I’ve mounted a couple of second hand lamps through my work tabletop, drilling holes to fit the socket mount. To draw the cables through the hollow socket and under the table, I clipped of the big transformer wall plugs. They were too heavy to hang upside down from the power strips I mounted under the table anyway.
So now the lamps are installed, but they don’t have power. I tried disassembling the transformer plugs to fit the internals into a freestanding enclosure that could be mounted mid-cable instead. Well, these things were very much made to never be taken apart, and after using a hacksaw to open one of them… Let’s just say I’m looking for new transformers now.
The lamps use compact LED tubes @ 7-11W, which is why the transformer is needed. I’ve been fairly particular about the lamp model — Lival PL011 — and nevertheless I’ve found them with varying makes and models of transformer. But I’m not an electrician at all, so I’m going to need your advice on replacements. I’m in Europe, so the wall sockets provide 220V AC.
The transformers that I’ve seen included with these lamps give slightly different information along the lines of
- 220V ~
- 50Hz
- 170-200mA
When I look around the web, however, most transformers available either step the voltage up or down, or convert between AC and DC. Any tips on what I should keep an eye out for, and how better to find it?
Thanks in advance, any help is appreciated!
I’m not sure if I’m adding anything new here, but the wall wart appears to be a ballast which traditionally drives fluorescent tubes. There are led tubes you can just plug into a light fixture or lamp with a ballast, there are also ones that want you to rewire the lamp and remove the ballast. I won’t be able to help on rewiring as I’m in the US on our special voltage and I’m not qualified to be giving advice on that here much less anyplace else. There is another type of tube that can operate both with and without ballast (after a rewire).
The first step would be to ensure the tubes you’ve got are ones that need the ballast to work, it should say on the product page. In the US they refer to these as type A, the ones that work without ballast as type B, and ones that work with both as type AB. I’m unsure if that is the same elsewhere, but I do notice the “AB” in your picture, so that may be the case, but you would need to confirm.
If it works with ballast you could replace the old ballast with a new one, which is easier and safer than the alternative, though you may struggle to find one that fits where you want it to and they are less energy efficient. I have no experience replacing ballast, so I can’t help you there, but it may be as simple as getting another ballast and wiring it in. You can probably get a brand new one as they do wear out over time and need to be replaced.
If if works without ballast, since you’ve already removed it, it may make sense to rewire the lamps for the LEDs to run directly off of main voltage if the tubes are made for that and if you can find the resources to teach you how and you have the ability to do so safely. The lamps can be wired differently and the led tubes can require specific wiring. Its not the most dangerous thing you could do with electricity, but its got a lot of room for personal harm and fire if something is done wrong. I’ve done it without incident, but I’ve also rewired my home, adding light fixtures, a new circuit breaker box, and a heat pump, and had it inspected/approved by the local authorities, so I was pretty confident in my abilities. I don’t think its that hard to do safely in comparison to those other things, its just important to be very sure of what you are doing with electricity. Sometimes things can work but are incredibly dangerous still, other times they might blow up in your face. It takes years of training to be an electrician for a reason, you don’t get to make many mistakes more than once.
Also please don’t open up the transformers or ballast, they aren’t safe without the shielding they come with.
Good luck and stay safe.
Perhaps when searching use the phrase ‘power supply’ or ‘led driver’ instead of transformer. The info missing from your post was the output voltage.
You will want to find someone local to help you make the connections even the lamps. Even though they are low voltage a short can easily arc & start a fire.Thanks for the reply!
The info missing from your post was the output voltage.
Yeah, the info I gave is all that’s offered on the transformer… LED driver… whatever. That’s why I interpreted the voltage as unchanged from input to output. If that’s even possible.
It’s not - you wouldn’t need a power supply/transformer then.
LED’s run on direct current, so the wall wart converts 220v to 5v using either a transformer (old school) or a switching power supply (more likely, same as what a laptop uses).
I’d be surprised if the wall wart didn’t list both input and output voltage and current. That’s required by some kind of regulation.
