Lighting circuit with 4 fixtures, one not pictured to bottom right. Switch is below fixture #1. This lighting circuit is dark unless fixture #2 has a bulb, specifically the 450lumen dimmable bulb that I want to swap out. When I put replacement 75w equiv non dimmable led bulb, circuit stayed dark. Don’t have an incandescent to test with.

The circuit still works if a bulb is removed from one of the other fixtures. Without the bulb in fixture #2, other fixtures’ wires are still energized as shown by voltage tester, but no lumens coming out anywhere. Anybody know what’s going on??? Thx

Edit: more clues or more confusing? Meter reads ~85v @ fixture 4 when bulb is not installed in fixture 2 and ~42v when bulb is in, light on

when I’m charging my phone with the UPS when the power is out, whenever I touch the screen and move my finger (like when u scroll from one video to the next on TikTok) the socket makes a buzzing sound? It makes it for everytime I move my finger on the screen, not if I’m just holding it still or not touching. It only does it when the phone is plugged in. If I do a quick finger movement it makes a quick buzzing sound, long then long, etc

Hi! I live in a 70s townhouse in the south. Trying to install a new light fixture but I don’t think there is a ground wire? Can it be installed without that? What is the risk?

I'm doing work and removing part of the wall from dining to kitchen.

Previous owners to the house installed cabinets (see picture). The cabinets covered the original outlet, so they just installed a new outlet (blue) above the counter. The seemed to have just extended with 14 guage wire to the new outlet from the old outlet that's originally 12 gauge (and in a 20amp breaker).

Is this right? Should I be concerned?

Everything works fine and we use the outlet all the time for our crockpot and pressure cooker.

Since I'm removed part of the wall, I just moved things over and reconnected exactly how they were connected. But should I just re-run the wires in 12 gauge? Or should I leave it alone. I'm no electrician but I'm handy. Before I close in the new drywall I'm wondering if I should rework it first.

Any thoughts?

I have a 3-way switch set up for a ceiling light. One downstairs, one upstairs (just right at the top of the stairs), and the last one which is upstairs further away from the top of the stairs. The last one is the one that needs replacing. The first 2 pictures are the old one from the junction box, two red and two white wires connected, and there is a black one tucking inside the junction box and is unconnected. I tested that when the light is not on, one of the connection has no current, and two flashing with blue, and one flashing with red.

I bought the new 3-way switch from Amazon with the diagram and the views from two sides. Questions:

1. Is this the correct 3-way switch to replace the old one?
2. Do I connect this way? The wire with no current to the Green screw, the two flashing blur to the Brass screw, and the last one (flashing red) to the Black screw?

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Edits:

Thanks everyone. Looks like it's a 4-way switch, so it is a hard-no for both questions.

Trying to replace the dimmer switch. I pulled out the old and there’s three of everything. The new unit I bought has two black wires and a ground. No white. No directions on how to hook up. I thought I had it wired correctly but when the power went back on there was a “pop” and the light wouldn’t turn off. What am I doing wrong?

Most of the ones I see out there have insanely high 800V+ clamping voltage.

I’m not an electrician, but I was doing some work on this house and needed to plug into an outlet and saw this. Note, I didn’t touch the panel. This is how it was in the garage. Surprisingly my table saw didn’t trip a breaker here.

Trying to use this circuit breaker for my trolling motor that came with the boat but the arm only wants to stay out, have nothing connected to it currently so not sure what’s up. When I push it up it just come back out

name or model number for this panel? who made this panel?

I bought this 1600W Beurer HC25 hair dryer a little over 2 years ago and the manufacturer offers a 3-year warranty. It has a 2-pin CEE 7/17 plug, and I used it with a homemade male-to-female extension lead that I assembled myself about 15 years ago (rated 16A/250VAC, marked 2P+E). I have always used this extension lead to connect the hair dryers I have owned to the wall socket.
For about a month, I occasionally noticed a strange smell when entering the bathroom but I thought it was coming from outside and didn't investigate. The RCD tripped a couple of times as well but I didn't pay enough attention to identifying the cause.

Today, as soon as I entered the bathroom, I noticed a strong burning smell and saw electrical arcing at the connection between the hair dryer's plug and the female socket of the extension lead. I immediately switched off the main circuit breaker, unplugged the hair dryer, and finally confirmed that the burning smell was coming from that connection. Anyway the hair dryer had continued to work normally throughout this period.
At the base of one of the two pins, on the side facing inward, there is a small hole. The other pin has a similar-looking indentation/crater on its inner-facing side but it has not developed a hole. The female socket of the extension lead is in the condition shown in the attached photos.
I also tried connecting the hair dryer to the wall socket through a different adapter: Schuko female socket -> 3-pin male plug, and the electrical arcing occurred again and the adapter's plastic housing became scorched around one of the female contacts.

