[Shop-talk] Those mysterious electrons.....

[Gerald Brazil]

I am having trouble understanding what is going on. (that's nothing new!)

I am trying to trouble shoot my string of 12v walk lights. The last one in
the string quit working after a few years of working flawlessly. The first
thing I checked was the bulb. It is fine in other sockets. Next I reset the
connector which pierces the line and still no results. Next I took the tape
off of the end and stuck the probes of my multi-meter directly into the
wires. No reading. So I went the the next light that was working and much to
my surprise, I got no indication of voltage there, even though I could plug
the light back in and it worked fine. Next I went directly to the
transformer feeding the line and got no reading there. I then check my meter
against a battery...it was a perfect 1.5 v. I then checked the AC range and
it was fine too.

So, can anybody explain what's going on?