Re: What the **** is going on!!!???

["alcinababe" <alcinababe@xxxxxxx>]

--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Keith Doxey" <ukha@d...> wrote:

> Its quite common unfortunately.

Oh dear....I'm not going to like this am I :(

> When a bulb blows, a small piece of the broken filament often falls
across
> the two leads that support and supply power to the filament. When this
> happens, what used to be a 60W bulb will effectively become a several
> kilowatt bulb that lasts for a fraction of a second. This is the
bright
> flash that you sometimes see as the bulb fails. This causes the fuse
to blow
> or the trip to pop. The lamps can also arc across the broken filament
as
> well which causes similar results.

Yup....on the bulbs I've witnessed blowing there has been a bright flash.


> Unfortunately, the high current that flows for a breif period kills
the
> triac in a dimmer causing it to go short circuit which is why after a
lamp
> failure a dimmer will often be stuck at full brightness. They can be
> repaired by replacing the triac if you can get them apart.

And this....triac...is that also in an LM15?  Is it something a novice can
replace?  I've assembled a radio from a kit (and it works!), so I feel
reasonably
confident about soldeing a PCB.  I don't mind replacing a small component
every time (assuming said small component is considerably cheaper than a
new LM15).


> X10 is designed to a price not quality. Although we pay through the
nose for
> X10 products in the UK,

Ooooh.....don't get me started on this one!

> Just as a point of interest... what way are the lamps in question
mounted ?
> Cap up or cap down?

Um...cap up.  They're in ceiling lights hanging on a little pendant
doobrie.

> Sorry it doesnt solve your problem but hopefully it explains what is
> happening

Many thanks for this information Keith. So it looks like they're going to
continue to fail every time a bulb blows.  Sigh....back to the drawing
board.  I
don't have space, or an available socket in the hallway to use a Lamp
Module
and a table lamp.  I guess it's either DIY soldering of the blown component
(can anyone give me any pointers?) or 25 quid a pop (pun intended this
time!).  I should return this blown LM15 back to Letsautomate before the
warranty's up :)   From the bumf I take it I can't use a long life
fluorescent bulb
thing in an LM15.  Do those 10 year incandescent light bulbs advertised in
the
back of the newpaper really last that long?

Many thanks
Alcina