TFancher Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Tonight my show was running fine for a while when i noticed that i had a unit quit responing. I have 3 LOR 16 ch boards. I opened and tested fuses and one fuse had blow on one side. To find the cause I tesed all my lights hooked up to that side of the dead LOR and found that one of my floods had shorted out and blew the fuse. i removed the problematic flood, replaced fuse.... checked remaining lights. all was good....I go down and plug everything back in and the main power feed for the dead unit immediately trips. Using an ohm meter on a good LOR i get about 165ohms , on the LOR unit tripping the breaker Im getting 6ohms.So what am I dealing with here? Is my LOR fried because my Flood fixture shorted out? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 TFancher wrote: Tonight my show was running fine for a while when i noticed that i had a unit quit responing. I have 3 LOR 16 ch boards. I opened and tested fuses and one fuse had blow on one side. To find the cause I tesed all my lights hooked up to that side of the dead LOR and found that one of my floods had shorted out and blew the fuse. i removed the problematic flood, replaced fuse.... checked remaining lights. all was good....I go down and plug everything back in and the main power feed for the dead unit immediately trips. Using an ohm meter on a good LOR i get about 165ohms , on the LOR unit tripping the breaker Im getting 6ohms.So what am I dealing with here? Is my LOR fried because my Flood fixture shorted out?Disconnect everything first, then check it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 22, 2007 Author Share Posted December 22, 2007 its tripping the breaker when power is applied to the unit - not when i turn on any channels. i can apply power to one side, but the other throws the breaker.can a triac short out and cause this condition? I cant remove triacs from the board to test this theory. im thinking the flood fixture that shorted, damaged the triac, when power is applied to the unit, the triac is shorted causing the breaker to trip. the fuse to the bad side blew once and i replaced it. but its till tripping the breaker when power is applied to that side of the LOR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest wbottomley Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 Check all of your input and output cords on that side. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 22, 2007 Author Share Posted December 22, 2007 Thank you for your help by the way, very much apreciated....I checked all output cords and the input cord is directly wired to the unit, i checked it and no damage is apparent. Is there a way to check for a bad triac on chan 11? Chan 11 had the bad flood fixture. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted December 22, 2007 Share Posted December 22, 2007 I was going to ask what side keeps blowing the fuse. With you saying Channel 11 I am assuming the right side blows the fuse. The right side powers the electronics on the board. At 6 ohms you have nearly a dead short.You said this is a board that you purchase preassembled. I would contact support@lightorama. They should be able to help you.How far are you from St. Louis? I am in Cahokia, just across the river from St. Louis.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 23, 2007 Author Share Posted December 23, 2007 yeah the unit is one of the Planet Christmas specials, preassembled but mounted in a box by me. The right side is whats giving me fits. I hope LOR can help me fix it. Too late now since its so close to Christmas.... luckily i had another LOR barely being used so I transffered all 16 ch from the dead one to it. Were in the middle of a snow storm so hopefully ill get my show up for the rest of the month and get the bad one out after that. im just upset that the fuse didnt blow quick enough to save the board from damage. :?Im about 235 miles from St louis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 23, 2007 Author Share Posted December 23, 2007 I saw a post by Dan about the suport email at Light O rama having issues. So Im hoping dan or someone at LOR will see this and advise what to do about my hardware Issue. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LightORamaDan Posted December 23, 2007 Share Posted December 23, 2007 TFancher wrote: I saw a post by Dan about the suport email at Light O rama having issues. So Im hoping dan or someone at LOR will see this and advise what to do about my hardware Issue.We had email problems for about 40 hours a week or so ago. Email is fine now.You said that you measured 6 ohms... Where did you measure that resistance? Did you have anything plugged into the controller when you made the measurements? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 24, 2007 Author Share Posted December 24, 2007 Im happy to say my show is back up and running after doing some rearranging and channel re-assignments. I had a 3rd LOR reserved for a megatree which I never got up this year it was only oparating non-essential lights - not really part of the show.Since the unit is outside i measured the main supply cord of the bad LOR. the good side measures 165ohms with and without any lights hooked up. The bad side measured 6ohm with the lights hooked up and surprisingly i get an infinate reading with no lights hooked up.Any other reading I can take to help determine whats gone bad?Thanks for your continued supportTim Fancher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 Tim,You are mentioning good side/bad side. The right side would have a different reading than the left side. The right side provides the power for the electronics on the board. Whereas the left side primarily only powers lights. A better gauge for messuring would be right side of the board that is not working compared to the right side of a known good board. The same for the left side.Forgive if I misunderstood how you were taking the resistance readings.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 24, 2007 Author Share Posted December 24, 2007 Sorry , Im not being very descriptive on my findings. Things kinda hectic around here, hehe!You are correct Chuck - The left side of the board reads 165ohm no matter whats hooked up... the right side, which when plugged in, will trip the breaker immediately. It reads 6ohms with lights hooked up and infinate when nothing its connected. Right now the unit is completely disconnected and out of the loop. All the lights I had hooked up to it are now running on a 3rd LOR without problems.After the show season I will remove the board from its enclosure and get a closer look at it and get better measurements from my good boards and compare to the bad one. I have 2 identical Planet Christmas LOR boards.Tim Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Puryear Posted December 24, 2007 Share Posted December 24, 2007 If I understand your readings, you read 6 ohms with a load connected. infinate with nothing pluged in.Based on that I would say it was one of the loads that was the problem. Does it blow with no cords plugged in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Tim,I recommend you contact support@lightotama.com.They ultimately will get the problem resolved.Sorry we could not help you.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gremler Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 After seeing the results last year of someones controller after a spot light shorted out with water, I put a fuse in line with each spot light. The fuse should blow well before it draws enough current to harm the Triac or the board.Bill Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Donald Puryear Posted December 25, 2007 Share Posted December 25, 2007 Gremler wrote: After seeing the results last year of someones controller after a spot light shorted out with water, I put a fuse in line with each spot light. The fuse should blow well before it draws enough current to harm the Triac or the board.BillBest insurance. I always did that on any custom controllers that I build. Never thought to do it on any light-o-rama products. But it makes alot of sense. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 25, 2007 Author Share Posted December 25, 2007 Donald Puryear wrote: If I understand your readings, you read 6 ohms with a load connected. infinate with nothing pluged in.Based on that I would say it was one of the loads that was the problem. Does it blow with no cords plugged in?I dont know if it will blow with no loads connected - Im afraid to plug the sucker in now.. lol!But i can tell you, the same exact loads that was connected to the unit are now on the spare unit running the show. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted December 25, 2007 Author Share Posted December 25, 2007 Donald Puryear wrote: Gremler wrote: After seeing the results last year of someones controller after a spot light shorted out with water, I put a fuse in line with each spot light. The fuse should blow well before it draws enough current to harm the Triac or the board.BillBest insurance. I always did that on any custom controllers that I build. Never thought to do it on any light-o-rama products. But it makes alot of sense.Yeah for next year im going to put in place better protection for some circuits... Floods produce a nice effect, but they are just plain dangerous for the LOR. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TFancher Posted January 1, 2008 Author Share Posted January 1, 2008 I have the defective unit removed from my enclosure and see no visible damage. I have sent in a support email to LOR Support.Thanks to all that tried to help with suggestions. With the exception of no show on Dec 22nd I had a successful show season using a spare board. Just be careful if you use Flood Lights in your display... they bite!Tim Fancher Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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