captainron19 Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) I have a brand new 1602 controller (digital display inside)This morning when leaving for work I noticed channel 16 was on (but only at about 20% power or so)Did not have time to attempt a reset but I unplugged controller (power) and as soon as I plugged it back in channel 16 came back on again.I went into my console and ran a test of that channel (and the others) taking power up to 100% doing a shimmer effect and such and when I chose "all off" channel 16 remained on like it was before.Show runs fine but even happens when computer is off.Should I attempt a reset? and if so what are the steps to perform a reset of the newer boxes?Also a little more info.... channel 16 has a total of 36 C9 dimmable bulbs Edited December 29, 2012 by captainron19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainron19 Posted December 29, 2012 Author Share Posted December 29, 2012 On a recommendation I just plugged in a set of incandescents in line with the LED c9's and the lights went off but as soon as I unplugged the incandescents the LEDs went back on. Moisture problem? or possibly fault in controller? any ideas? Controller is on porch and out of the weather and this just started yesterday ...been fine all season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted December 29, 2012 Share Posted December 29, 2012 (edited) you need a snubber, or a easy way is take a 4 or 7watt incan night light plug it into any of your LED light strings, or use your mini incans like you did, plug it into your LED light string, it will bleed off the excess current, I don't use the 1602 controllers but I thought the new controllers were supposed to have built in snubbersI noticed on houses with static displays thats all LEDS that even though their lights are "off" they are still 10% energized, a simple plugin of a night light fixes that, if your not into building a snubber Edited December 29, 2012 by PMC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainron19 Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 I have snubbers that I have in place for most of my "store bought" LEDS but this is the first time I had to use one just to have the lights go entirely off..... always used them to help with the fade to 0% power during a show. . The weird thing is.... channels 9-16 on this box all have the same thing (36 c9 LEDs) but it is only happening to one channel . (#9) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted December 30, 2012 Share Posted December 30, 2012 With 36 C9 (taking C9 as just a bulb case size, not actual wattage being used) if channel 16 has many light strings not just 1-36 strand, eliminate 1 light string at a time and see if that improvesdid you try switching channels? take whats plugged into channel 16 unplug the lights from it, and plug that light string into channel 15? that would eliminate LOR from the equationWith LED light strings being made cheaper with less quality, so they can sell more quantity, I had more than my fair share of LED failures this year. I am thinking two different approaches for 2013,1) go back to ican lights, sure they use more electricity but with the money I am putting in LED repair/replace, I'd be saving money2) go with a higher end LED light strand with a 3+ year warranty Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainron19 Posted December 30, 2012 Author Share Posted December 30, 2012 2) go with a higher end LED light strand with a 3+ year warrantyThis is actually a custom made series of lights. It is 6 sets with each set having 6 c9 dimmable LED bulbs ....they are part of my pulsating columns that you can see on this video (white lights on columns of porch) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 You cant say always unless each time, everything is exactly the same. If you add lights or remove lights from last time. Then things have changed and thus it is not always the same. You can say that it work when I did this. But this time I did this differently and now it is not working, why would that be? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhammond1 Posted December 31, 2012 Share Posted December 31, 2012 I have a brand new 1602 controller (digital display inside)This morning when leaving for work I noticed channel 16 was on (but only at about 20% power or so)Did not have time to attempt a reset but I unplugged controller (power) and as soon as I plugged it back in channel 16 came back on again.I went into my console and ran a test of that channel (and the others) taking power up to 100% doing a shimmer effect and such and when I chose "all off" channel 16 remained on like it was before.Show runs fine but even happens when computer is off.Should I attempt a reset? and if so what are the steps to perform a reset of the newer boxes?Also a little more info.... channel 16 has a total of 36 C9 dimmable bulbsI have this same problem. This is the first year (of 6) and it just started last night. It's doing it across 2 controllers, and three channels. No computer, but the lights still come on about 15-20%. With the show on, it's fine... Maybe it's the cold? It's 15 degree's here.sorry, I should add, I'm not overly concerned, since the season is over for me starting tomorrow. And, my lights are not LED's on these controllers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 I would send an email to LOR support. if the problem exists on LED light strings and Incan's, my help on this topic is moot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mhammond1 Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 No worries, thanks for the posts. I'll take apart my show this weekend and do some good bench work.. I'll see if I can't isolate the issue and provide more insight into what's going on... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
captainron19 Posted January 1, 2013 Author Share Posted January 1, 2013 I emailed support at LOR and got this reply....LEDs can be strange beasts because of how they work. If the Incans turned the channel off, then the controller is A-OK.A couple of options might work for you to calm the odd dimming of LEDs.Put a small incandescent light load on the troublesome light channels. Typically one incandescent C7 bulb does the trick... the LEDs will then take on most of the dimming characteristics of the incandescent.Another trick is to turn the plug around on the LED string. The pros call it reversing the polarity and it makes no logical sense because AC voltage isn't polarized, but many times it will fix the 'weird shimmering' problems on LED strings Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PMC Posted January 1, 2013 Share Posted January 1, 2013 (edited) now we're back to the "incan night light" As for reversing polarity on a AC plug is advisable too, I have a static LED strand that doesn't work unless its plugged in a certain way, reverse the polarity and nothing works on that string, except the LED light strings that are pigtailed in the other end of the non-working string. Edited January 1, 2013 by PMC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jerry Posted January 19, 2013 Share Posted January 19, 2013 I would send an email to LOR support. if the problem exists on LED light strings and Incan's, my help on this topic is mootThe so called help desk will tell you to do a controller reset, been there , done that. And in my case it didn't HELP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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