Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!bloom-beacon!usc!bbn!news
From: news@bbn.COM (News system owner ID)
Newsgroups: sci.electronics
Subject: Mechanical Light Timer Problem
Message-ID: <40651@bbn.COM>
Date: 30 May 89 21:22:41 GMT
Reply-To: gonzalez@vax.bbn.com (Jim Gonzalez)
Distribution: na
Organization: Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., Cambridge MA
Lines: 30
To: gonzalez

For several years, I have been using a mechanical timer from Sears 
to control a table lamp.  This has allowed me to have lighting when 
I come home without operating the light all day. 
From: gonzalez@bbn.com (Jim Gonzalez)
Path: bbn.com!gonzalez

About a year ago, a lamp I had attached to the timer failed.  It 
would not supply power to the bulb, even when plugged directly into 
a wall outlet.  I gave up on it, figuring it was a cheap lamp.

The lamp I bought to take its place has just failed.  The switch on 
the socket now requires jiggling to get it to throw, and there is 
crackling in the housing once it is on.  The timer is rated for 15A 
load.  The lamps were both simple incandescents.  Lamp failure in
both cases was followed a string of short-lived bulbs (GE Watt Miser
70 and 90-watt bulbs in 100-watt fixtures).  Switches for each were
socket-mounted.

Is it possible that the mechanical timer is causing damage to the
lamp switches?  Could a bouncy timer switch generate impulses that
would damage the contacts in the lamp switch?  Has anyone else had
this problem?

				-Jim.

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Jim Gonzalez				AT&T: 617-873-2937
BBN Systems and Technologies Corp. 	ARPA: gonzalez@bbn.com
Cambridge, Massachusetts		UUCP: ...seismo!bbn!gonzalez
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