Dead and flickering light- what are my first troubleshooting steps?

May 24, 2010
200
Dallas, TX
All-

Merry Christmas Eve! Noticed the other day that, of my 3 lights, one is completely dead, and the other randomly alternates between being off and flickering lightning-quick through some/all of it's color combos. Aqualink PDA P8, and BlueSquare Spectrum 360. Pool is ~2 years from being brand new but most of the warranty items were up after 1 year. All 3 lights run together (does that go without saying?).
Trying to figure out what my first steps to troubleshoot are. Nothing's been touched/dug up/etc. recently, so thinking it's nothing beyond the pad. My understanding is that one of my aux lines powers a secondary controller that signals what colors/patterns to show. Because the lights are getting any power at all, don't think it's the aux relay. Now that's it's done raining in Dallas, and I'll have a free day Tuesday, where do I want to look first? Is my "secondary controller" inside my Aqualink box? I "think" I've got a set of smaller boxes feeding conduit into the ground that might be my target. I'll get some pics up tomorrow or Tuesday. Am I barking up the right tree so far? I'm comfortable troubleshooting electrical and components. I'm just not sure how the system is set up to begin with and haven't spent a whole lot of time messing with it as it's been working just fine up until now.

Thanks!
 
Those small boxes are probably your pool light transformers.

You can check 120V AC voltage into the transformer and 12V-14V AC output.

If you have 12V-14V out to the light then replace the light. There is nothing user serviceable in the light.

The lights have quick disconnect fittings on the wire. See the manuals at...

 
Thanks! Wiring was... simpler than I was expecting. Standalone 120VAC-14VAC transformer to a set of junction boxes sending out 14VAC. PB warranty on bulbs is 1 year but I'll ask anyway, and then start searching TFP to see who's replaced them and where the best place to buy will be. Connectors look proprietary.