toggle switches

[baron9]

  I have toggle switches installed for my tortoise switch machines for some time,maybe over a year now. Now all of a sudden nothing works, I have checked all the wiring to them and found that there is power to the switch machine but the toggle switch does not work. Could it be possible that all of the toggle switches have gone bad at once?   Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[rlandry6]

Multiple failures is highly unlikely. Grab your meter and start doing continuity checks on everything that is common to all of the machines. That would probably be a ground. If nothing works, then half your work is already done. You know to start at the point where the wiring branches off to the different machines and work your way back. You can also check voltages using the ground wire for reference. Check all the way back to the power supply, just be sure to reference voltage readings to the PS ground. The PS transformer probably uses a centertap and that's the ground your plus and minus voltages would use..

[larak]

If you could post a wiring diagram, some of us could probably point you to the likely areas of failure.

Karl 

[dadret]

I had a similiar problem sometime ago and found that my 12V power supply (wall wart) had somehow gone bad.  I replaced it and have had no problem since.

[BigG]

 If they've all stopped working at once, I'd check for a broken return-wire that is common to them all. You can have all the voltage in the world applied to the units, but if there is no way for the current to get back to the supply, there will be no work done.   A quick check would be to measure the voltage across the sw motor itself; no voltage means no current. If there is voltage on the unit from the supply, the common wire is off.   Do NOT measure Ohms unless all the power is off....   You'll blow your meter!

    Have fun.... George