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It Was a Dark and Stormy Night


Alien407

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So, last Thursday I was at work and my wife was at home sitting in our office - studio working on our computer which happens to be the Light-O-Rama show computer when a dark cloud appeared on the horizon.  Well, in a few minutes I get a text telling me that our neighbor's pine trees just got hit by lightning.  I texted that that was close.  Then she texted "I smell smoke and a putrid burning plastic smell."  I panicked and texted her to check every room, the attic, the garage, everywhere to make sure there was no fire or smoke anywhere.  Then she texted me a picture (attached) and said this little red thingy got zapped and burned.  Well, I use Light-O-Rama to run some landscape lighting throughout the year and ramp up a little for the holidays.  I'm using E1.31 to drive the yard lights and I use a CTB-16PC to drive icicle lights, wreaths, trees and a few other traditional 120V elements during the holidays.  At this point, I have the CTB-16PC in its shipping box stored away.  But, I didn't unplug the USB-RS485 connector from the PC to the wall phone plug which is how I route the signal through the house to the garage where the controller lives during the holidays.

 

Needless to say, I paid the price for not paying attention to details and will be ordering a new adapter soon.

 

Moral of the story:  If you ain't using it, unplug it and put it away!

 

P.S.  That was the only thing damaged other than the USB port on the computer.  I feel very fortunate.  It could have been worse.

 

Burt Rumley - AKA, Alien 407

Edited by Alien407
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I too have fried a LOR adapter a couple of years ago.  Essentially....I put 240v through a 240v laser and 12v spotlight which of course fed back to USB adapter and computer.  It fried everything in its path, the DMX chip in laser, spotlight, adapter and usb port on motherboard.

 

I remember the overload switch did work and shut everything down which was great, but then I stupidly thought, hey.....what did that and turned it back on again, that's when everything got fried.  So it gave me a chance to save everything and I blew it....literally lol

Edited by ShellNZ
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