Alright folks, I just can’t figure this out. By no means am I an electronics guru, in fact I often avoid fixing electrical issues myself as I don’t trust myself enough. But this should’ve been a straightforward repair that I just can’t seem to grasp.
I had two string of lights going over the porch awning this season. Set them up the week of Thanksgiving and took them down this weekend. Everything worked fine until 12/22 when one of the strings (the second in the series) went dim.
I did some minor tinkering while they were hung up and couldn’t get them to brighten up. Oddly enough, when I plugged them directly to the socket they got no power, when I plugged them back into string one, they turned on but dimly. I did, by complete chance, touch one bulb towards the end of the string as I climbed down the ladder and the lights brightened up for about 30 seconds then went dim again. Between the 22nd and this weekend the string went completely dark.
Now with everything removed I started digging into them again. Checked the fuses and they’re fine. Swapped them with the good string and still nothing. I then took out the non-contact meter and started tracing the line. No breaks. I did get some slightly erratic behavior with two bulbs so I swapped them out, but no changes. The end of the string is also registering voltage. I decided to plug in the good string to see if the voltage would carry through, sure enough, the good string lit right up.
Am I missing something here?
I had two string of lights going over the porch awning this season. Set them up the week of Thanksgiving and took them down this weekend. Everything worked fine until 12/22 when one of the strings (the second in the series) went dim.
I did some minor tinkering while they were hung up and couldn’t get them to brighten up. Oddly enough, when I plugged them directly to the socket they got no power, when I plugged them back into string one, they turned on but dimly. I did, by complete chance, touch one bulb towards the end of the string as I climbed down the ladder and the lights brightened up for about 30 seconds then went dim again. Between the 22nd and this weekend the string went completely dark.
Now with everything removed I started digging into them again. Checked the fuses and they’re fine. Swapped them with the good string and still nothing. I then took out the non-contact meter and started tracing the line. No breaks. I did get some slightly erratic behavior with two bulbs so I swapped them out, but no changes. The end of the string is also registering voltage. I decided to plug in the good string to see if the voltage would carry through, sure enough, the good string lit right up.
Am I missing something here?
