Thread: 'New'? 10amp 240v remote switch

Need more info - haven't heard about these before, but it sounds intriguing.

Especially since I just hung 10 double fluoro tube fittings in the shed not 30 minutes ago, and each has a 10A plug at the end. Remote control switching



Need link and/or image and/or price! (Searching Jaycar didn't show find anything that made sense to me.... although it is 1:30am...)

www.jaycar.com.au/flyers.asp

Unfortunately the house boy (me) put the boxes and old flyer in the recycling, which went out Wednesday night.

A wander thru' the web site shows a the code: MS6130. The blurb is still wrong in a number of items - 1000w instead of 10A and 'only' 4 outlets instead of 16.

Where do you get pre-wired twin tube flouro's? I've only been able to find single tube ones, and the local Bunnies have stopped carrying them.

As a matter of coincidence, I decided to check it out today and dropped into Jaycar for a look.

Got to see the units etc, and was thinking through how they might help, and decided it was the way to go. Saw the hardwired versions as well, but the standard ones were definitely the solution I needed.

Had the boxes in hand at the checkout, but there was a long queue, and the counter staff were being very slow, and I had time to start second guessing myself. Decided I didn't need them there and then. Wasn't sure if they were the ones being talked about here anyway (seemed..I dunno....plastic-ee) The base unit in the store I went to was something like $40 for the remote plus one unit, and each additional switch was $25.

So I put them all down, and decided to see what Dick Smith's equivalent was.

Turns out their base (1 remote + 1 switch) was $20, and each additional switch was $10. The remote controls 5 units rather than 4, but cannot be set for the 16 or so that the Jaycar one can. I only needed 5 circuits, so I was wrapped!!!!

So thanks heaps bsrlee, this wouldn't have even occurred to me if you hadn't mentioned it - it has saved a lot of hassles, and wires (and switches etc)

So what I am going to do is -

switch 1 - left set of 4 banks of tubes
switch 2 - middle set of 2 banks of tubes
switch 3 - right set of 4 banks of tubes
switch 4 - not decided yet - either outside light or dust filter unit or something
switch 5 - dusty

Means I can switch the dusty on and off remotely as required, and the banks of lights as needed as well. Way cool!!!!


(Left hand set of 4 banks of tubes (8 tubes in total)

They were being discarded from a building that was being upgraded to a more energy optimised type of fitting - light sensing type. So these were getting tossed - 3 years old, immaculate condition, prewired (3 pin plug), with tubes and everything.

I love the green movement - they throw these things away - how much power is needed to be saved by the new set before they even recoup the energy and resources that went into making this set? It looks good on the company's green balance sheet, and cost the country (or the planet depending on where they were made) a stack of extra resources overall. The planet's loss, my shed's gain!!!

I had a look at the spec sheet in the box of that Jaycar unit and it showed these maximum loads (from memory):
2000w lighting and heating
500w audio
1/10 Hp fan.

In other words, near useless for motor starting, so I passed.

That would explain why I had......uh.....problems starting the dusty. It says (on the units I'm using) max 1000W (the Jaycar's are rated higher so that'd explain a lot of the price difference), and my dusty is only 750W (yeah - p*ss weak), but it still couldn't manage.

Works GREAT on the lights which is what I primarily intended for it.

Please don't use these on any cutting tools ... I've had false ons and offs with mine (not used anywhere near my workshop) and I hate to think what might happen if connected to a router, circular saw, etc.

750w dusty would have a starting current of around 5x so 3750w if not loaded - since a fan is attached the start load is probably higher.

Probably explains why it suddenly stopped working!!!

I'll reserve them for my light circuits

The high startup peak current of many of the machines we use can quickly arc burning the relay contacts in these sort of units causing them to stick on even if it says that its rated for X watts.