electrical question

[Ralph D]

one of my lor boxes is connected to one of my biggest trees, this tree alone has over 35 sets of 70 count C6 with two colors, so over 35 sets is going to channel say one and it's colored is green and the second channel again has over 35 sets of the same but colored blue and connected to the same half of the lor box. This box is the metal box with two power cords coming out of it 15 amp circuit on each side. These two channels are on the same side. Last night during a small rainstorm that one box kept blowing the breaker it was connected to. Would I have a better chance of not blowing the breaker if I separated to channels to the other side of the box, so that one channel would be on the left side , on channels one through eight,and the other big channel would be on the right side, Channel 9 through 16. Then I could run the mains out of this box to two separate breakers. would that make any difference at all? do I have any other options? other than shutting down the show during the rain. During big storms I of course shut down my show. But this rain was a light rain that lasted about four or five hours, the breaker didn't start blowing right away it actually took a few hours before it popped.

I already keep all of my plugs off the ground, not sure what would help if anything. I also don't bag or tape my plugs together either. I do however put tape over all of my unused female ends of anything in the yard. And also make sure every one of those ends are off the ground as well,

If anybody has any ideas that would be great.

Thank you

Ralph

[De Trommelslager]

When you say you are blowing the breaker, do you mean that the breaker was tripping under over-current conditions, or is it a GFCI breaker that is tripping?

>It is a GFCI breaker tripping under a ground fault:

Isolate the offending channel(s). Is one circuit feeding this controller (even with split extension cords)? If so, split the load on the controller up. The board gets power from one side (9-16 IIRC), so you will have to make sure power remains to troubleshoot. This would require unplugging channels 9-16. With those off, run the lights and see if the break trips. If it does, unplug half of the other bank (say 5-8) and run the lights again. If it trips, then unplug channels 3&4 and try again. Hopefully that makes sense.

Once you isolate the issue, it is a matter of figuring out what is happening with that channel's lights. One word of caution, bleed currents do accumulate, so it may not be a single circuit but multiple circuits with slight bleed currents.

>If the circuit is tripping under overload:

Perform a load calculation of your lights (load rating should be on the box) and compare that with your connected load. It won't be exact, but if you calculate that the load should be 5A and you are seeing 19A at the controller feed (with all lights on), then you know you have a problem. These numbers are just examples and not necessarily real world possibilities. Keep in mind a short from the hot to neutral on a given circuit will not trip a GFCI device.

If this is the case, then you will have to isolate the channel. In this case I would take a load reading of each channel to locate the problem.

[JacobJDell]

Ralph,

Are these LEDs or Incans or a mix?

[Guest Don Gillespie]

Water and electricity do not mix shut your show off when it is raining