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Major Problem (I think) Resolved


Stawski

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I ran my show as kind of a test mode last night with no problems. I still have a little work to do with static lights so today I turned everything on to make sure I am not tripping any breakers, etc. Anyway, my problem is channels 1-8 on one of my 4 controller si snot working! Checked the breaker, thats not it, all cords plugged in etc. My fear is that maybe it is the fuse?

If so, where do I get a fuse? If its only available from Light O Rama I am screwed because my sneak prieview show was last night and a lot of people are expecting it tonight.

If it is the fuse, whay could be the cause? I noticed on the front of the pannel it says 15 amp fuse. I am actually running about 18 amps on a few banks becasue it was my understanding if I have 20 amp breakers I could. I there a 20 amp fuse that I am supposed to be using to run when you are running more than 15 amps on a 20 amp breaker?

Help please!!!!!!!!

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If your power cords to the boards are 12 gauge, and you plug into a 20A circuit, you can upgrade a CTB-16D to 20A per side.

Technically you should have a special "20A" plug on the cord which won't fit into a standard 15A outlet, but I don't really see how it's unsafe to not have that, as the breaker would protect you if you attempted to plug it into a 15A outlet anyway...

-Tim

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If you are worried about having too many amps going into you box then set the intensity of that box to about 90% and this will drop the amount of amps your lights will pull. You can do this in the Hardware Utility section and then click on Config and then you can set your boxes to whatever percent you want. I have mine set at 90% and you can't tell any difference in quality.

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My guess, and it's only a guess, is that you could have blown the fuse because of too many amps. Again, this is only a guess. Below is solution of a blown fuse from the Lightorama website. Try this and I hope it works. Good Luck.







The first thing you need to do is correct the problem that caused the fuse to blow. Go back over your sequence, and see where you have everything on. You probably need to lower the intensity of your lights to get back under the rating. Once you have done that, you can search for 15 or 20 amp ceramic fast acting fuses. As of this writing, (09/23/2005) you can get them at RadioShack.com.

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Stawski wrote:

Any thoughts on what the problem could be? I guess I may have miss calculated which I am going to check now and maybe I am a little over on amps, but the breaker has not tripped.


The problem is that you're pulling 18A through a 15A fuse. Your breaker is 20A.

Fuses are available at Home Depot -- ask for a ceramic microwave fuse...

-Tim
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I guess a rookie mistake.............I assumed when LOR says you can run 20 amps if you have a 20 amp breaker you can do that without changes the fuse. I just asssumed the fuse supported up to 20 amps. I didn't see anything from LOR that said if you run 20 amps on a 20 amp breaker you have to upgrade the fuses the controllers come with. Anyway, are they pretty easy to change? PS - thanks for all your help!

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Stawski wrote:

I guess a rookie mistake.............I assumed when LOR says you can run 20 amps if you have a 20 amp breaker you can do that without changes the fuse. I just asssumed the fuse supported up to 20 amps. I didn't see anything from LOR that said if you run 20 amps on a 20 amp breaker you have to upgrade the fuses the controllers come with. Anyway, are they pretty easy to change? PS - thanks for all your help!


They're easy to change -- just pop them out and put the new one in (unplug first!)

Please do verify that your input cord is 12 gauge before you do this. It should say in tiny print on the cord...

-Tim
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Tim, sorry to sound stupid but I don;t want to mess up my crontoller. How does it come out? Do you have to take the inside cover off and pull off the two wires or does it just open up from the other end?

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Stawski wrote:

Tim, sorry to sound stupid but I don;t want to mess up my crontoller. How does it come out? Do you have to take the inside cover off and pull off the two wires or does it just open up from the other end?


Hmmm, we might be talking about 2 different things. The ones I have just have the fuses mounted to the circuit board with retainer clips and you just pop them out.

If yours has some sort of external fuseholder, I'm guessing the outside portion unscrews. But if you're talking a Showtime controller, I don't think they come with cords rated for 20A...

-Tim
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Wow unbelievable. I figured out how they come out - it is easy, however the one I need to get is stuck! They used too much glue on the inside fuse holder! I guess I am going to go get some needle nose plieres and see if I can get it out. What luck!

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Ummm.. The fuse holders do NOT have any glue in them! Or they could not make the electrical contact. Like Tim said, they are spring loaded and they come up with two fingers, you don not need pliers, you have a good chance of breaking the fuse. Please make shour you are yanking on the right part. Again, their should be NO Glue!



--Daniel L

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daniel wrote:

Ummm.. The fuse holders do NOT have any glue in them! Or they could not make the electrical contact. Like Tim said, they are spring loaded and they come up with two fingers, you don not need pliers, you have a good chance of breaking the fuse. Please make shour you are yanking on the right part. Again, their should be NO Glue!


Daniel -- I think the newest gen Showtime controllers have an external fuse holder on them, rather than the circuit-board mounted one.

Not sure about the glue part though, or what that might be...

-Tim
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Trust me, it was glue. They use glue for the fuse holder and it seeped through. Dan with LOR confirmed it does happen. They are supposed to just pop out. Anyway I got it out with pliars and changed the fuse and all is well.

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Stawski wrote:

Trust me, it was glue. They use glue for the fuse holder and it seeped through. Dan with LOR confirmed it does happen. They are supposed to just pop out. Anyway I got it out with pliars and changed the fuse and all is well.


Our guess was that it was glue. We have done a lot of testing since this and we can not reproduce the issue with glue getting in but we cannot come up with another answer for the fuse to be suck like that.

We have had a couple of people say that the fuses broke off and became stuck but we have yet to get one back to look at.

Since speaking with Stawski we have run a number of tests overloading the fuse holder trying to get a fuse stuck. It has not happened yet BUT with untold thousands of them out there it has happend.
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Tim Fischer wrote:

Stawski wrote:
Tim, sorry to sound stupid but I don;t want to mess up my crontoller. How does it come out? Do you have to take the inside cover off and pull off the two wires or does it just open up from the other end?


Hmmm, we might be talking about 2 different things. The ones I have just have the fuses mounted to the circuit board with retainer clips and you just pop them out.

If yours has some sort of external fuseholder, I'm guessing the outside portion unscrews. But if you're talking a Showtime controller, I don't think they come with cords rated for 20A...

-Tim

Tim,


The new LOR160x units have an inner plate that covers the circuit board. There are two fuse holders and a DPDT switch that on the plate.

These are the new UL508 certified controllers. The plate is not necessary for UL508 but is just a upgrade (without price increase).

These unti CANNOT be upgraded to 40 amps without removing the inner plate and connecting directly to the circuit board like in the older LOR that you have.

Dan
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Thanks for the info Dan -- I always like to know what the current products are since people often PM or email me questions about products I don't yet own :)

-Tim

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