That's what they said about the whole of NASA.
Ive been paid to do things I didn't know how to do for all my life. because no one knew how to do them either, and they reckoned it was easier to pay me to work it out than be bothered themselves.
What are you n?
Oh. ten years of Nu Laber,where theres a rule and a training course for everything, and stupidity and ignorance are encouraged, and anyone bothering to learn anything is elitist.
Mate. Get one of your fitments down. Then remove all teh tubes, and all teh starters. Put the fitment o with a good new starter and try every tube in it. Throw away teh ones that don't work and replace with new. Then do the same fr all the staters.
Right, you now have good starters and tubes, Refit the lot, until something doesn't work, Mark those units with red stickers, and move on.
When the office is more or less up to speed and has lights, go back and check out the ones that don't work, replacing ballasts or checking wires as needed.
Fittings are usually not expensive and consider simply replacing about half the duds with new, and taking the old ones way and swapping bits till they work.
Thanks again. That sounds like the cause of the problem. I took one of the old starters to PTS & asked for a box of the same, so either the old starters are wrong or PTS supplied the wrong ones.
IIRC the old starters had FSU or SSU printed on them. Looking at the TLC site I think I need BG FS2's described as "Universal Series Starter for fluorescent fittings with tubes between 4watts and 22watts".
Thanks Harry, I'm going to print that out.
No, thank you, you really do get some interesting threads going! :-)
I will throw in my 2p too...
Start by replacing all the tubes.. it sounds like some of them are very old and they won't last much longer and the new ones will look odd. They don't cost much.
Couldn't ypu just have a known working one of each and put a gold star on them or something.
I'd working ones and non working ones and use a meter to see if I could see the difference between the resistances.
I've only experienced with a few tubes as we get a man in to replace them, so far they have just replaced the tubes, you can see a darker band at the end of the tube.
The theory there is that within a few weeks the other tubes are likely to go (if they have the same life expectancy and been on for a similar time) and you'll need to get the man back in just to replace anothe rone every few weeks. So replace them all so they al fail about the same time, so you'll only need to get the man in once a year or so rather than every once the replace a tube or two.
I did a google search
Their description is useless (verging on the misleading), but the picture of the starter looks to be the right thing.
Me too. Once they starting talking of shortening and the like.
Ah. You don't want cold. Buggers up the yeast.
The tongue test will always tell if the juices are flowing.
You can check for too many or too few currants.
Mrs Beeton?
Assuming that the installation is old and a number of tubes have failed, the likelihood is that some of the other tubes are actually quite new, having been replaced earlier. Unless you _know_ that all tubes are old, this is likely to be a wasteful strategy.
It may of course have a place, if you're putting cheap tubes in with a hired cherry picker. Some places cost serious money just to re-visit.
It isn't change everything till it works ploy. Component substitution is a tried and tested *safe* method of fault finding. Check there is power to the unit. Switch off. Substitute a good unit in the order they are most likely to fail, test, and replace the old unit if that is not the problem. I spent many years as a youth doing the lighting maintenance and found that was the only way to do it easily and safely. Sticking meter probes into a live light fitting up a ladder is really a nono and should be reserved for bench testing where you are less likely to fall over and break a neck if something flashes.
Ta. I think this is one of the things the 'Mr Negative' people don't understand. If I ask a question it's likely that others may learn from it as well, even if the knowledge isn't immediately used.
I read the Q & A's about subjects I have no interest in and am never likely to do. But you learn a bit here and there.
It also means the answers go into the archive for future reference.
Maybe a fault finding chart for the Wiki would be a good idea? We have enough good quality input.
I'm of the opinion that the only stupid question is the one you didn't ask.
its not bloody rocket science to fault find a item with three components ,especially when you have working ones to use as test rigs, but then again I would not ask a MFI fitter to fix my lights
its not elitist to expect someone being paid to work as an electrician to actually know about electricity or have I missed something?
Who is an MFI fitter?
You miss the point as usual. If you look in Yellow Pages for 'Qualified Light Bulb Changers' you won't find much. If you ring several of the many electricians listed you will be bloody lucky to find one who would come out & change a few tubes at any price.
And of course the electrician, if you found one who would come out, wouldn't be able to fit 4 new toilet seats, a new flush handle, fix a leak on a sink, put up 2 new drywipe boards and fix a lock that was playing up - all for one simple hourly rate.
So where does that leave the customer smart arse?
The Medway Handyman coughed up some electrons that declared:
I respect a professional who admits what he doesn't know; like the doctor down A&E when our daughter had an anaphalactic turn due to nut allergy. He said he wasn't comfortable trying to insert a drip into a 3 year old, so he called for the anaesthetist who had more experience.
That's a doctor, albeit young, but with the usual at med school, rigorous professional registration etc.
I think, given the comparison, Dave's allowed to not know everything...
Cheers
Tim
with some one who cant fix his lights PS what skill is involved with any of your answers I could do all the above and fix the lights and so could any decent electrician
No, with someone who is going to check out why the lights don't work and resolve the problem properly.
No skill required, but you miss the point yet again. An electrician 'could' do all the above, but you would be bloody lucky to find one who would sort the lights, let alone anything else. And of course at an hourly rate much higher than mine.
Its called a niche market.
If you are so smart & know absolutely everything I suggest you start a handyman business like mine. Someone as clever as you would make millions.
We have many, many, many fl. lights at work, and we have tube / starter failures all the time.
We have also had occasional ballast failures, but these have always presented as 'hot' smell, then 'very hot smell', then 'circuit breaker trips when / shortly after the lights are switched on'.
Removing the diffuser and having a look shows the ballast as severely discoloured ( and probably still very hot to touch ).
you are right I could start up a business, but I just lack the drive to knock my self out working on things that any one should be able to do with half a brain. Most of the jobs you do are just common sense DIY jobs ,and I get asked to do them all the time fix lights,assemble flat packs, fix toilets tile bathrooms ETC but doing them and earn a crust at the same time takes all the fun out of it ,I DIY because I enjoy it I have spent 4 hours fixing a £10 toy this week just because I can. it might be just because I have a nack at fixing/taking things apart and always have since I was quite young that I cannot believe some of the obvious questions on here
Then why not start your own newsgroup? Please. Call it, and this is just a suggestion mind, "uk.icandoitalljustbysnappingmyfingers" or sumfin'. Remember, this is just a personal suggestion on my behalf. I do not have any affiliation to newsgroup creation and serving companies.
I wish I had your brashness, because someone with such an attitude could be popular with customers who love to listen to the stories about how good their chosen handyman is. Even if it is their own handyman who is telling them how good he is. They just love to hear about it anyway.
I would ask you one question. Just one easy to answer question. Are you good at everything?
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