Old lamps may be turned into hardwired light fixtures. There are three reasons a light fixture may have two wires that aren't color coded. The first is that it comes from a country that doesn't follow the same electrical conventions as the United States and the second is that it is an antique. A third may be that someone converted a lamp into a hardwired fixture. In all cases, you have to determine which of the wires are hot and neutral to wire it safely. You may find some clues on the wires, but if not, you can do a simple test. If they are made of opaque plastic and you feel a texture on one of them while the other is smooth, the textured side is neutral. You may see a stripe on one of the wires. If so, that wire is neutral. If the plastic is clear, the wires in the neutral side are silver while those in the hot side are copper. After determining the polarity, connect the hot wire to the black circuit wire and the neutral wire to the white circuit wire. Turn off the power to the circuit by shutting off the appropriate breaker in the home's service panel (breaker box).

Confirm that the power is off by testing the circuit wires with a non-contact voltage tester. chandelier cleveland playhouseHook up the fixture temporarily without mounting it to do a live test to determine wire polarity if there are no markings. chandelier main attrakionzConnect one of the fixture wires to the black (hot) circuit wire and the other fixture wire to the white (neutral) circuit wire, using wire nuts. chandelier pokemon smogonTouch one probe of a voltmeter to the top of the bulb socket sleeve (not the small metal tab inside the socket) and the other probe to the circuit ground wire and have a helper turn on the power at the service panel. If the meter indicates positive voltage, the wires are reversed. The socket should remain neutral when the power is on and the meter should read "0."

Note: Do not touch any part of the socket with your body during this test, as there is a risk of electrical shock. Turn off the power again and test with the circuit tester to confirm it is off. Wire the fixture according to the results of your test, joining the neutral fixture wire to the white (neutral) circuit wire and joining the hot fixture wire to the black (hot) circuit wire. Secure each wire pair with a wire nut. Connect the circuit ground wire to the grounding pin in the fixture. If there isn't one, drill a 3/16-inch hole in the base and screw in a ground screw, available at any hardware store. Connect the ground wire to the ground screw. Screw an adapter, or crossbar, onto the electric box. If you don't have one, you can use a universal crossbar, available at hardware stores. Screw the fixture to the crossbar with 3/16-inch machine screws. Things You Will Need Pliers Non-contact voltage tester Voltmeter or multimeter Wire nuts Drill 3/16-inch drill bit Ground screw Crossbar 3/16-inch machine screws Tip References Principles of Home Inspection - Electrical Systems: Why Does Polarity Matter?

The Family Handyman: Fix a Lamp Cord Photo Credits Comstock Images/Comstock/Getty Images Suggest a CorrectionNature Reviews Neuroscience 11, 552-562 (August 2010) | doi:10.1038/nrn2852The axon initial segment and the maintenance of neuronal polarity Ion channel clustering at the axon initial segment (AIS) and nodes of Ranvier has been suggested to be a key evolutionary innovation that enabled the development of the complex vertebrate nervous system. This innovation epitomizes a signature feature of neurons, namely polarity. The mechanisms that establish neuronal polarity, channel clustering and axon–dendrite identity during development are becoming clearer. However, much less is known about how polarity is maintained throughout life. Here, I review the role of the AIS in the development and maintenance of neuronal polarity and discuss how disrupted polarity may be a common component of many diseases and injuries that affect the nervous system.We’ve been meaning to get around to this one for many weeks now.

It’s been hard to find good fail write-ups… it’s as if hackers are afraid to admit that sometimes projects fail. We hope you’ll shake off that opinion as failure is the fastest path for learning and true understanding! [xymax] was working on a control system for a chandelier with 150 bulbs which use 5 Watts each. This project was being readied for the NYC Resistor Interactive Party which [Adam Fabio] attended last month. As deadline for the show approached, the last piece was put in place late into the night… but it was connected backwards. In a tale worthy of a slapstick movie, the reverse polarity caused a chip on all seven controller boards for this module to blow like the one seen above. But that’s not all, the laptop being used during prototyping was connected by USB and started smoking! All of us feel the pain of this type of equipment failure. Luckily [xymax] looked for lessons to learn instead of dwelling on the mistake itself. Use protection diodes, keyed connectors, and write about your failures.

