Garage Batten - flickering LED's now I have replaced Fluro.

sbaldrick · 10 Apr 2019

Yesterday I replaced one of my 2 Fluro battens in my garage with a 60W LED. This was the more complicated one (lots of wires) or so I thought but I had it working fine after a little patience.

Today I have gone to replace the second fluro and what I thought would be a simple job - only 3 wires. Take 3 wires out, connect live and neutral to the batten and fit the light to the roof...

When I switch on the garage lights both LED's do not come on instantly, when they do come on they flicker and look like they are not getting enough power as they are dim.

I have double checked there are no loose wires. Help please!

SUNRAY · 10 Apr 2019

sbaldrick said:
Yesterday I replaced one of my 2 Fluro battens in my garage with a 60W LED. This was the more complicated one (lots of wires) or so I thought but I had it working fine after a little patience.

Today I have gone to replace the second fluro and what I thought would be a simple job - only 3 wires. Take 3 wires out, connect live and neutral to the batten and fit the light to the roof...

When I switch on the garage lights both LED's do not come on instantly, when they do come on they flicker and look like they are not getting enough power as they are dim.

I have double checked there are no loose wires. Help please!

What wires do you have in the 'complicated' fitting? we like pictures.

sbaldrick · 10 Apr 2019

I found the switched live or so I thought. This light is working fine but the other light is not working at all

EFLImpudence · 10 Apr 2019

Edit - Do you have separate switches for the lights?

SUNRAY · 10 Apr 2019

sbaldrick said:
I found the switched live or so I thought. This light is working fine but the other light is not working at all

I assume the white block bottom left is the fitting and the choccy bottom right is just a junction for the 2 blues.

How many fittings are there all together, you have mentioned 2 so far?

Are there any other lights which in the property which have stopped working?

sbaldrick · 10 Apr 2019

There is just one switch. That is the fitting bottom left. I added in a brown live to the switched live and both battens worked. Thought I had it but the problem is that both lights are on while the switch was off....

Is there an idiots guide to using a multimeter to check the four incoming sets of wires?

I used the multimeter to check the neutrals and the one I have marked was the only one that had voltage...

EFLImpudence · 10 Apr 2019

Neutral does not mean BLUE.

Neutral is the name of the wire from the light back to the supply whatever colour it might be.

One of your blue wires is a Switched Live.

You have four cables, Supply cable, Switch cable, cable to other light. Where does the fourth go?
Is the garage on the house lighting circuit?

It is impossible to say what you should do without knowing this.

BigJon · 10 Apr 2019

What cable(s) do you have at your switch, just 1 with Brown & Blue?
Did you put the bit of tape marker on the blue cable, if not that *may* be your switch wire, this would go into the L of your light,along with the Brown of the other light.
The other blues would go into your N of the light.
This is just a possible way of it being correct, do you have any pics of the wiring before you took it down, it looks like a standard "loop in" method, I think there may be a sticky at the top of the forum page which will give you a better idea of the wiring system.

SUNRAY · 10 Apr 2019

sbaldrick said:
There is just one switch. That is the fitting bottom left. I added in a brown live to the switched live and both battens worked. Thought I had it but the problem is that both lights are on while the switch was off....

Is there an idiots guide to using a multimeter to check the four incoming sets of wires?

I used the multimeter to check the neutrals and the one I have marked was the only one that had voltage...

The first thing to do is identify which cable is which and this can only be done with the power off, disconnecting all the browns and blues and putting them into choc bloc [or some other way of making them very safe].

1) With power on CAREFULLY AND SAFELY

EDIT: WITH ONE PROBE OF THE METER CONNECTED TO EARTH, MEASURE THE VOLTAGE ON ALL 8 WIRES.

HOPEFULLY ONLY ONE BROWN WILL BE 230v. This CABLE is the live feed, label it '1'.

2) With power off identify the switch cable using the ohmmeter and label it '2' or switch.

[I assume that 1) & 2) are from the 2 blues in the fitting so that should be fairly easy]

3) With power off identify which cable is feeding the second fitting and label it '3'.

Wire like: SEE POST 11

4) leaving the 4th cable safe, Test these lights for functionality.

5) Go right round the house and check every light to see what doesn't work then report back.

Obvious warnings about not working on live cables, falling off milk crates, working in the dark etc...

EFLImpudence · 10 Apr 2019

Baldrick said there is only one switch.

SUNRAY · 10 Apr 2019

Wiring colours corrected.

oldbutnotdead · 10 Apr 2019

OP- you've wired those LEDs in series either with each other or with something else. Presumably you didn't take photos or mark the cables before you pulled them all out (your pic is an AFTER pic?) - follow @SUNRAY 's guide (each wire needs to go into a separate terminal, not all rammed together in one hole. You do this to keep track of them, to make it easier to apply meter probes and to prevent them accidentally shorting out when you are applying meter probes).

sbaldrick · 11 Apr 2019

I took the light apart and it looked as I did it as if all the blue wires were in the N and brown the L at the batten. My mistake!

There is one light switch with just brown blue and earth.

The garage is part of an extension and is on the same circuit as the kitchen. That is the 4th cable in the loop.

I have a multimeter so I took all the wires out and put each in a chock.

I then tested the blue wires for voltage and the one I put black tape around was the only one that had a voltage it was hovering around 160.

I tried all the live wires in turn. The configuration i left it with last night gives me power to the batten with 4 wires but nothing to the other batten in the garage. The wall switch works. Other configurations of brown give either nothing or dim power or one where I get power to both lights even with the switch turned off.

I assume from above I need to start again with the multimeter and ensure the switched live I have marked is correct. Then use the steps above to find out what wire is what in the loop?

sbaldrick · 11 Apr 2019

Many thanks for everyones helpful comments and for not being too hard on me! I am working through SUNRAY's helpful guide above now.

I have identified the live feed (brown wire) and labeled it 1.

EFLImpudence · 11 Apr 2019

sbaldrick said:
I then tested the blue wires for voltage and the one I put black tape around was the only one that had a voltage though not up to 240 it was hovering around 160.

That is irrelevant.

You must determine, with the power OFF, by using the continuity setting, which cable goes to the switch and which cable goes to the second light.

Then -

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Garage Batten - flickering LED's now I have replaced Fluro.

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