The key will be what voltage and amperage (or wattage) the panel is designed for. You’ll need a power supply to match the voltage closely, and to (generally) output at least the max amperage the lamp can consume. More voltage is not good, more amperage is fine - a light will only use what it can use.
I’d be surprised if the wall wart didn’t list both input and output voltage and current.
Yeah, me too. Hence my confusion at the labels:
Your lamps aren’t LED but CFL (think old neon signs), and the small black box is not a transformer but an inductor.
In short, your lamps produce light by an electrical current flowing through a gas in a glass tube. To make the gas conductive to electricity, a very high voltage is applied for a short amount of time. That’s what the thing in the plug does.
I don’t know that particular model of lamp, but my suggestion is to use intact lamps and bin the broken ones. There’s a considerable risk of electric shock, fire or (in extreme cases) high-velocity glass shards if you try replacement parts at random and don’t know exactly what you’re doing. As the lamps haven’t been working beforehand anyway, I suspect they’re generally beyond repair.
Thanks for your reply. I appreciate your correction re inductors vs transformers. As I’ve written elsewhere, all I have to go on is what they’re labeled. Different blocks for the same lamps say one, some say the other. Some just go with “plugin” to add to the confusion.
As the lamps haven’t been working beforehand
The lamps do work, I tested them with modern, compatible energy saving LED tubes before cutting the wall plugs off. See my other reply with an image of the new tube’s specs.
Sorry, I can’t seem to add more than one image per reply. The above is one of my original warts. Attached here is a close up of another variant, found online:
Just be careful. I do not mean to sound condescending, but it seems you lack basic understanding of electronics. That combined with mains power is deadly. Don’t do it unless you’re sure.
If they are indeed LED lights, you would need a DC adapter with a DC output voltage such as 12V. This voltage you should know at this point. It is safe to work with UNLESS you open the transformer. DON’T OPEN THE TRANSFORMER(s), rather fix them under the table and use an extension cord.
If they need AC, it is definitely something else than 220V or there would be no transformer. Do not proceed unless you’re sure what you’re doing.
Just be careful. I do not mean to sound condescending, but it seems you lack basic understanding of electronics. That combined with mains power is deadly. Don’t do it unless you’re sure.
Well, I know not to mess with live wires, so that’s one basic rule down. But you’re right, and I appreciate the warning.
Edit: fwiw, I’m trying to get a better grasp of electronics and electrics repair. If you have good basic learning resources you can share, I’d love to hear them.
From the pictures that Google returns when I search for ‘lival pl011’ those look pretty retro. Are you sure they aren’t fluorescent tubes? I think you need to post pictures of the lamp, the bulb/tube and the transformer/driver/brick (both pre and post opening) before anyone will be able to safely help you. With LED you need to know the current and the voltage to buy a replacement brick, and with fluorescent it’s equally complex. Can you link where you purchased them if you bought them new?
Used to be fluorescent tubes when the lamps were made, yeah. Now they’re replaced with low energy compact tubes that are labeled and sold as LED.
This bulb lists mains voltage as the input. In another comment you include a picture of a ballast which isn’t a typical transformer. I’d try plugging that bulb straight into the wall and see what happens. It’s possible you can get rid of anything fancy like a ballast or transformer. Or maybe it’ll only work with a ballast since there were originally florescent tubes there.
Once again, the labeling plug boxes aren’t exactly helping the confusion. Are they inductors, ballasts, transformers? Let’s just write it differently on every model!
So I really appreciate everybody’s help in sorting things out. By now I realise I definitely failed to phrase my first post clearly (or even correctly).
Very interesting, it looks like the wall plug part (in your other pictures) is a fluorescent ballast, but you’ve replaced the bulb itself with an LED that has a built in driver. So I think (I’m not an electrician don’t sue me etc etc) the wall part from the old system is not needed by the new bulbs at all. I think any AC wire from the wall socket straight to that led bulb should just work. You’ve got a built in driver since the bulb says 220-240 input, and the old transformer does something special (ballasting) for fluorescent tubes that LEDs don’t need.
