How to Troubleshoot a Low Voltage Lighting System with a Clamp Multimeter
Вставка
- Опубліковано 29 лип 2024
- For more information, please go to www.armadatech.com or call 616-803-1080.
The chain of components in a LV landscape lighting system can be quickly checked with an electrical Clamp-on Multimeter. Here is how it works. - Навчання та стиль
I have electrical training in my past and enough to troubleshoot landscape lighting but I got dinged because I am used to everything 12 V being DC. I check the output of my new transformer with my V meter and it reads 0. My meter was on DC Volts. I have never dealt with anything 12 V that wasn't DC and I read the directions that come with my transformer and it says 12 V. If they would have just put 12VAC I would have know. I looked everywhere after I figured it out and 12VAC was nowhere to be found in any of the literature but thanks to you is is now obvious. Any professional directions I have ever read clearly state AC or DC volts. Thank you for your video.
Thank you for this! Just what I needed to analyze the LED issues for my landscape lights.
L
Excellent video and well articulated!
Brilliant, well done thank you
Thanx for the interesting vid ..
Your always welcome.
Hi there- thanks for this video. I recently set up two different transformers (same model) to two path light circuits (LED). All worked fine for a couple months. One still works- the other has a little button/breaker on the transformer that keeps tripping the moment I turn it on. So all the lights are off. Would seem there is a short somewhere. I switched the transformers to see if the unit was bad and the one that was moved to the working system- it functions- all good. The one that WAS on the working system is now tripping. So its not the transformer, its in the circuit. My issue is- everything is a) buried (of course) and b) I put the wire connections into those goopy (silicone?) outdoor tubes to keep water out- so they are ALL a holy mess of slime and soil if I unearth them. The path lights have about 10 units and there are also 7 step lights in concrete walls, run through buried conduit. My question is: aside from the clamp meter as a tool to get... is there an approach to testing and searching for a short that could save me from pulling out every connection from the waterproof grease? I realize I should look for any possible critter damage (would be surprised as they are buried, and its new, beefy 12 gage wire). Also- since the button/breaker trips pretty much immediately- how do I even test the system if the transformer keeps tripping and shutting off the circuit? Sorry to ask such basic questions, but since I tried to be clever and set this up myself, I don't have a contractor to call. (BTW- when they were working well the last couple months- they look FANTASTIC!).
Hi Benno: It sounds like you did fine getting the system designed and working. Something has changed and there are several possible suspects: water has invaded a wire splice. a burrowing rodent has chewed some insulation, insulation has been damaged by something driven into the ground. Start with a visual inspection of the faulty wire path looking for signs of damage or disturbance. Your best tool to begin with will be a simple electrical multimeter that will measure electrical resistance. Disconnect the transformer and measure the resistance between the two wires going to the lights, then the resistance from each wire to ground (the dirt). That should show you the nature of the (dead short between the wires, short between one wire and the dirt or lowered resistance between a wire and the dirt). Each will suggest the kind of damage you are dealing with such as a skinned wire, bad LED cartridge etc.
@@jlcarefoot I really appreciate the reply- thank you. I'll have to do some learning about the basics of resistance and what I can learn from said diagnostic tests. Thanks- yes I did get it set up and working well. We had a week in Oct. when it rained, I kid you not, 13"... almost 2" per day, it was insane. So...its probably water. I recall that the direct buried splices were put into tubes of gel to protect from water. the ones that were buried in conduit and have little openings I can open up and inspect, those splices were just wire nuts, so if water entered into the conduit lines somehow, then those would not have been protected. So that's something for me to consider. The bummer is, of course, after I got everything buried, greased, and all that... to unbury and disconnect and diagnose is going to be a god awful mess- and I'm not looking forward to it in Dec/January weather! If/when I figure it out, one lesson learned is bury it all with absolutely bombproof/watertight setup so it can function for years and I can avoid this kind of time/money waste in years to come....
Why did you set your meter to test AC current when the transformer is surely delivering DC current?
Standard power units for low voltage lighting convert 120 Vac to something near 12 Vac, so the AC current setting is appropriate in both incandescent and LED systems. In the beginning the bulbs were incandescent and AC was easy -- as LEDs were introduced they required some conversion circuitry inside the bulb cartridge in order to use AC. LEDs are really DC devices, but they are designed to use AC current for compatibility.
@@ArmadaTech Yes, of course I should have realised that a transformer only steps down the current it doesn't rectify it to DC. Here in the UK it steps down from 240v AC to 12v AC. I'll have to remember that, thanks.
Nothing about testing transformer in the video and very little trouble shooting
Thanks for the comments Kevin. We are considering doing a version with more generic transformer troubleshooting, though there are many models the functions are very similar. Part of the reason for the longer discussion about meters was that there was some confusion about how different meters read differently.
