Help - 3 reds and 3 blacks in my ceiling rose?!

[WheresWally11]

Please can someone help me?!

I have bought a new light for my bathroom ceiling but no matter what I do I can't figure out the correct circuit to wire the new light.

I have 3 reds and 3 blacks coming out of the ceiling. I believe that two of each of these come from the wall light, both of which are operated by the same switch. No matter what combination of red and blacks I do the light is on but the switch doesn't seem connected to turn the light off and back on again. The light just remains switched on. If I put all the blacks together and all the reds together it just trips.

I would be very very grateful for someone's help! Me, my husband and my dad are all baffled! We had no problems with the previous light but didn't pay attention to the wiring when we took it down.

Thank you!

 

[GaryMo]

Does this help?

You'll need a multimeter to identify the cable which contains one red and one black conductor that comes from the switch.

//www.diynot.com/wiki/electrics:lighting:lighting_circuit_layouts

 

[TicklyT]

There should be a bit of red sleeving on one of the black wires to identify the switched live, but it often gets lost or omitted. Some used to use a bit of red PVC tape, but that tends to fall off after a while, leading to the problem you have.

It would be a good idea to replace it when you have identified the switch cable to save any 'speaking in tongues' next time.

If you have two lights controlled by the same switch, you might need to refer to this diagram from the wiki as well as the one GaryMo suggests.
//www.diynot.com/wiki/_media/electrics:lighting:4pwjpg16rj.jpg?w=&h=&cache=cache