Moparkansas Posted December 6, 2013 Share Posted December 6, 2013 I am new to Light-o-rama this year and just received my controllers in November. I have everything up and running, but some of my light strings stay on dimly 24/7 (I leave the controllers powered). The lights are LED net lights that I picked up at Big Lots. Is there a way to cure this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Hans Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Are the lights that stay on all on one channel? Are they on 100% or dim? If it is one controller and one channel try resetting the controller per the instructions that are in the manual that came with your controllers. If this doesn't work it is probably a bad triac, open a repair ticket with LOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MCas4380 Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 Try adding an additional load to the lines with the LEDs like a night light or an air freshener. Research snubbers this should help. The LEDs kinda store power so they stay lite but if you add something to that channel it will fix it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 You can try and plug a old C9 incan bulb at the end of the string and see if that helps .....I know it solved my issue and then I just painted the bulb black Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I have had a similar problem the first year and again this year. Do this if you have a volt meter to confirm this is the problem. Set your voltmeter for 120V A.C. put on lead in the ground and then touch the fuse or the jumper tab on the board. Do you read 120 volts? If not then touch the second probe to one of the neutral tabs. If you read 120 volts now. Your plug or socket is wired wrong. The hot and neutral are reversed. This will cause lights to glow all of the time about 10%. If you dont have a voltmeter, then visually check your wiring of the plug to the controller. Do you own an outlet checker, if so check the outlet for proper wiring. And it could very well be a problem that is easily fixed with some of the above suggestions. I had several items on one box that the problem was my power lead coming into that controller. And yet there is one circuit on my mega tree that is still slightly glowing or as some of us named it, ghosting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moparkansas Posted December 7, 2013 Author Share Posted December 7, 2013 I have two controllers and what is staying on is the first 7 channels of the first controller - all with one set of LED Net lights. The lights are really dim probably about 10% - hardly noticeable in the daylight. I'll get out there tomorrow and try the additional load and the voltmeter. Thanks for the suggestions. From what I read before buying, I thought the LED issue was fixed with newer controllers and they didn't need the additional load. Will this harm anything in the controllers? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 7, 2013 Share Posted December 7, 2013 I still dont know which controllers you have . But I can buy one of the PC Kits and it will only be of the Gen 2 type. But the fully built PC controllers are of the Gen 3 type with the built in snubber. Let us know how it goes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steven Posted December 10, 2013 Share Posted December 10, 2013 Check that you have the power polarity correct on your controller. The "Dim LED" problem can happen if you have hot and neutral reversed (on the input power connection to the controller - the LED string itself is not polarized). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moparkansas Posted December 14, 2013 Author Share Posted December 14, 2013 It was a polarity issue. The outlet was fine, but I had one ungrounded adapter that could go either way that I use to get a power cord through a small hole that I have to get down into my workroom for when I needed more power when I was running incandescents over the past few years. Probably don't even need it now since I switched to leds and I don't have all that many lights. i plugged my second controller into this cord and then those leds started to glow - flipped the plug on the other controller when I switched it back and now all is good! Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hall Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Similar issue came up for me tonight. A couple of years ago I had trouble most of my LED lights doing the same thing and a very kind soul from the board sent me finished snubbers and I employed them with great success. I'm at work and my wife calls me and says the one peppermint stick is on. I ask her to go out and see if the snubber is on it. Sure enough it is so I ask her to grab the spare snubbers and try them. She tries 7 others and none of them turn the peppermint stick off. So I tell her there is a Glade plugin still in the box hidden in the closet. Try that one out. She plug the Glade plugin in and the peppermint stick goes out instantly. No Idea why the snubbers failed to work after all this time but the Glade plugin works. FYI, the plugs are elevated 6 inches off of the ground. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 The Glade pulls more power than the snubbers do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmac Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Would a C9 incandescent draw enough power to use that instead of a Glade plug Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ken Benedict Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 Yes, that should work also and is cheaper. The Glade solution is more convenient and you don't have to paint it black. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bob Hall Posted December 23, 2013 Share Posted December 23, 2013 So, I'm assuming a bad triac...Especially since a snubber worked this whole time until 19 hours ago.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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