LOR Controller out!

[Guest guest]

Tonight would have been light up night but last night I was playing around on hardware thing, and faded everything up, then everything went off. (Keep in mind my controller is using not even close to 8 amps on any channel and only 12 amps on one side and nearly 8 on other a total of about 20amps, way under limit.) So after that I figured I blew the fuse. So I replaced them today and nothing. The LED wont light at all. All the breakers are on and it is plugged into 2 new outlets. Neither of which are GFCI, meaning nothing is popped there. I have no idea what is going on. It has been VERY wet lately but if it did short a fuse or breaker would be out right? I just dont understand this...

Thanks,
Zac

[Guest guest]

Zac,

It is hard to say what could have happened but you say that the LED is out so it would seem that the right side of the card is not getting power. (the right side is the side that powers the transformer and the electronics. However you have done all the correct things, changed fuses, checked circuit breakers.... I assume that you have verfied by plugging something into the outlet that powers the controller that you do indeed have power.....

You mentioned that it had been wet but as long as you keep the board good and dry that should not be an issue. If you do get water on the board while it is powered up you would most likely kill it.

We will send out a new card as quickly as possible.

[Guest guest]

Omg, I checked for power in the one I thought was the right side of the board, never checked the other one, I tryed it and its dead! We replaced that outlet last night with a new one from store....

Omg, and that side only has like 11 amps out of 15. Shouldn't the breaker flip?!?

This happend with me at halloween, same outlet!

Any Ideas why this outlet keeps dieing? I will check all the lines in the house to see if I can find anything.

Sorry for the scare...

Zac

[Guest guest]

Zac_Cutt wrote:

Omg, and that side only has like 11 amps out of 15. Shouldn't the breaker flip?!?

Not sure what you mean -- if you pull 11A on a 15A circuit, it wouldn't trip the breaker (of course).

If you have outlets multiple outlets dying, you have a potentially serious wiring problem and should probably get an expert out to look at it.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

I have always run my lights off that outlet, never computer controlled or this many.. And it was a brand new "Heavy Duty" outlet. I will look at it tommorow and see if I can see any problems, don't know how it could kill an outlet. The other outlet onlyu went out for that night but worked the next day. I am so confused with this problem!
Zac

Edit:
My thought are possibly a sticky breaker and the outlet blew before the wiering, possibly beacuse wiring could accedently be 12g or something else.

[Guest guest]

This is why I spent time last night installing 2 new 20 amp breakers going to to 2 dedicated 20 amp gfci outlets just for my new lights this year. (I know.. small display by PC standards! LOL!)

I wanted to make certain I didn't have any problems not knowing what else might be on the circuit.

Are your cords large enough gauge for the distance?
Make certain the plugs on the cords are not heating up damaging the outlets.

Just some thoughts Zac...
i hope you get it sorted out!:happytree:

[Guest guest]

Zac, you should probably try and get someone who knows electric. I have some serious electric for my display that I work on personally but one of my best friends is a qualified electrician who thought me everything I know. I would never work on the elctric if I was 100% confident of what I was doing. I learned that lesson the hard way. Good Luck!

Bill Jr.

[Guest guest]

Your house isn't old enough where its alluminum wiring is it? Alluminum can potentionally Cause many problems and can melt or may make outlets die just out of the blue. If you put to much current (amps) through the wire its obvious but it will slowly melt aluminum at a much quicker rate than copper. That is why copper is used now instead of aluminum. Are you sure your aren't using like a 16 guage extension cord because for long distances and to get the correct amount of amps or current you need probably a 12 AWG cord if the distance is far or if you want to me able to get the full 11 AMPs. From what i have seen usually the 16 Guage will not always carry the full amps and it slowly dies out the longer the cord is. Maybe the screw terminal aren't tight enough in the outlet.. this could be a problem to and could cause a short circuit.. resulting in loss of power in the outlet. If the outlets are protected correctly they shouldn't die this quickly usually they have a preferred time period of which they will last. (3-5 years).

[Guest guest]

No, no aluminum wiring, that was only used like 1970's my house is like 15 yrs old. But I did look at my cords which I thought were 14g, meaning it could handle 13amps right? Anyways, it is actually a 10 A 120v cord! According to the label... Off to the hardware store, another 100$.... GReat.... No money for lights next year!

Should I get 14g or 12g? 12 g is extremly expensive right?

Zac Cutt

[Guest guest]

Yes 12 is very expensive. For me I bought a 25 footer for 10 bucks for my professional lighting. I would advise 14 to be ok( I think I run a mix of 14 and 16 guages). The thing that really gets you is if you pull the full 10 A the cords get warm sometimes even HOT and thats why they rate them where they do. The thick ones can handle the heat better.

[Guest guest]

The best cords I ever bought are home made.

Go to Home Depot or a electrical supplier and buy bulk cord 12/3 by the foot, pick up some cord ends and some goop sealant and you have custom cords for your needs (Put a quad box on one end). For the quality and cost per foot, you can't go wrong (Just pin it out correctly), you will easily spend half of the retail price.

I have built 100' cords on 12/3 for the job sites, pulling big amps continuously. If they warm up then your probably ready to blow. You could even create custom spider boxes for your layout or make your main feeder lines.

