Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

On 1 Nov, 18:04, "ARWadsworth" wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar tohttp://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

--
Adam

I once had one of these problems. It turned out that there was street
light which was in the sensors field of view. This confused the thing
into thinking it was daytime while the street light was lit

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

cynic wrote:
On 1 Nov, 18:04, "ARWadsworth" wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar
tohttp://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

--
Adam

I once had one of these problems. It turned out that there was street
light which was in the sensors field of view. This confused the thing
into thinking it was daytime while the street light was lit

I checked that. It is pitch black when the light is off at night.

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

On 1 Nov, 18:04, "ARWadsworth" wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar tohttp://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html


Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Not at night, or not when it's cold? I've got one of these CFL linear
halogen replacements, and it's already refusing to strike when cold at
night,

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Andy Dingley wrote:
On 1 Nov, 18:04, "ARWadsworth" wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar
tohttp://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html


Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Not at night, or not when it's cold? I've got one of these CFL linear
halogen replacements, and it's already refusing to strike when cold at
night,

That was one of my thoughts, but it worked last winter at minus 9 and I have
put a new lamp in. It was not cold at 5.30pm when I checked it out this
evening.

I am tempted to just swap the fitting.

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Is the seal intact?

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

ARWadsworth wrote:

Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

Light fitting sensor knackered.
I posted here a couple of years ago about a brand new one I fitted - had
to change it twice as 2 new ones would not light up automatically.
The first 2 were £10 ones from B+Q iirc, the next was from my local
electrical wholesaler which cost £30, and worked fine - it was certainly
better made than the first 2.
Alan.

--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

ARWadsworth wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.


Sounds like it's stuck in test mode to me.

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Dave Osborne wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.


Sounds like it's stuck in test mode to me.

It does not have a test mode. It's just a photocell not a pir.
I hung my jacket over the light this morning, the light came on, but when I
got back from the wholesalers with a new light the light was no longer on.

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

js.b1 wrote:
Is the seal intact?

I swapped the light. When I took the old one down I discovered a crack in
the plastic case.

I am now sure that the photocell works but the electrics are buggered and
are somehow turning the light off after a few minutes. I have no idea why
the unit was cracked though, it does not look like it has been hit with
anything.

Of course the new unit needed the cable to be re-routed:-(

The new light was £40 and it was not worth buggering about with the old one
for any longer.

I fitted this
http://www.timeguard.com/products/light/eco-energy-saving-lights/eco26f-26w-energy-saver-floodlight-with-dusk-to-dawn-control

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

ARWadsworth wrote:

Dave Osborne wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

Sounds like it's stuck in test mode to me.

It does not have a test mode. It's just a photocell not a pir.
I hung my jacket over the light this morning, the light came on, but when I
got back from the wholesalers with a new light the light was no longer on.

I have a porch light like this.

It didn't work when we recently moved in. I went to replace to 25W G9
lamp but it looked new when I pulled it out. I couldn't see the base
contacts but they felt strange, so I gave it a squirt of WD40,
reassembled, and found the light would come on (in the sense that it
took about 10 seconds to reach full brightness) in daylight (provided
I covered the photocell) but it would go off after a few minutes.

I left it like this, with the lamp going on and off at irregular
intervals at night until the lamp failed.

I decided to take the fitting off the wall, and put it on the bench
running from a 12V inverter. This didn't solve any problems, so in
desperation took the plastic end-cap off, only to find a control unit
inside having dip-switches with markings on the housing.

These were a symbol that looked liked a light or the sun, a triangle,
and some numbers like 5" 30" 1' 3' 5' 8'. The switches that seemed to
be set were the light/sun and the 3'. By resetting them to the
triangle symbol only, the light is controlled by the hall switch, so
at least I know what it's doing.

There's no makers name on the fitting, so no chance of finding what
the switch symbols mean or what the various combinations might do :-(


TF

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Terry Fields wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:

Dave Osborne wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I
left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

Sounds like it's stuck in test mode to me.

It does not have a test mode. It's just a photocell not a pir.
I hung my jacket over the light this morning, the light came on, but
when I got back from the wholesalers with a new light the light was
no longer on.

I have a porch light like this.

It didn't work when we recently moved in. I went to replace to 25W G9
lamp but it looked new when I pulled it out. I couldn't see the base
contacts but they felt strange, so I gave it a squirt of WD40,
reassembled, and found the light would come on (in the sense that it
took about 10 seconds to reach full brightness) in daylight (provided
I covered the photocell) but it would go off after a few minutes.

I left it like this, with the lamp going on and off at irregular
intervals at night until the lamp failed.

I decided to take the fitting off the wall, and put it on the bench
running from a 12V inverter. This didn't solve any problems, so in
desperation took the plastic end-cap off, only to find a control unit
inside having dip-switches with markings on the housing.

These were a symbol that looked liked a light or the sun, a triangle,
and some numbers like 5" 30" 1' 3' 5' 8'. The switches that seemed to
be set were the light/sun and the 3'. By resetting them to the
triangle symbol only, the light is controlled by the hall switch, so
at least I know what it's doing.

There's no makers name on the fitting, so no chance of finding what
the switch symbols mean or what the various combinations might do :-(


TF

That sounds more like a knackered PIR than a photocell problem. The timer
bit is how long the light should stay on for when the when the PIR is
activated (5 sec, 30 secs, 1 minute etc) and the light/sun is an adjustable
setting for when the light should start working.


