How to connect cables to new dimmer for my halogen lamp

Thread Starter

adri123

Joined Apr 11, 2018
5
Hi all,

I have an halogen lamp and the dimmer has burnt.
I bought a new dimmer and i'd like to disconnect the cables from the old one and connect them in the new one.
Could you please tell me how ? (what goes where)
The two systems are not exactly the same. I'm not an electrician or whatever but i can manipulate tools so i'd be happy to do it.

Please tell me if you need me to provide you with mroe info.

Cheers,
Adrien

Old dimmer:


New dimmer:
left side


right side


schema
 

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#12

Joined Nov 30, 2010
18,224
We can see that N means blue and L means brown.
Brown is power and funny looking X is the load.
On the new board, the power arrives at the end near the fuse with blue attached to the terminal marked, "N" and brown to "L".
The halogen lamp gets connected to the two funny looking X's with the colors being irrelevant.
 

Thread Starter

adri123

Joined Apr 11, 2018
5
Thank you #12 for your very precise answer. I appreciate.
Before applying it, i would like to make sure i give you the most data possible.
I forgot to mention something on the photo of the old dimmer.
On the old dimmer, the power comes into X N and the lamp gets connected to N L.
Like this:



I have no idea how these work but in your answer you kind of invert these.
You put power in N L and lamp in X X.
While on the old dimmer it was power in X N and lamp in N L.

Is your answer still valid, or is it different with this additional info i'm giving you? Sorry for not mentioning that before..
 

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You have a 50% of getting it right. I don;t agree with #12. Why?:

The funny looking X is an AC symbol with a slanted arrow in it. This suggests variable AC which would go to the lamp and not the line. That seems to be confirmed in your Fig #1 schematic.

Blue and Brown I always get mixed up. I can never remember the designations. This http://www.regiscoyne.com/tech/pwrcordcc/ says brown is hot (L) and blue is neutral (N). That's what we see in your first picture.

The green with yellow is the ground or G or the rake like symbol.

Aside: The lamp doesn't care about polarity, but we do generally want the hot to be more touch safe than the neutral. So, in the US, the portion of a lamp, socket that is more exposed thread gets the neutral.

So, I believe the wires in post #3 are backwards.
 

Thread Starter

adri123

Joined Apr 11, 2018
5
Thank you KISS. Iappreciate.
I'm a bit confused.
1. Could you tell me precisely how you think i should put which cable where ?
2. if i make a mistake can i fry it or will it jus not work and i can revert ?

i appreciate your help
 

Thread Starter

adri123

Joined Apr 11, 2018
5
Thank you KISS. You said to swap the cables of my post #3. But post #3 is the old dimmer.
My question is how should i put them in the new dimmer (post #1, 2nd and 3rd photo).

Please give me specific instructions. For example:
Old dimmer N L goes into NEW dimmer N L (N to N and L to L, same colors)
Old dimmer X N goes into new dimmer X X

Thanks a lot, i appreciate your help i just never did it and nwo with all the posts telling me to swap cables etc it's not clear to me swap what and where ?

I appreciate! :)
 
#12 is right in post #2 - let me change his wording just a little bit.

For power in on the new board:
N means blue
L means brown.

The funny looking X's are the LAMP. The halogen lamp gets connected to the two funny looking X's with the colors being irrelevant.

If the old board was hooked up like you labeled in post #3, it's wrong. It's also wrong based on the Fig 1 diagram.

Make sure you didn't make a mistake identifying the cables.
 

Thread Starter

adri123

Joined Apr 11, 2018
5
Hi all,

so after some weeks i found time to connect the cables to the new dimmer.
Everything went well.

For the power side, i did as advised:
I put the blue in N and the brown in L.

For the lamp side, i connected the cables to the two funny looking X's. I don't remember the colors. But anyway from what you guys said the colors are irrelevent on the lamp side.


ps. Just for info, i double checked my old dimmer connection and it was indeed how i showed it in post #3. So it could be that they had connected it the wrong way. It was working though.
Second info, in cas someone is interested: the diagram in post #1 is the one of the new dimmer, not the old one.


Thank you very much #12 and KeepItSimpleStupid. Light is shining!
 
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