Help fitting kitchen lights

[nickjett]

Ok this has probably been asked before..so im sorry but im really struggling. Im not an electrician by the way lol

Im trying to fit two new light fittings in the kitchen. Ill name them kitche 1 and Kitchen 2

I managed to get the Kitchen 1 working..it took a while of trial and error. I dont have a multimeter so had to manually try each wire to find the live one from the switch. Downstairs i have lounge, hall, kitchen and garage.

at the minute the lights that work are the lounge, hall and Kitchen 1.

Now the kitchen 2 i have tried all three black wires and none of them seem to work. there was a point where the kitchen 2 came on and the kitchen 1didnt no idea what i did. I also had another scenario where the kitchen 1 and kitchen 2 and garage light blinked continually. Hall and lounge lights where fine.

At the minute kitchen 2 light fixing is hanging from the ceiling. If i remove it is there a way i can test the setup by making sure certain wires touch each other? For example If kitchen 1 is fitted correctly and i make sure where kitchen 2 fixing would be...all of the 3 red wires are touching each other then make sure all three black are touching, should that mean my garage lights should work? Im sure i have done this but it didnt work

Sorry if some of that doesnt make sense

 

[Fleeting]

Any pics of what you have.

 

[kerching]

This is the main reason God put cameras on phones. Take pictures of/and label EVERYTHING BEFORE randomly disconnecting/reconnecting. Too late now, I know....just saying

You need to,tell,us the previous switchingbarrangement
What there is at each light i.e. Grey cable with red and black,cores
Did any of the black wires have a bit of red tape on them
Single,switch or double,switch

Try posting a pic of what you have

 

[Murdoch]

Don't we all just love the bang test!

 

[nickjett]

Any pics of what you have.

as in pics of what i have done on light 2?

 

[nickjett]

This is the main reason God put cameras on phones. Take pictures of/and label EVERYTHING BEFORE randomly disconnecting/reconnecting. Too late now, I know....just saying

You need to,tell,us the previous switchingbarrangement
What there is at each light i.e. Grey cable with red and black,cores
Did any of the black wires have a bit of red tape on them
Single,switch or double,switch

Try posting a pic of what you have

I know i dont know what i was thinking, thought it would be a lot simpler...in this scenario what would an electrician do? if he/she didnt have labelled cables

 

[Fleeting]

Pictures of the wiring at both points. An electrician would carry out some dead testing but advising a DIYer of the methods for this is probably inappropriate.

 

[NozSpark]

I know i dont know what i was thinking, thought it would be a lot simpler...in this scenario what would an electrician do? if he/she didnt have labelled cables

They'd test it with their meter to find out what did what (with the power off)

 

[SPECIAL LOCATION]

I know i dont know what i was thinking, thought it would be a lot simpler...in this scenario what would an electrician do? if he/she didnt have labelled cables

An electrician would have a comprehensive grasp of:-

Feed in from CU..
Feed out to further lights on the circuit..
Feed out to multiple lights that should operate together..
Loop at fitting and/or loop at switch..
One-way, Two-way or Intermediate switching..
Ensuring all CPC's are connected as required..
Be well aware that DIY'ers may have used inappropriate cable colours for some functions..
Be well aware that some sleeves marking switched lives could have been omitted / fallen off..

Then based on what they see or don't see apply the above knowledge to figure out how to get it reconnected..
Then decide if they want a tea or coffee in aprox 20 or 30mins once the job is done..

You need to identify which conductors are permanent lives, switched lives and neutrals..

the golden rule is Assume EVERYTHING is wrong until proved correct with suitable test meters..

 

[nickjett]

Well i figured it out, I wired kitchen light 1 wrong, the switch wire was on the blue side. Switched it to the brown side and all my lights now work

 

[Fleeting]

Without you showing any pics it is impossible to comment.