www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

Can anybody advise about this please?

Having removed a light from my kid’s bedroom, I’ve been presented with this mass of wire; there are three grey cables. One has two red wires, the other two have one black/one red in each. There is also a wire common to all three which has been sleeved as Earth.

It’s on a simple single on/off switch in a child’s bedroom. I wired up the new light in what I thought was exactly the same manner but I must have screwed up somewhere as now neither the old nor the new light work. The new light has a simple box with L/E/N on it.

Any help as how to wire the damn thing would be very welcome. TIA.


Rattle

any photos
One the switch , can you remove and photograph - I suspect the Grey Outer with 2 reds , runs from the switch - so Live to switch and then live return back to the light
so that RED would be on its own and connected to the light , the other RED would go to the REDS - One would be Live Feed in and a live feed out to another room/light
Then the 2 blacks should be Neutral - BUT cannot be sure, as often the black maybe used as a live return.

So before on the light , did you have a block/connector / ceiling rose
3 reds all connected together
2 Blacks all connected together
1 red on its own
3 Earth leads

Then the light would be connected to Black, the red on its own and earth

BUT any photos or more info would be useful before carrying on , photo of the switch connections, and a if you took one a photo before disconnecting or a photo of old light and connectors
Always isolate the power before working on

see the diagram here
http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/how-t ... g-diagrams

I can't get the sodding photo to upload, sorry.

When i removed the old light, three of the reds were in a block together, as were the two blacks. The remaining red was to the live.

Or so I thought. After the new unit wouldn't work, i replaced the old one with the wiring as above. Nothing.

The switch is earthed into the recess and with one red to the top and one the base of the connector. I know it was working before I removed the light as the light wasn't faulty, it's just being changed for cosmetic reasons.

rattlehead wrote: ↑Wed Mar 17, 2021 6:40 pmI can't get the sodding photo to upload, sorry.

That's probably because it is too big. My signature has instructions of how to re-size your picture.

Wayne gave you good advice, you can wait for him all well and good and S-E is an expert in these matters..
If you have two reds at the switch then likely these are the two reds in the one grey cable and reference to his link and the 1st schematic, these are your com and L1 from the switch.
One red from the switch joins the other two reds, the other red is to your light fitting L. The two blacks together and join the fitting N. Earths together with fitting E.

Thanks for the helpful guidance and the wiring diagrams guys, all sorted.

Not so keen on the snarky comment about multimeters when all I was doing is politely asking for a bit of help. But I guess every forum has its resident bellend.

Cheers.

rattlehead, If you are referring to this

Are you going to be working on anything electrical? have you got a multi meter? why not? Would you hit a nail with a shoe because you don't have a hammer? From Someone Else, then it's not aimed at you specifically, it's part of his signature and appears on all of his posts.