minkhill Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Came home yesterday and noticed one string of LED lights on spiral tree was on. Went to check it out and the Controller cover was open. it had been raining all day and inside was wet. I closed the cover and figured I had shorted out a TRAIC. When the lights came on last night found out that the easy light Linker that feed the mega tree was down also. did I screw up putting the Linker in the weather? I ran a cat 5 across the driveway to get me through the night. how easy is it to replace a TRAIC. Any advice on the Linker? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstevens Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I have had the inside of controllers get wet before. Fortunately, once I dried them out, they worked normally (I didn't have to replace a triac). I don't use ELL's, so I can't offer any input on that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minkhill Posted December 5, 2014 Author Share Posted December 5, 2014 Did yours have issues before you dried it out. Just wondering if it could fix it's self Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dstevens Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 Yes, I had channels stuck on and some were flickering. To help dry it out, I powered it down and used a hair dryer to blow the water out. It probably took a good 15 minutes or so to dry it out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Daryl Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I'm wondering why was the cover off. Did you forget to put it on or was someone else messing with it? Hopefully drying the controller out will allow it to work properly again. I use ELL and I have not had a problem with them in the weather. Just need to heed to the suggested warning statements,ie, keep the antenna facing up and don't place it where it can get submerged in water. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 I would think the ELL would work fine in the weather as long as water didn't get up under and into it. I've used mine exposed to the weather with no problems but last year and this year, covering them and the controllers with black plastic yard bags for possible rain/ice/snow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty-Laser Posted December 5, 2014 Share Posted December 5, 2014 The beginning of the season none of my 5 ELLs would work. I connected one directly to the computer, took several tries with the Hardware Manager, but finally was recognized. Put it back out in the display and all have worked since. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Max-Paul Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 Disclaimer to anyone reading this thread. What Liberty-Laser meant is that he hooked the ELL up directly to the USB485(B?) at the computer. Do not attempt to connect the ELL to the Ethernet port on the computer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
minkhill Posted December 6, 2014 Author Share Posted December 6, 2014 I had to go out of town friday night for work meeting and had the show running with the stuck channels on and ran a cat 5 all the way acrooss the driveway to bypass the ELL. Got home last night at midnight and the stuck channels were off so either leaving them on did something to that channel or it dryed the controller out and started working. Going to plug the ELL back up this morning and see if it is working. Daryl I dont know why it was open but I could have not shut it good and the wind blew it open or someone opened it just to have a look. This one is really close to the road. Fingers crossed the it is dryed out and fixed its self. Barry Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gmacw Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I use ELL and I have not had a problem with them in the weather. Just need to heed to the suggested warning statements,ie, keep the antenna facing up and don't place it where it can get submerged in water. In Massachusetts here it's always a pretty wet winter (raining now) & my ELLs have worked flawlessly. As Daryl said... "just heed the warnings"! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dgrant Posted December 6, 2014 Share Posted December 6, 2014 I had a problem last night but it wasn't the ELL, it was everything! We had rain here yesterday and even though I tested everything yesterday afternoon, sure enough when I was gone to a Christmas party and the computer started the show, it all failed. Anything plugged into the GFCI's went down...worse, one of the two GFCI's themselves, totally failed. Its all fixed now and will test again shortly here in the daytime. Who knows how many people came last night to see the show and were greeted with nothing or nearly nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Liberty-Laser Posted December 8, 2014 Share Posted December 8, 2014 Disclaimer to anyone reading this thread. What Liberty-Laser meant is that he hooked the ELL up directly to the USB485(B?) at the computer. Do not attempt to connect the ELL to the Ethernet port on the computer. Thank you for the added details. I've been using LOR for so long, I don't always think in terms of someone new to this equipment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tim Benson Posted December 9, 2014 Share Posted December 9, 2014 For the Future, After you have your controllers set up, Zip-Tie the cover closed. It serves 2 purposes, Prevents accidental cover opening, and keeps little fingers out of it. And if I see a controller without a zip-tie on it, i investigate if it was messed with by some helpful visitor to the display. Tim 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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