I am installing a 4 volt lights in a in my backyard: a floodlight and three pathlights, all using 3 watt bulbs. They are all set up in a chain, using drycon connectors and 14 gauge wire. The first light is about 20 feet from my transformer, and the lights are about 6 feet apart from each other. After I connected all the lights, I hooked up the wire to the transformer (12v output) and only the first light came on When I checked the voltage with a multimeter, the first light was only receiving 6 volts (I removed the bulb and tested where the bulb was), and the next light in the chain is only receiving 3 volts. I tested the wall outlet, and it is pushing 121 volts, and the transformer is pushing 12 volts from the 12 volt output, and 14.9 volts from the 15 volt output. 1 troubleshot by removing all the other lights ( so that it was just the flood light) and then it only was getting 3 volts. I also changed out the transformer with an older one I had and I got similar results. I changed out the wire from the transformer to the first light, and redid the connector for the first light. Before I redo the entire setup, I was wondering if there is something else I should try. Any help would be appreciated.
Fellow landscape lighting enthusiast here. Voltage drop is a common problem with the daisy chaining method. If you are confident you've connected the wires properly and you're confident you've used the wire connectors properly, I'm stumped. I'm also biased, as I've used hubs without any voltage drop issue since I installed my fifty plus lighting system several years ago. If you want a foolproof approach that guarantees your fixtures are all powered similarly, the hub method is what I recommend.
I may be missing something but it seems like they are wired in series or some combination of series and parallel. Distance is not an issue, so if totally in series, each light would only get 3V. If all are wired n parallel, each light would get 12V and you can add the amps and multiply by 12 to calculate total watts. Two sets, each in series, with those sets wired in parallel would get 6V at each light. Not sure how you get 3V but I suspect wiring issue. If you run a single wire to a hub and then split 4 ways from there, you basically have a parallel wired system that should work. It's also super easy to add another light or replace a bad one. Your distance is so short so parallel wiring is probably the way to go. Do a web search for parallel wiring diagrams to get a good pic.
