Omnisistem solo250

[bigclive]

So I'm on another forum dedicated to automated bowling systems, and this guy comes on and says he's had a load of these lights burn out their transformers. He knows it's the transformers that are faulty because he shorted out the fuse and smoke came off them. :unsure:

 

One slight technical chastisement later he posts a picture of the top of the transformer:-

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv96/ez1913/Bowling/Red%20Apple%20Bowl/Fixtures/IMAG0481.jpg

 

So that's reasonable enough. For his local 120V supply you'd connect Neutral to 0V (Brown) and Live/Line to the 120V tap (Green).

But here's a sketch of how it's actually wired....

 

http://i673.photobucket.com/albums/vv96/ez1913/Bowling/Red%20Apple%20Bowl/Fixtures/IMAG0482-1.jpg

 

So that's mains EARTH connected to zero volts on the transformer, mains Neutral to the 120V tap (green) and Live/Line to the 230V tap (Yellow).

 

I guess the person that wired that hasn't got a clue what they're doing. Firstly, they've connected mains earth into the circuit, and then chosen two other taps with 110V between them for the actual feed. Now it's bad enough that the mains earth has been compromised by this act, but it also poses an issue whereby there is effectively a 120V winding connected between earth and neutral. And since earth and neutral are normally bonded at the source, that means the transformer is shunting a modest current through that resistance. I'm surprised the thing ran at all. That's assuming the earth wasn't disconnected to "fix" the fault!

 

I've had a chat with him and he's sending my comments onto the manufacturer. I wonder if they'll even reply.

[dbuckley]

Impressive.