jeremy11 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I have a CTB16PC controller that I just bought this year. I have been playing with sequences over the last few months and everything has worked just fine. Now that I am ready to turn on the show for halloween this week I have a strange problem. 2 of my channels (#14 and #16) will not turn off completly. The unit will control them, in other words I can make them shutter, twinkle, fade on or off however it's almost like the minimum intensity on these two channels only is stuck at 50%.Has anyone ever seen this before? Anyone have any advice for me? This is my first year with this controller and all of a sudden I'm in a rut after spending so much time on my sequences I hate to have to lose 2 channels.Any help anyone can give would be much appreciated.I have already done:1. Unplugged the controller unit and plugged it back in.2. rebooted my PC.3. verified that it is the controller and not lights by plugging in different set of ligts.4. Ran a "Chase" test in the hardware utility where each light flashes. During the chase these two channels will flash but they never turn off completly, they stay at approx 50% brightness.5. Send an "on" command from the hardware utility and every light on every channel came on, these two channels got brighter. Then I sent an "Off" command from the hardware utilityand all channels went off except these two, they dimmed to about 50%.:? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 What kind of load do you have on those channels? You might need to add some additional load to get them to turn off. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy11 Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 I'm running flood lights on most of my channels making sure I stay under the 30 amp limit.On channel 14 I have one C9 bulb in a singing pumpkin head, but I did replace it with a flood light just to test to see if it was a bad light or what. Switching from a C9 to a flood didn't make a difference.On channel 16 I have a green floodlight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iresq Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I have single C9's that work without problem. Will have to wait for level 2 support to step in. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cmoore60 Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 Sounds to me from my experience that you have 2 blown triacs. Did you solder these boards? The reason I ask, is if you soldered them, it would not be difficult for you to change them out.I suggest that you call LOR on Monday and have them help you with this. I have heard many times that Dan has shipped controllers out to get people up and runnning and then you ship yours back.Chuck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westport Lights Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 This may be a silly thing, but check the spade connections for any shorts. There may be a strand of wire or something else forgein crossing to the input? This is especially likely on the neutrals since they are fairly close to the hot input. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy11 Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 No I actually bought the kit as my soldering skills are pretty non-existent.It is a bummer about possibly needing a replacement. I'll call LOR on Monday as suggested. In the meantime if anyone else has any tricks I can try let me know. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy11 Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 Westport Lights wrote: This may be a silly thing, but check the spade connections for any shorts. There may be a strand of wire or something else forgein crossing to the input? This is especially likely on the neutrals since they are fairly close to the hot input. I'll go check this now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jeremy11 Posted October 25, 2008 Author Share Posted October 25, 2008 Westport Lights wrote: This may be a silly thing, but check the spade connections for any shorts. There may be a strand of wire or something else forgein crossing to the input? This is especially likely on the neutrals since they are fairly close to the hot input. May have sounded silly but it fixed it! I didn't see anything that could be causing a short, so I unplugged each spade connector, used a can of compressed air to clean any dirt, etc that could be on it and reconnected it. Now all my channels are operating correctly!Thank you so much for your help! I have been trying to figure this out for a few days. I finally started trying to figure out how I could get away with only 14 channels by merging lights but fortunatly i don't have to!Problem Solved! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westport Lights Posted October 25, 2008 Share Posted October 25, 2008 I'm glad that fixed it. Enjoy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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