You said 'splice'. You didn't say rewire the dimmer cord into the lamp itself so how are you going to handle the splice? Wire nuts and electrical tape???
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- posted
18 years ago
Dimmer question...
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- posted
18 years ago
I have a lamp dimmer that I'm hoping that I can use for a project. Before I go and start a fire or suffer a meltdown I thought it best to ask for feedback...
At one end of the dimmer there is a polarized plug that you plug into the wall. The other side of this plug provides a polorized outlet into which you plug your lamp.
The other end of the dimmer cable is a slider with and LED. Sliding this control lowers and raises the brightness of the lamp.
What I wish to do is instead of plugging a lamp into the dimmer outlet, I want to splice into the dimmer cable. I'm assuming that the dimmer outlet is electrically the same as the wire travelling to the dimmer.
Am I out to lunch on this, or do I have my head on straight?
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18 years ago
So do I understand correctly that the wall plug and the dimmed outlet are together in one assembly, and that the cable goes from this assembly to the dimmer control? The cable is two conductors?
If that is the case, then those conductors in the cable are "hot" and "dimmed hot", and the neutral connection for the the dimmed outlet is entirely within the plug/outlet assembly. This means you can't tap into that cable for power, and that splice-on lamps like you mention in another post will not work on that cable.
Yours, Wayne
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18 years ago
Based on your description I would guess that the triac and several other components are in that block which plugs into the wall outlet, and the cord going to that slider carries a low current control signal to a "slide pot" and the LED.
Ifd you have to ask here, than you probably don't possess the engineering knowledge and skills to know where and how to tear into that device and could "blow something out" trying. No insult intended, 'cause nobody can be a renaissance man these days, there's just too much knowledge available for one brain to hold it all.
But, if you'd describe what your project is about in some detail, I and other folks here could probably give you advice on how to achieve your goals correctly and safely.
HTH,
Jeff
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18 years ago
The lamp is a "crimp on" halogen. You lay the cord into the lamp, close a clip and it pierces the cable, making the electrical connections. You can put up to 8 lamps on the supplied cable (same gauge as the dimmer I want to use) and one end just plugs into a wall outlet.
I want to go from one end at the wall outlet, to the lamp in the middle of the cord, to the dimmer control at the other end of the cord.
The only issue I can see is if someone tries to plug something into the dimmer outlet... but I'd plug it up to prevent this.
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- posted
18 years ago
Sloppy. Purely out of your sense of honor, at least get to a hardware store and see if you can use REAL crimp connectors (the tubular things that you install with a nice crimping tool). Then, protect those with heat shrink tubing.
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- posted
18 years ago
It's how GE manufactured the lamp... not something I picked up elsewhere....
Like these:
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The square part at the top flips open, you lay the cord into it and then close it... no other way to fasten a cord to the lamp.
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- posted
18 years ago
The big hole on the outlet is connected to the big blade on the plug. Is that what you are asking? (But since that seems pretty obvious, I wonder if you mean something else...)
It would still work if you got it backwards; it might be more dangerous in event of a short and/or leave something exposed hot that is supposed to be grounded.
Like the other respondents, I haven't seen a lamp like you refer to. It sounds flaky, even if GE makes it.
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18 years ago
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Gnarly....the connection method, I mean. The lights look nice, though.
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18 years ago
Three likely issues:
- Total wattage of the lamps can not go over the rated capacity of the dimmer.
- The dimmer can not be used on a transformer supplied circuit. Are these low voltage lamps?
- The connection technique sounds very iffy to me. It reminds me of what I see on low voltage applications and you can't use the dimmer on the low voltage application.
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- posted
18 years ago
Dimmer is rated for 300 watts. Bulbs are 120v 25 watt halogens.
Actually these dimmers were originally meant to dim a pair of 12v halogens. They were purchase as a set from IKEA. The dimmer is a 120v model and the transformer plugged into it.
The connections work... After some sleep I decided just to put a line cord on the lamp and plug it into the dimmer as it was meant to be in the first place. It would take a lot more modding than I originally anticipated to use it as inline with the lamp.