Getting a little concerned

[Danny]

I am not quite sure whats going on here but within the past year, both of my lanterns outside the 55w sox and the 70w son have both blown 2 photocells each. The photocells have been sent day burning each time. First of all i had a SELC 8480 20 lux photocell on my MI36 55w SOX lantern, that was brand new and went day burning just a few months later. Then i put a Monostar 2000 70 lux photocell on it and that went day burning after a few months as well. Thats now fitted with an S300 and has been ok so far.

Now onto my SON beta 79 on the front, first of all a night star failed on that and went day burning, i swapped that for a SELC part night that i pulled out as it didnt work one night, so i replaced that with a Thermal P3 photocell. That has failed this morning also and has gone day burning! I had a look inside and the detector LDR has burnt out? WTF?

[FrontSideBus]

What's your average voltage? I doubt that would be the problem though, they would build them to be fairly robust.

[Danny]

Average i think is around 247v. Just tested the thermal one now and its ok. Odd

[AngryHorse]

Are all these cells your using what you get from the lighting crews?, they may have been removed for a reason?

[Slyspark]

As above, plus, with the general quality (or lack of) with most things these days, might just be bad luck!

[Danny]

Some have been off the crews but most ive used have been removed perfectly working from the led downgrades

[AngryHorse]

How are your cells behaving today Dan?

[Danny]

They are fine now rich. The MI36 has a 20 lux green SS6 the Beta79 has a Monostar 2000 thats been on it nearly 3 years and is still ok, the sign light has a 55lux 20mm SS6 thats also been fine and the 18w bulkhead has a Microstar 2000 photocell since it went up in 2015 and has been fine. I guess i was prpbably just unlucky with the cells i was using

The most strange one was when me and kev both had the same 20 lux SELC8480s in use he had his on the Tempo and i had mine on the MI36 that was really odd because on the same day both mine and his failed i remember kev ringing me saying his 8480 had failed and me replying with, yes so has mine!

[AngryHorse]

Did you ever consider having just one cell and a contactor combination to run all the outside lighting?, this is how my four run, (but with a Sangamo), instead of a cell, it’s just two parts to look after then?

[Danny]

Nah ive always loved my photocells. Never been too keen on timeocks lol