Author Topic: Channels not working  (Read 2420 times)

Offline mkozik1

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Channels not working
« on: December 23, 2013, »
Good evening and Merry early Christmas!

I have a couple of MR16's I built during the summer.  I am having issues with them both as they both seem to have channels that are not working.  I measured the voltage to each lug and in one, 2 of the 16 are not working and the other, 4 of 16 are out.  I checked for burned areas, checked for cold solder joints, etc. but nothing jumps out and slaps me in the face.  On one, a couple for the channels are intermittent.

I am driving these with the usb dongle in DMX mdoe using xLights.  Distance from the computer is less than 15'.  I have done this with only the MR16's on the line and nothing else.  Only driving dumb RGB's at this point (6) of the rectangle from Holiday Coro on each channel.

Ideas?

Thanks in advance,

- Mark

Offline RJ

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Re: Channels not working
« Reply #1 on: December 23, 2013, »
Maybe post some pics for us to look at. Might see something.

RJ
Innovation beats imitation - and it's more satisfying

Offline tbone321

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Re: Channels not working
« Reply #2 on: December 24, 2013, »
That sounds like more than a few cold solder joints, especilly with the intermittent ones.  Not much else causes that.  If this is your first shot at soldering, you either have the iron to cold or you are applying the solder to the iron instead of the joint which will create cold solder joints.  While they may look ok, they tend to be a dull gray, are physically weak, and make poor connections at best and in many cases, no connection at all.  I would crank up that iron and reflow those joints.
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