So I’ve been using an old repurposed tractor lamp as my bedside lamp. I wired it up to mains (EU 230V) with a well isolated alternative bulb and bulb holder (the original bulbs are impossible to find). This has all been grounded and done the best we could. Now comes the problem, we reused the original switch (as it looks good) which it turns out, does not really appreciate having to switch 230V instead of the 12V (or 24V?) it was designed for. I believe I can patch up the switch to work as designed, however I do want a better solution to switching the lamp on and off.
Do relays exist that provide their own low voltage power that I can hook up the switch to? There’s not a lot of space available in the lamp, so I was hoping for a compact, drop in solution.
Other ideas are welcome as wel. I’ve thought of converting everything to 12V, but that would mean finding a new bulb holder, and having a transformer to put somewhere.
Yea, I’d just revert the entire setup to 5v DC, and get a 5v DC power supply - less than the voltage it was all designed for, and an led lamp. Or even go 12v and find a 12v led.
Pumping AC, 230v at that, through switching and wires meant for 12v DC just yells “I want a big nasty shock”. (Not that doing it with 120v would be any better).
I can only imagine the arcing happening in that switch