How would you attempt to fix a smartstring megatree affected by rain?

[keitha43]

I had done the plasti-dip treatment before putting up the tree and had tested the tree Sunday. Everything was fine. Then it rained Monday and Tuesday. I went to test them again tonight and now I am sick. I have some strings that have sections of nodes that are white as soon as I power up the hub. Some individual nodes flash colors. Plus while I am watching 1 node starts smoking and actually melted through the ribbon cable. This is all without any show software running. I wanted to go live tomorrow. And more rain is predicted for Friday.

[Steve Gase]

prior to rain and after the plasti dip bath, did they all test well?

did you use paracord to protect them from being stretched and exposed to the elements?

if they are sealed with plasti dip then moisture should not get in.  it will also prevent moisture from eaily getting out -- i expect.

others may have different advice, but "I" would start cutting out the bad pixels and replacing them with spares.

[RJ]

This is not what happens normally when they get wet. This sounds like a node might of had a wire pull loose and short.

 When they get water in them they just have colors on all the time or maybe twinkle on and off.

RJ

[keitha43]

Yes they were all working fine on every string before the rain. They are tied to paracord. However during the waterproofing procedure there were probably nodes that the wires were folded over and when putting them on the tree I straightened them out to try to get even spacing as I was trying to aim them all toward the street by using 2 strands of paracord running down either side of the nodes. Of course during the dunk process they had no tension whatsoever but I had no problems with the nodes before the rain so spreading them out must have allowed rain in. I guess the plasti-dip did not get inside the nodes to coat the boards like it should have. I used cans the size RJ had but it only allowed about 2-3 inch covering in the bucket which wasn't enough to do 126 node strands so I tilted the bucket to make it deeper and just kept turning the wad of strings trying to give them equal submerged time. I wish I had ordered gallon size for 1000 nodes. Hey RJ would a hair dryer help?

[RJ]

I do not know most of the ones I had issues with dryed out in the sun and would work as long as it did not rain.

RJ

[keitha43]

Well I spent all day cutting and splicing about 50 nodes. I still have about 1/3 of 1 string the won't light up and on another string about 10 nodes that stay white. And about another 15 nodes in various locations that are lighting in the wrong colors due too a malfunctioning color. I had so many that I gave up soldering and just started twisting wires and taping and testing. My soldering pencil wouldn't work while the strings were on the tree. I don't know if the extension cord was dropping too much power or the wind cooling the solder. No thankgiving for me. Possibly more rain tomorrow. Hair dryer didn't help. Guess I will have to order some more from Ray as I am almost out of spares. Maybe I will leave some of the off colors to see if they will dry but it has already been since Tuesday morning so I thought they would have dried. Sometimes if I twist the led end the colors would be okay for a short period so maybe bad construction. If I can get through the season maybe I will get a 5 gallon bucket of plasti-dip and submerge them for a few hours. Oh yeah I also tipped over a can of black paint in my garage with a loose lid and then stepped in it this morning without noticing. Then walked through my house leaving black footprints which I didn't see until I turned around to head toward the garage. Lets see if anybody can top the day I had!

[TAdamsOK]

Well I stuck a string in the oven at 250F for 30 minutes or so but it never fixed the nodes which were already messed up on one of my strings.  If I could pull a vaccum and keep it around 200F for a few hours it might work, but it didn't hurt them either.  I ended up cutting the bad ones out.  Made the oven smell real funny.  Probably not good for you either.

[rdebolt]

[. Lets see if anybody can top the day I had!
[/quote]

I don't even want to try. You are really making me worry about mine. All nodes on tree now, thought that I would test tomorrow, but I will only be able to do 22 strings instead of my full 32. I forgot to place my mouser order for more dongle; so I just found out when I went to build one! 

I hope that things go better for you! 

[lboucher]

Hi All

I had a bit of a head start with this, when i set my tree up in July.
Had many that showed issues, but that was before plasti dip.
At that point I immediately put them in a room with dehumidifier for 24+ hours. seemed to help a bit.

Took it down, plastidip them all and played with the bad ones.

I put my tree up about 2 weeks ago, then last week it rained 3 days straight.
Saw 6 nodes with issues.


So from what I have learned there are 2 failure modes.
1 is when moisture seeps in from the LED side and is evident by 1 malfunctioning node that does not effect the rest of the string.
The bad node will have 1 or more colors on almost contant.
This failure mode can be fairly easily fixed without splicing.

MAKE SURE POWER IS OFF!!!!
Use a utility knife to cut off the plastic on over the section of PCB where the LED leads are thru, on the cut side.
Typically make 2 cuts in a V, then use needle nose pliers to rip off the plastic.
Clean with old tooth brush and alcohol.
Then cover, multiple times, with liquid electrical tape.
Most of the time the issue is on the cut side of the LEDs, but sometimes it is the other side. (LED side of the leads)
MAKE SURE POWERR IS OFF!!!

The second failure type is when water comes in the other side, and is evident as a communication problem.
This seems to manifest in two ways, 1 is random colors flickering. on nodes equal two or afterr the bad node, 2nd is the rest of the nodes on that string after or equal to the bad node are eitherr all on or off.
Off course this is harderr to debug as it leaves 2 nodes as the possible failure with no way to really tell which one is bad.
I have successfully cut all the plastic off, cleaned the board and then covered the whole thing in liquid electrical tape.

Cutting and cleaning just a small section is definitly quicker than splicing, cutting the whole thing off is kinda a wash.

Best of luck to all. And this is just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.

[keitha43]

I have sent an email to Ray as for now my megatree is dead. I had another pixel that burned up inside the node and it was at the top so I didn't see it. I was going about my daily routine of constantly replacing nodes that were causing sections of the strings to light up white and not go off the previous night, and string #1 wouldn't come on so I tried another port and another and another. Nothing would turn it on so I got a string I planned to use next Halloween which was programmed as starting at channel 1 also. It would light so I plugged back into my megatree and it was dead. Niow I discovered that port also died. Out of 16 ports I only have 7 left functional. When I took the string down I saw the melted node. As far as I can tell the plasti-dip didn't help waterproof my strings at all. I am going to have to try to figure out what was blowing on my hub and order more parts. And order more plasti-dip and maybe give it another try in 2 weeks when I am on vacation. Too late for this years neighborhood contest though. Hope everyone else is having better luck than me.

[keitha43]

Hi All

I had a bit of a head start with this, when i set my tree up in July.
Had many that showed issues, but that was before plasti dip.
At that point I immediately put them in a room with dehumidifier for 24+ hours. seemed to help a bit.

Took it down, plastidip them all and played with the bad ones.

I put my tree up about 2 weeks ago, then last week it rained 3 days straight.
Saw 6 nodes with issues.


So from what I have learned there are 2 failure modes.
1 is when moisture seeps in from the LED side and is evident by 1 malfunctioning node that does not effect the rest of the string.
The bad node will have 1 or more colors on almost contant.
This failure mode can be fairly easily fixed without splicing.

MAKE SURE POWER IS OFF!!!!
Use a utility knife to cut off the plastic on over the section of PCB where the LED leads are thru, on the cut side.
Typically make 2 cuts in a V, then use needle nose pliers to rip off the plastic.
Clean with old tooth brush and alcohol.
Then cover, multiple times, with liquid electrical tape.
Most of the time the issue is on the cut side of the LEDs, but sometimes it is the other side. (LED side of the leads)
MAKE SURE POWERR IS OFF!!!

The second failure type is when water comes in the other side, and is evident as a communication problem.
This seems to manifest in two ways, 1 is random colors flickering. on nodes equal two or afterr the bad node, 2nd is the rest of the nodes on that string after or equal to the bad node are eitherr all on or off.
Off course this is harderr to debug as it leaves 2 nodes as the possible failure with no way to really tell which one is bad.
I have successfully cut all the plastic off, cleaned the board and then covered the whole thing in liquid electrical tape.

Cutting and cleaning just a small section is definitly quicker than splicing, cutting the whole thing off is kinda a wash.

Best of luck to all. And this is just my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.

Any pictures of this process It sounds like it would take longer than cutting and splicing a node in. But would save the node for reuse later. I am wondering if angling the led upward parallel to the paracord would help keep water out if the wire end? Another huge rainstorm is predicted for Saturday. Where is our drought when I need it.

[Christmas.joe]

If it was the rain, then get some Corrosion-X and spray everything while it's dry if you can, then let it set for a day.  You can spray it even if it's already wet, but I would suspect it works better if its dry.  According to the directions on the can, you can spray anything electrical, so I would even spray the strings and everything.

I had issues with some LED's dimly lit connected to the LE after rain.  RJ he explained the voltage leakage with all TRIACs so I knew what caused the issue. Decided to spray the mini trees and extension cords; controllers and everything with LED's that touched the ground.  No problems when it rains.  I still don't run the show when it's raining, but at least I am pretty sure I won't have much of a problem when the rain stops and it's show time with everything being wet.  That stuff is AMAZING. 

I was really skeptical at first but after I tested it with the water hose on some extras LED's I had laying around I was convinced the stuff is a miracle of mankind.  Sprayed the whole string with Corrosion X, then sprayed the whole thing including extension cord with a water hose (drenched it) while hooked it up to the LE and laying in the grass, no dimming.  Tested the channel and it worked just like it was dry. 

I'm sold on the stuff.  It's kinda messy to handle things after you spray and it's not cheap; just use latex gloves when handling.  Next year, everything (that touches the ground) is getting sprayed before it goes up.