DIY Doctor UK DIY Forums

Hi - I have built a sleeper wall outside and cut out a channel to run wiring for some LED lights, 12 lights in total.

The instruction sheet (see image) states the driver needs to be 350mA Constant Current and it also states each light is 1W and the driver has a max of 18.2W so I thought this was about right i.e. a decent amount over the total 12W (12 lights each 1W). See image of the driver spec.

I will get an electrician to run a cable from the house to the junction box on the sleeper wall but I want to do the wiring so I can finish the wall as there will be a couple of sleepers on top of the ones where the cables run. I wired the driver to a 13amp plug (no earth) and then the LED light to the driver observing correct polarity. The LED light flashes when I plug it in at a regular one secondish interval. From searching I found possible reasons could be:

1) An under spec driver - I think the one I bought is ok and I'm only testing one light to start with.
2) Loose wiring - I checked the wiring to both the plug, driver and light
3) Faulty light - I tried one of the other ones and same thing.

I've never done anything with LED lights before so I could well be doing something that is wrong without realising. Any help appreciated!

I suppose there could be a fault with the driver but I feel its more likely a fault with me!

Thanks

"Electronic transformers" often have a built in safety feature, whereby if there is a problem on the output, it is switched off. This would appear to be true in your case.
Without a means of testing, the only thing you can do is to add lights one at a time and observe what happens. Ideally you should do this on a "bench" not in situ, so you can eliminate any wiring error. If all lamps work, then mount them in their final location, one at a time and at each stage observe.

Thanks Mr White

I was just testing on the bench to make sure I could get one light to work with the plan of testing each time I added a light in the wall but the initial test has halted that.

Maybe I should replace the driver to rule that out?

I found out the driver has an output power of 10.9 to 18.2Wso testing a single 1W light was causing it to flash. I tested with all 12 and a constant light.

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