Does anyone know about or have ever seen low voltage lighting system in a 40 year old house original to the house?
I was called out to a house to trouble shoot a lighting circuit and found it to be a low voltage switch circuit.
The switches are momintary contact push buttons.
And the relays are plunger type relays.
The plunger moves a cam when energized and the cam turns and closes the circuit.When the plunger is energized again it turns the cam again opens the circuit.
I have called all my supliers and they have never heard of such a thing.
There is no name or numbers on any of this equipment.

Are the fixtures and lamps 120V, but the switching low voltage? That sounds like a touchplate system. Maybe www.touchplate.com

Also: https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/002293.html https://www.electrical-contractor.net/ubb/Forum1/HTML/001279.html

I've worked on a few of these systems.

They were billed as a low cost way to get fancy switching configurations in a residential system. P&S still offers a selection of hardware. Look at [i]Low Voltage Switching Copmponents[/i] .

The switches mount in standard Despard plates. The relays may be mounted in a cabinet in a mechanical area, or, more commonly, are mounted through the sidewall of the metal ceiling box that the controlled light fixture is mounted to.

Al

I think Bjarney nailed it. Sounds like Touch-Plate to me.

G.E. made a similar low voltage Residential control which I had dealt with in 1984. It was new then, and maybe that line was circa 1978 +, but it worked about the same as touchplate.
Master control panel(or panels), remotes, single momentary N.O. switches, latching contactors, yadda,yadda,yadda.
Worst part is the transformers are always in the hottest part of an attic!

My Father used to complain endlessly about shooting trouble on a touchplate control system - due to the placement of mechanical items and transformers (i.e. in hard to access places!).
Seems like the contactors were prone to errors.

Scott35 S.E.T.

Thanks for the help.
touchplate.com was the answer.

Another relay type was Remcon, common here 40 years ago,in PA.& NY. The GE one is now the replacement.

Remcon is still available in the original configs, more or less. Amprobe bought Remcon out a while back, and are producing the relays. They're fairly spendy, but cheaper than re-wiring to 120v switching.

There was at least one electrician that sold the be-jeebers out of the Remcon LV systems around here, except he modified the system down to only the switch legs were LV. And he put the relay/transformers in the octagon boxes above the fixture, the jughead.
I think he was the same guy that sold and installed the Zinsco loadcenters I'm always yanking out now, too

Dallas

Dallas, Thanks for the info about Remcon. Did not know that Amprobe took over. MY salesman always gave me GE. HE said that it is the replacement. Cool, and thanks again!

Depending on the mfg. and design of the system, the relay is sometimes in the j-box for the fixture or in a central location with all the relays. I've seen pretty elaborate touch pads with multiple switches in churches.