Inline Swicth Advice

[GSUS]

Hi Guys,

You'll notice very quickly that i'm not an electrician however i was advice by the guys over at AVForums to register and post my question here :smiley2:

Quite simply i have some LED strip lights installed at home, however the power supply plug socket is placed in an area that is not accessible and i still want to be able to switch these lights on and off obviously.

So my idea is to install an inline switch so that i can place a switch that will be accessible to enable me to switch the lights on and off. I bought a slim switch from my local electrical output and ask for some advice, however i'm not sure i've got this right.

The following pics show the swicth and terminals :

Now this is how i've wired based on the advice, simply cuting the cable and placing back together as i must have something wrong as the lights will no longer work :sad:

Obviously i have something wrong :smiley2: and i know someone now is going to tell me i'm lucky i've not blown myself up. The power supply unit is double insulated so there is no earth.

Any help / advice is much appreciate.

Thanks

Glen

 

[Spudnik]

Hi Glen and welcome,

In all honesty you havent blown yourself up but you may have blown the LED's as you have created a dead short between L/N when you operate the switch.

You should have permanent live into 'common' and the switched live ie live off to the lights in 'L1'.

The two neutrals (blue cables) just need crimping together and placed behind the switch.

Good luck!

 

[Electro-tech]

Hope this switch is mounted on a backing box.

 

[polo1]

Glen, it's all been said. You've made the classic DIY error, so don't feel too bad! You will probably be buying a new set of lights!

 

[Knobhead]

This should do it
View attachment 7241

 

[telectrix]

more likely to have taken out the fuse/mcb than the lights.

 

[GSUS]

Hi Glen and welcome,

In all honesty you havent blown yourself up but you may have blown the LED's as you have created a dead short between L/N when you operate the switch.

You should have permanent live into 'common' and the switched live ie live off to the lights in 'L1'.

The two neutrals (blue cables) just need crimping together and placed behind the switch.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info guys, yep the fuse had blown so i've rewired and replace the fuse and everything appears to be ok, here is my wiring now.

The top brown live runs to the original plug and the bottom brown live to the power supply for the LED's and the blue neutrals are linked back together in a connector block.

And this is all housed in a surface mount box

Tony, thanks also for the diagram.

Thanks again

 

[telectrix]

welcome to the world of destructive testing of fuses. LOL.