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Controller Flashing Lights


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Posted

Anyone ever have a trouble with this..... been going on for a while now.

Last year noticed that the lights connected to one of my 16 channel controllers .. (Pro LOR1602W) would flash every once in a while.

Talked to LOR about it last year and reset controller completely and also assured firmware was updated but the problem still happened. This only occurred when the show was not running

Today i noticed it was worse this year..... lights were quickly flashing almost constantly..... seems like they would do it for a couple of minutes then stop then start up again.

I ordered a new controller the other day to replace this one when it comes in and just wondering what i can possible do with it ... maybe send to LOR for a Diagnostic?

Posted

Ron, are you using incands or LEDs? If LEDs do you have snubers on them? LEDs appear as ghosts to the channels (due to extreme low loads) so the channels dont really know when they are off. Plug in a glade airfreshner, or a C9 in the end of those strings and see if that shuts them all the way off.

Are your data and power cords seperated (90deg-ish crossing) or running parallel? Try splitting them apart.

Posted

Yes box has both LEDs and incands connected to it and it appears to be happening with all lights. Some of the my LED strands do have snubbers in place where I noticed there is a fade problem but some do not.

This my first box in the data cable series so no other data cables are near..... data cable comes right from house into this box then cable goes to next box mounted a few inches away on my porch.

Posted

Captain,

What TJ is suggesting is that the cat 5 wire and any AC power leads be kept apart as much as possible. And that try to cross at more of a 90 degrees than say 15 degrees.

AC lines can induce noise into the comm cables (cat5).

Posted

Gotcha Max-Paul

Actually the power cable and data cables on this controller affected are completely seperate and the data cable for it crosses with no other power or data cables. At least it gave me an excuse to buy another controller to put in place...send the current one to Light O Rama for a diagnostic and then use it next year as a backup....WAIT DID I SAY BACKUP ???????? I meant EXPANSION LOL

Posted

check the cate 5 port that the cate 5 plugs into. make sure all those little springy wires are sprung up and make good contact with the cable when inserted. I had the same issues you are experiencing, and and once I sprung the little wires up for good contact the controller has been perfect

Posted (edited)

I am having this same problem - the lights are all LED's with 6 strings of each color - full wave strings, this is the last controller on this run - I have network extenders in my network, checked the network port wires and the connection is good, tried both ports and still have the same problem. Reset the controller.

When I run the Hardware utility and do fades I don't see the problem, only when the show runs.

I have looked through all the sequences just to be sure that there are no little mistakes causing this problem, but the lights flash when they aren't suppose to! For example if I am fading from green to blue the reds will flash, and sometimes blue and greens flash together and so on.

it is really annoying.

Any ideas on how to fix this?

All my lights are full wave LED's and I don't have this problem any where else in my show!

Craig

Edited by craigh
Posted

Hi, I am using my controller for the first time this year and am experiencing the same type of situation. All my illumination is LED's. A couple of channels are staying on very faintly when the schedule is not running. If I unplug the cat5 cable from the computer they still stay on. We are experiencing very high humidity and some rain. The controller has not been getting wet. I was attributing this to the high humidty. I have had the show running for a week with no problems until 2 days ago, which was whne the humidty started.

Any suggestions other than what was in the previous posts?

Also, I don't understand what you mean by full wave led's....

Thanks

Bob

Posted

Thanks TJ. Knew what it was just didn't know wthe technical term....

Posted

As far as the LEDs staying faintly lit, I don't think it's a problem unless it bothers you. The "ghosting" lights will occur because they draw so little power that any bit of current leakage wil light them a bit.

Posted

^^ Which is why you should use a snubber to present a load to the triac.

Posted

Ghosting doesn't bother me during the show, but after the schedule is completed and a few lights are flickering is what bothers me. Just received my mini director so I am using a seperate timer. Now after the show wont be a problem. Thanks for the help!

Posted (edited)

In my show the flashing lights is an issue as it is very noticeable, and it distracts from what should really be happening.

My problem still continues - I changed out the network cable hoping that would help it didn't!

I tried adding an air freshener to one of the problem channels - no change, it still flashed when it shouldn't.

In one of my sequences I cleared out all of the settings for 2 of the problem channels, leaving just one channel with any programming for that controller - and guess what - those 2 channels still flashed on randomly!

????

Edited by craigh
Posted

Mine definitely seemed to be a hardware issue..... I put in a new controller 2 days ago using same cables and same configuration to send the other unit to LOR for a diagnostic and so far havent seen one blink or flash of lights since putting in the new controller.

Posted (edited)

my problem turned out to be a problem with the controller - LOR is sending me a new one!!

Craig

Edited by craigh
Posted

Earlier this week the humidty went away and so did my problem.

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