this really...

opcorn

I was thinking in terms of solid state switching where a circuit could still exist because of very low resistance load.

I once used a small relay  ( switching load 10A )     to switch a 500w  TH flood  in a wearhouse  switched  by  an Elkay  electronic touch time delay switch .

Because of the low solenoid resistance the coil  had a small  voltage across it for 24 hrs  , trying to operate I suppose , ended up being red hot & knackered .      I could only do it using the old style Columbus  pneumatic delay switch which  does actually break the circuit to  switch off  .

But I agree , as Specs says we can only surmise .

Thanks for your replies so far.

Basically there has been no real testing as I thought it was the LED light unit that was faulty, that is until I got the fluorescent unit on Wednesday and the same thing happened, on & off Thursday then on & dead timer Friday.

The tester I bought was a little plug in deal that's supposed to test 14 wiring conditions, it has a cluster of three LED to indicate faults but all show Green when its plugged in.

Given that I have tried the separate Timer/Contactor (one plug for timer one plug for power)  and the timer are, supposedly, rated for 3200w how can this still happen as I was under the impression that these timer/contactor units isolate the timer from the power to prevent this sort of thing with HID lighting.

This is a new house, Feb 2014, so I am trying to get the Builder to send the Electrician in to investigate, can anyone give me an idea of what they should be, could be, looking for?

Is there any chance that there some kind of electrical issue, not so much with the wiring, but with the quality of the supply itself? We live about 200m to 350m as-the-crow-flies from a sub-station. We haven't really had any other issues except three of our GU10 LED ceiling lights  have flickered and died, two (the original and replacement) were in the same socket died within days of each other. The wiring was professionally checked for this though with the Electrician blaming the bulbs.

Cheers

"We live about 200m to 350m as-the-crow-flies from a sub-station"

Sorry that should be 200m to 250m

Cheers

"We live about 200m to 350m"

Sorry, that should be 200m to 250m

Cheers

"200m to 350m"

Sorry, that should be 200m to 250m

Cheers