Strange voltages

[Davidobaynes]

Evening all,
At work today we energised the newley rewired lighting circuit, only to find that from 3 lighting points onwards, the lights didnt work. Thought maybe disconnected neutral or line conductor. This was not the case, all connections sound.
Disconnected the neutrals at the 4th light and found 60v on one neutral and 230v on another. Replaced the cable between the 3rd and 4th light, so at the 4th light there should just be the line and neutral from the working 3rd light and the line and switch line down to switch. But the 4th light still did not work.
Any ideas ????

 

[ashrow]

tried the lamp ?

 

[Octopus]

Got to be a bad connection. I'd remove all the cables at the 3rd light and reassemble to connections.

 

[Marvo]

found 60v on one neutral and 230v on another.

60
Volts is an unlikely result. Try measuring it again with an analogue tester (assuming you were using a digital one).
230 V on the neutral suggests a bad neutral connection somewhere in the circuit.

 

[snowhead]

Was it 230v on the "Neutral" going to/coming from light no.5?

If so, think about it.

Run a temp neutral cable from light no2 to light no 4

 

[Davidobaynes]

I reconnected the line and neutral to the 5th (so the rest of the lights on the circuit were reinstated) and none of them still worked but still had these voltages, this is the 1st fault to beat, not happy haha

 

[Octopus]

As others have suggested its likely to be a neutral issue. Time for the wander lead IMHO

 

[ashrow]

no one got my joke on the lamp (sorry hard day at work and should not post rubbish)

 

[GLENNSPARK]

60
Volts is an unlikely result. Try measuring it again with an analogue tester (assuming you were using a digital one).
230 V on the neutral suggests a bad neutral connection somewhere in the circuit.

more like no connection marvo...bad would show a voltage...but 230?

 

[Davidobaynes]

My apprentice did some more fault finding on the circuit and he said he found, he had the neutrals disconnected at the 3rd light but he was still getting voltages at the 5th light neutrals, im not sure if this was correct but will check tomo

 

[GLENNSPARK]

reversed polarity?
damaged fitting?
damaged cable?
is it 3 plate or looped neutrals?

 

[Octopus]

Hum "apprentice", are you sure he knows the layout of the circuit.

Wander lead time............................

 

[Davidobaynes]

Its 3 plated, think ive just gotta work through the circuit light by light, annoying though because all the fittings look to have gd connections and look sound, will be sumthing simple though i bet

 

[GLENNSPARK]

Hum "apprentice", are you sure he knows the layout of the circuit.

Wander lead time............................

twice you`v recommended that now Murdoch....and they ain`t gettin it..lol...

 

[RogertheBodger]

twice you`v recommended that now Murdoch....and they ain`t gettin it..lol...

They must be wandering about it though!

 

[Octopus]

May be they don't have a wander lead or don't realise what a time saver it can be in such situations.

 

[SYKRAPS]

Sounds to me like you have the feed t+e cable out crossed with the switch t+e cable and the strange voltage is coming through the lamp. Does the strange voltage disappear if the lamp is emoved from the fitting?

 

[GLENNSPARK]

They must be wandering about it though!

or just wanderin about...

 

[Octopus]

Sounds to me like you have the feed t+e cable out crossed with the switch t+e cable and the strange voltage is coming through the lamp. Does the strange voltage disappear if the lamp is emoved from the fitting?

Must have skipped a dead test or 2

 

[GLENNSPARK]

May be they don't have a wander lead or don't realise what a time saver it can be in such situations.

well then they get a bit of 1.0 flat twin....do an end to end on it...null it out...and use that....1 end grabbed in the croc...the other end they terminate....a more time consumin way of doin it i know....
but why can`t some folk think on their feet...