tjflory Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 (edited) I am using trigger #1 with about 30 feet of cabling (unshielded cat5) to a big green aluminated button to start the water fountain portion of my July 4 show.The button is on top of a 4 foot tall post with a sign. The sign is illminated by a 3 LED white spolight (on a LOR channel) near the ground pointing up. Also on this post is my FM transmitter and antenna. I had a problem after I started the show (on demand) the trigger would self-activate and start my show. It was intermiitent time-wise but always happened within 20 seconds of show start. Today I spent about 2 hours debugging this problem. I re-wired the trigger wires... it still did it. I tried turning off the FM transmitter... it still did it. I disconnected the switch at the post... it still did it. I disconnected the trigger at the LOR... It DID NOT do it. I then reconnected everything and started disconnecing lights. After disconneding the subject light... it stopped doing it. Just for giggles, I replaced the LED spotlight with an incand. and it did not fail. I screwed the LED back in and it failed within 15 seconds. Conclusion: The LED spotlight (and cable?) evidentally puts off a field of enough strength to activate the trigger circuit thru its cable. Anyone know how much voltage and how sensitive the trigger circuits are? Would a shielded cable help? Meanwhile, I will not be letting the LED spotlight anywhere near my LOR stuff.tj Edited July 1, 2012 by tjflory Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spomalley Posted July 1, 2012 Share Posted July 1, 2012 I'm not sure about what would help but it seems very strange, it appears you are experiencing ghost power signals however you would expect the incandescent to draw more power and therefore would make the problems worse. Two things to do:1. Seperate the Cat5 and Power Lines (if applicable)2. The LED might'nt draw enough power from the channel so try and have the incandescent and LED bulbs in 2 different spotlights connected to the channel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjflory Posted July 2, 2012 Author Share Posted July 2, 2012 ...case in point why edits should be enabled indefinitely: I forgot to mention the trigger is on a different controller than the LED spotlight, though they are mounted back-to-back on 1/2" plywood and all the cables are in close proximity.(Geesh... I miss spell-check!)tj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caleb Linburg Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 I have a motion sensor that if you put a light load like an led light on it thinks it is off when it is on. We had to put 2 things on to get it to work. Maybe it could be somthing of the same type of issue. I don't think it is much to do with the wires not having shielding but more so the low power. It still seems really strange for an lor controller. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WilliamS Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 Its some type of outside noise getting into the line. Ever hear a Motorola pager phone near a set of speakers just before it goes off? With that amount of distance, anyone walking by with a new smartphone or such device would cause a ton of noise in the system. The triggers requires such a lot amount of resistance in some cases to be triggered. Try to seperate any lines you may have close, such as power wires, or other data lines from that line. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted July 2, 2012 Share Posted July 2, 2012 You could try the following. Run a +5V line to the switch from the controller. Connect that +5V line ((through a 4K resistor) to the switch on the same terminal as the input line. This should keep the input high until the button is push and everything is pulled to ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 I have to agree with most of the advice you have gotten. Dont matter if LED spots and the input are on two different controllers. Wires for different circuits near the input wires can induce a signal that can be seen as a valid input. First step is to seperate the different circuit wires. Next would be adding .01 disk capassitors between ground and the two input wires. Might even need a disk between the two input wires. This will help snub any high freq. noise to ground. And there is nothing wrong with using a shielded wire with the shield only hard grounded at one end. And in worse cases a soft ground at the other end (disk cap between ground and shield). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 Even though the LED light is lower power than the incandescent, it is not self limiting like the incandescent. I've got some MR-16 LED around here that have buck current regulators in them, and with a scope you can see quite a bit of noise on the line as they act basically like switching power supplies. So far, any/all of the ideas above look like good ideas that can't hurt to try. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjflory Posted July 3, 2012 Author Share Posted July 3, 2012 I opened a ticket as well with LOR. They got right back with me. EXCELLENT Service!There are a lot of smart folks on this forum as well! Most of what you are saying is WAY over my head.(I'm a "user")Thanks everyone!tj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jonnyci Posted July 3, 2012 Share Posted July 3, 2012 TJ - do you have any pics ro video of this setup? Would love to see it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tjflory Posted July 4, 2012 Author Share Posted July 4, 2012 I tried with my phone but no good. I will try again with a camera this time... Duh.th Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Young Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 I run shielded 4 conductor cable, 2 cables that go from my 6 input visitor control panel to 2 separate LOR controllers (16D) that are located 150 ft away. The lines parallel 120 volt AC lines that feed that section of the display, and I have no issues.Get a good quality cable and you should be all set! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted July 9, 2012 Share Posted July 9, 2012 Greg.I see your using a shielded 4 conductor cable. Would you share how did you ground the shield? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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