My daughter's SAD light wasn't working. (Seasonal Affectiveness Disorder light thing) She asked me to fix it. Looked like a power connection, so I found another transformer with the same ratings and spliced her connector to it, and it still didn't work. It would work if I wiggled it and put pressure on it just right, but no consistency.
Played with a few different transformers and power connectors that I dug up from the basement, took the light apart to see if I could replace the power connector easily, (NOT!), and then spent about an hour with a paper clip, flashlight, and microdrivers trying to get the damned innards of the connector working...all to fail.
Finally I routed the wire THROUGH the light forcing tension on the cable figuring that would make it work and keep it in place, but when trying to tighten it I shorted some wires and fried a transformer..so I gave up that approach.
I was getting REALLY aggravated since it's a $70 light and I really didn't want to buy another one, so I found a connector end that would reliably power it if held at a certain angle and tension and then just planted a self-tapping screw in the plastic housing and tied a zip tie around the power cable to the screw and tightened the hell out of it.
Now it works just spiffy.
But, as is traditional with my panicked fixes, it is UGLY! I'm not proud of the aesthetics, but the results make me happy as hell.
Played with a few different transformers and power connectors that I dug up from the basement, took the light apart to see if I could replace the power connector easily, (NOT!), and then spent about an hour with a paper clip, flashlight, and microdrivers trying to get the damned innards of the connector working...all to fail.
Finally I routed the wire THROUGH the light forcing tension on the cable figuring that would make it work and keep it in place, but when trying to tighten it I shorted some wires and fried a transformer..so I gave up that approach.
I was getting REALLY aggravated since it's a $70 light and I really didn't want to buy another one, so I found a connector end that would reliably power it if held at a certain angle and tension and then just planted a self-tapping screw in the plastic housing and tied a zip tie around the power cable to the screw and tightened the hell out of it.
Now it works just spiffy.
But, as is traditional with my panicked fixes, it is UGLY! I'm not proud of the aesthetics, but the results make me happy as hell.