A quick look inside one of the electrical boxes associated with some styles of street lighting, and the repair of the Sangamo time switch inside.
Also featuring the sudden disassembly of the more-complex-than-expected solar dial that compensates for differing hours of darkness throughout the year. (I did actually manage to reassemble it again after two goes.)
I'm not completely sure what component was missing from the box. I don't think it was a contactor, and the only convenient ballast to fit remotely in local street lighting is the older mercury vapour type with no high voltage ignition pulses.
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17 thoughts on “Fixing a sangamo street lighting time switch with solar dial.”
  1. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars G Money says:

    nylon gears

  2. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dave Poul says:

    Altho having just taken a deeper look at your chan icon.. i now see the beard.. 🙂

  3. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dave Poul says:

    OM , its it really him, G…. I can now finaly put a face, and splendind beard, like ZZTop qualily beard to the pair of hands I'v been watchimg for the last 2 years or so…. Oh ok this is 5 years old.. Hmm still got the beard?? I to am a fan of the wispy wixard kinda face hair.. but nothing as splended..
    Great Channel…
    Davey P. UK..
    Peace N love..

  4. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars twocvbloke says:

    Took me 5 years, but I finally got one, and by one I mean two!! One is from 1988, has died due to green death from the NiCd leaking taking out multiple traces (can be re-wired with jumper wire, but still, PITA), and is also a 52 degree dial so more for suvveners, other's a "modern" one, 4-pin type, made in Sept. 2012 so almost 10 years old, 80mAh NiMH battery dead and starting to go fluffy but no damage, but the date wheel part was stuck somehow, found out when I tried advancing the wheel to August and crunch went multiple teeth on the big white gear, so, I undid the nut and stole the part off the other clock, stuck in a new 150mAh battery and it's working fine!!! Now to find a use for it!!! 😛

  5. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars munrorunner says:

    Excellent devices and description. Pity, it's difficult to find anyone to service them and Sangamo recommend throwing them away and getting new ones.

  6. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars L Austin Speiss says:

    I used a Sangamo time switch as my alarm clock in the 1970s (19yo) !
    Hooked up to a vacuum cleaner next to my bed – friends loved it !

  7. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Tim Angus says:

    Is that just a normal 1.2V rechargeable nimh cell? Peer as I might I can't quite make out the markings. I ask because the lighting in my flat stair has stopped coming on at night, and it seems we've got exactly the same model of timer as this. I expect the same failure has occurred, and it would be nice to have a replacement battery to hand before I pull it out of the wall.

  8. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Mike Armitage says:

    I used to have a Big Ben alarm clock that was proudly marked ‘ Made in Scotland’

  9. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Dave Southey says:

    Ha Ha this made me smile I used to work in the Sangamo Felixstowe factory many years ago 😁

  10. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars rob28803 says:

    Sangamo? Sangamo… I used to maintain a sonar system made by sangamo (SQS-23) I wonder if it’s the same company. How many companies of that name could there be?

  11. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Daryl Cheshire says:

    it says “do not loosen nut” … “ooh this is really complex”.

    I fantasize that such a warning conceals a big spring which sprays complex parts and spills your whiskey,

  12. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Odin Di Martino says:

    I found the chip datasheet for a bare die version. It seem to be a standard low cost chip for any clock but encapsulated for this type of application

  13. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Michael-John L. Mushill says:

    I need to find one of those for my odd clock collection, I’ll have to start looking around.

  14. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars PelDaddy says:

    Oooooh! It's "Quartz!" What are we in 1977?

  15. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Andy White says:

    if it's Bn, Bk, Bk, G, Bn R it's 10M (thank you google)

  16. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars Chris Walford says:

    Remember Venner?

  17. Avataaar/Circle Created with python_avatars heyidiot says:

    It's like a wadokei… old timey Japanese clock that divides twelve "hours" per day evenly into six daylight and six nighttime "hours."

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