Help! My Light Won't Work!

[spider-dan]

Hi

I'm having an absolute nightmare with my kitchen light. When we moved into the house there was a halogen fitting in the kitchen with only one bulb in it, but it worked fine. However.... when we replaced the other three missing bulbs the light stopped working. Since then we have done the following to try and get it working:

Replaced the fitting with a normal pendant fitting.
Replaced the switch.
Tested the circuit with a multimeter.

The result of the above is that all are wired in correctly as far as I can tell having checked every diagram I can find. When testing with a multimeter on the pendant I get a circuit between the live and the loop, but no circuit between the neutral and the loop. I have no idea if this is right as the fitting upstairs seems to produce a circuit for both.

Any ideas on the problem?!?

Thanks for any help you can offer!

Lucy

 

[securespark]

You should not get any circuit between "live" and "loop" as they are both live.

You should get circuit between N & Loop.

Please post a picture showing the ceiling connections as they are now, pls.

 

[spider-dan]

Can I email you a photo of the light as it is now?[/img]

 

[spider-dan]

I have worked out how to post a picture, I think!

 

[fireman22]

that right hand black cable looks as if it hanging out, however, two reds go to centre (three) terminal, cant realy see if they are, in pic. then one black with the brown and one with the blue of the pendant drop. should work, then check that the switched live (black) is going to the brown, then wrap some red tape around it to flag it as a live

 

[spider-dan]

How can I tell which is the switched live?

 

[fireman22]

well try to get it to work first, if you do you will need something that indicates live e.g. neon screwdriver or multimeter

 

[spider-dan]

I have a multimeter. The light is wired in as you explained and I have tried both the black wires in both the live and in the neutral and neither combination works.

Any more ideas?

 

[securespark]

Have you tried putting two reds in centre terms on their own, and a black each to the brown and blue wires?

Whoops, sorry, already suggested.

In that case, there is nothing for it but to go right back to basics. Strip the ceiling rose down, and check each core individually to see if it is live, neutral, swwire etc.

Have you changed the switches too? That can put a huge spanner iun the works if you've mixed that up, too...

 

[JohnD]

I don't see what the trouble is.

In the pic I just see two grey-sheathed twin-and-earth cables.

i am going to guess that one of then is the supply and one of then is the switch.

If my guess is correct: you connect the brown and blue of the lamp, to the red and black of ONE of the cables, and then, separately, to red and black of the other.

What wll happen is:

(1) the lamp will come permanently on. So that cable is the supply
(2) the lamp will not come on, so that is the cable to the switch.

Will you give that a try please? If you have a marker pen, see if you can write on the grey sheathing "supply" and "switch" if it happens as I describe.

If that is successful at identifying the cables, the rest will be easy.

 

[securespark]

But John, the OP says they've tried this, and it does not work. Mind you, could be a connection error, I suppose...

 

[JohnD]

But John, the OP says they've tried this, and it does not work. Mind you, could be a connection error, I suppose...

Reading the posts, I can't see that Lucy/Dan has tried it already?

This action will have no dependency on correct termination in the switch, or the correct combining of cores in the rose, we can deal with them later.

It will also tell us if the supply is dead from the preceding rose. No sign of 2-way switching so the switch shouldn't be tricky.

 

[spider-dan]

Hi, thanks for your help

The preceding rose is working fine, and there is no subsequent rose, if that makes any difference!

We have tried switching the two black wires into the live and the neutral and whatever the combination the light never comes on. We have replaced the switch, but it is not two-way so we have simply put the red wire into the Com and the black wire into L1, as far as I can find that is the right way to do it, please let me know if it's not tho!

If I take the pendant fitting off to check the wires, what should I find if everything is working correctly?

Thanks again

Lucy

 

[JohnD]

Like I said:

you connect the brown and blue of the lamp, to the red and black of ONE of the cables and see what happens. Then you disconnect that first cable from the lamp, and connect the lamp to the red and black of the other.

What will happen is:

(1) With one of the cables, the lamp will come permanently on. So that cable is the supply

(2) With the other cable, the lamp will not come on, so that is the cable to the switch.

Don't worry about the switch, or how to connect the rose, until after you have done that.

 

[fireman22]

have you changed the previous light or any other light in your house? if there is no voltage at your faulty ceiling rose there is a wire out or maybe snapped at another ceiling rose or light fitting. have you got voltage if all the other lights are switched on in the house including the "previous" light.