Did it to myself again

[blume357]

So I had finished all the electrical wiring on our new front porch. for those not in the know, the porch was heavily damaged by Helene and for over a year I had the roof temporarily supported and then back in November my neighbor and I actually rebuilt and reframed it. This is with a 4ft addition to the front.
Anywho.... the post light on the corner is on a timer, just one of those that plugs in and I also had the Christmas lights hooked to this. Last week as a final thing I decided to add a spot light for our Flag on the front with a photoelectric cell to allow it to turn on at night and off in the day time. Got it all hooked up and then the dern thing would not work.... I could not figure out if the light on the post was defeating the photocell or if the cell was bad. It is one I had saved from some previous light.... but I turn off the post light and the spot still won't come on... dern. And so I decided to just redo the whole thing with timers. Two separate timers that actually go in boxes and are hardwired.... one for the porch/post light and Christmas lights and one for the flag spot..... this actually meant pulling everything apart and adding more conduit and boxes.... about 3 hours in I put my ladder up to remove the photo cell from the spot light and discovered what the problem was. The spot light I'm using has some new fangled LED bulbs that are not only adjustable from 60 degrees to 25 but also you can adjust the brightness and even the color of the light....different shades or such... all these adjustments are on the bulb and I had messed with these while putting in all in last week.... seems the last time I put the bulb in I did not screw it in the socket right.....and that is why it was not working....

Did not get through with the project yesterday because the two timers I ordered from Amazon on Tuesday , that said I could have delivered the same day are now arriving tomorrow.

 

[Mobuck]

Many times elbow deep into something that didn't work only to find the most simple fix in plain sight.
Been there, done that.

 

[nekvermont]

I know it's not funny but that made me laugh.

 

[coachk64]

My favorite story of overthinking something.
Was riding my Honda Goldwing and I was pulling up to a stoplight with one hand busy with the radio controls, while a car to my right suddenly ducked in front of me so I swerved and hit a pothole at the same time. This put the handlebars into an oscillating condition and they started whipping back and forth until I could get my right hand back on the grip and settle it down. Well the engine died immediately and wouldn't start back up, no matter how long I cranked it. I figured all the vibrating knocked something loose so I ended up pushing through a busy intersection into a parking lot and called my wife to bring the trailer. Paid some passing teenager a ten-spot to help me get the bike on the trailer, took it home and started taking it apart to see if there was at least spark. Turns out there wasn't, so went in to have dinner and think about it.
About half-way through dinner had a sudden epiphany, went out, put the kill switch back into the run position and of course the bike started right up. Must have accidentally hit it when grabbing at the oscillating handle bars and turned it from "Run" to "Off". Like every other biker I know, I never use that switch, turning the bike on and off with the key, so never thought about it. I've thought about little else since.

 

[contender]

I think that most of us who work on stuff have had similar things happen. I know I have.

Some days,,, things just don't "click!"

 

[reuben_j_cogburn]

not sure if it counts but I was running my atv and trailer with freight up to the cabin, when ol trigger quit.. I looked in the tank but the saddle tank only lets me see about half way down.... jumping to the conclusion I was out of gas (had none extra on that trip.). I loaded up a heavy pack (no empty trips), and hiked the last mile and a half to the cabin.. I grabbed a gallon of gas and hiked back.. the very first thing I saw when I got back to my atv was that the kill switch had gotten bumped...

 

[coachk64]

not sure if it counts

Oh, I think that counts.

 

[Johnnu2]

Don't ya just HATE when that sit happens....???

J.

 

[SamV]

Sadly, I can tell several similar stories.

 

[Fox Mike]

Stuff happens. My sis-in-law was visiting our Cape Cod house and told me that when I next came up to look at the light timer in the living room and the photo cell back door light that wasn't working. I arrived, looked at each,. replaced the burnt out light bulbs and never told her.

