Thanks. Just what I was thinking. The new 20w. halogen bulb alone is 0.9
average. The resistance on the ground side is 1.5 ohms. The ground side got
interesting today, I had the terminal strip unhooked to do these tests when
Haggy went to take a shower and there was no water. Why do they use only
one ground circuit for the whole boat? Well I hooked back up... ah marital
bliss restored!

The positive side gives me 255K ohms! I guess we know where the problem is.
Too bad the wires are forever berried in epoxy. I have the saw out. Stay
tuned.

Mr. H.


"Magnum" wrote:

Measure the resistance of the bulb alone. Then measure the resistance of
the
wires with the bulb in the socket from the circuit breaker or power
connection. If the bulb is, for instance, 12 watts, it draws 1 ampere. If
the wire resistance is 5 ohms in addition to the bulb resistance, you're
looking at a five volt drop in the wires, which is almost the power of the
bulb.

Report the resistances of the wires back to me and I'll walk you through
this.

Magnum

"Seahag" wrote:
So the aft-most two dome lights (12 volt) on a 4 light circuit have been
giving me the blues for a month or so. Intermittant most of the time
but
now dead, sort of... Bill replaced the switch on one and they both
worked
until he left town...After another day of meters and torn up galley
seems
he's getting 13 volts through the wires but it won't light the
bulb...He's
thinking there is some sort of resistance somewhere. Any ideas?
Experience? Jokes?? The Taiwanese in their infinite wisdumb epoxied
the
wires into the deck beams and cabin sides!!!

Seahag
(Dinner's on before dark!)