As for 18/3, I still buy them at the store, $4.00 for 40', I can't beat that!

[Guest guest]

I just found out the liner that runs that outlet was the line which runs the tv and stereo!! I have a question, I know you will all say no, but I had a 20amp line put in for the welder, could I copy this line on a new breaker and put another one in myself?? I don't think it is that hard, heck, I made my transmitter, I have done some wiring, wont be that hard. Plus I have 9 unused breakers.

Another question, If there is a 20amp breaker with two little handles, but they are joined and there is one outlet running of each side does that mean each is a seerate 20 amps or is it on the same line??

I could just move the other one outside and use it for my lights too.

Zac

[Guest guest]

Zac_Cutt wrote:

I just found out the liner that runs that outlet was the line which runs the tv and stereo!! I have a question, I know you will all say no, but I had a 20amp line put in for the welder, could I copy this line on a new breaker and put another one in myself?? I don't think it is that hard, heck, I made my transmitter, I have done some wiring, wont be that hard. Plus I have 9 unused breakers.

Another question, If there is a 20amp breaker with two little handles, but they are joined and there is one outlet running of each side does that mean each is a seerate 20 amps or is it on the same line??

I could just move the other one outside and use it for my lights too.

Zac

Not sure what you mean by "copy this line". If you mean run another wire alongside of it, to a new breaker and a new outlet -- then sure. If you mean hooking into the welder outlet, there are some issues (namely, you'd have to abandon the welder outlet and add a small subpanel to be legal -- assuming the welder outlet is 240V not 120V).

A ganged breaker means that there are 2 'hots' going to the device, which could be a 240V device (2 120V hots on opposite phases) or a shared-neutral device (such as a kitchen split-duplex outlet, which I understand is common in Canada).

-Tim

[Guest guest]

I meant just because I dont exactly know what to do other then turn power off, could I just copy the exact setup and out the sme place and same gauge of wire etc. But you answered that.
Thanks,
Zac

Edit:
The 2 outlets are both 20amp 120v, but I want to know if they are the same line?


Attached files

[Guest guest]

Zac_Cutt wrote:

I meant just because I dont exactly know what to do other then turn power off, could I just copy the exact setup and out the sme place and same gauge of wire etc. But you answered that.

Careful there! I didn't talk about wire gauge, etc. I'd have to know more about your setup to say if "copying" it was the right thing to do.

I hate to say it, but you really should bring in someone with more knowledge about things electrical to avoid problems. I'd hate to see you burn your home down because you thought you were taking my advice...

At the VERY least, head to the library and pick up a book on basic wiring. You'll need to understand things like which wire gauges to use when, matching wire gauge to breaker size, etc.

-Tim

[Guest guest]

Zac,

#1) Follow Tim's advise!

#2) Burning your house down would be nothing compared to hurting or killing someone or yourself.

>>Edit:
>>The 2 outlets are both 20amp 120v, but I want to know if they are the same line?

Double breakers are made for a single slot in a panel (2-20 AMP breakers), if you can throw each breaker individually then you a two circuit breaker, are they connected to something.....who knows.

If you think you know what they feed, plug a lamp into that receptacle, turn on the lamp and throw one of the breakers, if that kills the light, try the other receptacle and if it's off you have the same circuit, if the other receptacle is still live, throw the other half, if that kills the light then you found the other circuit.

AGAIN, listen to the WARNINGS, if you are not sure, DON'T DO IT, it will KILL you faster than you can say Merry Chr................

Electricians don't cost that much, $25-30 bucks per circuit plus material. check around, maybe someone you know, knows someone.

[Guest guest]

Or friend put that line in, only running 2 outlets off the one breaker, which is double. I am just going to move the one outlet through the wall keeping all the same wire/ setup.

Thanks for all the advice!
Zac

[Guest guest]

If both of those tabs say 20 then it is 2 twenty amp circuits. If only 1 says 20 then it is 2 circuits with a total of twenty amps. Generally when you have a breaker like that it is for 220 volts, but not always. Sometimes they use a breaker like that in a kitchen to run 2 circuits into the same box (i.e. 0ne receptical with a split circuit).

16 guage wire can handle 10 amps

14 " " 15 amps

12 " " 20 amps

[Guest guest]

Jaybird wrote:

If both of those tabs say 20 then it is 2 twenty amp circuits. If only 1 says 20 then it is 2 circuits with a total of twenty amps. Generally when you have a breaker like that it is for 220 volts, but not always. Sometimes they use a breaker like that in a kitchen to run 2 circuits into the same box (i.e. 0ne receptical with a split circuit).

16 guage wire can handle 10 amps

14 " " 15 amps

12 " " 20 amps

Nitpick: It's 2 circuits with 20 amps each. Each circuit has it's own 20A hot, and the neutral carries the difference current between them (since the 2 phases are opposite each other) and will therefore never carry more than 20A (which would mean one circuit is fully loaded and the other is unloaded). If both circuits are equally loaded, the neutral carries no current.

Also, 16 gauge is not allowed (in the US anyway) for permanant devices such as outlets.

-Tim