Bought a house -

Long story short there's a fountain with a "Red Dot Code Keeper" set
up, I flipped the fuse for it and when I plug something in an orange
light comes on next to each plug (there are 4 total). - when plugged in
to the left two plugs. The right two plugs, nothign comes on - no
lights or anything.

Any case, nothing works - besides the orange light, there's nothing
showing wether it's working or not - the fountain doesn't come on, or
any other appliance I stick in the thing, but just those little orange
lights. I can't find anything online about what it means, any
instructions... soo... any electricians know about this, or what I can
do to get the fountain to start working again?

Thanks

wrote:
Bought a house -

Long story short there's a fountain with a "Red Dot Code Keeper" set
up, I flipped the fuse for it and when I plug something in an orange
light comes on next to each plug (there are 4 total). - when plugged in
to the left two plugs. The right two plugs, nothign comes on - no
lights or anything.

Any case, nothing works - besides the orange light, there's nothing
showing wether it's working or not - the fountain doesn't come on, or
any other appliance I stick in the thing, but just those little orange
lights. I can't find anything online about what it means, any
instructions... soo... any electricians know about this, or what I can
do to get the fountain to start working again?

Thanks



The "Red Dot Code Keeper" is just a wet location receptical safety cover.

Your fountain pump prolly has developed an internal electrical leak to
ground, and there's very likely one or GFCI receptical there feeding a
second downstream non-GFCI one(and possible maybe even a GFCI breaker in
the panel, feeding that circuit) which sensed a fault in the pump and
did their job by shutting off the power.

I respectfully suggest that if your knowledge of electrics is so limited
that you'd say you "flipped the fuse" that you'd be better off
protecting yourself and others from serious injury or death by getting a
qualified person to diagnose and repair the problem. It may be as simple
as replacing the fountain pump or perhaps it will be more difficult if
moisture has invaded whatever conduit or whathaveyou which brings power
ot to those recepticals.

HTH,

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"Life is like a sewer -- what you get out of it depends on what you put
into it."

wrote:
Yup, not an electric person - at all.

See, that's the point though - if it is something as simple as pushing
a button to reset the system and suddenly everything comes alive; I'd
hate to pay some 60$ for the 5 minutes (since it's upped to an hour)
and an extra 20 $ to stop by the house.

The pump works (have connected it at other places.)

The pump could well "run" fine when plugged into an non-GFIC protected
outlet, but still have internal electrical leakage rendering it
potentially unsafe.

Unless you have the know how to determine whether all those "other
places" you tried plugging the pump into are in fact GFCI protected
circuits, then it's not correct to assume that the pump is completely OK.

Whatever connection comes up to the 4-plugs, two don't do anything, two
of them turn on four orange lights when something live is plugged into
them.


What do you mean when you say "something live" is plugged into them?
That's sort of a contradiction of terms.


Just wanted to know if the four orange lights means something or not.

I'm reasonably confident that those orange lights are coming on to
indicate that there's a ground fault in what's plugged a receptacle, but
I could be wrong. Four lights sort of seems like more than needed, but
then again, when you said "four plugs" in your OP, I took that to mean
you telling us there were TWO duplex RECEPTACLES there, creating four
places where PLUGS could be inserted.

Posting a photo of those "four plugs" and the "orange lights" may help.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia
(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)
"Life is like a sewer -- what you get out of it depends on what you put
into it."

" wrote:


Yup, not an electric person - at all.

See, that's the point though - if it is something as simple as pushing
a button to reset the system and suddenly everything comes alive; I'd
hate to pay some 60$ for the 5 minutes (since it's upped to an hour)
and an extra 20 $ to stop by the house.
-snip-

You're looking at it the wrong way. You would be paying, not for the
effort of pushing a button and the instruction that comes with it.
You would be paying to have a professional look at it, assesss any
possible dangers, and protect you & anyone who comes close to it from
electrocution.

Is that peace of mind worth $100?