Hopefully reading this will help others avoid a similar equipment-destroying mistake. Fail of the Week is a Hackaday column which runs every Thursday. Help keep the fun rolling by writing about your past failures and sending us a link to the story — or sending in links to fail write ups you find in your Internet travels.Check out the gaming table which drops from the ceiling. [Michail] doesn’t mess around when it comes to lighting. He built this 100,000 Lumen chandelier to make sure his office is bright during the dreary months. The thought is that it will provide the health benefits of long sunny day. It has been hanging for about a year now, and he slowly came to the realization that it’s several times too bright for indoor use. We know where he’s coming from though. When it’s dark at 5 pm we want it to be plenty bright inside. He started with an incandescent bulb, then moved through compact fluorescent and halogen bulbs before deciding to undertake the build.

What you see above are 150W Metal Halide lamps.  There is some danger to using these without an enclosure. They do emit some UV light and they can explode. So whenever you buy a fixture that uses them there’s a sheet of filtering safety glass sealing up the enclosed sockets. [Michail] decided not to bother with this safety feature, instead depending on the benefits of an electronic ballast. He says these reduce the chances of an explosion sending scorching hot glass shrapnel your way. As we mentioned earlier, his conclusion is that just one of these bulbs is enough to illuminate his small office. We understand where [Craig] is coming from, leaving no stone unturned when looking for new electronic projects to occupy his time. He tried to convince his wife that they needed a light show to accompany dinner, and while she was skeptical he went ahead and built this remote control RGB chandelier anyway. He recently purchased fifteen feet of RGB LED strip and has since been trying to use it in his projects.

What’s interesting is that he didn’t make direct use of the strip. Just 10 of the LED packages were used. He desoldered and extended each wire leads and used one of the driver chips to address them all. The main body of the light fixture is a triangle, and out of each side two test tubes host one LED each. To diffuse the light [Craig] mixed up some resin and laced it with glitter. Once hardened the resin holds the LEDs firmly in place. The glass shade in the center of the fixture hides four more LEDs. [Craig] uses a remote control from a Roku box to control the chandelier. An IR receiver is monitored by an Arduino which drives the LEDs accordingly. After the break you can see a demonstration of the completed project. Unfortunately it doesn’t provide as much light as they need. We’d suggest an upgrade along these lines. This chandelier keeps the light source hidden and uses fiber optics to illuminate the acrylic diffusers. It’s the second attempt [TheCreator] has made at building his own.

Bother projects are interesting in their own way. The first attempt used marbles as diffusers and had a much different look to it. This time around he’s using what he calls acrylic dowels. They’re not round, but square (which is why we’re not sure dowel is the right term), and he says they work better than marbles for several reasons. The marbles weren’t very heavy so they didn’t really weigh down the glass fibers to keep then straight. They were also difficult to attach to the fibers and prone to breakage. To attach the dowels he drilled a hole in the end and epoxied a fiber optic strand in place. To direct light into the other end of the filament he built his own frustum (a pyramid with the tip cut off) of inward facing mirror. This helps to focus what is coming from the RGB LEDs in the appropriate direction so that as much light as possible makes it into the fibers. He didn’t really give any final thoughts so we wonder if it puts out enough light for his needs.

We’re sure that if it’s purely a mood piece he’s satisfied. This chandelier is something we’d expect to see on sale in the local gallery store. [Starkec] made it a couple of years back and we just love the look. The materials are pretty common, and you can throw it together in an afternoon. The diffuser are made from clear glass soda bottles. After removing the labels and giving them a good cleaning, they were each set upside down and sprayed with some glass frosting spray. A four-conductor telephone wire serves both as the support for the bottle and electrical path for the RGB LED inside of each. The original screw cap for the bottles makes it a twist to install them after the soldering is done. There are two common color buses so that alternating colors can be shown at the same time. After seeing the video we think you’ll agree that the wiring scheme makes for some great animated effects.Decided that his living room could use some more light, or at least some more colourful light.