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Major problem with CMB16D/Rainbow Flood

Tim Fischer

By Tim Fischer
in LOR Hardware - General

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Tim Fischer Member

Tim Fischer

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Short version: My Rainbow Flood is malfunctioning and it appears that I now have 2 dead channels on my CMB-16D.

Long version: I finished up my prototype Rainbow Flood tonight. I pulled out the DC controller I have been using for my MR-16 lights to test it. My MR-16 banks use the same RJ-45 wiring spec as the Rainbow Wall Runner/Rainbow Flood, so I simply plugged in the new RF and tried it out. The red channel didn't work, and 3 blue LED's were not lighting.

Just to make sure everything was good on the controller side, I pulled out one of my MR-16 banks and connected it to the same port. Lo and behold, no Red there either. Weird, I thought - this all worked when I put it away. So then I switched the MR-16 bank to use the second port (channels 4-6 on the CMB16D). It worked fine. So, I figured I had a wiring issue on the controller enclosure, so I plugged in the RF to port 2.

Red still didn't work. Scratching my head, I plugged the MR-16 bank back in, and now red didn't light up either. So it appears that something is seriously wrong with the way I wired my RF, and it has now permanently destroyed 2 channels on my CMB16D.

Bleah.

So now I need to figure out a) what in the heck is wrong with my RF, and :) how to go about fixing my CMB16D.

On the first point - I checked and I don't have a dead short on the red channel (or any other channel). In fact, I've had dead shorts in the past, and it hasn't harmed the board (the power supply feeding the board will click off since it has protection). I really don't know what else to look for.

On the second point: I know less about these DC boards than the normal CTB ones... did I likely blow (2) Mosfets? If so, I'm guessing this is something I can fix myself?

I put this under "LOR Hardware" due to the CMB-16 issue, but I'm as curious about debugging my rainbow flood as anything.

Thanks much - I'm feeling a little crushed right now... :)

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terrypowerz Member

terrypowerz

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Use your VOM and check the red channel against the others using the 200 ohms position to see if it is shorted for some reason... could be the cat 5 jack, or hold the board up to the light and see if you can see a "whisker" sometimes during manuf a PC board can have a defect shorting 2 adjacent traces... usually an exacto knife will clear those up.
I haven't heard anyone mention bad LEDs in the RB kits... but anything is possible I guess....
Above all... use your power supply direct WITHOUT the LOR controller to power things up until you get the problem resolved!
Hope that helps Tim!

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Tim Fischer Member

Tim Fischer

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Hi Terry,

I don't appear to have a dead short on any of the channel. I typically use the "continuity/diode check" setting to check for shorts (it beeps if there's a problem) but I'll try it with the resistance setting as well, just to see if there's a major difference between the three channels.

You can believe I won't be using the controller to test out a new device again. I've never had such a problem before, and I'm usually pretty confident in my soldering skills, so I wasn't too worried. But this changes that a bit!

By the way, I'm not using the Cat5 jacks but have the wire soldered directly to the board. I'll triple-check that I did that appropriately as well...

-Tim

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J_Plak Member

J_Plak

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Tim, try this test with your DMM/ diode check each Red LEDs and check there polarity compare the Green Leds as have seen reports on bad batch on the 5mm, 8mm and SuperFlux Reds LEDs I had a bad batch of 8mm Reds LEDs but they are still usable.
I had to test each leds on there polarity

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zman Member

zman

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Guys a side but somewhat related question. What are you guys using for testing purposes? I am keeping an eye on all these threads, because I am chest deep in DIY stuff this year.

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JBullard Member

JBullard

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I used an LED tester very similar to Jerry's to test each LED when building the 8 Mighty Minis, and a 24 volt wall wart for a power check on each channel.

For the Rainbows, I have a 12 volt wall wart for testing each channel as I build these 10 boards

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Ponddude Member

Ponddude

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Bad day for my internet connection to break.

Let's start with the basics. Lets begin by eliminating, or at lease isolating the Rainbow Flood as the main source of the problem. The LEDs are wiring in groupings of 3, so when a grouping of 3 goes out, that section is either not soldered 100% or there is an LED that is dead within the group. I order close to 10,000 LEDs at a time, so this certainly is not impossible. That, I believe, is what is happening with the blues.

Terry said the best thing to do. That is to take a the 12 volts directly from the transformer to the pins of the of the modular jack. The even number pins take the negative voltage and the odd number pins take the positive. You are correct that the power supply will short out or reset itself. I have had problems with the red LEDs this year, with getting a batch where the anodes and cathodes were reversed. However, I now test a huge portion of the LEDs I receive (close to a 1000 of them) to ensure they are correct. I do not believe there there is an issue with the LEDs, but stranger things have happened. By testing each color this way, you will eliminate the flood being the issue. I would also double and triple check your connections onto the board. All the striped wires in the cord get the positive connections. (Orange stripe, green stripe and blue stripe) All the negative connections get the solid wires. (Orange, blue and brown)

Now as far as the CMB-16D, I am really at a loss here. Even if there was a short on the flood board, or they were wired backwards or an LED was dead...the MOSFETs should not have blown. MOSFETs are pretty rugged devices and not nearly as sensitive astriacs. I really do not know why that happened but can easily be fixed by swapping out the FETs. I would just contact LOR about what kind you need.

Please let me know what your results are and if I can help you any further. Maybe you could post some pictures of the front and back of the flood with close ups on the connections.

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Tim Fischer Member

Tim Fischer

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Thanks all for the help/suggestions.

Well, I found the main problem. I had hardwired the CAT-5 to the board as we discussed in the other thread, and swapped the Orange and Orange/White wires. Swapping them at the power supply causes the red to spring to life - except for one bank of 3 LED's.

So now I have a working board, minus 3 Red and 3 Blue LED's. Hopefully it's just a solder issue- I'll do some poking around. Hopefully I didn't blow the bank of reds due to the reversed polarity.

I'll message Dan about getting new MOSFETS for the CMB16D.

Thanks all for the help. I'll keep you posted and when I finally have the thing running properly, I'll post pics :)

-Tim

P.S. I made a temporary test cable with an RJ45 jack on one end and bare wires on the other than I can hook into a wall-wart. Eventually I'd like to make the test cord a little more elaborate by having 3 switches (R,G,:) that I can power the light completely independently of a control board for testing, aiming, whatever...

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Tim Fischer Member

Tim Fischer

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One more update:

Board is now in working order, except I confirmed I blew the 3 red LED's mentioned above (diode-check on my meter won't light them up like it does the good ones).

I have a PM into Dan about the controller and into Greg about the LED's. While I'm bummed that I can't test this weekend (and it will probably be at least a week before I can) I'm just glad that the "unknown" is now "known".

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J_Plak Member

J_Plak

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Tim,
it good you found out what was going on,
by the way Dan is at the NJ meet & Great with some show & Tell...

we will have to wait tell full word is out :-)

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mnkyboy Member

mnkyboy

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zman wrote:

Guys a side but somewhat related question. What are you guys using for testing purposes? I am keeping an eye on all these threads, because I am chest deep in DIY stuff this year.




ZMAN this is I use recommend for testing raw LEDS especially High Performance LEDS.. these are a bit more pricy, but if used properly will protect raw LEDS since it is a constant current power supply but very low amperage.



http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=200473403796&ssPageName=ADME:B:WNAFP:US:1123
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