There is nothing wrong with an auto ranging meter for general testing. It is often the perferred type of meter. I use them almost every day. Everything from low voltage stuff to 480 volt 3 phase. I have used meters every where from the least expensive kind to $ 300 and up meters, even test equipment costing $ 5000 or more. For general around the house testing what you have is fine.
I would not use the battery ranges for anything but the batteries. It should slightly load down the batteries so you get a beter check of them.
For the bulbs, all you need to know is if the resistance is very low ( say less than 100 ohms) or very high (really an open). You seem to have some new bulbs on the way. YOu may want to check them before putting them in. Not likely, but there could be some bad ones in the package. I was trouble shooting some equipment at work and thought I had it repaired. Still blew a new fuse. To make the long story short, a new box had half the fuses bad as I started checking them before I installed them. This is not the only time this as hapened. I had repaired the equipment the first time, but the new , bad, fuses caused me to spend a lot of wasted time.
It aint the 6 or 12 volts that's dangerous, it's the 120v line coming into the doll house, which is probably an old frayed cord without ground. But you probably wont understand any of this..... you likely sufferred brain damage as a child when you stuck better knives into all the outlets in your home.
Michaels probably carried some basic miniature lighting gear, but there are loads of online sources with all manner of transformers, wiring, sockets, fixtures, etc. Don't need to be an electrician to install it.
If it was doable, refurbishing an old dollhouse, I would update it with more modern trans. and wiring...for safety as well as aethetic.
What is the safety issue? The little bulbs don't get very hot.
I have radios going back to the 1930's and their transformers, cords, and internal wiring are in excellent shape. The only thing that wears out is the capacitors, which a doll house won't have.
Aesthetic is a matter of taste, of coures, but I would like to keep it original, and also no one I know uses LEDs for lighting.
Absolutely. That's why it will be no safer with LEDs, which will still require a transformer.
"Probably", you say. Yes, it may or may not be deteriorated. That'swhy I suggested she look at it. We don't even know how old this is, maybe decades younger than the radios and appliances I have from the 30's that still have good cords.
A ground!!! Do you use a ground for your other lamps? Tensor lamps and those made just last year with a transformer in the base don't have grounds, and they are still UL approved. Or you think a ground is needed for a transformer that is encased in wood and she can't even reach without taking apart some of the house?
Everyone is being nice here but you can't manage that. What's wrong with you? Have you been diagnosed yet?
Jennifer - The output of a transformer is AC, not DC. Considering the age of the dollhouse as evidenced by the cloth power cord, it is very unlikely that the output of whatever transformer was used is converted to DC using a rectifier. So, work on the assumption that everything is AC. IF you can find someone who is reasonably knowledgeable, there are ways to test if the voltage is AC or DC, but with your situation, I'd just go with the AC.
Depends what you call expensive and where you buy them. The loacal HomeDespot wants $23 each for them. I imported mine directly from Hong Kong for $11.80 each, delivered to the door, Quantity 10. And that is the "dimmable" 85-240 volt model, The straight 110 volt non-dimmables can be had for about $9.00 each. Priced 50 watt GU10s lately??
60 watt equivalen(7 watt)t is about $20 at american Home Depot stores. About 50% more in Canada. Wholesaled.com has 9watt for $32 Or check EBAY and order direct from China.
That's too bad, but understandable. After thinking about, I would break one of the dead bulbs, cut a small jumper wire in half and solder the bare wire ends to the bulb's contacts. Jumper wires have alligator clips on each. Cutting one in half leaves a bare end and an end with a metal clip that you can clip to your meter probes. I could fabricate such a "tester" in less time than it took to type this message but I have the tools. I'm aware that you don't. I'd be happy to make up a socket tester for you gratis but it wouldn't happen until well after Christmas. I can't imagine testing the sockets any other way. It's hard to hold the probes correctly even with the socket on the benchtop. But when mounted upside in a the tiny rooms of a dollhouse? Sounds like torture from the Spanish Inquistion! And nobody expects the Spanish Inquistion (if I didn't say it, at least 5 Monty Python fans would have).
I don't blame you. Once upon a time when I first started rebuilding Brit sportscars, I came across this humorous comment in a "how to" book: "Carburetor" is a French word that means "leave it alone." The same could be said of your antique dollhouse's electrical wiring.
inaccuracies
I totally understand. It's a job for a specially made test probe.
That's where the rubber meets the road. I suspect you'll get more than a few working. Who knows? If you clean the sockets and cycle the switches, they might all work.
You can use the rubber eraser end of a small pencil inside the socket to clean off the oxidation. Make sure to blow out the rubber particles with canned air or a little makeup brush.
I would guess that the AC line cord goes into a small transformer that outputs from 2 to 5 VAC. Lightbulbs don't care whether they run on AC or DC so I don't see any reason for the designer to have a rectifier in the house that converts AC to DC. It would be an extra and unnecessary step for the builder and I'm guessing if he omitted strain relief on the line cord, he was on a real budget.
That's what leads me to believe there's a small AC transformer at the end of the line cord. It should be heavy enough to be detectable in some way. It might even put out a hum that's detectable by a close-by AM radio.
transformer
You're right. I would replace the cord with a more modern one and add strain relief if it's not too hard to access the point of entry. If it is. I would probably use some low-temp hot melt glue to create one. Not pretty, but it's held when I've had to do it. You could cut the cord a few inches from the hole and slide protective tubing of some sort to protect the wire's insulation. Then either solder a newer line cord, the old line cord or an in-line power switch to the bit left sticking out. You could also wrap the cord that sticks out of the hole with a enough layers of black electrical tape and then push that bulge into the hole to create strain relief of sorts. Old cloth covered wire without a strain relief bothers me. I've rebuilt items with similar cords that looked intact but that crumbled in short order when they were flexed just a little bit. On the other hand, most of the original wiring in the my house is cloth covered. I've since added new circuits with 12/2 romex to take most of the load off the old wires where I could. But I digress . . .
That sounds like serious deconstruction of the house would be involved. I'd wait and see how it goes over first. Rebuilding using LED's and batteries or a small wall wart (the plug in transformer-rectifier that are used for chargers and such) It might be a perfect teaching opportunity to involve the youngster with. You could even buy some cheap solar garden lights and turn it into a solar powered doll house. (-:
That's why we're here. Well most of us. A few seem to think it's open mike night at their local comedy club, but that's Usenet.
-- Bobby G. - It's 58F degrees at night in December in DC. Maybe global warming theorists are right!
Gawd. It's late at night and my vision's blurry so I first read that as "I like to lick the bulb" thinking to myself: "Is Micky CRAZY?!" (-: Anyway, yes, that's a good way to find a broken filament. I think Jennifer's continuity tests are probably accurate even if she can't see the filament break.
Are you living in Balto now? We've got enough posters in the Baltowash area that we should have a get-together. If we've got enough people, maybe we can convince HD or Lowe's to cater a lunch where they can make a sales pitch while we eat free food. (-: There's one of each in Laurel, which should be accessible from DC and Baltimore.
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