Halogen or Transformer ? Or Me ?

Some may recall for ideas on my staircase - ie. wanting to put a light next to each tread, and I was trying to work out what channels / one on each tread or alternating etc..

Well my building is still going on, probably a month away before any serious wiring - I have just run the clipsal pink cat cable around so far...

Today was a free day, and thought I'd actually play with a dimmer - went to one of those large chain of lighting shops... checked out possible good looking wall recessed lights that I may use - and bought one for a play / test.

So it cost me $20 for the light and transformer, but I made sure that the transformer was okay for me... Asked the staff (you know what I mean here - the staff are probably just a slight upgrade of mcdonalds reference staff). So is the transformer leading edge / trailing edge - blank look on their face... Is it iron core - ummm....

Hehehe - thought that would be fun... But another staff member overheard, and seemed to know what I was talking about - as she said are you looking for cbus compatibility... Wow, did I find someone who knew what I was talking about ?

Yes I said, which the reply was - you need to upgrade to the enhanced transformer... Whoops... how knowledgeable was this person ?


So I paid my $20 walked out with a 12v halogen light and a Talbix Ultra60 transformer.... (Thats all I know from the black plastic, except made in Australia)

Wired it all up to a L5508D1A and I must say a tad disapointed...

Now guys easy on me - newbie - this is my first wire up - actually playing with the stuff instead of just reading...

What happens - soft on and soft off - I was expecting a nice gradual consistant phase of light. What I get is like 2 stages - it goes from off, to around half brightness, and then full brightness.

As I said it was a 12v halogen - and when I think about this and cars using halogen - its just like turning my headlights on and get normal beam, and then it goes full beam.

The transition is definatley not smooth. It also appears that the halogen could be taking that first 0.5 sec to warm up, and then the remaining to increase to full brightness.

So - did I get a staff member half co**ed - only knowing the basics, and hence sold me a dud transformer for this purpose, or is it normal for halogens to do this ?

BTW I was only using learning mode - as bugger me, I cant find my crimping gear to wire up the cbus cable - thats a job for tomorrow!

 

None of my 12V lights start up in "two stages", the ramp on to full brightness when turned on.

It may be the tranny, the only way to know for sure is to use a different one. I have used Atco Possums with success.

Thats about the limit of my help though - others will chime in with more useful info.

Mick

 

Well all things are not created equal...

Mick - thanks for the words of encouragement, searched and found the good oil on the possum, but where to buy them... Yep its a public holiday and would have if I could have.


So was out and about and found another chain of light shops open, called in, and although they stocked the Atco, they dont have the Possum... Looking at their sign in the store, they had 3 different models from Atco, one not compatible with cbus, one compatible, one being the most suitable for cbus... Hey a sign in the store could not be wrong.

$12 later walk out the store with a Atco Viper. I also bought a different step light to try. Actually prefer it, and I probably shoud yesterday it cost me $20 for my test unit (square halogen recessed thing with magnetic white cover), but today $70 for a brushed metal thing with a curved inset and no real cover - its amazing the build quality on the chinese cheapie is better than this more expensive unit....

So back to the story - plugged it in.. and yes I am happy.. the transition from on to off is smooth, no perceived incremental - it works beautifully. And just as well on both my test lights... So definately is the transformer. I do get the buzzing on the dimmer unit described in many a post here, and explained... Im just happy to know it was not me...

And for anyone else stay away from talbix ultra60 then !!

Now what should I play with.... hehehehe

 

Good to hear

On the CIS site there is a document (atually it may be in the forums somewhere) that outlines how to determine the compatibility of an electronic transformer. Things like load and capacitance are used in the determination and then that is also used to determine how many can be used on a single dimmer channel.

If you get a chance, look for it and have a read, you will learn a bit about the system as a whole as well.

Mick

 

This the link you were looking for?
http://www2.clipsal.com/cis/technical/technical_support/newsletters_and_faq/transformers

 

That will do it. The document Formulas for calculating how many electronic transformers on Clipsal Leading Edge dimmer is the one I was thinking of and it is linked to at the bottom of the page.