HLE Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 I have one controller (brand new this year) that has 16 string of mini LED lights doing tomatoe cage trees and as I was looking out the window this morning, I noticed about 12 of the 16 were still on. They are not completely on but you can see that they are actually on. Is there a reason for this and is there a fix for it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 41 minutes ago, HLE said: I have one controller (brand new this year) that has 16 string of mini LED lights doing tomatoe cage trees and as I was looking out the window this morning, I noticed about 12 of the 16 were still on. They are not completely on but you can see that they are actually on. Is there a reason for this and is there a fix for it? You need to add a snubber to some LED strands, as some may not turn completely off and do what you are describing. Search for Snubber or Snubbers on the forum here. There are numerous ways to make them, some are by just using a resistor in a vampire plug, some use a C7 bulb and socket, paint the bulb flat black so it doesn't light up anything, some use a Glade plug in Air Freshener with an empty air freshener bottle installed. But each method may require some form of weatherproofing to keep it from shorting if moisture could get into it. But this is the type method used to keep those particular LED light strands from being on very dimly all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 2, 2018 Share Posted December 2, 2018 23 minutes ago, HLE said: I have one controller (brand new this year) that has 16 string of mini LED lights doing tomatoe cage trees and as I was looking out the window this morning, I noticed about 12 of the 16 were still on. They are not completely on but you can see that they are actually on. Is there a reason for this and is there a fix for it? Is the controller a NEW MODEL (Gen 3)? or was it previously owned (Possibly a Gen 2)? Gen 2's need a snubber load. Some folk build a plug wit a 1 Watt resistor, others use a Glade plugin. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLE Posted December 14, 2018 Author Share Posted December 14, 2018 Alright so here’s another issue. I plugged in a spot light lamp into on of the channels (which is every channel on this controller) with the program off and the LEDs are still on. Any other ideas by chance?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheDucks Posted December 14, 2018 Share Posted December 14, 2018 51 minutes ago, HLE said: Alright so here’s another issue. I plugged in a spot light lamp into on of the channels (which is every channel on this controller) with the program off and the LEDs are still on. Any other ideas by chance?? You are plugging the snubber into the same channel as the lights ar connected to. Snubbers only snub the connected channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLE Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 49 minutes ago, TheDucks said: You are plugging the snubber into the same channel as the lights ar connected to. Snubbers only snub the connected channel I made cage trees with a string of 70 led mini lights. I then took the spot light and plugged it into the end of the string of leds. The leds stayed on. Once the show started all the led strings turned off. Leds are great but so annoying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 1 hour ago, HLE said: I made cage trees with a string of 70 led mini lights. I then took the spot light and plugged it into the end of the string of leds. The leds stayed on. Once the show started all the led strings turned off. Leds are great but so annoying something else has to be going on. how do you run your show, pc - miniDirector - what? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLE Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 35 minutes ago, Mega Arch said: something else has to be going on. how do you run your show, pc - miniDirector - what? Laptop. Running that controller on the 500k network before my pixel tree Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 (edited) 12 hours ago, HLE said: Laptop. Running that controller on the 500k network before my pixel tree Do you have "lights off at end" selected? Or maybe an old show is trying to play? Edited December 15, 2018 by Mega Arch Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLE Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 8 minutes ago, Mega Arch said: Do you have "lights off at end" selected? Or maybe an old show is trying to play? Yes I do. Its really strange because yesterday during the "off" time from the show only parts of the strings of LEDs were lit. Once the shows started, they turned all the way off. Now this morning, none of them are on at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 (edited) 10 minutes ago, Mega Arch said: Do you have "lights off at end" selected? Or maybe an old show is trying to play? As Mega Arch asked, I have this selected in both the SE when I create my sequences, and it is also checked in the Show Editor to "turn used lights off after each sequence", if this is not checked and you don't have any OFF commands in your sequences at the end to turn the lights off, the lights will stay on after the sequence ends that were on when it ended. EDIT: I ALWAYS add an OFF command block at the end of every one of my sequences on any/all lights that are being used, this way I know they have an off command and lights WILL go out once the sequence ends Edited December 15, 2018 by Orville Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mega Arch Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 6 minutes ago, HLE said: Yes I do. Its really strange because yesterday during the "off" time from the show only parts of the strings of LEDs were lit. Once the shows started, they turned all the way off. Now this morning, none of them are on at all. Something else that shouldn't matter, but if your lights are box store lights, they are half wave instead of full wave. Try unplugging and reversing polarity when you plug back in. Again, shouldn't matter - but sometimes - crapola/wow.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 1 hour ago, Mega Arch said: Something else that shouldn't matter, but if your lights are box store lights, they are half wave instead of full wave. Try unplugging and reversing polarity when you plug back in. Again, shouldn't matter - but sometimes - crapola/wow.... Agree with Mega Arch on this one too. I had to do that with 2 LED strands I had, they'd stay lit with the channel off, reversed the male plug in that channel and they went completely off. Some will light full, some 50%-75%, bright enough to either look full on or just enough to be annoying. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HLE Posted December 15, 2018 Author Share Posted December 15, 2018 9 minutes ago, Orville said: Agree with Mega Arch on this one too. I had to do that with 2 LED strands I had, they'd stay lit with the channel off, reversed the male plug in that channel and they went completely off. Some will light full, some 50%-75%, bright enough to either look full on or just enough to be annoying. Yeah that’s about what they are. Annoying Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jtomason Posted December 15, 2018 Share Posted December 15, 2018 2 hours ago, Mega Arch said: Something else that shouldn't matter, but if your lights are box store lights, they are half wave instead of full wave. I've actually had good luck with Philips brand lights (from Target). They make up about 60% (or so) of my display. These are the drop strands I have across the face of the house and garage - never a day's worth of trouble with them: https://www.target.com/p/philips-60ct-christmas-led-faceted-sphere-string-lights-multicolored-gw/-/A-50839309 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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