Decking Lights Issue

Buford T Justice

Hi

Recently I fitted a load of low voltage walkover LED lights for a customer. 8 Big ones, about 90mm diameter that had about 12 led's built in, 6 smaller ones with 5 led's built in, and 9 little ones with three led's built in.

The three sets were supplied with all their own cabling and traffo's. Both of the larger sets of lights are running fine with no problems.

When I wired up all the small ones, all fitted together using the supplied fittings, and the traffo was wired into a JB. they ran for a few minutes and the transformer went, and the 9 lights stopped working. No biggie, I thought, just a faulty traffo. I got a replacement and swapped it today and the same thing happened.
These are the ones in question. They come in a set of 10, but only used 9 of them.
I can only think that the transformer isn't able to take the load of the lights, but for a set of LED's that will be using a total of less than 3 watts.
The Traffo output is 12V 0.83A 10VA.

Can't figure why two of these transformers have failed.

Any suggestions?

Bruthal

Is there a minimum load needed on the traffos, some electronic ones need a certain load to work properly.

Buford T Justice

robbie7730 wrote: »

Is there a minimum load needed on the traffos, some electronic ones need a certain load to work properly.

I don't think so, and its not marked on the unit. Seems odd that there should be this sort of problem with the unit they supplied for the job

Bruthal

A strange one alright, unless traffos themseves have a problem,

meercat

hi fingers
are you sure these are not 230volt
fitted similar and didnt need trafo
sorry just read further saying trafo required
unusual all right
perhaps faulty fitting blowing trafo

Bruthal

meercat wrote: »

perhaps faulty fitting blowing trafo

Sounds like a good suggestion.

Buford T Justice

I thought of that, but if that was the case, the one at fault wouldn't (shouldn't) light up when they power is sent out. I can't figure it

Searchlight have said the only thing they can think of to check this, which tbh, I've already checked and done.

deandean

I have had terrible quality problems with outdoor LED lighting in my own house, i.e. a failure rate well over 50% after 12 months, across a variety of types of fitting.

Unfortunately a lot of the stuff seems to be crap, probably made from our recycled WEEE equipment sent East!

One or more components in your units have probably failed.

Buford T Justice

How could I test to see if there's a fault in one of the units?

meercat

bench test one at a time
might blow trafo again though

M cebee

must be crap traofs anyhow

most of the decent electronic have O/L, SC and thermal protecction afaik

Buford T Justice

M cebee wrote: »

must be crap traofs anyhow

most of the decent electronic have O/L, SC and thermal protecction afaik

Yeah, I'm thinking that I might need to get a separate traffo and do it that way rather than use their crap....

2011

Yeah, I'm thinking that I might need to get a separate traffo and do it that way rather than use their crap....

I put IBL 60VA traffos in an IP rated box before for this. However they require a minimum load of 20W, so they may require lots of LEDs to add up to this. They have been installed for about 8 years now with no issues.

Bruthal

2011 wrote: »

I put IBL 60VA traffos in an IP rated box before for this. However they require a minimum load of 20W, so they may require lots of LEDs to add up to this. They have been installed for about 8 years now with no issues.

I was sugesting the minimum load myself in earlier post, but its strange how they work for a while then stop. Maybe mceebe is right and just rubbish trafos?

Buford T Justice

robbie7730 wrote: »

I was sugesting the minimum load myself in earlier post, but its strange how they work for a while then stop. Maybe mceebe is right and just rubbish trafos?

Perhaps. Trouble is, using a 60VA traffo with a min rating of 20W means that even if I re-wired all of the other deck lights into the same traffo, they still wouldn't add up to 20W:mad:

2011

Perhaps. Trouble is, using a 60VA traffo with a min rating of 20W means that even if I re-wired all of the other deck lights into the same traffo, they still wouldn't add up to 20W

Unless you install a suitable load into the IP rated junction box that contains the transformer. Ensure that it is not something that will get too hot!

Buford T Justice

2011 wrote: »

Unless you install a suitable load into the IP rated junction box that contains the transformer. Ensure that it is not something that will get too hot!

What would you suggest as a suitable load?

2011

Perhaps a 20Watt capsule lamp like this:

http://www.google.ie/imgres?imgurl=http://www.partridgeshadleigh.co.uk/catalog/images/GY635_Halogen_Lamp.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.partridgeshadleigh.co.uk/catalog/home-lighting-c-495_500.html&usg=__aiQR0pTsg2x4JqjQ6yySVARj3go=&h=350&w=350&sz=10&hl=en&start=0&zoom=1&tbnid=2R8J6bOAj1ztKM:&tbnh=124&tbnw=124&prev=/images%3Fq%3D20W%2Bcapsule%2Blamp%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DN%26biw%3D1920%26bih%3D922%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=427&vpy=202&dur=2913&hovh=225&hovw=225&tx=113&ty=112&ei=S8reTL6JFIKyhAfVzYzZDA&oei=S8reTL6JFIKyhAfVzYzZDA&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=76&ved=1t:429,r:15,s:0

They are 12V and small.

Just ensure that the box is large enough that it does not over heat.

M cebee

prob not a great idea here-the bulb may blow at any time

i wonder would there be a smaller trafo available or even an iron-core

2011

prob not a great idea here-the bulb may blow at any time

i wonder would there be a smaller trafo available or even an iron-core

So what if the bulb blows as the consequences are not severe?

All that will happen is that the LEDs shine a bit dimmer, so you just replace the bulb.
I have these lamps in my house. So far none have blown in the last 5 years.

Alternatively you could use a suitably rated resistor.

alwaysadub

Searchlight don't do the best traffos in the world tbh. If you're going to change it, Robus or Aurora do a big range of drivers and traffos. Looking at the pic you put up, they are pretty much the same as the Robus R3LED10's from what i can see. As far as i remember you can't buy seperate traffos for them by themselves, but if you deal with any wholesalers who deal with Robus, it'd do no harm seeing can they get hold of one for you.

indie armada

i could probably loan ye a traffo out of a similar set to see if it works. and if it does i could probably get ye one. i would need to see the existing traffo first to compare the ratings and the connection type, but it does look like a 2 pin standard type used on many of those sets.

Buford T Justice

indie armada wrote: »

i could probably loan ye a traffo out of a similar set to see if it works. and if it does i could probably get ye one. i would need to see the existing traffo first to compare the ratings and the connection type, but it does look like a 2 pin standard type used on many of those sets.

Thanks, but if it fails as a result of a faulty unit or something then I'd owe you a traffo

Its the standard two pin traffo for the lights. 10VA .8A

indie armada

that wont be a problem, but i just twigged your in sligo so id have to post it up to ye. gimme a pm if yer stuck anyway and we'll sort something out.