Volt lighting full#

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Volt lighting full#

I have not used a power supply that works like this most low voltage DC power supplies will show full voltage on the load terminals with nothing connected. The usual cause of this kind of symptom would be a short, likely an internal short in the power supply, but if you're seeing the power supplies both do the same thing and both work on one side of the house, it must be some kind of 'feature.' To be sure I didn't have a broken circuit combined with a short through moisture in the soil, I stuck the leads of the multimeter into the soil, but the resistance there was about 60 ohms. Perhaps one of the other bulbs is different and has less resistance.

I pulled out one of the bulbs and measured the resistance of the bulb itself and it was 1 ohm - I would expect that to be about the same or a little less, but it's a little more. 8 ohms, so neither a short nor an open circuit. It's just not the full power.ĭoes anyone know what would cause this behavior?īased on suggestion, I disconnected the wiring from the transformer and tested the resistance through the circuit. So the circuit doesn't seem to be broken - the power is getting to all the lights. I went around to some of the lights, pulled the bulbs and put the multimeter prongs into the bulb sockets and measured the same 1 volt at each location. So in the back yard, I get the full 12 volts when everything is connected and 1 volt if I disconnect the lights, while in the front yard I get 1 volt no matter what. Testing further, I found that that's what the transformers do when the power cords to the lights aren't connected. Then I put a multimeter on the transformer leads and found that it was only putting out one volt. So it seems the wiring and not the transformer is the problem. However, the transformer from the back yard doesn't work in the front yard. Since the transformers are the same, I swapped them, and the transformer from the front yard works fine in the back yard. The outdoor GFCI outlet seems fine because the string lights still work, on both plugs. But I haven't found any physical problems. The wires are tucked out of the way before they go underground, but it's possible I or my daughter snagged a wire and knocked something loose. I set this up in May 2017, so it's been working fine for about 18 months.Īfter setting up Halloween decorations last week, including one set of string lights, I saw that the lights in the front yard weren't turning on. They're set up separately, but both use the same model of transformer and lights. I've installed low-voltage (12V AC) lighting systems in my front and back yard.