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[Ian & Stef]

:cry: We have taken the ceiling rose off and with the wires, taped all the red together, all the black together and the neutral together. We then put the groups of coloured wires into the connection box we were given with the light fitting and connected live to live, neutral to neutral and earth to earth. when we switched power back on, even through our light switch was in the 'off' position, we had light. When we switched the light switch to the 'on' position, the breaker cut in and the power was cut.
Clearly we have done something very wrong, but we don't know how to go about rectifying it as we don't know which wires came from where.
Any help appriciated - can't do jargon either.
Thanks
Stef

[Jeffmo]

Hi Ian and Steff, okay common problem ... All reds should be together in connector block seperate to light fitting, .Normally one of the blacks should be sleeved or taped with red marking so as to indicate switch live . If you have this then connect other two blacks together into connector and attach blue from light to this and brown to switch wire . Hope this helps . Obviously switch off at mains before doing it. Cheers Jeff

[Ian & Stef]

Thanks Jeffmo, This really helps. Just another quickie - The switch live is not marked, how do i go about checking which black wire is the switch live? Is there a (cheapish) device that can shave the hours off the trial and error route? Also, with the red wires, should I just buy a junction box to feed these into as there is nothing in the ceiling (we pulled them all out of the ceiling rose thing they were all connected into).
Muchos gracias!
Stef

[sparx]

Hi both,
seperate out all the blacks, a very basic test meter from DIY store or even a neon test screwdriver will be needed.
either use tester on Ohms/continuity range, with piece of spare wire connected to black at sw. then use wire as an extension to your meter lead , touch each black in turn at light, one of them only should move meter display, this is the black to your lights live connection. Mark it now!!
Other way with neon tester is to seperate as above then with wires seperated, very carefully with power on hold against each black in turn until neon lights, get someone to turn sw. on/off until certain which is sw. live,Turn mains off agn and mark wire, then other blacks to Neutral of light reds to spare block behind light & marked blk to Live of light!
regards SPARX

[Jeffmo]

HI iAN AND sTEPH , WELL IT LOOKS LIKE MY MATE sPARKS BEET ME TO IT .gOOD LUCK AND BE SAFE

[Ian & Stef]

Ok, This is seriously bugging me now. It appears we have done it all right. I bought a connector block from B&Q and a little test meter (very basic). I tried it on DC/circuit test switch which it says to do if you are teasting 'dead' circuits, switched the power off and found the only black wire that moved the needle. I marked it as switch wire. I connected that to the brown from the light, via a connection block, the other two blacks to the blue via connection block and the 3 earth wires from the cables, to the earth wire from the ligth fitting. All the reds i screwed into one half of a spare connection block, taped it up and shoved it inside the hole in the ceiling out of the way. Power on and nothing. Not even a flicker. Where am i going wrong?????
Stef