Low Voltage Electrical Questions
 

My BIL wants to dim some landscape lighting. He purchased a low voltage dimmer and asked me to install it. While I have worked around both 110 and low voltage, I have never done this particular DIY job.

I could not make it work. I took out a simple on/off and wired this in its place. There were just two black wires on the dimmer.

I took it to my ohm meter and could not make it complete a circuit.

BIL took it back, where they told him it would not work with his timer they had sold him. Aren't they just 24 vac?

I know this is probably a stupid question, so go easy on me :)

Most that I see are 12 volt systems...

A/C or dc ?

I thought most low volt systems are dc

dimmer is just a rheostat [a variable resistor]

why a timer should not work with a resistor ?
one is a on/off switch the other a resistor

My Malibu lights are 12v AC. I would imagine DC would have too much line loss with long runs, AC the electrons just flip back and forth in place, DC the electrons flow the entire length of the wire. At least that is how I understand it.

Looks like it was 12V AC. I just don't understand why the dimmer (rheostat) won't even register a change in ohms as I slide the dimmer?

Put a VOM on the wires and check voltage input, then output, and finally see if it changes at all when you turn the dimmer. Could be that the dimmer is T/U.

Hey David....sorry I couldn't tell from your posts but have you tried a conventional light dimmer switch to control the 120 voltage going into the transformer?