The switchplate wont turn on?

mikeydappa · 12 Oct 2007

I recently purchased and installed this item from ebay:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI....from=R8&satitle=180164328713&category0=&fvi=1

However there seems to be a proble with the switchplate (perhaps the copper contacts on the back) as the blue LED light is always on which indicates the light is off.

I can turn the light on and off and dim by taking off the switchplate and using a small metal object to press the middle contact pin on the the circuit box but wehter or not the light is on as soon as i put the switchplate back on the blue LED light is on and it wont respond wherever I press.

Is there anything I could have done wrong as I made sure L1 and L2 were correctly wired as per my old switch.

breezer · 12 Oct 2007

ask the seller, they sold it.

mikeydappa · 12 Oct 2007

Yes I did that before I came here and this is the only response I got:

The led is always supposed to stay on. When the light is off.

Try installing it again and see what happens.

Let us know

I'm sorry for bothering you guys with such a mundane question but I wanted to see if there was anything I could do before tomorrow (needing daylight to work on it), or indeed should have done/known.

passerv · 13 Oct 2007

Does your lighting circuit have a cpc?

Space cat · 13 Oct 2007

It's hard to tell what's going on without actually being there but ---

can turn the light on and off and dim by taking off the switchplate and using a small metal object to press the middle contact pin on the the circuit box but wehter or not the light is on as soon as i put the switchplate back on the blue LED light is on and it wont respond wherever I press.

Does this mean that everything works perfectly with the switch plate removed?

You seem to imply that there is only one switch (middle contact pin) behind the plate and that this performs all functions. Is this true?

If it is true, what happens if you push it in and hold it?

mikeydappa · 13 Oct 2007

Yes with the switchplate removed it works fine with only the middle contact pin being used.

Actually I've just given it another try and it seems both the bottom and middle pins are used.

A light push of either pin turns the light on and off and then I hold in the other pin to use the dimming function. The top pin doesn't seem to do anything.

P.s I'm sorry I don't know what a CPC is.

mikeydappa · 13 Oct 2007

Ok i have re-installed it and it's definitley only the middle pin that works - although the bottom was working for a while earlier

breezer · 13 Oct 2007

i wonder of the switch is too tight (slightly inverted) so when the plate is fitted it misses the contact, or the wall around the switch is un even so the plate is also un even.

try it on a plug with a lamp fitted

mikeydappa · 13 Oct 2007

And how would I go about doing that?

May I also thank you for your patience in helping this poor noob - even with my lack of experience in such procedures I was sure I could manage such a simple switch over.

breezer · 13 Oct 2007

plug -switch- lamp

(but connect the neutrals together in a choc bloc)

tim west · 13 Oct 2007

Are you sure this is not how the switch should work? ie the blue led is for locating the switch in the dark.

mikeydappa · 13 Oct 2007

No the LED is actually on the switch plate which just clips onto the frame on the back.

The LED is always meant to be on (check the lsiting in 1st post) when the light is off but it is always on no matter what - I have attached a few pics:

This second pic is the back of the switchplate:

Also I cannot get the old switch off my old lamp without doing seemingly irreprable damage but I did try holding the switchplate to the frame off the wall as snugly as it would go and I still had no response from the touch plate

Space cat · 13 Oct 2007

From what I can see in those pictures, the three contacts in the box are not switches but spring loaded contacts which connect with the three holes in the front plate. At least two of them must be connecting because you have power for that LED which is, as you say, part of the front plate.

If two are for power the remaining one will be some kind of a data connection. All three must connect if this thing is going to work. My experience of touch sensitive switches is not very good. We have a Bosch washing machine and tumble dryer that uses them and sometimes I just can't get them to work. Most people would press harder when this happens - and that's what I did at first - but they are absolutely solid.

I can think of two ways to implement such a switch. One relies on hum/noise pickup from the finger on the switch. The other is the reverse; the finger shunts a high frequency circuit through its owner's capacitance to earth. If your switch relies on pickup it might fail if it isn't properly earthed. Check that your earth connection is a good one. (A floating earth wire will usually light a neon tester.)

Having said all that, it might just be you. Maybe, like me, you simply aren't compatible with touch sensitive switches. Does it work for anybody else?

mikeydappa · 13 Oct 2007

Wow so it's all down to my body (maybe)!

TBH all the electrical terms just passed over my head and it seems the solution is not one that's particularly easy to find so perhaps I'm just better off getting the normal dimmer.

passerv · 13 Oct 2007

CPC = circuit protective conductor. Or just earth wire.

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The switchplate wont turn on?

breezer

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