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!
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.