Outside light not working

[Sanke]

Evening everyone
I am having problems with an outside light that I hope you can help me with ..

Due to a recent burglary across the road from us we decided to replace our existing porch light with one from B&Q ( I know first mistake!) The old light only illuminated when switched on from the hall The new one at dusk should dimly light & then fully when someone crosses the path of the pir. Took old light off and had two sets of cables, the two lives had been joined in a connector the earths had been entwined to join together & two separate neutral (black) Should have been a straightforward connection ? Left live as they were (now behind backplate), Earths had been joined together so connected them to lamp earth terminal. Connected one neutral to live the other to neutral. Powered back on & completed walk through tests as per instructions All seemed ok However, now that it is dark not only does light not go on dim but it no longer switches on at all If I switch off then on it lights for a couple of mins then goes off & refuses to do anything Anybody got any ideas ????

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Have you checked the daylight sensor levels and time delay settings. Not sure what you mean by "connected one neutral to live"................

 

[ggf]

Have you got your switched live the right way around

 

[Sanke]

Hi Graeme
On this light you have 3 controls, time dim & dusk. I have left time at minimal setting, dim at minimal & only adjusted the dusk Nothing seems to get bulb to illuminate With regard to connections had two reds - left in terminal connector as previous, two green - they were entwined so put them into earth in lights connector block That left the two blacks which I believe were separately connected on old light I placed one in the live & one in the neutral terminals on the lights connector block Should I have connected both reds to live & both blacks to neutral connectors ? Thanks for quick reply

 

[ggf]

No switch the blacks around

 

[Sanke]

Thanks guys
Will test to see if I can confirm switch live tomorrow then reverse cables

 

[Graeme Harrold]

Without having seen the old lamp and the new it would be hard to say what should go where. If this is a switched light as you say, then one cable will probably be a live in, and the other will be the switch circuit, unless there is another lamp slaved somewhere else.

If you are unsure of what you are looking at, best bet is to get a sparky in as they will sort it quickly AND safely for you.....

 

[Funkymonkeytoo]

Check the fitting to see if there are 4 terminals live, neutral, switch live and earth as a dusk to Dawn sensor requires a permant feed So you will need to connect the lives ( 2 reds ) into live on fitting and not as in separate connector.

 

[Sanke]

Hi funkymonkeytoo
There is definitely only three connections in the connector block

 

[Sanke]

Checked the wiring this morning, confirmed that the black cable connected to the live was actually the switch live However, now that it is dark the light seems to come on/off randomly Only staying on for a short period of time Any ideas/help would be much appreciated

 

[danzor]

Surely the light is only going to work with the switch in the on position. Wack the time up on it to see if it stays on longer. Is it one if those lights where u flick the switch on/off about 3 times for it to run in PIR mode?

 

[Sanke]

Hi danzor
Time is already set to max According to instructions if you switch off/on within a second it should stay permanently on until dawn (this doesn't happen) At dusk it should illuminate dimly then fully once pir activated (this doesn't happen) Just switches on/off at random Getting fed up with it now & may change it for ordinary light & just switch on when I want it

 

[danzor]

You have a perm feed at the light, how about changing the light so it's always going to work in pir mode and u can override it aswell

 

[vambo]

Danzor i dont think Sanke is going to understand how to do that as there is only 3 terminals at the light and doesnt sound like he knows whats the crack hence asking for advise.
Sanke take the light back and get another one so you know that one is not damaged (reverse polarity could have damaged it, altough i doubt it) These lights are usually cheap crap anyway so it could be faulty at least it will clear your mind if the new one works or not.

Mark the switched live black cable with a bit of brown tape so you dont get mixed up again.

Vambo

 

[Sanke]

Hi danzor
The idea of the light is that at dusk it is on low & then reacts to pir & lights fully. Thus if it worked correctly I wouldn't need to overide etc I would be grateful if you could pm me a brief explanation as to how to modify this for future reference though

Vambo
I have qualifications but lack experience hence asking questions on the forum. I explained the situation simply so that a reader could understand what I did to see if I made an error in the wiring etc The whole idea of the post was to clarify the situation before I slung the second light back to B&Q