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Joined: Oct 2000
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I was sent to work on a lighting control system on a multi million dollar house that overlooks the San Francisco bay. The last thing that I ever expected to open the door and find was this little home built beauty. It seems like it would have been a lot less trouble for the electrician to just buy a real lighting panel.

The guy that built this thing and wired the house has since disappeared and can't be reached.

Scameron81

[Linked Image from electrical-photos.com]

Joined: Jul 2004
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Are te silver colored canisters at the bottom mercury wetted relays?

Larry C

Joined: Sep 2001
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The cans at the bottom appear to be standard low voltage lighting control relays. Those are usually dual coil latching relays--one coil is pulsed on to turn the lights on, and the other is pulsed to turn them off.

The enclosure may be homebrew (not even sure about that), but that PC board sure isn't. There should be a manufacturer's name or model number on it somewhere, and a Google search might find info on it.

The input and output wiring, while messy, should be easy enough to trace out once you have an idea how the PC board and the relays function.

Last edited by NJwirenut; 02/14/08 09:20 AM.
Joined: Apr 2002
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NJ:
Looks like the 'old' GE LV lighting controls, and yes, the box may be 'factory', although the circuit board is NOT something I have come across.

Livingston/So Orange older homes were big on the GE LV controls....note the word 'older'. Board may be some interface with a computer type control?

Yes...sloppy, but can be made neat.


John
Joined: Sep 2001
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The board definitely appears to be some type of interface between "something" and the relays. Doesn't appear to have much in the way of "smarts" on it (I don't see anything resembling a CPU).

Joined: Jan 2006
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Well they tried, at least there is a rubber grommet ( thats falling out) on the bottom left that most of the wires are passing through instad of a sharp edged hole... but man, what a mess! that wooden " backplate" has to go too LOL

A.D

Joined: Dec 2000
Posts: 4,294
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It seems like it would have been a lot less trouble for the electrician to just buy a real lighting panel.


You want a cutsheet ?
It IS a factory made lighting control.


http://www.touchplate.com/cutsheets/cps8-48_manual.pdf



Joined: Sep 2001
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Originally Posted by Rewired
that wooden " backplate" has to go too LOL


Why?

Wood backplates are sometimes seen in low voltage/telecom enclosures. They certainly make mounting additional components in the field easy (no drilling/tapping, and no worries about wayward chips shorting anything out).

Hoffman provides them in some of their datacom cabinets. I have installed a bunch of these:

http://www.hoffmanonline.com/produc..._3=43378&catID=43378&itemID=3593


Joined: Jul 2002
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Guy certainly made sure he had plenty of wire nuts before he fitted-off that panel.

Look at them all!.
[Linked Image]

Joined: Oct 2004
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My first thought was "I've seen worse"

I'de give that a 5 out of 10, ten being the worst.

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