Day 21
Christ! What a day! General rule for all projects: even the simplest of job can go wrong.
09:00
Started work on finishing the floor. Shouldn't take too long just one main plank to cut and a short section to fill.
09:30
Laminate floor complete. Sit and have coffee and smoke admiring the appearance of the new floor.
09:50
Door bell goes and lighting has arrived. Excellent! Spend the next hour checking how I will mount them and built a quick fix mounting so I can see how they look in different positions. Finally settle on this:
11:00
OK, ought to do the lights now whilst I have daylight to assist. First job is to replace the normal switches with the remote dimmers. The room is already wired for two way switching so this will take about 15 minutes which leaves ~2 hours to mount and wire the lights before lunch.
15 minutes later, the dimmers are in, plug the fuse back and switch on. Nothing. WTF? Check wiring. Looks OK. How can I have got this wrong? Re-read the instructions. OK. Re-check the actual circuit. Looks good. OK, put the original switches back. ..... Yes, they work. Re-read instructions. Set the circuit to one-way and put the master dimmer in. It works! OK, so that isn't dead. Now try the slave. Whole circuit dead. Crap. Maybe the electrician put a nasty surprise in for me so check the entire circuit again. Draw out all variations I can think of of how the circuit could be wired. All comes down to what I am doing is right. Maybe the slave is dead? Set the circuit for one-way and test master on the other position. Works. Try the slave. Dead. Put the master back in and test both positions of two-way circuit as one-way. Only one works. Rats. Re-read the instructions and draw out yet more circuits. Double check the junctions in the ceiling rose. Nearly fry myself by touching a pin on the fuse holder as I pull it out the CU. Time is ticking on. Go through the instructions again and again and check my wiring diagrams again and again. Check the original switches really work as I expect. They do. OK, something is majorly wrong here.
12.55
Resort to calling the dealer who closes at 13:00 on Saturday. No reply. Fantastic. Decided not to stop for lunch until I have this bloody job fixed.
Coffee and smoke. Try to evaluate what the hell is going on. I've got a two way circuit that I know works and I know exactly how it is wired but only one half of it works with the master dimmer and the slave is completely dead. Check the packaging of the slave for a QC sticker or a tested sticker. Find it. I don't believe this can be DOA. Right, start on some non-standard wiring combinations. Maybe I need to swap a lead over? Maybe the dimmers are sensitive to load position (I was getting desperate!)?
Nothing works and the fuse holder on the CU is getting really stiff for some reason so each test cycle is unwanted operation.
13:45
I've read the instructions so many times that I could recite them by heart but it wont hurt to do it again. All makes sense. Can't see what I am doing wrong.... hang on.... what was that sentence?
"...if your 2-way or intermediate circuit does not have three direct connections between the switches...". I've got three haven't I? No, wait I haven't. SHIT! I've only got 2. Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo! How am I going to wire in a third lead without channeling out plaster, removing two ceiling corner traps and half the ceiling RW3 with all that shit coming down on the nice new floor? I am about to explode. This cannot be happening.
I looked at the cable used in the wiring and then.... miracle of miracles, the electrician had used T&E but he hadn't trimmed the earth so there was a redudant earth cable I could use. (Note: not directly connected to anything so perfectly safe)
In a frenzied 15 minutes, I unwound the earth from the tag, sheathed it and taped it, wired in the two dimmers, put the fuse back in and ..... bingo..... it works!!! I let out an extremely loud SPAMMER. This 15 minute job had taken 3 hours.
Motto:
Always read the instructions but make sure you understand them and don't assume you know how something works.
BTW, if that little saga was painful to read, imagine what it felt like whilst it happened!
14:00
I'm three hours behind schedule on my last day but I can now finally stop for lunch.
14:50
Back to work on mounting and wiring the lights. No major incident except I wish I hadn't decided to use 2.5mm cable as the stuff I've got is ultra-rigid.
17:30
Ready to test the lights ... and ... yes, very nice, all working but it isn't exactly bright for 400W. Anyway, no time to dwell. I've three doors to trim and re-hang.
19.45
The doors are back and I'm bloody pleased with the job I did on them. It isn't a simple job trying to calculate how much to take off and getting them back on the hinges cleanly when you've only got two hands but it came out tops. Now the room is starting to feel like a room again.
Break for supper.
20:30
Time to anchor the desk on the new support and get some kit into the room. Amazing how everything has got calked in dust and mess over the last few weeks.
22:20
Finally, basic kit loaded up and ready to go. The big switch on.
Quick low volume check to make sure everything is working and then nervously, turn it up and go for some serious listening.
Initial impressions cautious.
Ten minutes later and conclusion drawn: something has gone wrong. The sound had changed since I last listened in the empty room. It isn't the acoustic as that still doesn't sound very dead. Something has shifted. It sounds confused, the definition is gone, edgy and vocals are distant.
I mess around with monitor positions and listening position. No real change.
OK, what has changed? The laminate floor, the doors are in their correct position and a little bit of furniture has gone in. Surely that can't disturb the sound in the way I am hearing it now can it?
Midnight
Decide to call it a day. Maybe I am tired. Maybe it will sound better in the morning.
Day 22
Spent about an hour listening so far and the basic characteristics I heard last night are still there. I have some major investigation and remedial work to do. Not good to say the least. Quite disappointed actually.
Anyway, have a lot of tidying up to do and hope to get on with some EFT tests later.
Mark