WS2811 Technicolor Strings Have High Failure Rate

[Made2Rock]

tbone is completely right. The problem was due to the amount of power the Technicolor nodes were using. This caused the node to heat up and the heat would kill the node. I've been in the middle of move for some time now but I do believe Ray got rid of all the bad nodes and redesigned the strings. I had a HIGH failure rate, documented it and presented what I found to Ray and Ray did stand behind his product. So this is purely a problem with that generation of Technicolor nodes and not the new ones. So unless your strings are from last year and are Technicolor strings this does not apply.

Hope that helps
Joe

[CaptainMurdoch]

Technicolor pixels had two primary issues I believe:

1 - overheating voltage regulator
2 - water intrusion

Several of us ran our technicolor strings at around 8 volts to try to get around the first issue and that helped with the heat but then we were hit by the the water intrusion issue.

I doubt your issues are related.

[drlucas]

OK - thanks all. What's happening with my strips (and Ray has replaced 6 of them so far - no questions asked - just I bought a lot of 25 of them at once) is the strip will work up to a certain point and then just stop the rest of the string. I have voltage at the end of the string in the 10ish range so something with the data is getting mixed up. I think what my issue is because I have a few LEDs that have just one color out is that there are some bad resistors or they weren't assembled well. 

Everywhere you see no zip tie or black tape, those are the spots so far where the strips have failed on me. The new strips Ray sent me unfortunately don't line up properly. I know in the end this will be an awesome looking matrix and I've had a couple of times all the strips working, but recently i've been bumed out getting things repaired only to have another strip fail a week later.

I had remembered the technicolor lights had some high failure rates and I was just wondering if there were shared components in these (I bought my lights from Ray probably back in Feb).

[jnealand]

Ryan's issue is not technicolor related and really should be in a new thread and not resurrect this very old one that may confuse newcomers.

[txag2008]

I had no issues running my techniclors (first version) last year indoors and even outdoors until we had our first rain.  After the moisture is when all sorts of issues/outages happened.  Made a few splices that got everything functional again and the lights ran great for a week (at 12V) until it rained/snowed again.

[drlucas]

Ryan's issue is not technicolor related and really should be in a new thread and not resurrect this very old one that may confuse newcomers.

Based on the responses received I agree and will!! When I posted though, I was having very similar symptoms - lights failing at a very high rate of occurrence and I was looking at anything that might be similar. I think I'm leaning towards an issue with bad assembly on a certain run of lights. I'll fire up a new thread once I get my helping hands out tonight and start doing some additional tests (i also got some flux to touch up on some resistors to see if the problem is where I think it is).

[curtbl]

I have been following this for well since the thread started, I think like most of you this form factor is a great one to use in construction but as most have experienced if at the end of the day the nodes don't work who cares about the physical form factor.  I cannot even begin to feel the pain some of you have been through...  Now the question, as I'm confused, is there a new V2 of this string out or are we dealing with a mod 1 rev 46? of the original version 1. 
If a V2 is out what rays store link and what is the experience you pros have had with them so far....  I see Steve did the car wash, but my assumptions were that was still V1.
Would like to bring us current to what is real today and what is still Vapor ware.
Thanks.....
Curt
 

[Made2Rock]

I started this tread last xmas when my show went down the toilet and found others where having the same problems. It was sometime around the end of the year when Ray was redesigning the circuit boards that were being used in the Technicolor nodes. I saw the prints on the circuit board and one thing he was doing is to increase the amount of copper between the chips and LED. His goal in doing this was to help dissipate the heat. I do not know what else was changed but I do know Ray was taking steps to correct the problem. Ray was also taking steps to not drive the LED so hard (This will reduce the heat)

The above is fact, the rest is assumptions

Ray had tossed the remaining Technicolor strings and was building new strings. Those new strings should now be out there and they should be an improvement. I do not know what steps Ray did to reduce the power dissipated by the LED and chip.

THIS THREAD IS FOR THOSE TECHNICOLOR STRINGS BUILT IN 2013.

I would suggest a new thread be created asking for feedback on Technicolor strings built in 2014.

These should be considered 2 COMPLETELY different things.

In working with Ray I found him to be very busy and slow to answer sometimes BUT he also wants to build a good RGB string and he was taking steps to do just that.

If there are any questions out there about his integrity or intent let me put it this way I will do business with him again.

Joe