Wonderland Christmas -- It's over.

[Guest guest]

Looks like one of boards died tonight.

Tried unplugging and replugging in ... nothing. Fuses don't look blown. Nothing new added.

Just died. Looks like it's over, folks.

[Guest guest]

Man sorry to hear that. I am just getting started in this planning on putting up a display for next year. How long did the board last? I was wondering about how long the boards have been lasting with people using them. BTW I saw the videos you have on your website, and they look amazing. I just hope that I can put on half the show you did. Once again I am very sorry to hear that your down for the moment.

[Guest guest]

DON,

I'm sorry to hear about your boards! i had another gfi issue with my static part of the display last night and i think its a faulty gfi receptacle because when i plugged my lor board into an older gfi outlet (for the pool) it runs good! the question i had was how old are your boards and are they covered by any warranty? or should i ask what the life expectancy is for lor board? i didn't over drive mine and i'm sure you probably didn't so i wonder what to expect from them if i take care of them. once again sorry for the shutdown and thanks again for the help this year!

[Guest guest]

I think Dan commented earlier in the year that they are made to last. I expect them to last for a long time if properly cared for. I doubt your board is completely dead. Dan can talk you through it and problem offer to fix or replace it.

[Guest guest]

I seem to have started blowing fuses on one of my LOR boards.

When I checked the amperage levels in November, nothing was over the limit at 100% intensity. None of my sequences run at 100%, either. They are ramped down on the large C9 bulbs to 75% or so.

How I determined this.
One: Open enclosure .. no light. Rest of show running.
Test hot/neutral on all segments to make sure they aren't shorting.

Check hot continuity from cord to board... okay. Board to left side of fuse, okay. Right side of fuse to little corners of the boards on the edge --- okay.

Swap fuses, as the left side seemed to be working. After changing the fuses the board had power. Go inside and set board 1 to twinkle ... nothing. Go back out, dead again.

Any ideas? I emailed Dan last night, just waiting on his reply. (Agreed Brad, my board probably isn't 100% dead. It's just frustrating to have it last until Christmas night before this problem occured.)

[Guest guest]

Don,

its probably safe to say that you have the larger 20A fuses in your main unit so me being rookie i cant help you much but one thing i did notice on mine was when i had the gfi issue i couldnt get my hardware utility to work at all and i thought it was all dead so i bought a lighted extention cord and the side i was having issues with was showing power to it via the cord so i know it wasnt that. that led me to figure it out but yours seems more in depth. sorry i cant offer more. ps; is there any type of reset button on the lor triacs? other than that i'll let you go to try to figure it out.

[Guest guest]

Don wrote:

Swap fuses, as the left side seemed to be working. After changing the fuses the board had power. Go inside and set board 1 to twinkle ... nothing. Go back out, dead again.

Don,

It sounds like there is some type of short on one of channels 9-16 on the board. The fuse is blowing when you try to use those channels. That fuse (on the right side of the board) also powers the processor. I would unplug and test everything plugged into that side of the card.

[Guest guest]

Dan,

Took the controller up to Jeff's (Trykoski) this afternoon so two sets of eyes could look at it.

With only the right side of the board powered up, we connected 8 strands of lights. (Okay, so they were Stars, he has one or two.) Anyway, channel 16 would always have some power going to it, even with a 'lights off' command sent to it.

Also, an electrictian looked at it, and said something about amps/volts, etc. I'll get Jeff to chime in here and tell you exactly what was said, because I'm horrible at remembering this stuff.

For now, I've disconnected #16, and powered the board back on. Ran some tests here a few minutes ago, and things _seem_ to be working okay for now. Shows start in about 11 minutes....

[Guest guest]

Hey glad to hear that you are "back up" for the time being. Hope it at least holds out for ya till the end of the year. Started stocking up on my lights this morning lol Cant wait to give this a shot.

[Guest guest]

Don wrote:

Dan,

Took the controller up to Jeff's (Trykoski) this afternoon so two sets of eyes could look at it.

With only the right side of the board powered up, we connected 8 strands of lights. (Okay, so they were Stars, he has one or two.) Anyway, channel 16 would always have some power going to it, even with a 'lights off' command sent to it.

Also, an electrictian looked at it, and said something about amps/volts, etc. I'll get Jeff to chime in here and tell you exactly what was said, because I'm horrible at remembering this stuff.

For now, I've disconnected #16, and powered the board back on. Ran some tests here a few minutes ago, and things _seem_ to be working okay for now. Shows start in about 11 minutes....

Actually, they were snowflakes

Anyway - the voltage range for a open circuit on your boards was ~14 volts open, 123 volts closed. However, channel 16 reported about 65 volts when open and the normal 123 volts closed. The channel did not appear to be opening properly, even after a factory reset of the board. Looks like our recommendation of leaving channel 16 alone for now is working. You have one of my spare boards if things go south again to get you through the last few days...

I can see the glow of your house from mine 20 miles away...

Jeff

[Guest guest]

JeffTrykoski wrote:

Actually, they were snowflakes

Anyway - the voltage range for a open circuit on your boards was ~14 volts open, 123 volts closed. However, channel 16 reported about 65 volts when open and the normal 123 volts closed. The channel did not appear to be opening properly, even after a factory reset of the board. Looks like our recommendation of leaving channel 16 alone for now is working. You have one of my spare boards if things go south again to get you through the last few days...

I can see the glow of your house from mine 20 miles away...

Jeff

Stars, Snowflakes *shrug* Don't think I would have cared what you hooked up at that point.

I can't thank you enough for loaning me the board. I hope that I won't have to use it. (Simply because of the great time involved in order to get it up and running.) That said, it's nice to have "The King of Chrismtas Display Spare Parts" living within driving distance.

[Guest guest]

Don wrote:

Dan,

Took the controller up to Jeff's (Trykoski) this afternoon so two sets of eyes could look at it.

With only the right side of the board powered up, we connected 8 strands of lights. (Okay, so they were Stars, he has one or two.) Anyway, channel 16 would always have some power going to it, even with a 'lights off' command sent to it.

Also, an electrictian looked at it, and said something about amps/volts, etc. I'll get Jeff to chime in here and tell you exactly what was said, because I'm horrible at remembering this stuff.

For now, I've disconnected #16, and powered the board back on. Ran some tests here a few minutes ago, and things _seem_ to be working okay for now. Shows start in about 11 minutes....

It sounds to me like there was excessive load on channel 16 that damaged the Triac. I would be careful about what was connected. If you do not have GFCI on the circuit then you could have had a leak to ground that was pulling the extra power so be careful.