Well, this last week I started having a problem with the light that is plugged into it. The IR light switch wouldn't respond to either an IR input or through the button presses directly on the switch. When it works, there is a series of green LEDs that will illuminate on the light switch that tells me it is working. These LEDs were not turning on. Dang! I've got a dead light switch. This was expensive and now I have to replace it.
I really need a light in that room and so I decided to replace the IR light switch with a standard flip switch. I shut off the power, replaced the light switch, turned the power back on, and tested the switch to make sure that fixed the problem. Nope! The lamp didn't turn on. What's wrong? Could it be the wall socket instead? So, I proceed to plug in a known working lamp to make sure it is the wall socket.
Wait! That lamp works in that wall socket. So, what could be the problem? Maybe this other lamp is broken. Uh oh...I wonder if it is just a broken light bulb. Once I changed the light bulb, that original lamp was working. Doh! Why did I go through all that hassle to find out I needed to change a light bulb?
So, I went back and installed the IR light switch with the new bulb in the lamp and it's working again. Needless to say, this was NOT the best way to find out that I needed to change a light bulb!
I keep feeling like there is a valuable lesson in this experience for me but I can't seem to grasp it. Here are some thoughts.
- Keep it simple stupid (KISS)
- Fix what's broken
- Don't assume you know what's wrong
- Don't over think the problem
- The most obvious solution may be the right solution
Or, maybe this was just a simple mistake and there's not a vast amount of wisdom to gain from this. Maybe I'm even over analyzing this experience.
