outside sign lights timer controled

[iceman]

hello chaps iv not long installed 4 outside sign lights to a salon, the customer wanted thm to come on at closing time 7pm and switch off at 7am, the power is suppled via a strapper wire in a 3 gang switch plate i strapped of this to supply the timer power going in, and power goin out bk to the switch, i tested this and the timer works fine during manual operation and via the swtch plate, put apparently the woman in the salon clames tht the timer will switch on the lights at the required time but thy will not switch off during auto switching iv been bk and forth messing round with this and i just cant get my head round it, the customer is gettin very arsy with me now and sayin if i dont sort it out she gona report me to the niceic, as i told her theres nothin more i can do, i told her tht the nic propley want do anythin cos all my work complies, she rekens shes in her rite cos i havnt done wot she asked for, thts like sayin i asked an electrician to rewire my house and he said no, so i think im gona report him because hes not doin wot i want! please your advise would be very helpfull, as im at breaking point with this now unreal thanks guys

also i the lights are energy saver type 400v 26watts iv been told tht these lights dont work well with timer control apparently, cheers

 

[UNG]

What Make / Model of timer have you used ?

 

[mrloy99]

hello chaps iv not long installed 4 outside sign lights to a salon, the customer wanted thm to come on at closing time 7pm and switch off at 7am, the power is suppled via a strapper wire in a 3 gang switch plate i strapped of this to supply the timer power going in, and power goin out bk to the switch, i tested this and the timer works fine during manual operation and via the swtch plate, put apparently the woman in the salon clames tht the timer will switch on the lights at the required time but thy will not switch off during auto switching iv been bk and forth messing round with this and i just cant get my head round it, the customer is gettin very arsy with me now and sayin if i dont sort it out she gona report me to the niceic, as i told her theres nothin more i can do, i told her tht the nic propley want do anythin cos all my work complies, she rekens shes in her rite cos i havnt done wot she asked for, thts like sayin i asked an electrician to rewire my house and he said no, so i think im gona report him because hes not doin wot i want! please your advise would be very helpfull, as im at breaking point with this now unreal thanks guys

also i the lights are energy saver type 400v 26watts iv been told tht these lights dont work well with timer control apparently, cheers

400volt lights? is that a missprint? You should be able to temporarily alter the time off to a time when you are there to see if they do indeed go off or not....But I would recon that if I'd paid for it I'd expect it to work.Also I'm not sure why you would need to have it controlled by the switch as well as the timeclock,and your connection discription isn't too clear to me sorry.

 

[iceman]

yeah there rated at 400v max 26 watts as for the switching the the switch wire for the lights is powered frm a live feed straight to the 3 gang switch plate, so i linked off tht to power the lite threw the timer, the timer its self is a machanical one with kogs for a 24 hour timer i pushed the kogs down for the required time to be on for the lights to be on, i think mabe i mite have to wire the live feed to the timer and scrap the switing!

 

[Spudnik]

Switch and timer connections are a good idea as the timer can be overridden.

 

[iceman]

thnks guys i'll be puttin tht into practice tomoz ;-)

 

[supasparxs]

yeah there rated at 400v max 26 watts as for the switching the the switch wire for the lights is powered frm a live feed straight to the 3 gang switch plate, so i linked off tht to power the lite threw the timer, the timer its self is a machanical one with kogs for a 24 hour timer i pushed the kogs down for the required time to be on for the lights to be on, i think mabe i mite have to wire the live feed to the timer and scrap the switing!

to be honest I've never seen a 3 phase light fitting,
I guess it must be very bright...


Richard

P.S. Out of curiousity why didn't fit a photo electrioc cell for summertime?

 

[iceman]

i was going to do tht before why the heck didnt i knw i would of saved all this headache lol as thy say ya live and learn

its not a 3 phase lite there just rated at 400v for some reason lol

 

[Deleted member 9648]

Are you saying that one of the switches on the three gang is the manual switch and you have parallelled in the timer to this switch? Thats how I read it and if so i'ts likely that the manual switch is getting switched on during the timer on period so that when the timer switches off the lights will stay on.
Sorry to be brutal but I dont blame your customer for getting arsy, she's paid for timer operated lights.....i'ts hardly rocket science.

 

[mrloy99]

Switch and timer connections are a good idea as the timer can be overridden.

Yes pehaps,if he were to use a 3 position H.O.A.(hand-off-auto)But it doesn't look like thats what we have here.If the time clock is dodgy and not switching off ,I'm assuming that it's being switched off by the manual switch on the timeclock itself..as w ell as the plateswitch.
Iceman just take it back to where you bought it and ask for a replacement...timeclocks often pack in.