Fault - the smell is like an old "cap" gun

[marconi]

A thought - look for signs of green verdigris on bare copper sheathed MICC caused by dampness and made worse by the combination of damp and lime cement. The outer copper sheath may have split/have holes in it leading to the magnesium oxide absorbing moisture - and then the occurrence of some 'low level' arcing and tracking when the cable is energised. The same thing can sometimes happen if bare copper MICC is in contact with damp wood - most wood is naturally acidic.

 

[Spoon]

After viewing several posters in different threads, I think we need a "miserable git" button.

Noooooo... Not a good idea. I'd get that all the time...

 

[Squid]

...Which ironically,is what my missus calls my parts...

We don't need to now about your sex life on here, cheers........

 

[Squid]

Leave it a month then do a quote for a full rewire once the house burns down.........

 

[Octopus]

Thanks for the varied and interesting off topic responses ..

This was the culprit!

 

[marconi]

Nice to get some closure on a problem and it reported back to the EF. How did you find it and do you know what was wrong with the lamp?

 

[Octopus]

Nice to get some closure on a problem and it reported back to the EF. How did you find it and do you know what was wrong with the lamp?

To locate it I used my basic fault finding skills - and in the daylight, one of the tracking light holders had a a "different" smell anddark mark around the inside ... so I started to look at the GU10 LED's more closely which I had removed - and smelling them too!

All I can say is that the GU10 LED doesn't work any more ...

An interesting fault to locate and learn from .........

 

[Rpa07]

The new fault finding method of ‘scratch and sniff’ - nice catch Murdoch!

 

[multimick]

had exactly the same thing in my office 2 megaman modo gu10's blew within an hour of each other ,same smell

 

[electric al]

what about the cap gun ?

 

[Darkwood]

The cap gun smell, pardon my age is common to the older gen' it is often associated with overheated contactors made from bakelite but we of course have moved on from this to plastics but the actual smell can be caused by carbonisation caused by arcing and tracking and can effect different materials yet smell the same, plastics don't give the same smell but electronic components can still give that familiar smell when they commit suicide.
There are a many examples to give out such a smell and many are common ones and I suspect an electronic component failed.

The fishy smell was mentioned and that is usually associated with the insulation coating on windings of motors, chokes, transformers etc if they overheat, it also common to see white smoke on these failures if you are there to witness them, this is a routine question I ask if an operator of a machine if they see smoke and says they could smell it.

 

[a-z electrics]

Is the light switch a trigger? That would be a clue

 

[Squid]

For the slow ones on here the issue has been resolved, I can imagine the emergency call outs "we'll be there in two weeks" oooh argh oooh argh as my cow is birthing.......... ;o))))) (wifey nickname) ;o)))))

 

[a-z electrics]

Yes actually the cap smell could ironically be to do with exploding capacitors too.. I now recall in my electronic industry days. The big ones don't half go with a bang too!

 

[suffolkspark]

Have you still got the gu10? Be good to have a photo of its giblets

 

[Octopus]

Have you still got the gu10? Be good to have a photo of its giblets

Sorry no .... left it with the client

 

[suffolkspark]

Sad times