CTB16PC and cmb24d board wont connect, potential water damage?

[trevlawler]

Hey Guys, I have 2 controllers that will not connect or run. It looks like maybe a bit of water got into the CTB16 enclosure during the last rain. A very small amount was pooled at the very bottom, though nothing on the board itself. The CB16 and CMD24 were daisy chained together via Cat5, and then a cat5 ran from CB16 to a RaspPi with FPP which operates fine, just unable to connect to boxes either.

Only 1 single light is stuck in the On position (channel 16) and I am unable to connect to either controller via PC. cmb24d controller has no liquid or moisture.

It looks like there is a small scorch mark next to the channel 16 triac (bottom left of board), but both LED status lights blink and turn on like normal. Just unable to connect and trouble shoot. I've tried resetting both boards (dip switch on CMB24D flipped and unflipped and 16ch reset as well) Any help would be appreciated!

Here are 2 images of the boards: https://imgur.com/a/2uNaVW1

 

Edited October 25, 2021 by trevlawler

[jfuller8400]

Well, I'd say you certainly blew a triac, and possibly the opto as well as the comm chip on the CMB16.  You'll need to open a ticket with the LOR help desk and either send them in for LOR to repair or have them send you the parts (if you feel comfortable trying to repair them yourself).

[k6ccc]

On either board, what is the status LED doing (flashing slowly, flashing fast, on steady, or off)?  If you don't have steady status light on both, try connecting each controller (one at a time) to the RasPi.  Make sure the Pi is in a mode where it should be sending packets to the controllers.

 

[Orville]

Did you have any lightning strikes in your area before this happened? I'm presuming this happened in a rainstorm?   Unfortunately I know nothing about CNMB's, but with the scorch marks on top of the CTB16PC, bad news is, even though that one light is stuck on, there may be other damage on the back side of the CTB16PC controllers PCB, you need to remove the PCB and look at the back of the board for other scorching and possible damaged traces.

Since you say nothing is communicating with the boards, if there was a lightning strike, doesn't even have to be that close, it could have also taken out the communication chip in each controller, preventing it from being seen in the HU or to any other controller.

Believe me, lightning can destroy a controller in micro-seconds, I've lost several due to lightning.  And why I ask if that may have been a factor in why things aren't functioning now.

[TheDucks]

I see corrosion/scorch next to Ch 9  (and a puddle) TRIAC

Drain (AKA cable) holes should face down

[Orville]

6 minutes ago, TheDucks said:

I see corrosion/scorch next to Ch 9  (and a puddle) TRIAC

Drain (AKA cable) holes should face down

I was thinking maybe the way he took the photo, that the camera was upside down, or something reversed the controller, so it looks to be mounted upside down.   But if it is upside down, that's a HUGE mistake, because water WILL ALWAYS get in one if mounted with the dangles, power cords, and Cat5 openings pointed up to the sky.   That'd pretty much spell instant death for a controller on the first medium to hard rainstorm that comes along.  Unless it's inside a garage or some other protected area away from any rain or sprinkler splatter!  But even when I had mine inside, they were NEVER mounted upside down, makes it too easy for things to fall in there and cause who knows what kind of issues, possibly even start a fire.  Yikes!

[trevlawler]

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate the help! To start, I did place the 2nd unit upside down this year but they were both inside an enclosed coffin so the fact that any water got inside is unfortunate, but still my 100% my fault. Usually the coffin is horizontal as well.

2 hours ago, k6ccc said:

On either board, what is the status LED doing (flashing slowly, flashing fast, on steady, or off)?  If you don't have steady status light on both, try connecting each controller (one at a time) to the RasPi.  Make sure the Pi is in a mode where it should be sending packets to the controllers.

 

Both LED lights are blinking as status ready, per the manual (CMB24D ~2 times per second and the CBT16 was normal as well). I've tried communicating individually to each unit with both the Pi running FPP and to a PC running the hardware utility with no luck.

