3 controllers burned up when turned on! Help!!!!!

[Scott Henselman]

Setting up new system, my first. I bought 8 new controllers for 128 channels.

I have all shows done and ready and today I hooked them all up and powered up the controllers.

All was fine at first, with the red LED blinking on each and in 5 minutes, 3 of the controllers made a popping sound and the blinking lights went off. I Thought it was the fuses, but they were good. I had not even got the computer connected and no lights were ever turned on.

I opened up one, they are all new and never used, purchased from LOR this year and they are the 16 channel, exterior boxes that can run 30 amps.

The large black square, the largest thing on the circuit board and is what appears to be a transformer on the circuit board, is burned out. You can see the black smoke marks on the circuit board.

I have three 30 amp dedicated circuits from the main pannel running to them and the other ones. They don't appear to be overloaded and besides that, they never turned on any lights, so I don't think that is the problem.

I cheched the power, both by meter and by plugging in the lights direclty to see if the power to the controllers was good and clean, and no problem.

The fuses never blew, but now I have blown boards.

I am hoping that LOR is open on Friday so I can have them overnight air replacements to me and my final thought is that they were deffective.

But before I go that direction, does anyone have any ideas of why only three of the eight blew? One of the blown ones only has 6 amps and 11 of the 16 circuite plugged in!

I have over $15,000.00 in this show and I was supposed to open tonight. Been working on this new event for our downtown since February and I have a lot of people upset and now I wonder if I will ever get this fixed.

Please hep me if you can, as tech support and LOR is closed and I can't sleep wondering what to do.

[-klb-]

That transformer is not in the path of any of the channel loads. All it does is supply power to the logic of the controller. I think the transformer itself may have been bad, or something got shorted behind the card, as I think you would cook off the voltage regulators long before this kind of damage, in any other failure mode I can think of.

So I don't think it is likely to be anything you did, unless you hooked it up to higher voltage than it was designed for.

[Scott Henselman]

Thanks for the post. I am at a loss, as 3 of the controllers burned up and even after I switched the power circuits from a bad controller to a good one, the other controller worked. I also plugged in lights to the same extension cord and they were just fine. I just think it wierd that three of eight new controllers burned up.

And all this happened without even hooking u the computer or having any ligths turned on by the controllers.

Is the reason that I am getting no other responces to my problem and all of the viewers are also baffeled?

[Scott Henselman]

[ItsMeBobO]

Sorry you are having this trouble. I have no experience with a blown board. My 8 have all worked for multiple years without a problem.

My non-electrician knowledge would say its EXTREMELY unlikely to get three boards to blow the same way. LOR support is awesome and will be helpful. But my guess is they would not replace boards a second time if it turns out to be something outside the box causing it to blow.

You should really get the power outlets you are using checked by the power company or electrician before plugging any more electronics into them.

[displaysinmotion_will]

my question would be did you do an electrical upgrade before hooking up these controllers/ like adding in a sub panel or a double breaker in a electrical panel and possibly crossed a common with a hot on a 220 connection? can you also specify what series of controllers you purchased? was it the lor1602w or the pc series? also how about updating your location in your profile because who knows if someone is nearby that can possibly help you.

[Guest guest]

Had you tested the units prior to yesterday, and the issue occuring? If they worked fine in a previous test, that would pretty much exempt the boards as being the issue.

I would give fairly astronomical odds that you would have 3 units all go bad the same way, unless they were built/installed in their case wrong, and created the same exact situation.

Definitely agree I would not be connecting anything more to your supply power source without it being thoroughly checked. Look closely and see which of your three 30A services are powering the three that blew? Are they all the same circuit? If so, that is likely your smoking gun right there. This isn't likely an overload issue, betting its more like a dead short, or an overvoltage (i.e., controller set for 120V, fed by 240) situation.

