Electrical product advice needed

[A_Camera]

Here's some pics of the lamp base. Don't forget that is only a prototype to test the idea out, nowhere near a finished product, so if you see anything that needs to be changed, please say.

My desk isn't normally like that, I tidied it up to get some space to take the photos



Having looked through the photos, I can see one thing that needs attention - the mains wires input to the driver !

Cheers,

Rob

Why don't you show this to a local, CERTIFIED electrician and ask his/her opinion? It may cost £100-150 if you want a written report also, but can't be that expensive if you only wants an opinion. Anyway, it is money well worth spending if you have this as a serious business idea.

[cropwell]

Why don't you show this to a local, CERTIFIED electrician and ask his/her opinion? It may cost £100-150 if you want a written report also, but can't be that expensive if you only wants an opinion. Anyway, it is money well worth spending if you have this as a serious business idea.

Most Part P sparkies are not only CERTIFIED but CERTIFIABLE. To get any valuable advice or opinion, I would have to go to the IEEE to find a suitable Electrical Engineer. The most sensible testing, at this stage, is PAT*, coupled with common safety sense. We know from experience in this forum, that errord are easily made, and often missed in review. It is like having a document proof read, you probably won't spot your own mistakes, but someone else sees them immediately because they go in with a different mindset.

If the idea of an underneath lit glass sculpture has any artistic appeal and serious commercial possibility, then we will go the whole hog with a CE driver and integral switched mains cable and a plug suitable for the destination country, and go for the IEEE cert, but that costs mega bucks.

Cheers,

Rob




* which we need to have done anyway, as the exhibitions won't accept anything plugged in, without a green sticker.

++ did you spot it ?

[A_Camera]

Post removed.

[Clive S]

The reason I am saying it is that I can see several very basic mistakes in your design, which are pretty simple to to fix, but are very important from the safety perspective. I think that what you may regard "common safety sense" is not the same as what a qualified person would, and it is always a good idea to ask for their opinion.

If you can see them would it not be nice if you stated what they are as that would be more helpful.

[cropwell]

Let me give you an idea of what we are doing.

Stuart Akroyd http://www.stuartakroydglass.com/ is a good friend who asked me to develop an idea for lighting a sculpture piece he does. For the moment, we are making about 6 for show at an exhibition and the piece will be offered for sale if enough interest is shown, when the electrics are fully done and tested.

It will be a limited edition, so no production run of 1,000's and no big budget for production testing. We will be switching on and leaving it on until we get to a steady state temperature and we will be testing it in a kiln to see how it copes with ambient temperatures up to 60deg C. We are currently testing a piece to see if the resin that embeds the glass into the base deteriorates or softens at temperature and currently we are at 70deg C with no problem.

Just to put perspective on things.

Rob

[A_Camera]

I removed my post.

[cropwell]

Yes, I take on board these comments. First of all the cover was 3D printed to give a pattern for casting in bronze, which the one in the photo is. Secondly the fuse/connector block fixing screw acts as an earth point as the earth wire from the driver cable is connected to it. In fact, the earth wire connected to the driver fixing is redundant. The driver itself is two-wire and thus I presume, double insulated. Finally, the cable is a prewired one with one end stripped and crimped and a moulded on plug and switch, which I did not want to remake, but I understand your concern.

[cropwell]

Hi,
We have done some testing on the unit now and it is not good. The driver gets too hot. The steady state temperature is reached after 45 minutes and is 50 deg C on the top of the casting above the driver. The baseplate is too hot to touch. Even if the unit remains electrically stable, at that temperature it would damage the furniture it is on. The two units we have tested give similar results.

Clive - your suggestion of a wall wart or separate power supply like this one http://www.ultraleds.co.uk/white-60w...ed-driver.html is looking the most sensible way forward and I will be talking to ultraleds on Monday.

Cheers

R

[magicniner]

certified

A certified UK Electrician was surprised to find an IP56 RCD socket under my kitchen sink, he said "We just fit ordinary sockets under sinks"

Certified Electricians here are not taught to think logically or apply reason or spot issues not covered specifically in their training or manuals, if you happen to find one who is particularly intelligent that's great but is is not a requirement for certification ;-)

[cropwell]

Certified Electricians here are not taught to think logically or apply reason or spot issues not covered specifically in their training or manuals, if you happen to find one who is particularly intelligent that's great but is is not a requirement for certification ;-)

I think that Part P (domestic) Certification covers two topics 1. Not burning the house down and 2. Not electrocuting anybody.

Generally there is a two day course and a 20 question exam (with course books allowed).

It is about on the level of - Do No Harm and don't drag your knuckles when you walk.

R