1 hour ago, Orville said:

Did you have any lightning strikes in your area before this happened?

We didn't have any lightning, just light rain the previous night, BUT looking at my home security cameras logs power kicked off and on for a very short period of time that day, so I'm not sure if something happened causing this or maybe the LOR units caused the power outage (These units are outside and run to a GFCI outlet that was not tripped).

 

Each of the 16ch of the CBT run to 16 lit pumpkins, could a pumpkin have gotten wet and caused this?

I'm comfortable soldering and working with electronics but not enough to diagnose any fried parts so I opened a ticket with LOR and ordered new replacement boards in the meantime. When i replace the boards ill get a better look at the bottom of the boards to see what it looks like.

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

[k6ccc]

35 minutes ago, trevlawler said:

To start, I did place the 2nd unit upside down this year but they were both inside an enclosed coffin so the fact that any water got inside is unfortunate, but still my 100% my fault.

It can be amazing what water can get into!  I ran into that yesterday when rain leaked into a brick column in my front yard, and dripped onto a 12V power supply.  That resulted in tripping the GFCI.

36 minutes ago, trevlawler said:

Both LED lights are blinking as status ready, per the manual (CMB24D ~2 times per second and the CBT16 was normal as well). I've tried communicating individually to each unit with both the Pi running FPP and to a PC running the hardware utility with no luck.

When the HU is running or the show player in FPP (assuming that is set up correctly), it should be sending heartbeat packets to the controllers.  That should change the status light to steady on.  If that is not happening, either both the computer and FPP are set up wrong (not overly likely since it WAS working), a cable problem, a connector problem, oboth controllers developed a problem.

 

[TheDucks]

Check that HU still finds the adapter on the Expected COM port (as found in the Network utility).

Wrong COM to Adapter mapping will stop the Heartbeat (what turns the LED steady)

[Orville]

4 hours ago, trevlawler said:

Thanks for all the replies, I appreciate the help! To start, I did place the 2nd unit upside down this year but they were both inside an enclosed coffin so the fact that any water got inside is unfortunate, but still my 100% my fault. Usually the coffin is horizontal as well.

Both LED lights are blinking as status ready, per the manual (CMB24D ~2 times per second and the CBT16 was normal as well). I've tried communicating individually to each unit with both the Pi running FPP and to a PC running the hardware utility with no luck.

We didn't have any lightning, just light rain the previous night, BUT looking at my home security cameras logs power kicked off and on for a very short period of time that day, so I'm not sure if something happened causing this or maybe the LOR units caused the power outage (These units are outside and run to a GFCI outlet that was not tripped).

 

Each of the 16ch of the CBT run to 16 lit pumpkins, could a pumpkin have gotten wet and caused this?

I'm comfortable soldering and working with electronics but not enough to diagnose any fried parts so I opened a ticket with LOR and ordered new replacement boards in the meantime. When i replace the boards ill get a better look at the bottom of the boards to see what it looks like.

 

Thanks again everyone!

 

I'd also be checking that GFCI if I were you.  I had one trip constantly that drove me crazy, and unfortunately that constant tripping wore it out.   But it was water that caused the trips, got inside one of the female ends of an L.E.D. strand connected to a CTB16PC {G1V2 unit}.  Even the slightest dampness in it caused the GFCI to trip, so if your GFCI didn't trip, you may want to check and be sure it's connected properly and functioning correctly.  You can wire them where they will supply current to things, but the GFCI part has been defeated.  I know it can be done, because I did it a couple of times when I installed GFCI's in my display.   I figured if they were wired incorrectly, they wouldn't even power up or have power at the outlets, but they did.  Found out I had miswired them, so power was constant with NO GFCI protection.   So you might want to look at the GFCI just to be sure.   That's why now any open female plug gets capped with a child-proof outlet cap, even my CTB16PC's dangles get capped off if unused.