Issue with ONE channel staying on/won't turn off incandescents only

[Guest guest]

Okay I have tried resetting the controller by unplugging everything from it, removing the jumper powering it off, then powering it back on with nothing attached, power down, replace jumper and cat5 cables, power up, but I still have one channel on Controller #3, channel 5 that absolutely refuses to turn off. And here's the but....

Channel 5 on this controller only does this when an INCANDESCENT bulb is connected to it, it stays on and won't turn off, it will shimmer and still do all the other effects, it just won't turn off. HOWEVER, if I plug in an LED string or bulb, it's off, and if I plug in the incandescent bulb or an incandescent string in the female END of a string, it won't turn on when the LED string comes on, BUT, yes, ANOTHER BUT, if I plug the incandescent bulb or incandescent string into the MALE/FEMALE pass through connector at the beginning of the LED string, then the incandescent bulb or incandescent string will once again turn on and STAY ON.

This controller is about a year and a half old now, purchased around Feb. 2010.

Am wondering if the triac on Channel 5 has developed some "leakage issues", but why does it only affect incandescent bulbs/strings and NOT LED bulbs/strings. That's what has me somewhat perplexed.

So posting this here to see if maybe there is something else I may be missing or need to do that I'm not doing to reset the controller so this stops happening, or if I'm going to have to e-mail LOR support about a repair issue.

[Guest guest]

My guess is all of your incandescent strings have gone bad...

Seriously..interesting symptoms to be sure, but I'd be looking towards a triac issue to start with...

(I've got all D series controllers at the moment, so someone else can confirm the reset sequence, but it sounds correct...)

[Guest guest]

DonFL wrote:

My guess is all of your incandescent strings have gone bad...

Seriously..interesting symptoms to be sure, but I'd be looking towards a triac issue to start with...

(I've got all D series controllers at the moment, so someone else can confirm the reset sequence, but it sounds correct...)

Well if all my incandescent strings have gone bad, they sure are picky about which channel they are "bad" on, as they only do it on Controller #3, Channel 5. Work fine everywhere else!

And the only bulb on it was a C7 in a Jack O' Lantern, came home and found the one JOL turned on.

Thought, that was odd, so first tried turning it off with the HW Utility, when that didn't work, then I tried resetting the controller, that's when I plugged in an LED string or a single LED 120V bulb, both of which didn't light up until I turned the channel on with the HW Utility, again, I did find this very strange.

So turned it off, worked fine with only the LED's being connected, unplug LED's and re-plugged in the C7 JOL, and it lit right up showing the channel being on, but if a LED string and bulb being 120V powered as well, that's what perplexes me that they(LED's) don't light up when plugged in, only the incandescents do.

And now theincandescent bulb(s) do light if plugged into an ending female plug on a LED or even an icandescent light string, even though the LED string can be either off or on, the incandescent C7 bulb stays on. I've worked in electronics and with electricity pretty much all my life and I have NEVER seen anything like what is happening here. Hence why this one has me completly baffled/puzzled. If the LED bulb/string won't light, neither should the incandescent bulb(s).

This controller (CTB16PC Complete) was purchased around Feb 2010, has the 4.40 firmware in it, so don't know what the letter is, where would I find that information at on the controller to know if it were an "A","B", "C", "D", "E" or ??? designation?

[Guest guest]

Okay, just found this out, if I reverse the LED plug, the LED string will also stay on. (I didn't think to try doing this until I plugged in a second LED string today and it was ON.)

Depending on which way I plug it in, the LED string is either off and turns on when I turn on the channel or the LED string is on (about 75% +/-10%) and won't turn off at all with the HW Utility.

So now I'm believing this is definitely a TRIAC issue. Looks like I may have to send this controller in to LOR for repair.

[rikerz]

I have the same problem with one of my new controllers, will be sending it back as soon as the LOR folks catches their breath.