Help with a weird light switch?

In our garage (that we rarely ever use) there's a circular light control dial on the wall, It's not like anything I've seen before or can find on the internet, a cable runs from it to 6 fluorescent tubes around the garage, this makes me think electricity is wired to the garage, or was because there's still a wire running from the garage back to the house, problem is I wanted to figure out if I could make it work, because right now when you twist it nothing happens (not sure if all 6 bulbs are dead) and I eventually wanting power out there for any tools that need it etc, I was thinking an outdoor waterproof extension cable that runs from indoors to the garage outside at the bottom of the garden, but that'd need to be 20metres probably. This website doesn't let me post pictures so I can't show the picture I took.

Could be a mechanical timer switch so you can't leave the lights on.

Unless you can identify the cable from the house and find out it's size then nobody can advise if it is big enough for sockets or just a small cable only suitable for lights.

ProDave said:

Could be a mechanical timer switch so you can't leave the lights on.

Unless you can identify the cable from the house and find out it's size then nobody can advise if it is big enough for sockets or just a small cable only suitable for lights.

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Yeah I'm not really that worried about that, I just wanna know if I can get those lights working or not, but I don't even know what the weird switch thing is

Have you tried pushing the dial,instead of turning it?

google

columbus time lag switch

just a thought

Something like this maybe? 

Sorry about the green....

Blue Duck said:

Something like this maybe? 

Sorry about the green....



View attachment 9271

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It doesn't really look that old :/ it's a white plastic circle, about 2 and a half inches across, i wish I could show a picture, let me use another site and then post the link so you can see 

nikster558 said:

It doesn't really look that old :/ it's a white plastic circle, about 2 and a half inches across, i wish I could show a picture, let me use another site and then post the link so you can see 

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?

Blue Duck said:

?

View attachment 9272

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https://ibb.co/fB9Zwn

This is what it is 

That's not a switch. That's a junction box.

Just looks like a single cable going in so not connected to anything, but undo the screw in the centre and take the lid off and see is there is anything else connected there.  Be careful as the conductor might be live inside the box.

Ardet R said:

Just looks like a single cable going in so not connected to anything, but undo the screw in the centre and take the lid off and see is there is anything else connected there.  Be careful as the conductor might be live inside the box.

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It runs outside to a cable that goes back into my house, on the other side of the wall you can see the cable now you've mentioned that, does that mean one of the 3 switches in my house that I've never figured out what they do could actually control the lights? So you can turn them on from in the house?

Risteard said:

That's not a switch. That's a junction box.

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So what's that exactly?

It is possible it is still connected to the lights but I would expect to see more than one cable into the junction box.

It may be the lights have been disconnected at some point.

Within the junction box are three, four, five or six terminals for connecting cables.

A common use would be as in the picture below but there would be three cables into it.:

Ardet R said:

It is possible it is still connected to the lights but I would expect to see more than one cable into the junction box.

It may be the lights have been disconnected at some point.

Within the junction box are three, four, five or six terminals for connecting cables.

A common use would be as in the picture below but there would be three cables into it.:

View attachment 9273

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Okay, now you mention It I do remember seeing 3 extra holes around it that have nothing going in or out, but can you still help me understand what it does? Why does it have different symbols for different parts that you turn? Like if I turn it 45 degrees it has a different symbol, I'll go back out and show you shortly a bit more of it 

The symbols are used so you can  fit the cover in such a way that all the holes are blocked off by the lid.   

Evans Electric said:

The symbols are used so you can  fit the cover in such a way that all the holes are blocked off by the lid.   

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Yeah but what is it? What is it for? I don't understand why it even has cables coming out of it?

With only one cable going in very likely it has simply been used to make the cable safe as opposed to leaving energised cores available to touch.

Risteard said:

With only one cable going in very likely it has simply been used to make the cable safe as opposed to leaving energised cores available to touch.

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Yeah but I still don't understand what it is what is that thing even invented for? What is it's sole purpose? Surely it isn't just invented as a safety thing?

nikster558 said:

Yeah but I still don't understand what it is what is that thing even invented for? What is it's sole purpose? Surely it isn't just invented as a safety thing?

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As I stated earlier, it is a junction box. It's purpose is to act as a junction for cables. It's difficult to conceive how that could be the case with a single cable entering, however, unless it is to override what was a switch be connecting permanent and switched phase (line) conductors together.

Risteard said:

As I stated earlier, it is a junction box. It's purpose is to act as a junction for cables. It's difficult to conceive how that could be the case with a single cable entering, however, unless it is to override what was a switch be connecting permanent and switched phase (line) conductors together.

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I know I'm just an idiot though and don't understand, but in reality then it's probably just easier to buy an extension cable that can run from the house to the garage? Do you know of any 20 metre outdoor extension cables? It'll need to be fairly hard Waring because we get alot of rain lol

looks like the remains of an electrical system? ie things have been disconnected / removed.