Moisture in controllers

[Wynell Lewis]

I am having a problem with my controllers hanging on and randomly coming on. I checked the cat 5 cables and they are all ok.  We are having ALOT of rain, I think it may be moisture in the controllers - I have them mounted on stands in the yard.  The rain is suppose to move out tonight - what is the best way to dry out the controllers and will I have to reset them?  Thanks.

[EARLE W. TALLEY]

One thing that helps is to leave then powered up 24/7.

[Max-Paul]

Might go outside once the rain stops and open the controller up and run a hair dryer to help remove the moisture. I would pull the power to the controllers while doing this. And like what Earle says leave them powered up 24/7. The little transformer will help keep a wee bit of heat in the box to drive out the moisture. Will you need to reset your controller? Sorry laddie, crystal ball on the fritz.

[wbaker4]

Bag 'em.  No matter what - each one of my controllers are covered with a plastic bag - loosely tied on the bottom - so the bag does not  blow off!  Except of course those that are in an enclosure that I built.

[plasmadrive]

Bag 'em.  No matter what - each one of my controllers are covered with a plastic bag - loosely tied on the bottom - so the bag does not  blow off!  Except of course those that are in an enclosure that I built.

I do the same.  Black garbage bag over the top of each controller.. I wire tie the bag around the holder for wind protection.  Some of mine are actually on the grass all season.  I bag those as well and prop up the top so any water will drip down and not up inside the controller. 

[dgrant]

I have mine bagged too but even so, with a bunch of rain, they started behaving weirdly. I think its water partially shorting out the individual LED strings and somehow, thats messing up the controller itself. I ended up shutting down the show both time.

[dstevens]

I've had moisture issues too - even with leaving the controllers powered up 24/7.  As suggested earlier, I used a hair dryer to dry them out (with the power removed).  I solved this issue by using secondary containment on the controllers.

[Max-Paul]

I kind of wonder about all of this moisture problems. Are these controllers using either the plastic boxes from LOR or one of the CG-1500 boxes? Are you just using the little plastic snap shut latch or are you also using some form of screw to keep the box closed? Have you modified the box in any fashion? Did you put some kind of gasket in the grove of the lid? Are these boxes plumb straight up or tilted fore or aft? Are they laying on their back on the ground?

 

Just mighty strange all of these moisture problems.

[Tim Benson]

I have 20 LOR controllers,  4 in the Metal enclosures. 16 in the Plastic.

They are out in the direct weather for at least 45 days straight. I have never had any moisture problems,

even in heavy rain for days. I have even had one get dripped on by a leaky gutter

and form a huge Ice flow over it, never missed a beat.

 

The controllers are designed to be mounted vertically at least 18 inches off the ground.

This allows the enclosure to drain properly and keeps your electrical connections elevated and

off of the ground.  Any other orientation can cause water intrusion.

 

Tim

[jimswinder]

I put a bag of DampRid in each enclosure...

 

http://www.damprid.com/

[james campbell]

I have never had a moisture issue. if you have the controllers off the ground and the pigtails up at least 3 inches,and have the door secure those boxes should not leak. and as others have sais leave them on 24/7

[rick gurnee]

Of my 15 controllers somehow one of them did not have the screw tightened to hold the door shut.  After it rained, one side (8 channels) where on constantly at 20%  I shut the power off, disconnected the cat5 cables, removed the jumper and reset the controller.  It look like everything was fine.  That night the OTHER side was on constantly at 20%!  The next day I reset the controller again, only this time I forgot to disconnect the cat5 cable.  I don't know if that was the reason but nothing changed.  So I disconnected the cat5 cable and did a 3rd reset.  Now the first side is on at 5% and the other side is fine!  Maybe I'll try another reset but you can't even tell it is on unless you walk right up to the lights and look real carefully.

[Jefffrompawpaw]

Of my 15 controllers somehow one of them did not have the screw tightened to hold the door shut.  After it rained, one side (8 channels) where on constantly at 20%  I shut the power off, disconnected the cat5 cables, removed the jumper and reset the controller.  It look like everything was fine.  That night the OTHER side was on constantly at 20%!  The next day I reset the controller again, only this time I forgot to disconnect the cat5 cable.  I don't know if that was the reason but nothing changed.  So I disconnected the cat5 cable and did a 3rd reset.  Now the first side is on at 5% and the other side is fine!  Maybe I'll try another reset but you can't even tell it is on unless you walk right up to the lights and look real carefully.

 

 

This my first year(first month actually) when you say reset the controller can you explain what you have to do to reset one. And explain it like you would to an 8 yr old, I'm dumb.  

 

For future reference. 

[rick gurnee]

From the Light-O-Rama faq page.

 

How do I reset my light controller?

 

If it’s a 1600 series Generation 1 or 2 (metal enclosure and no LED display inside), disconnect the power, set the unit ID switches to 0-0, and reapply power.  The status light will blink very fast.  Wait a few seconds, remove power, change the Unit ID switches back to where they were and reapply power.  You’ve reset the board.  If it’s a 1600 series Generation 3 (metal enclosure with LED display inside), disconnect the power, press the up and down buttons simultaneously and reapply power. The display will show ’0000.’  Wait a few seconds, release the up and down buttons, the controller will be reset and return to normal operation in about two seconds.  If it’s a CTB-16PC series Generation 1 or 2 (typically in a plastic enclosure, red status light and has a jumper block to the right of the data cable connectors), disconnect the power, remove the jumper next to the data connectors (usually in the second position (or J2)) and reapply power.  The status light will blink very fast.  Wait a few seconds, remove power, replace the jumper on the J2 position and reapply power.  You’ve reset the board.  Go into the Hardware Utility and make sure the board is assigned to the correct physical location where it was before the reset.  If it’s a CTB-16PC series Generation 3 (typically in a plastic enclosure, green status light and has a jumper block to the left of the data cable connectors), disconnect the power.  On JP3, counting from the left, move the jumper on pins 4 and 5 over one notch to pins 5 and 6.  Reapply power.  The status light will blink very fast.  Wait a few seconds, remove power, move the jumper pack to pins 4 and 5.  Reapply power.  You’ve reset the board.  Go into the Hardware Utility and make sure the board is assigned to the correct physical location where it was before the reset.  If it’s a CTB-16 series controller board, disconnect the power, set the unit ID switches to 0-0, and reapply power.  The status light will blink very fast.  Wait a few seconds, remove power, change the Unit ID switches back to where they were and reapply power.  You’ve reset the board.  If it’s a CTB-32 series controller board (typically with a green status light), disconnect the power from the controller.  On reset header JP3 (just to the lower left of the data cable connectors), counting from the left, remove the jumper between pins 4 and 5.  Power up the controller and  the Status LED should flash rapidly.  Disconnect the power from the controller and put the jumper back on between Pins 4 and 5 of the reset header JP3 (MAKE SURE OF ITS LOCATION).  Power up the controller.  Now, run your tests again.