A Good Day

I am very pleased with myself today.  Last week, an entire plant stand light fixture failed.  Naturally, just as I was starting to plant seeds...

I traded out a working fluorescent tube light in that for one in a working fixture.  It lit, so it wasn't the tube lights.  So I tried plugging the fixture into a completely different outlet.  No luck there either.  Which meant the fixture itself had failed.  

So I removed it.  That wasn't easy.  It was bolted onto a higher plant shelf.  I don't build things with easy maintenance in mind.  I assume things last forever, LOL!  But I did get it removed and on my workbench. The 2 possibilities were a loose wire or the failure of the fluorescent ballast.  

I'm not an electrician.  I've nearly electrocuted myself at least twice.  Once, it wasn't my fault (there were actually 2 (seriously non-code) separate circuits in one rental home electrical outlet).  The other was, but I was lucky enough to be sitting on a wood ladder.  I understand basic electricity, but practicality trips me up.  

I have a good sense of dangerous stuff.  I have very careful with power tools and knives, etc.  But electricity is invisible.  I wired my entire basement panel walls once (passed inspection) but it still scares me.

So I had the fixture sitting on my workbench (light tubes removed).  And I couldn't figure out how to even open it!  No obvious screws to remove to get at the insides.   I bent the fixture around some to see what was holding it together and finally decided two weird looking clips were the point were it moved least.  Well, the choice was to replace the fixture or fix it and I WAS curious. 

I grabbed the weird clips with vice-grips and pulled!  It was a heart-shaped plug.  I took the one at the other end out too.  After THAT, I took ever single screw out of the fixture and the insides were free.  Hurray, but what next?

I couldn't find a loose wire.  Of COURSE NOT, that would have been too easy.  I don't get easy problems.  So it had to be a failure of the ballast.  I know nothing about ballasts expect that they are essential.  So I researched the internet for a replacement hoping they were cheap.  

Mine was...

So, where to get one?  Checked several DIY stores and didn't find it.  But checked DIY sites again about "similar".  Found one than specififically asked if my ballast could be replaced by others.  Yes, and one was available at my local DIY store.  Drove there immediately and bought it.

I read the instructions.  They were laughable imprecise "match the wires according the the ballast diagram".  DUH!  My concern was that there were 2 blue wires, 2 red wires, 2 yow wires, a black and a white.  Replacing the ballast meant splicing the same-color wires, but WHICH blue wires, etc?

Well, I could only try it and see if it worked.  And that I didn't electrocute myself in the test.  Well, I am obviously still alive...

After cutting some wires shorter, stripping the insulation off, and capping same-color wires together (worrying that I had attached old blue 1 to new blue 2 (etc), I re-assembled the fixture.  The considered how to test it on the workbench.  I didn't want to have fluorescent tubes explode or risk near-electrocution #3...

Well, I have a shop light above the workbench.  And in a case of creative madness, I wired it with a light switch before the electric outlet.  So I turned off the "light switch" and plugged the fixture into the outlet.    That might be confusing or weird, but it meant the fixture had no electricity until I flipped the "light switch".  

Standing with a door in the way, I flipped the "light switch" ON using a piece of plastic pipe.  The fixture didn't light up.  Damn!  But there is a chain-pull on the fixture, so maybe it was in the 'off position.  I turned everything off and unplugged the fixture and pulled the chain.  Then set everything up again.

It LIT!!!

Fitting the fixture back onto the plant rack was annoying, but that was just about getting bolts into holes and nuts tightened.

But I fixed the fixture.  No knowledge, some persistence, and a bit of caution...  LOL!

I spent the rest of yesterday planting seeds and placing them under the newly-lit fixture.  😄