Seth Hartley Posted December 12, 2009 Posted December 12, 2009 I looked around and couldn't find any thread with info that seemed similar to my problem, so here goes:I have 5 ctb16pc controllers. They are mounted in tupperware containers inside a plastic bin that then has tarps over them. Pretty sure water isn't the problem here.At Halloween 4 of the 5 were working and one had no status light when plugged in. I also noticed where the cat5 cable plugs in to the board, that part was pulled out at the top... away from the board... but still conected at the bottom. I figured I would make do with 4 controllers for christmas and fix this one after calling LOR. Tonight I hooked up my 4th controller. I put power to it, no cat 5 cables were hooked up. I then began plugging in things. I reached channel 11, and all of a sudden the items plugged into that channel came on. (These are all blowmolds, 3 on each channel, with 40 watt bulbs in each) This happened as well on channel 12 13 and 14. I thought maybe the board need to be reset by running a sequence or something. I plugged in the cat5 cable to the computer and opened hardware and it cant find the controller. I went out and realized there is no status light coming on on this board... I also noticed where the cat 5 cable plugs in to the board it was kind of loose at the top and if I pushed on it so it was firm against the board, one of the channels would turn off.... but still no status light... I have very heavy traffic on fri and sat and now I feel as if I am letting people down, lots of people driving by and no show going... I am at my wits end here. Any help is very greatly appreciated. Thank you all in a advance for your help...
Max-Paul Posted December 12, 2009 Posted December 12, 2009 Dang Seth you are hard on your boards. Now you have two board with the RJ-45 connector pulled or almost pulled out of the board. Have you been tripping on your wires? Are these boards you have put together? IF so, did you forget to solder the connector onto the board? So, the red LED is not on at all? It is suppose to blink slowly if the cat5 cable is not connected. Check the fuses, are both ok? I think it is the right hand fuse that powers up the ICs. If that one is blown that could explain the lack of a status LED. As to why some of your channels are on and one went out when you connected the comm cable, well that I really dont know.BTW if I read you post correctly. Why are you making connections to your display elements with power on the controller? Are you looking to get shocked? And a sudden connection of a load might not be the most healthy thing you can do for your controller.So, how are your fuses? And I would also take the board loose and check the soldering job on those RJ-45 connectors. Maybe some super glue to hold those jacks into the board might be a good idea. Put it where the little nubs come through the board about half way up.
Seth Hartley Posted December 12, 2009 Author Posted December 12, 2009 Lol, I promise I didn't trip on anything. All 5 controllers are pre made by LOR. I don't solder so I wouldn't know how to do that. They were all working last year when I put them away after christmas. 4 of them were working at halloween and one was not (#5), now that other one is out (#1).BUT: I went back out and tried it again and by simply pluging it in I got the status LED to come on. Then I tried the cat 5 cables, and it stayed on. I went in to the computer and now the computer can "see" the board (#1) I went into hardware and sent it commands but it wouldn't do anything. The 3 channels that were "on" are still "on" or flickering as a couple do intermitently... I have checked all the channel settings, I have double checked all the plugs... I don't think the fusses are blown... how do you tell? They are all solid white...As far as getting shocked... I am confused... lol... I plug in my controllers and then plug the items into the "dongles" but since the computer isn't attached yet it shouldn't be telling anything to turn on... therefore I shouldn't get shocked by anything... right? It's never happened before....
Max-Paul Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 Sorry I presumed due to the fact that you have the PC version of boards. But it appears that you bought them assembled and with the dongles. I on the other hand bought the kits and assembled everythiing, but I do not use the dongles, connecting directly to the board.Ok, so you got your status light to work, and you can now see the board in the HWU program. I think most of us would say that it is time to try a controller reset. Just to be on the safe side I am going to explain how to do this two ways, depending on your controller. Your controller should not have the dials to set the address. If this is the case, power down your controller. Remove the little jumper that is above the LED status light. Power up your controller for a few seconds (few blinks of the status LED). Power down the controller. Replace the jumper on the second set of pins from the top. Power back up your controller. Did those couple of channels turn off? Now if you do have the board with the dials that set the address, here is how to reset that type of controller. Power down the controller. Set both dials to zero. Power up the controller for a few seconds. Power down and set the dials to what ever address you are using with this controller. Then power back up. Again did this work?
Seth Hartley Posted December 13, 2009 Author Posted December 13, 2009 So i went outside last night and lo and behold controller #1 was working! All channels were off and then coming on when they were supposed to with the sequence... the only thing I did was leave a sequence running, and also it started raining...Controller #5 is still dead after being plugged in all night though. I even brought it in to warm it up. I am getting nothing on that one.... no status, no channels coming on randomly, I will try reseting that one and see what it does, and no I don't have dials... I hope I pull off the right thing... lol I will also try to figure out how to use my tester to check the fuses...
clueless Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 Easy way to test fuses is to run down to Radio Shack and pick up a pack.http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=2102754Ryan
Max-Paul Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 Gee clueless I thought you were about to say to wet your finger and touch it to the load side of the fuse.
clueless Posted December 13, 2009 Posted December 13, 2009 Everyone has thier own way.. Max-Paul wrote: Gee clueless I thought you were about to say to wet your finger and touch it to the load side of the fuse.
Max-Paul Posted December 14, 2009 Posted December 14, 2009 clueless wrote: Everyone has thier own way.. Max-Paul wrote: Gee clueless I thought you were about to say to wet your finger and touch it to the load side of the fuse. toushe! I just wish you had called out au gard... Very good come back.. Got me....:shock:
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