Is my issue a bad triac?

[rickyniec]

I recently had one channel behaving strangely on one of my CTB-16PC controllers. I came to the forums to see if other people had a similar experience. It sounded like I could have a bad triac, but every post with bad triacs seemed to say the channel would be stuck on continuously at 50%. That was not the case for me.

 

So, I tried the other tests I saw recommended like resetting the unit and running the controller with the bad channel by itself (with no other controllers on the network) using a new/different network cable. None of this resolved the issue.

 

Here is part of the problem description I created for the ticket I sent to LOR:

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I'm trying to determine if a have a bad triac. When the show is enabled but not running, this channel comes one for about 2 seconds every minute. When the show is running, it seems to go on/off/fade at the correct time when I turn on all 8 channels (the entire leaping arch) all on the same side of the unit. When I perform a chase on that side, it seems that one channel remains on for a additional second or two after the channel was instructed to turn off (normally a fade off 100%-0%). Based on other users description of a bad triac (channel stuck on at 50%), this sounds like a different issue.

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LOR sent me new triacs and replacing the one for this channel resolved the issue. I just wanted to post this information for anyone trying to determine if they are having a triac issue when their channel is doing something other than stuck on continuously at 50%.

 

 

[rick gurnee]

I have a channel doing the exact same thing.  I switched to a spare channel and plan to replace the triac after season.  Never saw this before.  Glad to know replacing the triac will fix the problem.

[plasmadrive]

could be worse.. I had a channel that was doing that.. actually 4 channels next to each other.. turn out to be a worm frying the PCB.. completely destroyed it.  Had to buy a new board..  consider yourself lucky. 

[Duckie24]

I've got something weird going on with my controller.  It just started today.  I have a sequence loop where all the lights are on.  The loop is 1 minute and repeats.  I use one loop in the evening before my show starts, so that my lights are just static on.  I have another loop after the show shuts down in the evening to leave some of my lights on at 50%.  Well, it just started where at the beginning of the loop the lights are on, and then they all shut completely off for the remainder of the loop.  The lights are on for about 5 seconds, and then off for the remainder of the 55 seconds of the loop.  Then they come back on for 5 seconds again, then off.  I unplugged all of my lights and brought the box inside for testing. All channels seemed to run normally in the hardware config mode.  So I put the box back outside and reconnected my lights.  In the hardware config mode I had all of the lights on and everything worked properly.  They stayed on for a good 5--7 minutes without any issue.  So I started my schedule and when the pre-show "lights on" show ran, the same thing happened.  I have 2 other controllers that are part of the "lights on" pre and post show and they are not doing this.  The lights stay on for the duration of the loop as expected.  And my regular show works perfectly as well with no obvious untoward effects of any kind that I can see.  Any thoughts on what might be causing this?