tofer26 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Hi everyone. I decided to pull out everything to start getting my new Halloween display ready to set up. Everything was working fine last Christmas when I disconnected it. I plugged in my ctb16pc and attached the ethernet cable and refreshed the hardware utility. The controller is found, the red light is on solid, but when I go to test the lights, nothing turns on. Now I had this same problem last year, and ended up having to do a board reset by powering on and off by removing the jumper. Tried that again, and I still can't get the lights ot turn on. I am very confused right now to say the least. Went through a couple different tutorials and did a lot of reading, but just can't seem to come up with the solution. I even tried setting up a show schedule. That runs fine as I can hear the audio, but still no lights. I know there is probably something super easy that I am just forgetting to do from last year, but I have no clue as to what that may be. I also plugged in each individual strand into the wall outlet as well to make sure I just didn't have a bunch of lights.Any ideas and/or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.Thanks for your time in advance! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrison0550 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Im guessing when you say your testing the lights. Your just playing a sequence in the sequence editor correct? If so go up to play in the top of the sequence editor and make sure "control lights" is checked. If thats not it then check your cat5 cable connection and maybe try a different cable. Ive had the pins bend on me on the cst5 plug that threw me last year. Check those 2 things and let us know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 I know this sound like a simple duh moment but it never hurt to throw it out there. is the Hardware utility set to the right controller? I.E. controller 1 or 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofer26 Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Thank you for the replies. Ok, so I tried testing it again this morning using the hardware utility. I made sure the boxes were check marked and that the unit was recognized. I was still getting no lights. So just by chance I moved a couple plugs over to channels 9-16 and, all of a sudden, light are now on, but only the ones I moved over. I decided to swap the fuses thinking that I might have a blown fuses, but still only 9-16 work. So I am guessing I have some sort of problem with channels 1-8, but being fairly new at this, I don't know where to start right now. Any help for the troubleshooting to find the issue would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DougP Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Do you have both power cords plugged in for the controller? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofer26 Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Yes I made sure to plug in both cords. I even swapped the cords in the outlets to make sure one wasn't bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Unplug the controller from any power source, now trace each power cord back to their respective terminal connections. You might find that one of the power cord terminations may not be soldered in completely, and it may either be loose or not soldered at all on the problem side of the controller.For two years I used a controller, no problems, this year 2012, when I pulled my controllers out, one had the neutral terminal very loose, come to find out it had never been soldered to the board in the first place. Amazing that it actually worked for TWO years in this state.So instead of trying to take everything out and resolder the neutral terminal {which was thr same channels you're having issues with 1-8}, I just removed that terminal from the board {it wasn't soldered so it came right out}, and then moved that neutral to another neutral terminal.Yours may not be a neutral, but could be the hot terminal. So if you can tug gently on the cord that feeds the non-working side of the controller and inspect the terminals or move the power cord to a different set of terminals and it happens to work, you've found the problem.If that doesn't work, then I'm thinking it's going to have to go to LOR for repair, as I seriously doubt all 8 triacs would stop working on only one side of the board, 1 or 2 possibly, but all 8 is very, very doubtful.Good Luck and hope the power cord terminals may be your issue.BTW: Check the power cord as well for continutiy by testing it with a buzz box or multimeter/tester that has a continuity option. Occasionally a wire could get broken inside the power cord, and that could also be the problem. Remove the power cord completely from the LOR Controller to test it out, if it tests bad {no audio from the tester}, you'll need to replace it.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GaryM Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Can you actuaklly measure 120VAC at the input terminals for the 1-8 side? If the entire side is dark, need to start troubleshooting the common elements fro the entire side...AC in, fuse, etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 Do you have more then one controller? if so pull a working power cord from anouther one and replace thepossable bad power cord and see if that helps. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofer26 Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Unfortunately I only have one unit right now. I have ordered two more so I will be at 48 channels, but they have not shipped yet due to the promo sale. I am hoping to have those ready for Christmas. Would it be possible just to switch the 2 power cords on the board to check and see if it might be that simple? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 No, On power cord controlles the LED and is the main power to the board. now if you switched the two Power cord and bank 9-16 still work then it's not the power cord. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofer26 Posted August 27, 2012 Author Share Posted August 27, 2012 Ok, I will try to swap the cords tonight when I get home and see if that does it. I have not tried that yet. Hopefully it will be that simple. If not it looks like I might have to dig deeper into the board. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted August 27, 2012 Share Posted August 27, 2012 I would recommend if it's much more then that to Call Customer Support. Of course there are alot of guys anbd Gals around here smarter then me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tofer26 Posted August 28, 2012 Author Share Posted August 28, 2012 It took a little digging, but I got it. One of the connectors had come loose on the board for the power cord on the channel 1-8 side. Put on a new connector, put everything back together and it all works. I must have pinched the cords when I put it away last Christmas. Thanks to everyone for their advice and input. It really helped me work through this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 SWEET!!!! i knew it had to be something silly like that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Orville Posted August 28, 2012 Share Posted August 28, 2012 It took a little digging, but I got it. One of the connectors had come loose on the board for the power cord on the channel 1-8 side. Put on a new connector, put everything back together and it all works. I must have pinched the cords when I put it away last Christmas. Thanks to everyone for their advice and input. It really helped me work through this.Glad you were able to get it fixed! I figured it may have been something as simple as the power cord connection to the board, since that's what had happened to me, I didn't pinch the wire, just the terminal on the board itself had never been soldered. And no, I didn't do the soldering.Anyway, glad you got it fixed and your contoller is working at 100%! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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