Not familiar with your technical skills, but the first things I would do is check the line voltage at each of the outlets you used, and also check and make sure things are jumpered properly inside the controller. I've never used a 1602W, but would assume it has the same 120/240 jumper choices. If one of those was done incorrectly, you could have created your problem also.

[cmoore60]

I have a couple of things to have you just look at. Is the transformer installed on the board so that you can read the label? It is possible that it was installed incorrectly and this would cause it to burn up. A second thing to look at since you don't mention your location. To the right of the transformer is voltage setting jumpers. It is possible that these are not set for your voltage in your area. If you are in the states, this is unlikely.

Were these completely assembled units from LOR? Do your controllers have 1 or 2 input cords? If 2 input cords.

Please post and let us know as you know more so that we all will learn from this.

Chuck

[scubado]

Were these factory assembled or kits with some assembly? Remove the cards and see if there is something behind the card that caused the short.

[bisquit476]

Scott,

Could you post some pictures, someone may have some suggestions after seeing the boards, Thanks,

Bill

[George Simmons]

Scott Henselman wrote:

Is the reason that I am getting no other responces to my problem and all of the viewers are also baffeled?

Maybe the reason you had so few responses was the time of night the day before Thanksgiving that you posted your issue. I'm guessing there are quite a few people with other things to do... how come it's so late in the morning now and you haven't replied to the questions that have been asked of you by people trying to help?

[Guest guest]

kingsislandtechservices wrote:

my question would be did you do an electrical upgrade before hooking up these controllers/ like adding in a sub panel or a double breaker in a electrical panel and possibly crossed a common with a hot on a 220 connection? can you also specify what series of controllers you purchased? was it the lor1602w or the pc series? also how about updating your location in your profile because who knows if someone is nearby that can possibly help you.

I was wondering that too, but read his second post and he mentioned he plugged a different controller into the same power source, and no issues. Or at least that is what I inferred from "after I switched the power circuits from a bad controller to a good one, the other controller worked."

Time to do a stare and compare between a "good" controller and a "burnt" controller...jumpers, etc.

And then from there, disassemble to see if there is something amiss with the way the board was installed in the enclosure, or something noticeable obvious on the solder side of the board.

It didn't happen right away ("in 5 minutes.."), which suggests it wasn't some sort of dead short condition existing at power up, or, could be that xfrmr was heating up, and finally hit the melting point.

[Guest guest]

kingsislandtechservices wrote:

also how about updating your location in your profile because who knows if someone is nearby that can possibly help you.

Scott is in Medford, OR.

http://lightorama.mywowbb.com/view_topic.php?id=23183&forum_id=80&jump_to=212539#p212539

[Scott Henselman]

I would like to thank alll for their suggestions and help.

The mystery is solved. I had my staff run two new circuits off two new breakers in the electrical pannel and then run three wire, with white as common and black on one leg and red on the other leg, Then he used the white as common between the two plugs at the plug.

This would have been fine, except he had both breakers next to each other so he was picking up both legs of the power for 240 volts.

I had asked him to check the power before we plugged them in, but he did not use a VTVM, but rather one of the those little plugins that read power, so he did not see that the power was pushing 180 volts on one of the new circuits.

So it has nothing to do with LOR and it was our mistake. Now I hope LOR will be understanding and discount me 5 new boards and can ship them over night.

Again, thanks for the help! Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday to all!

[ItsMeBobO]

George Simmons wrote:

Scott Henselman wrote:

Is the reason that I am getting no other responces to my problem and all of the viewers are also baffeled?

Maybe the reason you had so few responses was the time of night the day before Thanksgiving that you posted your issue.  I'm guessing there are quite a few people with other things to do... how come it's so late in the morning now and you haven't replied to the questions that have been asked of you by people trying to help?

I was thinking the same thing George. There were a LOT of responses for that time of day during setup/holiday time.

Seems like the blown board count went from 3 to 5.

