Bubba in NV Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Last Christmas was my first year with the LOR controller. I had used the Mr Christmas 2 years prior with the same LED's with no problem.I had ONE channel (channel one by the way) that would not fade worth a darn. It would start to fade then go out.I read in here somewhere about putting a single standard C-9 bulb inline with the LED string. took a single bulb cut from a string with about 4 inches of pigtail on it. Put on a two prong plug, and plgged it into the string right at the controller and let it hang. It worked. And that string actually faddded better than the others.My show ran from Thanksgiving night til Jan 2nd with no problems other than 2 power outages during that time. The old desktop win2000 computer out in the garage does not restart on power failure.Lots of good info in here, but there is so much it takes a long time to find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted March 23, 2009 Share Posted March 23, 2009 Dan has stated this several times and he is absolutely right. When you start a new topic, your best bet is to make sure the heading has something to do with what you are asking. For instance, if you are having a problem with LED's fading, starting the topic with the title of "HELP!" really isn't going to help people when they search. Everyone should really help each other out and make a good quality topic heading. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigh Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Bubba,Are you LED's full wave or half wave?Craig Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 craigh wrote: Bubba,Are you LED's full wave or half wave?CraigDoesn't matter, all LED strings need something else added.Either use a C9 bulb as mentioned, or add a resistor between 33K 1/2 watt and 47K 1/2 watt across the line somewhere, does not make any difference where. I use a Vampire Plug and solder the resistor across the two points that penetrate the wire, then slide the cover over that, you can seal it from moisture if you want.Put one on each channel with LED lights and your problem goes away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Dennis Cherry wrote: Doesn't matter, all LED strings need something else added.Although I'm not an engineer with any answers as to why or why not, I disagree completely with that statement. My 2008 display had a number of channels spread out among over half a dozen controllers with nothing more than a 35ct set of M5 half-wave LED's on them and I noticed no problems at all. One controller had nothing but either 35ct or 50ct M5 LED's on any channel - one string per channel and not a single issue - other than the fact that at about 20% intensity the LED's were essentially off. But they faded just fine and lit every time they were supposed to.I thought I read somewhere in a previous thread last fall that it may be related to the board - older models versus newer ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 I have no dimming issues either. From what I gather, it's kinda hit and miss. If you have a problem, add load. If not, then don't worry about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 George Simmons wrote: Dennis Cherry wrote: Doesn't matter, all LED strings need something else added.Although I'm not an engineer with any answers as to why or why not, I disagree completely with that statement. My 2008 display had a number of channels spread out among over half a dozen controllers with nothing more than a 35ct set of M5 half-wave LED's on them and I noticed no problems at all. One controller had nothing but either 35ct or 50ct M5 LED's on any channel - one string per channel and not a single issue - other than the fact that at about 20% intensity the LED's were essentially off. But they faded just fine and lit every time they were supposed to.I thought I read somewhere in a previous thread last fall that it may be related to the board - older models versus newer ones.The PC models need the extra resistance to prevent the triacs from mis-firing or not turning off.I had the problem and so did many other users and this was the fix.I have been in electronics over 50 years, so making bad statements is not in my blood.My display was 90% LED for the first year, and yes I had some of the channels false firing, after discussing this with knowledgeable people in this hobby, they all said the same thing, ADD the resistors.I did that and had no problems after the initial testing of the display. My display had both Half Wave and Full Wave LED's, it fixed the fading issue also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bubba in NV Posted March 24, 2009 Author Share Posted March 24, 2009 HmmmmmmI did a reply that did not show up...Anyway,I only had one string of blue LEDs (same brand) that was acting up. The other 15 channels were doing OK. But I will make the terminators (resisters) before my next show for each channel. I did not have any resisters last Christmas, and the nearest Rat Shack (Wal Mart, or anything) is over 200 miles from me. I walked over to my neighbors house and "borrowed" one of his C9 bulbs from th end of a string on his house.Thats why you mail order everything here.Anyway, I hope to be able to get another 16 channel controller during the summer sale, I just missed out the last sale by one day geting the same controller I have I need to get some of my sequences uploaded on the Lighorama sequence site soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
George Simmons Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Dennis Cherry wrote: The PC models need the extra resistance to prevent the triacs from mis-firing or not turning off.I had the problem and so did many other users and this was the fix.I have been in electronics over 50 years, so making bad statements is not in my blood.Dennis,My intent wasn't to impugn your professional integrity in any way. I was simply taking issue with a blanket statement that is/was inaccurate. I don't dispute the problem exists, nor do I question the efficacy of the remedy. I do, however, question the exact cause of the problem. I bought half of my controllers last Feb and the rest in July. Every one of my controllers are the PC models, so clearly not ALL the PC models have that issue with LED's. If so, my 35ct M5's with their barely negligible load should have been problematic and they weren't. I also use both half-wave and full-wave lights, so that seems to rule out that variable as well. Is it possible that LOR received some questionable triacs or could some other component be the issue? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis Cherry Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 George Simmons wrote: Dennis Cherry wrote: The PC models need the extra resistance to prevent the triacs from mis-firing or not turning off.I had the problem and so did many other users and this was the fix.I have been in electronics over 50 years, so making bad statements is not in my blood.Dennis,My intent wasn't to impugn your professional integrity in any way. I was simply taking issue with a blanket statement that is/was inaccurate. I don't dispute the problem exists, nor do I question the efficacy of the remedy. I do, however, question the exact cause of the problem. I bought half of my controllers last Feb and the rest in July. Every one of my controllers are the PC models, so clearly not ALL the PC models have that issue with LED's. If so, my 35ct M5's with their barely negligible load should have been problematic and they weren't. I also use both half-wave and full-wave lights, so that seems to rule out that variable as well. Is it possible that LOR received some questionable triacs or could some other component be the issue?The way it way explained to me was the PC model was designed before LED's lights where on the horizon for Christmas lights. The triac selected was good for incandescence loads but not light loads. It is marginal for the Led loads so putting just a little more load on the triacs makes it function better.It did correct many display problems last year, either C9s or the resistors. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Are the PC triacs different than the boards? I was under the impression that they were the same. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 They are... 600V 16amp triacs.Honestly, that makes sense. You can increase the amperage and it won't effect anything, but decreasing it will. For the non-PC boards, they have the ability to handle even more load then the PC boards. The triacs therefore should be the same or a higher amperage. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponddude Posted March 24, 2009 Share Posted March 24, 2009 Just check both user guides...Yes they do use the same triacs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts