Ceiling light wiring

Terrontress

Hi, I’ve got a new ceiling light. My wiring seems to be of an old fashioned standard. The light has an input for L and N. There are 6 wires in the ceiling, 2 red, 1 brown, 3 Black. I have managed to get the light to work but the back bedroom’s lights don’t. And I’ve managed to get the light to go on and not respond to the switch, but the back room light works perfectly.

Any idea of the correct wiring?

Luckysasha

In a strip connector put the 2 reds in one terminal. Put the brown in a terminal on its own and put the 3 blacks in another terminal together. Now with your new light go from the terminal with the brown wire to the L, and go from the terminal with the 3 blacks to the N. If this doesn’t work take off the switch in the room with the new light and see what colour wiring you have.

brightspark

Luckysasha wrote: »

In a strip connector put the 2 reds in one terminal. Put the brown in a terminal on its own and put the 3 blacks in another terminal together. Now with your new light go from the terminal with the brown wire to the L, and go from the terminal with the 3 blacks to the N. If this doesn’t work take off the switch in the room with the new light and see what colour wiring you have.

Think you have made a big assumption in thinking all the black wires are neutrals? Hopefully they are but without either seeing the original wiring or testing I wouldn't be sure.

OP can you tell us where each wire was connected in both of the ways you have tried so far?

Terrontress

OK, so I have a block with three sections N, Loop and Live. The N and Loop each have three ports and the Live have two. On counting again, I have three black wires, three red, one brown. I put the three red into Loop, the brown into Live, presuming it is the switched live, two blacks into N, then run two lines out of the Live and N and into the light. This leaves one black spare.
Still nothing. It is a smart light, so i don't even know for sure if I have to do something on an app to get it working, although I did have it lit earlier. 
I have some three core cable, I am thinking of wiring that to a plug, put the live and neutral into the light and see if I can get it to work, make sure it's all OK, prior to putting it back up.
What do you think?

aido79

Terrontress wrote: »

OK, so I have a block with three sections N, Loop and Live. The N and Loop each have three ports and the Live have two. On counting again, I have three black wires, three red, one brown. I put the three red into Loop, the brown into Live, presuming it is the switched live, two blacks into N, then run two lines out of the Live and N and into the light. This leaves one black spare.
Still nothing. It is a smart light, so i don't even know for sure if I have to do something on an app to get it working, although I did have it lit earlier. 
I have some three core cable, I am thinking of wiring that to a plug, put the live and neutral into the light and see if I can get it to work, make sure it's all OK, prior to putting it back up.
What do you think?

You seem to have a bit of a mixed bag of wires at the light. I'm guessing it's an older house because of the red and black wires. Has there been a light or something added previously that would explain the brown wire and if so do you know where the neutral for this is? It should be blue.
Assuming the blacks are all neutrals they all need to be joined together with the neutral terminal of the light.
Have you opened the switch up to see what cabling is there? I would be expecting 2 reds.
I would assume the opposite of you and say that the brown is almost definitely not the switch wire and that it needs to be joined with 2 of the reds in the loop and then put the other red in the live terminal. Unless you have a multimeter this may involve a bit of trial and error unless you are lucky enough to get it right first time.
The idea of wiring it up to a plug is a good one to make sure the light works and to familiarise yourself with how it operates.

Terrontress

Thanks Aido. I do have a multimeter. I work a 9-5 so I’ll not have enough natural light to turn off the mains and work at it until next Saturday.

Terrontress

An update, I opened the light switch and there's a black going into L1, an unused L2 and the red in the common. 
Upon looking at the wires closer, the brown is actually a red with brown wire extending it. 

So, to summarise. 4 cables, one with red only. 3 with red and black, although in one of them the red has been joined to a brown.

My latest attempt has seen me put the lone red into the switch terminal, blank the black and red where it is joined to brown, two blacks in the live terminal, two reds in the neutral terminal. The back bedroom light is working, but the ceiling light isn't.

I wired up the ceiling light to a plug earlier and it works great.

It was my stupidity which saw me take the ceiling rose pendant off completely. So I know there is a solution in there somewhere as it was working before. There are just too many wires. 
I will have another look tomorrow when I can turn off the electricity and use the natural light.

I need to find my multimeter.

exaisle

I'd love to help but when it comes to random wiring like that, I'm in the dark... ;-)

aido79

Terrontress wrote: »

An update, I opened the light switch and there's a black going into L1, an unused L2 and the red in the common. 
Upon looking at the wires closer, the brown is actually a red with brown wire extending it. 

So, to summarise. 4 cables, one with red only. 3 with red and black, although in one of them the red has been joined to a brown.

My latest attempt has seen me put the lone red into the switch terminal, blank the black and red where it is joined to brown, two blacks in the live terminal, two reds in the neutral terminal. The back bedroom light is working, but the ceiling light isn't.

I wired up the ceiling light to a plug earlier and it works great.

It was my stupidity which saw me take the ceiling rose pendant off completely. So I know there is a solution in there somewhere as it was working before. There are just too many wires. 
I will have another look tomorrow when I can turn off the electricity and use the natural light.

I need to find my multimeter.

It will definitely be easier to sort this out using a multimeter. You need to figure out which red and black cable goes to the switch. The black which is connected to L1 is your switch wire. The red needs to be connected to the other reds and the brown. Lastly the blacks excluding the one going to the switch need to be connected to the neutral terminals of the light.

Terrontress

Success. Once I had the switched live identified, I got it right first time. Thanks a million Aido.

Terrontress

Success. Once I had the switched live identified, I got it right first time. Thanks a million Aido.