 

[Richbaker]

My favorite story of overthinking something.
Was riding my Honda Goldwing and I was pulling up to a stoplight with one hand busy with the radio controls, while a car to my right suddenly ducked in front of me so I swerved and hit a pothole at the same time. This put the handlebars into an oscillating condition and they started whipping back and forth until I could get my right hand back on the grip and settle it down. Well the engine died immediately and wouldn't start back up, no matter how long I cranked it. I figured all the vibrating knocked something loose so I ended up pushing through a busy intersection into a parking lot and called my wife to bring the trailer. Paid some passing teenager a ten-spot to help me get the bike on the trailer, took it home and started taking it apart to see if there was at least spark. Turns out there wasn't, so went in to have dinner and think about it.
About half-way through dinner had a sudden epiphany, went out, put the kill switch back into the run position and of course the bike started right up. Must have accidentally hit it when grabbing at the oscillating handle bars and turned it from "Run" to "Off". Like every other biker I know, I never use that switch, turning the bike on and off with the key, so never thought about it. I've thought about little else since.

My '14 Yam FZ09 has the kill switch built in to the start switch. Gotta pull it down to start, push up to kill. Can't leave it in kill.....

 

[gnappi]

A few years back I bought a batch of LED "dusk to dawn" bulbs that work "brilliantly". I have them is the back and side yards so it's always lit there at night.

 

[blume357]

Just for kicks because I like doing this about as much as the silly electrical upgrade I did:
Here is a picture with notations showing the electrical for these two lights and plugs.

 

[coach]

Or the time I started taking my chainsaw apart to see why it wouldn’t run only to realize at some point even though it appeared to have gas in the tank there wasn’t enough to get sucked up to the engine. Electrical things can be hard to spot sometimes.

 

[gnappi]

I like simple and have gone by what Scotty says on Star Trek since I heard it...

"The more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain"

 

[Mitch47]

I think it was in Maryland about 1970 or so. My friend and I went to get our motorcycle license. Passed the written part with no problem but when I went out with the testing officer the old BSA wouldn't start. Kicked it until I was blue in the face & finally borrowed my friends Harley. Passed that bit too, and when I got back to my bike I saw that the fuel was shutoff.

Sigh!

 

[el caminero]

Many times elbow deep into something that didn't work only to find the most simple fix in plain sight.
Been there, done that.

Back when dad ran an electrical shop, he said his best fix was first checking the plug and socket, they were usually loose...

 

[el caminero]

I think it was in Maryland about 1970 or so. My friend and I went to get our motorcycle license. Passed the written part with no problem but when I went out with the testing officer the old BSA wouldn't start. Kicked it until I was blue in the face & finally borrowed my friends Harley. Passed that bit too, and when I got back to my bike I saw that the fuel was shutoff.

Sigh!

My brother bought a new fuel selector for his old H.P. kz and was having problems with it. Run a couple then shut down, he would wait for the suspected electricals to cool down. We realised at the same time, the last time he coasted to a stop and put it on the kickstand, and we heard the fuel slosh from the right half to the left side, and i said try it again just as he put boot to the kicker. Started right up. The fuel selector valve was wrong. Put it on fuel, it had been on reserve, and ran it the coupla miles home, no problem. Turns out somebody had got the wrong petcock at some point, and reserve was opposite where it had been on the (original?) one. And the crossover pipe had swelled itself shut. Cant trust some o.t.c. sales at cheap autoparts stores...

 

[blume357]

Well I got it all put together yesterday and I have to say getting the wires and timers packed into those two boxes was a real pain. I'm sure the number of wires exceeds code even though I did not check. (Yep, for those that don't know it there is a limit to the number of wires that can go in a box depending on its size... I think that number is imprinted on the box in iddy biddy lettering somewhere. But also I'm nothing close to a licensed electrician...

I just went out this morning in the dark and I really don't like the flag spot light.... too much light spilling out into the street... I'm going to have to rethink it.