5 hours. 5 fucking hours. To change 1 fucking transformer. Thats 5 hours I'll never get back.
The annoying this is, it would have been done sooner had I not been an electrical engineer. I know I have highlighted before how perhaps I should stay away from DIY electronics but this time it was being too smart that undid me, not sheer stupidity.
My living room lights blew (again) on Tuesday morning. When I turned them on their was this sparking sound and then no light. So Tuesday night in an effort to figure out what was wrong I had to dismantle both sets of lights. After about 2hours I had worked out that it was the left transformer that was blown and had managed to get the other set back up. Albeit hanging by wires.
This morning I bought three transformers and 3 ceramic blocks, as this "lights blowing thing" seems to be happening quite often. Upon getting home I used my voltmeter (yes I have a voltmeter) to check whether there was power to the lights or not. As sunlight was failing I needed to have house lights on to work, and so didn't want to blow myself up.
I spent the next two hours checking the voltage, which was fine. Plugging in the transformer and checking the voltage again, and there was none. I spent the tours trying desperately to figure out why whenever the transformer was plugged in their was no power. All I managed to do was leave loads of sweaty hand and finger prints on my ceiling.
Eventually I got confused and didn't turn the lights off properly. I check and their was no voltage and while unscrewing the block, managed to shock myself. At this point I realised the reason the voltmeter was showing no power is that the transformer wasn't drawing any without the lights plugged in.
I tried just plugging the lights in and it worked. [insert your favourite set of vile swearing here]. An hour later I had managed to plug everything back in hide all the wires and had 2 sets of working lights. Also a lot of dirty marks on the ceiling but if the lights are on and you are looking at the floor you can't see them.
So if I hadn't been such a smart engineer and just plugged the lights in without trying to check that they were working I would have been fine. I also wouldn't shock myself.
Let this be a lesson to you kids. Don't ask Uncle Adrian to do DIY. Ever.
1. zed
oh damn. i was hoping you’d pop over and give my lights a once over - there now remains one spotlight for the hallway and landing. needless to say, i can see bugger all.
2. Anonymous
My electrical engineer tried to blow up my car. He put the jumper cables on backwards. I questioned him. “Oh no, this is right.” Then he started his car. Then the smoking started. Then I told all of our friends. No one asks him to do anything remotely electrical now. Especially not me.