On 14/06/2012 12:27, Adam Aglionby wrote:
On Jun 13, 5:59 pm, John wrote:
On 13/06/2012 12:18, D.M. Procida wrote:









I have an IKEA Norrsken set of lights - a transformer, two cables that
strecth across the ceiling to suspend individual lights from, and a set
of lights.

The English instructions say: "not designed to take more than 5-7
spotlights. Max 140W."

The Italian instructions say: "designed for 5-7 spotlights. Max 140W."

These don't mean the same thing!

The Portuguese sounds more like the English: "mais do que 5-7" and the
French more like the Italian: "the system can only support 5-7
spotlights".

So, the transformer is rated for 140W; what would likely happen with
only say 4 lights mounted on the cable tracks?

You will probably get through bulbs quickly... Assuming its a typical
ikea iron cored lump, then its output voltage will rise out of spec if
lightly loaded.

The simple fix is to extract the transformer and replace it with an
electronic one of appropriate size.

Electronics either tend to use the long lines as TX aerials or they
don`t like the impednace/capacitance of the line and shut down, hnce
use of iron trafos on exposed wire systems.

Most modern ones don't seem that fussy. It may depend on the length of
wire etc. I have swapped iron cored ones for electronic SMPSU style ones
in the past in similar circs. (also on an Ikea light as it happens,
where they only offered "buying a new set" as a source of parts)

--
Cheers,

John.

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