[JBullard]

Scott Henselman wrote:

The mystery is solved. I had my staff run two new circuits off two new breakers in the electrical pannel and then run three wire, with white as common and black on one leg and red on the other leg, Then he used the white as common between the two plugs at the plug.

This would have been fine, except he had both breakers next to each other so he was picking up both legs of the power for 240 volts.

I had asked him to check the power before we plugged them in, but he did not use a VTVM, but rather one of the those little plugins that read power, so he did not see that the power was pushing 180 volts on one of the new circuits.

So it has nothing to do with LOR and it was our mistake. Now I hope LOR will be understanding and discount me 5 new boards and can ship them over night.

Why should LOR give you a discount (and have to pass the lost revenue on to the rest of us with higher prices)? Your "electrician" should pay for his mistake, not LOR!

[Guest guest]

JBullard wrote:

Scott Henselman wrote:

The mystery is solved. I had my staff run two new circuits off two new breakers in the electrical pannel and then run three wire, with white as common and black on one leg and red on the other leg, Then he used the white as common between the two plugs at the plug.

This would have been fine, except he had both breakers next to each other so he was picking up both legs of the power for 240 volts.

I had asked him to check the power before we plugged them in, but he did not use a VTVM, but rather one of the those little plugins that read power, so he did not see that the power was pushing 180 volts on one of the new circuits.

So it has nothing to do with LOR and it was our mistake. Now I hope LOR will be understanding and discount me 5 new boards and can ship them over night.

Why should LOR give you a discount (and have to pass the lost revenue on to the rest of us with higher prices)? Your "electrician" should pay for his mistake, not LOR!

was wondering that myself.....had me thinking.."does LOR offer a quantity discount i was not aware of?.."..

[Guest guest]

Scott Henselman wrote:

I would like to thank alll for their suggestions and help.

The mystery is solved. I had my staff run two new circuits off two new breakers in the electrical pannel and then run three wire, with white as common and black on one leg and red on the other leg, Then he used the white as common between the two plugs at the plug.

This would have been fine, except he had both breakers next to each other so he was picking up both legs of the power for 240 volts.

I had asked him to check the power before we plugged them in, but he did not use a VTVM, but rather one of the those little plugins that read power, so he did not see that the power was pushing 180 volts on one of the new circuits.

So it has nothing to do with LOR and it was our mistake. Now I hope LOR will be understanding and discount me 5 new boards and can ship them over night.

Again, thanks for the help! Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday to all!

SO you blew up 5 controllers?

Let me guess..your staff guy is not an electrician? (But maybe stayed at a holiday inn express one night?....)

Glad to hear you tracked it down...I'm sure Dan and team will help in any reasonable way possible..

[JBullard]

DonFL wrote:

Scott Henselman wrote:

I would like to thank alll for their suggestions and help.

The mystery is solved. I had my staff run two new circuits off two new breakers in the electrical pannel and then run three wire, with white as common and black on one leg and red on the other leg, Then he used the white as common between the two plugs at the plug.

This would have been fine, except he had both breakers next to each other so he was picking up both legs of the power for 240 volts.

I had asked him to check the power before we plugged them in, but he did not use a VTVM, but rather one of the those little plugins that read power, so he did not see that the power was pushing 180 volts on one of the new circuits.

So it has nothing to do with LOR and it was our mistake. Now I hope LOR will be understanding and discount me 5 new boards and can ship them over night.

Again, thanks for the help! Have a happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday to all!

SO you blew up 5 controllers?

Let me guess..your staff guy is not an electrician? (But maybe stayed at a holiday inn express one night?....)

Glad to hear you tracked it down...I'm sure Dan and team will help in any reasonable way possible..

I'm sure LOR would ship them overnight but I think giving YOU a discount would be very UNFAIR to all the other LOR customers, your electrician should buy them.

[Rafter Bar R]

Just a thought, I would try replacing the transformers. The rest of the board shouldn't be affected, the triacs and opto-isolators are rated for 220 VAC use.