Touch Dimmer

[fattony]

I bought one similar to this about 3 months ago:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/4-x-DESIGNER-...hash=item330255612235&_trksid=p3286.m14.l1318

Unfortunately the other day the lights started to flicker and wouldn't switch off, despite emailing the sell I've had no response I didnt overload the switch and would like to actually keep it, its quite funky!

Do you think you could replace the dimmer control? I dont really want to buy a dimmer every 3 months [/url]

 

[RF Lighting]

We seem to be getting a question a week about these switches.

I think it is just down to poor build quality.

You might find that replacing the triac might fix it, but it might not.

I'm not your man to advise where to find it or how to replace it though.

 

[breezer]

maplin sell triacs, but i bet its not that.

a triac switches on and off, so if the light flickers the triac is working, its just being told to switch off at the wrong time

although they should be easy to replace

 

[fattony]

such a frequent question, have to say they're fairly cheap for what they are so build quality could be the problem

 

[tim west]

A triac is basically two thyristors back to back one thyristor fires or is triggered during the positive cycle of the mains sine wave and the other one during the negative cycle, a common fault of flickering/permanently on as described is when one half of the triac shorts it runs permanently (halfwave) on with the lamp flickering as the other half of the triac continues to work allowing the filament to get hotter on the other half of the cycle.
Therefore the lamp gets to full brightness as set by the control but never goes below half wave.

 

[mikeyd]

you could swap it for one of these varilight dimmers and draw some funky lines on the front.

Do you think you could replace the dimmer control?

You probably could butcher the internals out of a different make (not the one in my link as it has a remote sensor in it) and fit it behind your face plate but would you want to risk it, it wouldn't look good if your insurance company found it after a fire, even if it didn't cause it.