Jim
[not a pro-- but paid one $40 once to change a fuse. I was making $5
an hour then, but considered the $40 a fair price to learn that fuses
don't have to *look* blown.]

Jeff, Jim

You guys are right, thanks for the replies... I'll just get someone to
come look at it here in a few weeks. And Jeff - thanks for the little
lesson, yes, it's two duplex receptacles - creating a place were four
plugs can be put in... there are little orange lights next to each one
- if I plug in a machine that is turned off (like let's say, a blender)
- the lights stay off, if I turn on the blender, however; all four
little orange lights come on.... *if* I plug it in to the left side
(either top or bottom 'plugs')

While if I plug it to the right receptacle, none of the lights come on.

So, guess it's time to pull up the yellow pages.

Thanks Jeff!
(my camera is in one of 20 random boxes packed... won't be another week
or so, but I thank for the offer of checking further into it)

wrote in message
ups.com...

Bought a house -

Long story short there's a fountain with a "Red Dot Code Keeper" set
up, I flipped the fuse for it and when I plug something in an orange
light comes on next to each plug (there are 4 total). - when plugged in
to the left two plugs. The right two plugs, nothign comes on - no
lights or anything.

Any case, nothing works - besides the orange light, there's nothing
showing wether it's working or not - the fountain doesn't come on, or
any other appliance I stick in the thing, but just those little orange
lights. I can't find anything online about what it means, any
instructions... soo... any electricians know about this, or what I can
do to get the fountain to start working again?

Thanks


On most plugs with indicator lamps, the light simply means there is power at
the receptacle and does not change wether you plug something in or not or
even if the device is turned on. Your setup is wired in a somewhat unique
way.

Without needing to know how it is supposed to be wired, you could turn off
the breaker, unscrew the receptacles, pull them out a bit and inspect the
wiring behind for something obvious like a wire fallen out of a wire nut or
a wire charred or loose etc.

It sounds a little like you have an open neutral and the lamp is wired
across the hot and ground but as I said, that would be unusual. I do think
something is open though.

Certian manufactures have a GFCI recpt. thats shows an orange or yellow
light when the GFCI is tripped. Take a closer look at the recpt. and
look for a trip andreset button

On 24 May 2006 12:18:09 -0700, "
wrote:


Jeff, Jim

You guys are right, thanks for the replies... I'll just get someone to
come look at it here in a few weeks. And Jeff - thanks for the little
lesson, yes, it's two duplex receptacles - creating a place were four
plugs can be put in... there are little orange lights next to each one
- if I plug in a machine that is turned off (like let's say, a blender)
- the lights stay off, if I turn on the blender, however; all four
little orange lights come on.... *if* I plug it in to the left side
(either top or bottom 'plugs')

While if I plug it to the right receptacle, none of the lights come on.

That doesn't seem right, either the left two or the right two. So it
might be that red dot thing. And I think it is beyond you to fix it.

Do you have instructions for this red dot, or coudl you find them on
the web. Despite the previous paragraph, I have 4 outlets that I
wired differently. But I plan to tell the next owner of the house
about it, and there are no funny red lights.


I was going to suggest a friend or neigbhor that knew more look at it,
but this one sounds a bit tricky and that it would the guy if he were
like me, hours. A pro, much less time.

So, guess it's time to pull up the yellow pages.

Thanks Jeff!
(my camera is in one of 20 random boxes packed... won't be another week
or so, but I thank for the offer of checking further into it)

On Wed, 24 May 2006 20:44:24 -0400, (... ...)
wrote:

Certian manufactures have a GFCI recpt. thats shows an orange or yellow
light when the GFCI is tripped. Take a closer look at the recpt. and
look for a trip andreset button

Should that "tripped" light go off when the plug is removed? Maybe
it's indicating some wiring fault.
--
Mark Lloyd
http://notstupid.laughingsquid.com

"Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what
to have for lunch. Liberty is a well armed lamb
contesting the vote." - Benjamin Franklin