Allow me to hijack this thread, now that you have got your lamps working...
I'm trying to get lamps to switch on, with a light sensor! And it won't work. I have it set as the light sensor, not gate, redstone dust, jacketed redstone wire that connects to all the lights in the factory. I can see the jacketed wire light up when it goes dark but none of the lamps light up. I can even replace the redstone dust with a redstone torch and the lamps suddenly work. Am I missing something super obvious?
I'll upload a picture later on (minecraft login server appears to be down right now).
Help is much appreciated!