--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

"ARWadsworth" wrote in message
...
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in the day
time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

--
Adam


I've had one similar to this
http://www.zodionltd.eu.com/product....h diodesensor

which came with an appropriate wall fitting, controlling all my outside
lights for a number of years. Designed for street lights, you can string a
lot of cfls on them before they come near to being overloaded - and they
were certainly a lot cheaper than the cfl's with built in photoswitches (all
of which were too bright anyway - 7 watt is plenty for outdoors). I don't
think I've had a single outdoor cfl fail since I fitted the Zodion - which
currently has 5 on its string and must have saved us quite a bit over the
years.

S

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

On Nov 2, 3:35*pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
Of course the new unit needed the cable to be re-routed:-(

This is how 10min jobs become 1hr :-)

I fitted this
http://www.timeguard.com/products/light/eco-energy-saving-lights/eco2...

3 year warranty is well useful, dumps any problems back on them.

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

js.b1 wrote:
On Nov 2, 3:35 pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
Of course the new unit needed the cable to be re-routed:-(

This is how 10min jobs become 1hr :-)

It was not that bad, but still a PITA.

I fitted this
http://www.timeguard.com/products/light/eco-energy-saving-lights/eco2...

3 year warranty is well useful, dumps any problems back on them.

I am not sure that timeguard will come out and swap the unit if it fails. I
guess that that they will offer a replacement but not actually replace it.
One thing is for certain, I will not swap it for free in 2 years 11 months
time.

--
Adam

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

In article ,
lid says...

ARWadsworth wrote:

Dave Osborne wrote:
ARWadsworth wrote:
Last week I changed the lamp in a light similar to
http://www.tlc-direct.co.uk/Products/GLSFB26PC.html

I then put my hand over the photocell, the light came on and I left.

Now it turns out that I can get the light to come on like this in
the day time but it will not come on at night.

Any ideas anyone.

Sounds like it's stuck in test mode to me.

It does not have a test mode. It's just a photocell not a pir.
I hung my jacket over the light this morning, the light came on, but when I
got back from the wholesalers with a new light the light was no longer on.

I have a porch light like this.

It didn't work when we recently moved in. I went to replace to 25W G9
lamp but it looked new when I pulled it out. I couldn't see the base
contacts but they felt strange, so I gave it a squirt of WD40,
reassembled, and found the light would come on (in the sense that it
took about 10 seconds to reach full brightness) in daylight (provided
I covered the photocell) but it would go off after a few minutes.

I left it like this, with the lamp going on and off at irregular
intervals at night until the lamp failed.

I decided to take the fitting off the wall, and put it on the bench
running from a 12V inverter. This didn't solve any problems, so in
desperation took the plastic end-cap off, only to find a control unit
inside having dip-switches with markings on the housing.

These were a symbol that looked liked a light or the sun, a triangle,
and some numbers like 5" 30" 1' 3' 5' 8'.

5 seconds, 30 seconds, 1 minute, 3 minutes, 5 minutes, 8 minutes,
perhaps?

The 'sun' symbol could be a circle - a common symbol for 'on'.

The triangle could be the 'delta' symbol, which represents change ..


The switches that seemed to
be set were the light/sun and the 3'. By resetting them to the
triangle symbol only, the light is controlled by the hall switch, so
at least I know what it's doing.


Is it possible that you're reading the switches upside down- i.e.: you
now have it set permanently ON (when powered) whereas it was previously
set to come on ONLY when there was a CHANGE in light, for the period set
up on the other switches ...?

There's no makers name on the fitting, so no chance of finding what
the switch symbols mean or what the various combinations might do :-(


TF

--

Terry

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

On Nov 2, 9:47*pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
js.b1 wrote:
3 year warranty is well useful, dumps any problems back on them.

I am not sure that timeguard will come out and swap the unit if it fails.

Heh, no chance, but 3yr warranty is decent (a lot of stuff is designed
to fail at 1yr, 1min :-)

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

Terry Fields wrote:

I have a porch light like this.

It didn't work when we recently moved in. I went to replace to 25W G9
lamp but it looked new when I pulled it out. I couldn't see the base
contacts but they felt strange, so I gave it a squirt of WD40,
reassembled, and found the light would come on (in the sense that it
took about 10 seconds to reach full brightness) in daylight (provided
I covered the photocell) but it would go off after a few minutes.

Thanks to ARWadsworth and Terry Casey for helpful replies.

The fall-back position with the porch light was to rip out the
electronics and just wire the lamp base to the incoming wires from the
hall switch.

However, having found a setting that effectively does the same thing,
it means I can retain the fitting as is, and using your observations
work out what the various combinations mean.

This, of course, is going to take some time...;-)

TF

Dusk till Dawn failure on outside light
 

ARWadsworth wrote:
js.b1 wrote:
On Nov 2, 3:35 pm, "ARWadsworth"
wrote:
Of course the new unit needed the cable to be re-routed:-(

This is how 10min jobs become 1hr :-)

It was not that bad, but still a PITA.

I fitted this
http://www.timeguard.com/products/light/eco-energy-saving-lights/eco2...

3 year warranty is well useful, dumps any problems back on them.

I am not sure that timeguard will come out and swap the unit if it
fails. I guess that that they will offer a replacement but not
actually replace it. One thing is for certain, I will not swap it for
free in 2 years 11 months time.

This is the problem with faulty stuff, missing bits etc. You may get a
replacement, but you don't get paid for your time.


--
Dave - The Medway Handyman
www.medwayhandyman.co.uk