Dimmer not dimming then fuses

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Location
Edinburgh
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Hi

I'm trying to set up a dimmable downlight kit which spurs off of a mains socket

Here's my current set up

Live, Neutral and Earth are spurred off of the mains socket and into a fuse box. Then the live and neutral are fed from the fuse box in a dimmable switch. Then, the Live and Neutral are fed from there into the transformer and onto the 3 dimmable lights

The lights are each 20W x 3 so making a total of 60W. The transformer(which came with the lighting kit) is 20VA - 70VA

The dimmable switch has min load 40W and max 240W

When i switch the power on the lights come on. However the dimmer doesnt work, the lights just stay fully on. Then when i switch the dimmer off, the light won't come back on as the fuse in the fuse box seems to blow. Replacing the fuse means the lighting circuit comes back on, but again without any dimming capability

Any of you knowledgeable chaps now where i'm going wrong?

Any help would be greeeeeeatly appreciated !
 
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sounds like wrong type of dimmer switch, not all dimmers can dim transformers, also while we are mentioning it, does the transformer say its dimable? if not oh dear
 
it sounds as though you have wired the dimmer right, but then again you might not have, can you post a pic (see forum info)
 
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HI

i've emailed some pictures to the admin email. Not sure how easy they'll be to make out.

One of socket
One of fuse box
One of dimmer
One showing dimmer to transformer

Cheers
Gordon
 
go back to forum info- posting a pic, and read all of it, i did say (its quicker tahn admin)
 
told you that would be quicker didn't i

any way pic says it all you have wired it wrong, have a look in "sticky for refence" oh, and you may have blown the dimmer, but you can always use the other one
 
From your pictures you have wired the dimmer wrong.

It's also looks like you may have wired the FCU wrongly! Can't tell because it's out of focus but double check it.

The way you've wired it is so that when you operate the dimmer it generates a dead short between Live and Neutral, hence the fuse blowing.

The switch shouldn't have any Neutral connection to it, the neutral should be joined straight from the twin and earth to the flex. The live incoming (twin and earth) should be to the point marked "COM" on the dimmer, and the outgoing (flex) should be to "L1".

I take it this is currently a temporary job..... Looks a bit messy and unsafe.

Hope this helps.
 
Thanks very much for your reply

Just so i'm clear, the neutral from the transformer should connect directly to the neutral from the fuse box? If so, how should they be connected?

Im assuming the FCU is the fuse box. The two red wires are going into the Live sockets and the two black into the neutral sockets. The earth from the mains is going to the earth terminal

And yes this is very much a temporary set up !
 
choc block is also known as terminal block, a little terminal in a plastic jacket.

why has the earth at the FCU been cut off????? I know that neither the transformer nor the dimmer requires an earth, but the metal backboxes (when you get that far) will need it and it is good practise to carry the earth all the way to the transformer, and terminate in another bit of choc block there.
 
FGS!!!

100_0180.jpg


Never mind the rest of the mess, and the L/N short - no matter what you think a switch or a dimmer does, how can anybody be so stupid as to think it could possibly do anything, or have any effect whatsoever on anything when the incoming live & neutral are directly connected to the light?

novice - you are so much a novice, and so lacking in knowledge or even common sense that you should not, under any circumstances, be doing electrical work. Please put it all away and call an electrician.
 

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