I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few other
componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a normal
lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was wired
straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the fixture, at
least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH

Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?


"Julie" wrote in message
...
I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few other
componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a normal
lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was wired
straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the fixture, at
least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH

Julie, my guess is that the fixture shorted, which took out the dimmer. The
short could have completely severed the wires going to the two lamps that
don't work. If there are three lamps on the fixture, somewhere the wires
will come together at a splice. Find it and I think you will see the burned
off wires
"Julie" wrote in message
...
I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few other
componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a normal
lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was wired
straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the fixture, at
least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH

"John Grabowski" wrote

Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?

A-ha. Nope! 'Course that was it, and here I was trying to come up
with a circuits-101 final exam question ;-).

There was a blown fuse on the board, so I'd imagine when that blew, it
must have taken 2 of the bulbs with it. Good thing it didn't take all
3, since it clearly would never have occurred to me to try new bulbs!

Thanks.

JSH, feeling rather dim.


"Julie" wrote

I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer)
box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day,
and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few
other
componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a
normal
lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was
wired
straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the
fixture, at
least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH

Julie wrote:
"John Grabowski" wrote

Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?

A-ha. Nope! 'Course that was it, and here I was trying to come up
with a circuits-101 final exam question ;-).

There was a blown fuse on the board, so I'd imagine when that blew, it
must have taken 2 of the bulbs with it. Good thing it didn't take all
3, since it clearly would never have occurred to me to try new bulbs!

Thanks.

JSH, feeling rather dim.


More likely one lamp blew and that knocked out the dimmer. As for the
other lamp, maybe it has been out and you did not notice.


"Julie" wrote

I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few
other componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat
sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a
normal lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was
wired straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the
fixture, at least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH

--
Joseph Meehan

26 + 6 = 1 It's Irish Math

And why did Julie re-wire the dimmer box and eliminate it instead of
just replacing the
blown fuse in it, which likely blew when the one bulb failed?

That's Easy!

To get to the other side, you big silly.

According to Julie :
"John Grabowski" wrote

Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?

A-ha. Nope! 'Course that was it, and here I was trying to come up
with a circuits-101 final exam question ;-).

There was a blown fuse on the board, so I'd imagine when that blew, it
must have taken 2 of the bulbs with it. Good thing it didn't take all
3, since it clearly would never have occurred to me to try new bulbs!

Thanks.

JSH, feeling rather dim.

Consider yourself lucky. Semi-conductor dimmers usually fry themselves
faster than a bulb or fuse can. If the dimmer had more than just a
"slider resistor" it's probably a semi-conductor dimmer (like a wall
dimmer using a SCR or Triac).

Likely one of the bulbs died by shorting out. Moderately common
failure mode, usually doesn't do anything bad unless there's a
very sensitive and _fast_ circuit overload device in the way.

Like a semiconductor switch (SCR or Triac)...

When I hear "pop" from a wall dimmer, it always means I have to buy
a new one.
--
Chris Lewis, Una confibula non set est
It's not just anyone who gets a Starship Cruiser class named after them.

wrote

And why did Julie re-wire the dimmer box and eliminate it instead
of just replacing the blown fuse in it, which likely blew when the
one bulb failed?

1) The lights are fairly dim already, and the dimmer switch, on the
cord, is about a foot away from the light's base - between these two, I
never, ever touched it.

2) Some genius soldered the fuse onto the board, and I didn't feel like
bringing it into work to re-solder a new fuse in, and probably needing
to repeat that in another six months.

JSH

Joseph Meehan wrote:
Julie wrote:

"John Grabowski" wrote


Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?

A-ha. Nope! 'Course that was it, and here I was trying to come up
with a circuits-101 final exam question ;-).

There was a blown fuse on the board, so I'd imagine when that blew, it
must have taken 2 of the bulbs with it. Good thing it didn't take all
3, since it clearly would never have occurred to me to try new bulbs!

Thanks.

JSH, feeling rather dim.



More likely one lamp blew and that knocked out the dimmer. As for the
other lamp, maybe it has been out and you did not notice.


"Julie" wrote


I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few
other componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat
sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a
normal lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was
wired straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the
fixture, at least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH



Yep, the olde "Tungsten arc" which sometimes lasted long enough to take
out a 15 amp fuse before panel breakers became popular, and most every
house used screw base glass fuses.

I installed "touch dimmers" in all our metal bodied table lamps, 'cause
I find it a lot easier to operate them that way than fumbling around for
a switch.

Lost a couple of dimmers when the blbs blew and the tungsten arc current
surge fried them. Went back to the drawing board, looked up the "I
squared t" rating of the triacs in the dimmers and found that a 2 amp
3AG quick blow fuse had a lower rating and would open before the triac
fried.

I stuck fuseholders and 2 amp fuses in all the lamps. Since then I've
had to change a couple of fuses when bulbs blew , but it's a lot easier
and cheaper than replacing the dimmers.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."

The pop that you heard may have been a short at a splice where all three
pendants come together and two of the three were burned clean off



"Jeff Wisnia" wrote in message
...
Joseph Meehan wrote:
Julie wrote:

"John Grabowski" wrote


Julie, Did you try replacing the bulbs?

A-ha. Nope! 'Course that was it, and here I was trying to come up
with a circuits-101 final exam question ;-).

There was a blown fuse on the board, so I'd imagine when that blew, it
must have taken 2 of the bulbs with it. Good thing it didn't take all
3, since it clearly would never have occurred to me to try new bulbs!

Thanks.

JSH, feeling rather dim.



More likely one lamp blew and that knocked out the dimmer. As for
the other lamp, maybe it has been out and you did not notice.


"Julie" wrote


I have a lamp I am trying to fix.

It's a 3-pendant floor lamp, and it came with a slider (dimmer) box
between the plug and the light. I heard a "pop" the other day, and
the lights went out. Today I opened up the box, and there was a
circuit board inside. On the board is a slider/resister, a few
other componenets, and (I think) a transformer attached to a heat
sink.

The pendants take 120V bulbs, so I expected I could take out the
dimmer board - cap the wires together (2 #14s), and revert to a
normal lamp. So I did that, and ...

only one of the three pendants lights up. Eh?

Trying to remember assembling the lamp - I'm pretty sure it was
wired straight through - ie, no switches or junctions inside the
fixture, at least that were accessible to me.

Any ideas?

JSH



Yep, the olde "Tungsten arc" which sometimes lasted long enough to take
out a 15 amp fuse before panel breakers became popular, and most every
house used screw base glass fuses.

I installed "touch dimmers" in all our metal bodied table lamps, 'cause I
find it a lot easier to operate them that way than fumbling around for a
switch.

Lost a couple of dimmers when the blbs blew and the tungsten arc current
surge fried them. Went back to the drawing board, looked up the "I squared
t" rating of the triacs in the dimmers and found that a 2 amp 3AG quick
blow fuse had a lower rating and would open before the triac fried.

I stuck fuseholders and 2 amp fuses in all the lamps. Since then I've had
to change a couple of fuses when bulbs blew , but it's a lot easier and
cheaper than replacing the dimmers.

Jeff

--
Jeffry Wisnia

(W1BSV + Brass Rat '57 EE)

"Truth exists; only falsehood has to be invented."