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Channel Intensity gets Stuck


Joe Petrowski

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Hi all, I had a happy holidays sign plugged into a channel. The Happy holidays sign have about 450 mini lights...which isn't too much...well in the past day the channel, I noticed, remained lite...as if at 50% intensity. As the show when on, if at a point I needed it to go on at %100 it would then go back to 50%. I have this problem with another channel in the past and never resolved it. So I switched the sign from that channel to an open one and renamed the light channel. ie. from channel 3 to channel 4. Well it was working fine then I started the same problem again. So now i am starting to think that its not the board that is causing the problem, but the sign its self. How could that be? I already tried to reset the board and unplug and plug it back inalready. ANY HELP would be great. I also tried to do a search on this info but couldn't find much! Thanks for you help!

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Also, make sure that the channel used for your sign (assuming that you are using a background sequence) is not used in your regular sequences.

I learned this the hard way. Sign would come on (background sequence) and when the regular sequence started, it would go off. So, the only time the sign was on was between sequences!

Just my two cents worth.

Merry Christmas to everyone!

Mike

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Joe,

Since you said this worked fine and then started the thing with stayin on at about 50%. I would say you have bad triacs on those associated channels.

I remember when I was building my boards. I had a channel that was doing this very thing. It would respond to a full on, but never to a full off. Replaced the triac and all worked fine. I would suspect that something in your 450 minis is causing the triac to fail.

Chuck

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I already set the board and nothing. I changed from one channel to another and the problem acts up again. It is NOT a backround sequence. What gets me the most is that when i change channels it does the same to that channel. So now i have two? channels stuck at 50% intensity all the time.

Chuck, I did not assemble my boards (ie soder together) but where can i get new traics? I would need about three I think. If it is something from the sign that is causing it to fail what could it be?

I attached a picture of the sign from last year. I know I had to replace about 3-4 lights because they got broken, but I don't think that could be the problem.


Attached files 147150=8636-n1084470275_30083291_1309.jpg

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A queston I have for anyone is; Could the be a problem with a light string, a minor short or something causing the triacs to short out? I been running down this trial for awhile from reading all the post and I now have 3 of these myself. Another one of those things to make you go, HUMMMMMMM.

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James, I now I feel a little bit better, since someone else has the same problem....The lights strings i used are from CVS 3? years ago. And the snowflakes have a some twinkle lights in them I got from walgreens if that helps anyone with anything.....

Joe

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James and Joe.

it is totally possible to have a short that would cause a higher current on that circuit and cause the triac to fail.

Joe,

Not knowing what your abilities are for soldering. When I had my triacs fail I contacted Dan and he shipped me what I needed. I would recommend that you contact support@lightorama.com.

I saw that Dan was posting last night. He believe that he still takes time out of his holiday festivities to provide the support that we all appreciate very much. If you plug other lights into the "bad" channel you still get the 50% issue?

Chuck

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Chuck, two things, I have noticed that if i do plug in a regular set it DOES have the same problem (intensity) However, I noticed tonight that the sign will be at 50% intensity at times and when other events are happening it would completlyl turn off randomly; not in conjunction with another channel as if it was miswiring or something.....

Merry Christmas All!

Joe

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Joe,

Since you said the sign turns off. That would make me believe that it is NOT a triac. Also, once a component fails it just stops working. For a triac most of the time a failure is not a total off.

Do you know what firmware your have in all your controllers? Might be a firmware issue. You did say that you cannot turn off the channel even with the hardware utility and also a reset will not cause the channel to turn off completely.

Chuck

Merry Christmas

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hi ,

I have a simular problem I have 8 channels stick on full ,out of my 32 channels.

then on certain songs /animations it works fine .

I have reset the board several times and it does not make any difference.

i have found by turning the channels off manully though the song they go out and sometimes work for a little while then stick on.

Ihave though of swapping channels 1 to 8 the problem channels but a bit scared it might stuff up more channels ????

any help would be great as this is my first year with LOR.

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Actually last night, I noticed that the sign would turn off but it was delayed, i would say half a second to a second. The channel was not sticking to 50% intensity...just being delayed.

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