electrical outlet noise

[Anonymous]

Please help. I recently installed an outlet for a disco ball and light in my basement. When i turn on the light, there is a noise (like a knocking sound). Can anyone tell me about this?

Thanks

[MTgets]

hello cool,
strange problem indeed, is the noise coming from the ball or the outlet itself? unplug the disco ball and plug a different light in it and see if it makes the same noise.
Until you figure out the problem, I recommend not hosting any "saturday night fever" :wink: parties!

Tell us how you installed this outlet, what kind of wire,what size breaker, sometimes those little bits of info can help troubleshoot a problem like this, since we cant see it. We will try to help you get your grove back!!
The problem could be the ball is faulty, there is a smalll motor in there to rotate the lenses, lets hope this is all it is, just buy a new one or fix the old one.

[Wgoodrich]

If this noise is a rythomic noise or a ratcheting noise I would suspect when the ball and motor were installed one of the conductors got within reach of the rotor inside the motor or gear reduction area getting hit due to the rotation. Do as MTgets suggested but also plug that ball light into a different receptacle off an extension cord. That may tell us something to.

Wg

[Anonymous]

thanks for the replies.


I am not a fan of the disco ball...LOL...its for my 5 year old daughter, she is bugging me..so please help......LOL


I tried the ball and light into different outlets and it is fine, so its not the units...

It is definately a noise coming from the electricity. this is what was done: the disco ball is plugged into an outlet that was already there. when i tested it, the ball worked fine. there is nothing else plugged into this outlet. Then i wanted to install the light, so i connected the existing outlet to an new outlet which i placed in the storage room(room behind the wall). I used the same type of wire electrical wire and connected it to the new junction box for the light to be plugged in. Then a took that connection and added a new junction box for a switch to turn them on and off..

I really appreciate the help
Thanks...

[dkerr]

a couple things comes to mind, is this light a strobe light ? A disco ball/light combo you either have to turn the disco ball, or have a strobe /pulsing light or both to get the "disco" effect moving around the room. I wonder if a reverse hot/netutral and or ground at the new outlet could cause problems with a strobe, (the noise ?)

check that black wire is conencted to the brass color screw of the outlet, the white (neutral) is connected to the silver color screw of the outlet , and the bare ground wire is conencted to the grounding screw (likely green screw) of the outlet and the box (if metalic), check also the old outlet where you took the power from.

For the switch that you have added check teh following link,

http://www.homewiringandmore.com/switchoutlet/basiclightswitch/basiclightswitch.html

The source of power would be where you got your power from which I beleive you mentioned an existing outlet. If you are switching an new outlet, then the light in the diagram is replaced with the outlet, paying attention to what I mentioned before about the correct wires on the correct screws of the outlet.

[Wgoodrich]

Just to solve my curiosity try plugging your cord into a short extension cord and run the ball and light from that extension cord plugged into that recepacle making noise for a minute or two. See if the sound disappears.

Curious

Wg