chuckd Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 This is the third night in a row that I've had a strand of lights 'dead short', blowing the fuses in the strand. These are LED strands, and of course, I've had failures in the past, but they're usually just total failures. The weird thing is that these strands are all restricted to one LOR 1602W, channels 3, 6 and 8! Now, I have about 72 LOR 1602's spread all over the place. What are the odds that I coincidentally have dead shorts on the lower 8 channels of one box? But I can't wrap my head around any failure mode of a box that could cause a 'short' condition. Any ideas? Or is it just gremlins? Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 critters chewing thru wires? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckd Posted November 30, 2013 Author Share Posted November 30, 2013 No, these are all mega tree strands that are about 40 feet above ground. No visible damage to the strands whatsoever. It's blowing my mind why they'd all be tied to one half of a 1602W. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plasmadrive Posted November 30, 2013 Share Posted November 30, 2013 Make sure the neutral on the box has a good connection.. you make be getting some small arcing where you can't see it.. that can cause spikes.. Just a thought.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chuckd Posted December 1, 2013 Author Share Posted December 1, 2013 I'll have to check that out, since it happened again tonight! Third night in a row that this one box has caused a complete dead short in an LED strand. It has to be happening in the LED warts, I just can't figure out how. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BigWally11 Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 LEDs will quit like your talking about if a noise is in the power. Usually a loose hot or ground will allow arcing or noise in the line. LEDs can not handle this like incandescent lights can. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grinch Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 Possibly a Cracked solder joint on the PCB board that is intermittently causing occasional power surging??? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-klb- Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 The LEDs are shorting? They are taking their fuses, or the controller fuses out at the same time? They read zero ohms past the fuse holder when testing after the fact?I do tend to lean towards it being something coincidental outside the controller by the way. I'm guessing these strands are also in close physical proximity, which may be related to the cause. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rwertz Posted December 16, 2013 Share Posted December 16, 2013 I wonder what happens if the LED string sees close to 240V. Maybe there's a wiring issue somewhere (like an open neutral). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
a31ford Posted January 5, 2014 Share Posted January 5, 2014 OK, Chuck... Something is going on, here, WHY ? that's the funny thing, I have one controller that channels 3, 6, & 8 Blink ! (no show, simply power up the controller and those channels blink about one second intervals, sometimes it's only one or two channels BUT, it;s ONLY those three (3,6 & 8) U do Voodo to me or something ? I've done a reset (hard) and still the same, the channels work in the show, it's just the blinking.... When I can get down there, I'm going to change the Flip Flop IC's side for side, and see if the problem jumps to the other bank in that controller. Ironicly I had socketed the MOC Opto-couplers, swapped a couple but the channels stay the same, (If I pull the opto's the channels are dead, so it's NOT triac's). So problem is down to 2 parts, Flip Flop IC or the processor itself, will know soon enough... Greg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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