Fading problem

[JBullard]

Not yet Earl. Just got the display running last Sunday (so much rain this year had me behind on set up) and more rain the only nights I was home this week.

Going out of town for work again this afternoon, will be gone most of the week.

[David Rise]

The 2 strings that stopped dimming, are commercial grade, and bought from CDI. So cheap, retail, doesn't apply to my situation. Only my roof lights are retail. Everything from Icicles down are commercial grade.
I was thinking that it might be the controller, since it's just 2 channels on one controller that are acting up.

I was thinking about plugging in one of the Gen3 controllers that Santa is going to bring me and see what happens.

I'm not really concerned about it. I have an entire year to figure it out. Not going to tear into the display. It's fine just going on and off. I'm the only one that notices anyhow.

[Rauco]

The strings I bought are Phillips brand from Target.

My set up is as follows, if this helps:

Side 1 of the controller is powered from my house, side 2 from my neighbor's, both GFCI outlets. Side 1 (channels 1 through 8) seem to be the only problem channels. Each channel on 1 though 8 have 3-way T's to split to two trees each, all matched. LEDs on those channels have 33K snubbers on them.

- Channels 2, 3, 5, 6 are incandescent strings, 60-120 bulbs
- Channels 1, 4, 7, 8 are LED strings, 1 or two 60 bulbs strings

- Channel 9 is incandescent icicle lights
- Channel 10 is LED C7 style string and LED icicles
- Channel 11 is Shooting Star icicles

- Channels 13, 14, 15, 6 are incandescent floods

Going to test in these ways:

- Swapping main power to controller
- Running both power lines from one house, then the other
- Removing LED's from 1, 4, 7, 8 and testing incandescent dimming.

Any other things you'd suggest I try? Length of extension cords, etc.?

[David Rise]

Orville wrote:

When I took some LED's out of a LED REPLACEABLE type string last year I found small capacitors just lying inside the sockets!:shock:  They were held in by the LED leads and sat just under the LED plug that inserted into the socket.  

 They fell out if you held the socket upside down, some were wedged in and didn't fall out without a little persuasion (needle nose pliers).  

 After that I started looking into other strings I was having fading issues with and removed every LED looking for these capacitors and removed every single one of them.   Once I got rid of the darn capacitors from inside the sockets, the string faded just fine.  They seemed to be every other LED in some strings and in others, they were around every 5th LED in the string.

Not sure why these capacitors were in there, but it didn't seem to make a difference to how the string lit or voltages to each LED, just kept the string from fading up or down.

 

WOW, I read that wrong.
So the capacitors were actually under the bulbs?
I guess that's not my issue after all.
So if they are commercial grade strings from CDI, they should fade, unless there's a problem with the string?

[-klb-]

CDI strings should fade fine, unless you have grounded extension cords out of the controller, really long extension cords, lots of strings, or other factors that bump up the total wiring capacitance. Even then, single 47K resistors seem to be all that is ever needed.

[Max-Paul]

The strings are from Target you say. Are these also the strings where you can pull out a bulb for replacement? IF so, might as well throw them in the trash now. But to be sure. Do you own a magnet? If so, pull out a bulb and place the lead next to a magnet. If it sticks or tries to stick to the magnet. Then you have the mild steel leads. And when the water gets into the back of the socket and gets on the leads. The leads WILL rust. But if the leads do not stick or try to stick to the magnet. Then they must have at last gone back to tinned copper leads.

I am no fan of Target or any of the other big box stores and their cheaper LED light strings. Got some Philip snow flakes with rope lights. Going to have to replace the rope lights cause they have low wattage resistors that are causing the tube to heat up and bubble till it has a small hole that rain water gets in. Should see the tube, it is reddish from rust. Just waiting for one of my snow flakes to fail.

[Guest guest]

David Rise wrote:

WOW, I read that wrong.
So the capacitors were actually under the bulbs?
I guess that's not my issue after all.
So if they are commercial grade strings from CDI, they should fade, unless there's a problem with the string?

Yes, the caps were in the actual socket, they were installed so they made contact with each side of the contacts in the socket itself. They were NOT under the LED in the part you remove, they were in the actual female socket that is attached to the string itself. But in a sense, they were under the LED, but seperate from the LED.