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one channel randomly staying on at 50%


bwaldrep

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I bought a number of PC-CTB16PC boards with high power HS's (No soldering required) during the summer sale, and added my own output cords, and enclosures.

One of them, has a random issue on channel 14. During some sequences (running from the sequence editor for testing) That channel will get stuck on at a lower then 100% intensity (lets say 50%, but I'm not sure on the exact percentage)

The channel will still respond to commands, with the exception of off, or any lower intensity that what it get stuck at. (in other words, if the sequence tells it to go full on, it will, it just doesn't go off)

The problem will sometimes go away on its own after a minute or 2, or sometimes, I have to open up hardware utility and click all lights off a few times.

I have a few extra channels on a near by controller that I can switch the effected lights to, if this is an issue where I need to send the board back to LOR, I can do that in Jan. But I thought I would see if anyone knows of a simple fix.

Thanks
-Brent

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Most likely a failed triac. Could be a bad opto-isolator.

It can't hurt to try resetting the board, but I dont think that is this case.

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I had a similar problem on one of my controllers and what I found was one of my primary feeds to the controller was not plugged in 100%. AS soon as I pushed theplug alll the way into the receptacle the problem went away. You also may want to try a reset on that controller.

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ceharger wrote:

How do I reset my controller, I have a simular situation with one port not shutting off 100% it stays at 50%


What kind of controller?

If the 1600 series, power off. - Set dials to 00 - Power On for 10 secs. - Power off. -Turn dials to correct ID setting. - Power On

If the PC series, Power Off. - Remove the jumper from the header. - Power On for 10 secs. - Power Off. - Replace the jumper. - Power On. - Reset the controller ID number
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  • 2 weeks later...
Guest Don Gillespie

JBullard wrote:

ceharger wrote:
How do I reset my controller, I have a simular situation with one port not shutting off 100% it stays at 50%


What kind of controller?

If the 1600 series, power off. - Set dials to 00 - Power On for 10 secs. - Power off. -Turn dials to correct ID setting. - Power On

If the PC series, Power Off. - Remove the jumper from the header. - Power On for 10 secs. - Power Off. - Replace the jumper. - Power On. - Reset the controller ID number

Mr Bullard when you refer to the jumper are you refering to the cat 5 cable
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well it seems to be a problem with a certain channel, every thing that I have found with this problem is with channel 14 is that just a coincidence? or is this something that could be a defect? I am having the same problem....

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saynomoore wrote:

well it seems to be a problem with a certain channel, every thing that I have found with this problem is with channel 14 is that just a coincidence? or is this something that could be a defect? I am having the same problem....


Channel 14 for me as well. One thing to note, when hooked up "fewer" lights be they LED or mini I have the problem. hooking up channel 14 to a 12' LED rope light and, there is no issue.

I'm getting by by moving my sign which is back lit by the aforementioned rope light, to channel 14.
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saynomoore wrote:

well it seems to be a problem with a certain channel, every thing that I have found with this problem is with channel 14 is that just a coincidence? or is this something that could be a defect? I am having the same problem....


We see more about hardware problems than what you see here in the forums and we have not seen a pattern for any particular channel having a problem. We will keep an eye open for any patterns that indicate that there is intrisic problem but as of now the number of controllers with issues is very small.

Dan
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saynomoore wrote:

well it seems to be a problem with a certain channel, every thing that I have found with this problem is with channel 14 is that just a coincidence? or is this something that could be a defect? I am having the same problem....


We see more about hardware problems than what you see here in the forums and we have not seen a pattern for any particular channel having a problem. We will keep an eye open for any patterns that indicate that there is intrisic problem but as of now the number of controllers with issues is very small.

Dan
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bwaldrep wrote:

Thanks for the info Dan, i'll reach out to the support team in Jan. about my board issue.


Me too. I'll let thing calm down for you all. It's got to be hectic this time of year.

I did try Channel 14 on my other controllers and they have no trouble when hooked to the same "offending" lights. So we can probably write off bizarreness in the firmware :)
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There is a good chance that the problem lies with a Triac that has shorted one half of the unit. This will give a 50% all of the time on with 51 - 100% being controlled by the other half that is still good.

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OK total weirdness...

My "bad channel" controls my sign and a rope light inside the house. it fades from 30%-50%-30% and repeats. Since I moved this sequence to the bad channel it's just been on at 50%.

Here's the weird part: last night about 3 hours into the show the banister lights were fading, and lo and behold at the end of the show they turned off.

As an aside, one half of one strand of my LED roof lights is at half intensity, and that started last night too, although much sooner than the bad channel seemed to "fix itself".

I fully expect to see the lights turn back on at some random time though.

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