GFI Problem Solved

[Darryl Lambert]

I just had to post this.
This past Christmas I was going crazy trying to figure out why my GFI's would keep tripping. Once the snow melted I quickly discovered the problem.
Darryl

Attached files

[ItsMeBobO]

Your snow just melted?

Great picture.

[Surfing4Dough]

What caused the insulation to be taken off the cords? Doesn't look like bite marks from animals. The three partial ones look more like they were grinding against something rough and it wore off.

[rwertz]

That would certainly do it.

I had similar damage on some cords in 97', but it didn't get down to the bare wire. I was trying to pull cords under my front porch and must have caught them on something sharp.

[brownjm74]

If you look at the orange insulation, you can see small teeth marks of a mouse or mole.

[Darryl Lambert]

Yes it was a mole!
I had seen him running around in my front yard at Christmas time and didn't give it a second thought. What I forgot was the little varmints like to tunnel under the snow and eat the grass roots. There was no dead body where the wire was chewed but he must have like the sensation. :shock:

As a side note one drawback to LED's is that being so low in energy consumption I had 48 channels on one GFI. Once the snow was down it was impossible to track down which channels were tripping.


Darryl

[NWSanta]

I know what you mean try finding that problem but, not on Christmas gear but vehicles. I had a mouse problem many years ago and he had eaten through part of the Throttle Position wiring on my truck so my truck would start but wouldn't run. I opened the hood and found that the same thing that you have depicted here. Once I parted all the wires my truck ran fine...

Who would have thought that animals would like the taste of plastic...

-Evan

[LightORamaDan]

NWSanta wrote:

[snip]
Who would have thought that animals would like the taste of plastic...

-Evan

We have found that mice are very fond of the flavor of the insulation used on the wires in the LOR1602W that connect the fuses to the board. We have see where every bit of the insulation has been eaten off those wires and no other wires were touched.

The taste for this insulation may be regional but once that mouse (or mice) discovered those wires with one guy's equiptment, they ate every LOR1602W they could find. Now this has only happend only a couple of times that I can recall but you should stuff something into (or tape) the comm cable opening because a mouse can get through that hole.

Dan

[Dad02]

LightORamaDan wrote:

Now this has only happend only a couple of times that I can recall but you should stuff something into (or tape) the comm cable opening because a mouse can get through that hole.

Dan

That's good to know, some of mine sit on the ground. Thanks Dan.

[rgardner518]

I don't seam to have that problem. I have the PC controller units. They have a hole for the cat5 cable to go in. Well ever since I added the RJ45-ECS, I will never have an issue! See it fits perfectly in the hole. Than I drill a second hole on the other side and no I never have open the case. I'm going to be adding an outside LED next, so I can see everything. I'm not sure which way I want to do the LED yet? Plus the RJ45-ECS, helps to prevent the sockets from coming loose from the board, like others are complaining about.

Just though, I'd pass this on. I'll get a picture of the finished product soon.

[rgardner518]

BrianC wrote:

LightORamaDan wrote:

Now this has only happend only a couple of times that I can recall but you should stuff something into (or tape) the comm cable opening because a mouse can get through that hole.

Dan

That's good to know, some of mine sit on the ground. Thanks Dan.

Do you leave the mounted boxes you have, out all year?