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1602W trips GFCI?


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I am having a problem with my GFCI tripping. I isolated the problem to the lights that outline my yard. I have four channels controlling four runs of lights: Red, White, Green, and Blue. Each run of lights consists of 7 strings of LED lights connected end to end for a total of 550 LED’s off of each of the four channels. All of the lights are currently under 6” of snow. The connections are not protected. Using the hardware utility, I can turn on any of the four channels alone with no problem. I can turn on any two of the four channels with no problem. I can turn on any 3 of the four channels with no problem. I turn all four on and the GFCI trips. This happens without regard to the other 11,000 lights in my display being on or off. I have about 2000 other LED’s and 500 mini lights on the same circuit. The GFCI doesn’t care if all the other lights are on or off. Any 3 of the yard channels and all the other light on, no problem. I even switched the controller to another GFCI circuit to see if it was a problem with the outlet. No difference.



My first thought was that the LED’s draw so little amperage that if all four light runs were shorting out toward the end of the runs, it may take all four being on for the GFCI to detect the differential and trip. But a short should be a short, should it not? If there was a short, it should trip the GFCI the moment power was applied a light string. I shouldn’t need to have all four on for it to occur.



This leads me to question if I may have a problem in the LOR controller. I have three 16-channel deluxe controllers complete in enclosures by LOR (#LOR1602W I think). The lights are on channels 12-15 of controller #1.



Additionally to this issue, the hardware utility doesn’t recognize controller #3. Controllers 1 and 2 were purchased in Oct. Controller 3 in November. Everything off of #3 works fine, but it comes up as unknown device in the hardware utility. This seems like another ticking bomb in my display (there have been many).



I’m a noob at this and all of the little things that I have run into are driving me crazy. It’s like being attacked by a pack of Chihuahuas. If anybody can help, I would appreciate it.



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GFIs work by monitoring current being conducted to ground. If there is a short your circuit breaker or fuse should take care of that. The reason the GFI is tripping is that the collective current draw from four channels to ground reaches it's threshold value after turning on the 4th channel. With 3 or less the current isn't enough to trip the little guy. That has always been my problem that when snow cover or rain hits the GFI's start tripping and can sometimes be a nuisance. I wonder if your board is to blame but doubt it. Try unplugging all the lights and run just the control board if it trips its the board if not its the lights.

Chuck

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Thanks for the input. I suspect the board only because the GFCI doesn't care if I have the other 12 channels or not.

At the suggestion of a friend, I plan to plug the four light runs directly into the GFCI tonight, bypassing the controller, to try to isolate the problem further. I will try your suggestion also.

If it does end up being the light runs, I need someone to explain to me (very slooooowwly) why these four together are a problem when any three of four with the other 12 channels on are not.

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derrickb wrote:

Additionally to this issue, the hardware utility doesn’t recognize controller #3. Controllers 1 and 2 were purchased in Oct. Controller 3 in November. Everything off of #3 works fine, but it comes up as unknown device in the hardware utility. This seems like another ticking bomb in my display (there have been many).

You probably have an old devices file, so the version of the firmware in the newer controller is not known by the HWU. Go to www.lightorama.com -> Support -> (bottom of the page) Download Hardware Utility. Run this executable and it will install the latest HWU & devices file.
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As an update, the four runs of LED's pop the GFCI when plugged in directly. Very happy that it is not the controller.

This discussion can move over to the lights topic. Thanks for the input!

-Derrick

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