Troubleshooting advice

[BK21380]

Hello all!  Brand new to LOR and to the forums, so forgive me if this is a silly question or if its in the wrong place.

So I purchased the starter kit with the showtime mini director and 2 16 channel controllers.  Got 5 sequences done, got everything put up, got the show onto an SD card. And fired it up!  Everything ran fine, and I was very impressed with myself.

A couple of days later, I realized that my mega tree wasn't running with the rest of the show.  Turns out the GFI outlet had tripped.  I did some troubleshooting and figured out that it was the first plug that caused the trip (the one that controls channels 1-8).  Having narrowed it down I decided I would kill the show and wait until morning to chase down the problem.

The next day I go out and start adding power back one channel at a time to try to determine which one is faulty, but the outlet never tripped.  I ran the show for 3 hours in the daytime with no issues.  When the show started on schedule that night, after about an hour it tripped again. Unplugged the 1 lead from that controller and the show runs fine.

Have any of you ever ran across this problem before?  I would really appreciate any advice on where to look for the problem during the day when I can't make the fault repeat itself.

Thanks!

[Jimehc]

Replace the GFI with a 20A Weather Resistant GFI

[dgrant]

First question is, was there rain or mositure present that would have shorted the power and trip the gfci? On all of the channels, are any channels that are on something like a metal prop? I had trouble with tomato cage trees that would cause a short and trip the gfci whenever they got wet.

[BK21380]

54 minutes ago, Jimehc said:

Replace the GFI with a 20A Weather Resistant GFI

I hadn't thought of that.  Ill give it a try tomorrow.  Thanks!

[BK21380]

13 minutes ago, dgrant said:

First question is, was there rain or mositure present that would have shorted the power and trip the gfci? On all of the channels, are any channels that are on something like a metal prop? I had trouble with tomato cage trees that would cause a short and trip the gfci whenever they got wet.

No rain, but it seems to only happen at night s maybe the dew is causing it?

Not a metal prop per se, but it is a mega tree kit made from a metal flag pole.

[tlogan]

12 hours ago, Jimehc said:

Replace the GFI with a 20A Weather Resistant GFI

Is it a 20amp circuit? Just saying that putting a 20A outlet on 15A circuit is not to code and could be dangerous if someone plugs in a 20 amp something into a 15 amp circuit. Having said that, replacing the outlet with a proper sized weather resistant GFI is probably the easiest place to start. GFIs are spring loaded and the springs do get weaker over time and trip easier. Also, if you don't already have one, you can add a weather resistant cover to the box.    

[TheDucks]

1 hour ago, tlogan said:

Is it a 20amp circuit? Just saying that putting a 20A outlet on 15A circuit is not to code and could be dangerous if someone plugs in a 20 amp something into a 15 amp circuit. Having said that, replacing the outlet with a proper sized weather resistant GFI is probably the easiest place to start. GFIs are spring loaded and the springs do get weaker over time and trip easier. Also, if you don't already have one, you can add a weather resistant cover to the box.    

I have only been in 1 place with 15A breakers on OUTLET ONLY circuits.  A 5(or 6)-15R limits the Plug type.  You can use multiple 5-15r ON A 20A branch.

I was puzzled until I discovered a code change (date unknown) that devices with PUSH IN terminals are NOW limited to 14Ga wire

In the 60's it was common to us these on 12Ga They don't age well. I just went thru and replaced every on in this house with Back Wired (some wires were crusty 😲 at the contact point. I sanded those before reuse). Back wired has a screw  CLAMPING the wire..  Thank goodness, there was no Aluminum wired outlets or switches

also, many folk get it wrong, if there is only ONE outlet on a branch, it must be rated for the full branch breaker (Typical is Microwave and disposal)

@tlogan in most cases it is the electronics that sense the current imbalance that goes south But Frequent trips under (reactive) load do burn up the contacts (same as switches)

[BK21380]

9 hours ago, tlogan said:

Is it a 20amp circuit? Just saying that putting a 20A outlet on 15A circuit is not to code and could be dangerous if someone plugs in a 20 amp something into a 15 amp circuit. Having said that, replacing the outlet with a proper sized weather resistant GFI is probably the easiest place to start. GFIs are spring loaded and the springs do get weaker over time and trip easier. Also, if you don't already have one, you can add a weather resistant cover to the box.    

Yes, it is a 20 amp circuit.  Has 1 20 amp breaker that is running this gfi outlet and 3 downstream outdoor outlets only.  All 4 outlets have the in use covers on them so that you can plug in 2 cords and still close the cover..  The only 2 outlets that are being used currently are the gfi and outlet 4 on the other end of the house.   Each outlet is running 1 controller.

[BK21380]

Just to update everybody and for future reference,  I found the problem!

On the advice of Jimehc, I replaced the gfi outlet with a new WR gfi outlet.  Once I did that, it would trip immediately whenever I turned the show on.  I started trouble shooting again by unplugging 1 strand at a time until the tripping stopped.  I replaced that string of lights with a new string and the problem has stopped.  It ran last night even in a light rain!

All I can figure is the outlet was going bad in a way that it DIDN'T trip every time  it should have.  Not only was it a pain trying to figure out the problem, it could have been dangerous.

Thank you all for all the helpful replies!