How often do your triacs go bad?

[A Ludick]

Lost 2 triacs this week and was told to send in or solder myself - got fast answers from LOR and will send in right after Halloween - This is a new box I purchased last year and used only once last Christmas. Looking forward having it fixed and seeing what happens after..

[Orville]

To me, the hardest part in changing out triacs was removing all the wires and replacing them once i was done. It ends up taking an hour to do less than 5 minutes of board work

This is what I did when I repaired my #4 Controller {due to some bad solder joints, no I didn't build it}. I got a FINE TIPPED Sharpie marker and labeled every little spade connector with the channel # it was connected to as I took them off their connections.

Took everything out, repaired all the bad connections on the PCB and reflowed a lot of others, especially the spade terminals the wires connect too, since they were my biggest problem with channels 1-8 NOT working.

Took me less than 10-15 minutes to remount the PC Board, reconnect all the channel wires, neutrals and power connections. Powered up and a fully working controller.

I have a bad triac in controller #3, but since it's mounted and in use, I'll do the same to it after the season when I replace the bad Triac on Channel #5. Although I have seriously thought about taking all the triacs off the board and inserting transistor sockets in the PC Board, that way I only have to pull out the bad triac and push in a good triac when the need arises. Since the controllers don't move or anything, this will make it so much easier to change out a bad triac when or if it occurs. It's what I would have done if I had built any of my controllers myself, but all but one were bought new {4} as fully assembled units.

Just a possible idea for easier triac replacement when one fails inside a controller. No taking the controller down or out of service for more than a moment or two for a simple repair!

[Santas Helper]

I've seen that as well, and it was a definite shocker to see the waveforms.

And so now we know, what's the fix for current and future controllers DevMike?

Something to handle the difference in resistive load as apposed to ican lights? A cap in the mix?

[Max-Paul]

And so now we know, what's the fix for current and future controllers DevMike?

Something to handle the difference in resistive load as apposed to ican lights? A cap in the mix?

Come again?

[Santas Helper]

Come again?

And so now we know, what's the fix for current and future controllers DevMike?

Something to handle the difference in resistive load as apposed to ican lights? A cap in the mix?

[LOR Staff]

I'm not sure I understand either.

Incan lights are purely resistive loads.

Since I am not the hardware guy I don't want to get trapped into something. What I say is NOT an official stance on anything hardware. As far as I understand the issue:

The fix for older controllers is to add a small resistive load to the channel (snubber/incan bulb)

The fix for new controllers are the 'phantom loads'.

... but then again, I could be wrong.

[Max-Paul]

Dev Mike, I would say your statement is dead on.

Santa's Helper. I suppose when I say come again. Just saying that your statement or question is confusing. As Mike also indicated. It appeared to me to be a bit choppy. LED have more capacitive reaction than just pure resistance. This causes a phase shift in the relationship between voltage and current. This causes adverse reactions in the way that the Triac responds. Hopefully Mike was able to answer your question?

[Santas Helper]

Yep, it was choppy cuz I don't know, so I just threw cap in there. Could have thrown in there a resistor I suppose.

It's all good. I can replace them.

Edited October 24, 2012 by Santas Helper