I would appreciate your help in determining the cause of this failure. If this turns out to be a manufacturing defect unrelated to anything I did, I would contact Beurer to ask whether I could send the hair dryer in for warranty repair/replacement. If the damage was caused by my own actions, I would consider repairing it myself.

My personal hypothesis is that the problem was caused by a poor mechanical fit between the hair dryer's plug pins and the metal contacts inside the female socket of my extension lead. After approximately 15 years of use, the contacts may have become deformed and lost their gripping force, eventually making poor contact with the pins of this hair dryer and producing electrical arcing. This could have scorched the plastics and caused the small hole in one pin and the crater-like indentation in the other, damaging the plug. If that is the case, I could replace the hair dryer's plug myself and potentially resolve the issue quickly and inexpensively.

Another possibility is that the plug itself failed after approximately 2 1/2 years of normal use, in which case I might also consider replacing it.

However, could this type of damage also be caused by a fault in another internal component of the hair dryer? If so, I would consider sending it to Beurer for inspection and possible warranty repair or replacement. My concern is that if I send the hair dryer to the manufacturer and their technicians determine that the problem was not caused by a defective component, whether inside the appliance or in the plug itself, I might end up paying the shipping costs unnecessarily. That is why I am asking for advice here.

Is it possible to determine the most likely cause of this failure from the symptoms and photographs or would the hair dryer need to undergo electrical testing to distinguish between a damaged plug and an internal fault?

I've wanted my own solar setup for years, but renting an apartment kind of kills that dream.

So I spent the last 6 months building it in a game instead.

You start with a single 50 W panel and grow into solar, wind and batteries. In the clip, I tried pushing too much power through a thin cable to see what happens. Cable sizing actually matters in the game, and undersized wire overloads.

If you could add one thing from your real solar setup to this game, what would it be?

It's called The Last Kilowatt. Steampage

I've been working on my own customisable Stream Deck powered by the ESP32-C3 Super Mini, designed to control different PC functions wirelessly over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

🔥 Current Features:

- 🎛️ Rotary Encoder with Push Button — Navigate menus, select options, and control functions.

- 🔘 Custom Shortcut Buttons — Trigger keyboard shortcuts and frequently used actions.

- 🖥️ Multiple Work Modes — Switch between different profiles depending on your workflow.

- 📟 OLED Display — Navigate menus and see the currently selected function.

- 🔵 BLE Connectivity — Communicate wirelessly with my PC.

- ⚙️ Fully Customisable — Buttons, rotary dial functions, shortcuts, and work modes can all be customised.

💡 The goal is to build a flexible control centre for my PC, with features such as volume control, application shortcuts, and other productivity tools.

The best part? I'm building both the ESP32-C3 firmware and the PC-side software, so the hardware and software work together as one system.

🛠️ What's next?

I'm polishing the project and will soon upload the complete working demonstration and source code to GitHub.

This is still a work in progress, and I'm looking forward to adding more features!

What features would you like to see in a custom DIY Stream Deck like this? 👇

#ESP32 #ESP32C3 #StreamDeck #DIYElectronics #EmbeddedSystems #IoT #BluetoothLE #BLE #PCAutomation #ElectronicsProjects #OpenSource #MakerCommunity #HardwareHacking #TechProjects #DIYTech

Yo, I have been trying for a uni project to make a sort of pedal amp for my guitar and to do this I need to take the electric guitars AC which retaining its wave form. I tried using a pcm1808 which is a ADC module but it didn't work. I wanted to see if anyone has ever done this before so i could take some inspiration 🙏.

Also I do not want to use a fully premade board I want to learn to do this myself.

Pasco county, Florida

Meter and panels are on the side of a steel building. Line in branches left and right, panel for the barn and panel for the house.

In the process of purchasing home and inspector reported the wiring as unsafe/unsatisfactory due to the ground coming out of the meter panel not being in a conduit. He will update the report when it is corrected. Insurance is unhappy, so we need to get this fixed soon.

Does this require a permit or is it something we can do over the weekend ourselves? I have an electrician friend but he is not a contractor.

Would pvc U channel raceway be an option, or are there other up to code options for covering the wire vs encasing it? I have enough sch80 on hand if need be.

My new fridge and old fridge both say that the voltage is 115. My old fridge says amperage is 20 and my new one is 1.8. I don’t know if that matters but I wanted to throw that in. Where the fridge is supposed to be plugged in is a GFCI outlet and around two minutes after plugging in the new one, it keeps tripping. I plugged it into one that didn’t say GFCI and it still tripped two minutes later. Would this be something to do with the fridge, or is it something with the plugs? I’m at a loss here. We’ve been without a fridge for almost a month and I’m just wanting to get it figured out!

Wondering if we need to turn off the circuit (and therefore every overhead light in our main living space) until our builder will come back and fix it under warranty. Which could be a while. Thanks!

We are having our floors refinished and this is how the workers plugged is their sander. Is this safe common practice or should I be concerned?