DIY Electric...

Sentry

My girlfriend brought home a delightfully cheap light fixture from Ikea. Given the "so easy a Caveman can do it" instructions, I felt qualified to tackle this task. So, here's what happened...

1. Turned off the breakers
2. wired everything together according to pictogram instructions
3. Turned breakers back on

At this point, the light turned on and all that was left was adjusting the height and everything. At this point one of the wires came loose. When I fixed it and adjusted everything, suddenly the light wouldn't come on. More then that, the house is wired so that the light switches have a green LED that is on when the light is off, showing it's getting power. The green LED for this switch is off, no matter how loudly I yell at it. Here's a link to pictures...
I think I blew something along the way, but I'm not familiar with wiring enough to know what that means exactly, or how to fix it. Thus, I turn to you Penny-Arcade. If you help me here, I promise to get into a big fight with my gf and ask for help about it.

tinwhiskers

I'm assuming you have reset the breaker after the wire came loose?

Sentry

yes, several times.

Foomy

if one of the wires came loose and looking at the pictures you might of done the wire-nuts wrong. If you twist the wires counter-clockwise instead of clockwise before putting it into the nut then when you go to tighten it on, it will actually loosen the connection between the wires, or if you don't give them any twist at all and just shove them in it can also lead to a bad connection.

beyond that it looks like you have the wires connected to the right places.

I'd try taking it all apart again and redoing the connections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=32z6Q8--fEM

Bowen

Yeah you want to use the wire nuts like you're actually twisting the wire cores together by hand. Make sure it's the right type too, if the house is old enough, you might have aluminium wire (doesn't look like you do).

You could also have a bad fixture, or damaged it somehow. Electric is a bitch to deal with without all the tools. Might want to go to lowes and pick something like this up: http://www.lowes.com/pd_464310-295-SW912+KIT_4294618093__?productId=50081430

This way you can at least tell if everything's getting power properly. Also a good way to tell if you've flipped the right breakers.

Sentry

I bought this thing yesterday: http://www.homedepot.com/p/Commercial-Electric-Non-Contact-AC-Voltage-Detector-MS8907/204288388#
I assume it accomplishes the same thing as the one you linked? Maybe not as well? I ran it over all the wires, it beeped on the black ones. I also opened my circuit breaker box and it beeped on all of those too. I'm guessing that, despite doing it multiple times, I messed up the wire nuts. I'll try stripping the wires more and redoing it again.

Bowen

Yeah that's going to at least tell you it's live. Multimeter part of the one I linked can tell you voltages. Yours is good enough for doing electrician level stuff.

Try the nuts again, follow that video.

TheCanMan

You might want to look around at your outlets. The light may be on the same circuit as a GFI outlet that has been tripped (although I'm not sure if your voltage detector would pick up current if that were the case). And house wiring can be weird. Our kitchen pantry light which is under the stairs is tied into the GFI outlet in our downstairs bathroom at the foot of the stairs (I guess it makes sense because it's a shot distance through the walls, but I would have never guessed it if I hadn't spent half a day trying to figure out why I had extra wires at that outlet). So you'll want to check thoroughly. If there's a bathroom above that light, that'd be the first place I'd look.

Maguano

did you check the bulb?

Sentry

Maguano wrote: »

did you check the bulb?

...
...

it was this

Welp, guess this can be locked. Thank goodness the internet can act as an archive of embarassing riches. Thanks for all the help everyone. That wire nut video was actually very helpful.

Bowen

If it makes you feel any better, most of us didn't even think about it when running through the other stuff.

Foomy

Well glad you figured it out. didn't even think of the bulb with it being a new fixture.

MichaelLC

bowen wrote: »

If it makes you feel any better, most of us didn't even think about it when running through the other stuff.

We thought he was brighter than that.

Donovan Puppyfucker

MichaelLC wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

If it makes you feel any better, most of us didn't even think about it when running through the other stuff.

We thought he was brighter than that.

I see what you did there! A shining example of wit.

Slo

chrishallett83 wrote: »

MichaelLC wrote: »

bowen wrote: »

If it makes you feel any better, most of us didn't even think about it when running through the other stuff.

We thought he was brighter than that.

I see what you did there! A shining example of wit.

You've gone and sparked a pun chain.

Donovan Puppyfucker

Illuminating!

Bowen

You are all dark and terrible people.

MichaelLC

bowen wrote: »

You are all dark and terrible people.

I don't know Watt you mean by that.

Sentry

ohm my god please lock this...

Donovan Puppyfucker

Reading these puns I get a bad feeling, like maybe Ceres is lumen in the background, just waiting to infract us all.

Slo

Until the threads locked, and we're all infracted, it's all in flux, right?

Some people just get amped up on puns.

schuss

Currently, I'm switching between hating this and finding it a shining example of incandescent personalities.

zepherin

I would be shocked if there wasn't some synchronous rectification for our impedance.

Bowen

We'll probably just get switched off for a bit.

Nija

Just resist your impulses. We can do it!

MichaelLC

Nija wrote: »

Just resist your impulses. We can do it!

I don't think we have the capacity to resist; just gives us too much of a charge. Hopefully we can ground this safely and transducer peacefully.

Bowen

Hey don't steal all the joules in one post.

schuss

I am shocked at how this has amped up.

Bowen

Alternating between used puns can't be good, we should be more direct with new ones.

Maguano

Had a bit too much coffee so I'm a bit wired, so excuse me when i say, I'm not one to gloat, but I've been told I'm the bright one in my family...Shocking, i know.

BYToady

If all these puns are upsetting you, just do some meditation. Breathe deep and say Ohhhhhhhhhhhm

Slo

I'm just glad we have an outlet for awful, awful puns. Although we should probably unplug before we get much worse.

schuss

I'm amazed the motivation is still lit for people on this, I would have thought everyone would be burned out on puns by now.

Bowen

Pretty soon we're all going to be grounded.

schuss

I've certainly had my filament.