LED are great for saving power, but I have yet to find LED bulbs/lights that are not too bright. Even the "warm glow" LED lights are far too stark white.
It was
"It was ..." Too much about clamp-meters? A good beginning? Not enough transformer discussion? Also, see the thread with James Brabson below.
I installed a transformer and it has been working well for about 8 months with supplying power to my low voltage landscape lights. For some reason, it stopped working the other day. I know the transformer is getting power, but there is no current running in the wires out to the lights. I replaced the transformer and the new one is having the same issue. I have no idea what would cause this. Appreciate any suggestions?
Michael:
My first thought is that there is an open splice or damaged wire right near the transformer output. Is the circuit breaker working OK? If there is a short circuit in the wires going to the light even replacing the transformer won't keeping the breaker from popping. Is there voltage on the 12V output terminals?
@@jlcarefoot Jim, appreciate the quick reply. I confirmed there's no splice or damaged wire near the transformer output. Circuit breaker is working fine, the transformer is definitely getting power. but there isn't voltage on the 12V output terminals. I also tried with a brand new transformer and it is getting power, but no voltage on the output terminals.
@@mpetrick91 is there voltage on the 12V terminals with the lighting wire disconnected? Can you check for a short circuit on the disconnected lighting wire? A short circuit would explain the symptoms you describe.
@@jlcarefoot There actually isn't voltage even with the lighting wire disconnected...
@@mpetrick91 I'm thinking the breaker may be popping every time you reconnect the lighting wire. Is the breaker also the power switch or is it a separate button?
Darn, this starts great, but I was really hoping it would actually show how to test my transformer, not just tell me to test it. It's almost a sales pitch for how great a clamp multimeter is, rather than showing me how to test the voltage on my transformer. (I should already know how to do this, but when I get really wonky numbers that don't make sense, I verify online that I'm doing it right before I return the potentially broken transformer, and this video doesn't actually show HOW to troubleshoot. Oh well.
+James Brabson sorry to disappoint you. We deliberately didn't spend much time on the transformers, focusing on the field part of the system where things like clamp-meters and locators are especially useful. Checking the transformer is mostly a physical task with basic meter checks for voltage. We aren't vendor-specific on the lighting system and so we often spend most of the time on the common field items. We will consider doing something that touches more on the control unit/transformer this winter.
+Jim Carefoot Don't get me wrong -- it starts out great, with excellent information for people new to landscape lighting. (The water pressure analogy is perfect for people new to this.) I just happened to watch it with unworking system and clamp multimeter in hand, hoping for someone to show me what I was doing wrong, since my tests were giving results that didn't seem to make any sense. Your advice about testing the lights themselves with a 9v battery was awesome, thank you, and that's what told me the transformer was definitely the issue. My comment relates to the fact that I think a lot of us own the multimeters and have a rough idea what we're doing, but don't have a serious electrical background, so it's instruction in the use of the multimeter that we're looking for, not just "this is a great multimeter and here are the things you should test with it". If the video hadn't started out so really really great, I wouldn't have been so disappointed when the "how to actually use the multimeter to perform the tests" step wasn't there. As a complete side note, I did diagnose the problem --- talk about transformer specific, the crazy numbers I was seeing are because my brand new transformer gives really wonky, really tiny voltages when on, unless it's plugged into a GFI. Since I was testing it inside, without a GFI, none of the numbers made sense :)
+James Brabson that seems odd about the transformer voltage. I would expect a robust 12 Vdc on the first tap going up a volt or two on any additional taps. The GFI shouldn't make a difference to the transformer.
+Jim Carefoot Yeah, you can imagine how frustrating it was trying to figure that out. Transformer turned off = 0v. Transformer on but plugged into non-GFI = 0.10v to 0.12v. Transformer on but plugged into GFI = 12 Vac (the expected value). Of course the instructions say to use GFI outlets, but silly me, I knew enough about electricity to assume that was just for safety purposes, not also for testing purposes while sitting in my office. Brand new residential Moonrays transformer. Anyway, like I said, the first half of that video is phenomenal, so if you do more like that you'll help a lot of people. (Maybe next time let us watch you test each thing, so we can see what you set your multimeter to and what types of values you're seeing... transformers may all be different, and the expected values will never be exactly the same, but I was so confused by my own tests, I was starting to wonder whether 0.12 was actually 12... you don't have to show for every type, but showing how you test one would probably be a big help to people.)
Ugh waste of time. I agree with you so basic not truly trouble shooting walk through and not until end do you find out you should have a particular type of clamp meter RMS.