Whirlwind
Williams, 1990I'm trying to tie in two #44 bayonet lamps to the fan motor so they turn on only when the fan comes on. I wired them in parallel and
the lamps get too hot and burn up. So obviously this is not the way to go. I tried putting them in series and get no voltage. The
fan puts out 29vac when measured with a meter. The LED lamps are rated for 13vac. Can someone advise by looking at the diagram as
to what I'm doing wrong?
That is wired in parallel, you are giving them 29vac.
Regardless, parallel or series you can't drop voltage like that lamps are like very small resistors. What you need to do is step the voltage down with a small transformer, or use a separate voltage source and a relay to turn them on and off.
would a relay between the 29vac fan terminals and #1 and #2 lugs work? I tried series wiring and get no lights at all. I'm thinking of hooking
up an ac to dc step down transformer and putting in 12vdc LED's instead. Seems like a better option. Any other thoughts? Anyone else
have success wiring lights to the fan lugs? Pics post perhaps?
I'm thinking that 28v bulbs won't work either. Adding two bayonet sockets with two 13vac bulbs doesn't work. The voltage is not off by
much and shouldn't make a difference. I think I'm going to head the route of the ac to dc transformer. Seems like my safest bet and
just buy 12vdc bulbs.
But 13v bulbs are less than half of what you are pushing. That means you are pushing twice as much voltage as they are rated for. I've blown 6v bulbs when my light socket shorted to 12v before. It's not that crazy. And they only cost $1. Id say it's worth a shot.
Even when you wire bulbs in series you are not dropping voltage that much (if at all) due to the low resistance of the bulbs. You'd also have to add a fairly beefy resistor in that line. But a transformer would be best, OR, what does WW use to enable that fan? There must be a relay of transformer already in the game. Just use the input to it to run the bulbs or to run a second relay in parallel to run the bulbs.
Safest bet is a relay. You can trip a 5vdc relay coil from pin 6 J3 of the triac board, and depending on the rating of the relays switched terminals, run just about anything you want. I'd just take 12VDC from the power supply and use some 12VDC bulbs.
The only thing is that I only want the two lamps to kick on only when the fan blades spin. That's why I'm hooking into the lugs at the
base of the fan.
I grabbed a 28v led and slapped it in my whirlwind wind quick with some alligator clips. Worked perfectly. When the fan turned on the led turned on. For fun I tried a 6v led and after about 20 seconds the led fell apart because it melted the solder right off.
Cointaker.com sells them for $1.59
http://cointaker.com/products/37544471-b113-419c-8897-cab636ad6b8a
And Thanks for the idea. I'm going to light up my cloud now 
Ok.. Here's what I did. I ordered 4 x 28vac bulbs. Should be here shortly. I wired 4 x #44 bayonet sockets parallel. The beginning of the
strip has the black/red alligator clips for the fan terminals. I'll put the bulbs in when they arrive this week and report back as to if it will work or not. But, looks pretty good.
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Woodcliff Lake, NJ
leaf blower motor mod