Weather related SSC failures

[zwiller]

'twas brutal weather for me this past blinky season.  Inches of rain one weekend, a foot of snow the next, high winds for days, and just last weekend -20F temps... 

I was happy with the performance of my connectors (pigtails) with corrosion protection.  Things look good.  It will be interesting to see how things held up once I take the show down.  That said, the issue I struggled with this past season the most was water/moisture infiltration of the SSC.  My holes and wire were tight and I don’t think the design is flawed per se, it just was the weather was that bad.  I am contemplating using the corrosion spray on SSC boards in the future but really apprehensive about it.  Year before I never had an issue, but this year dealt with this on 8-10 SSCs, some of the same a few times.  I have adapted most SSC to the vertical 2 holes in bottom where I can but some elements won't allow anything but horizontal mount and it's no surprise these were the ones with issues.  Just wondered if anyone had similar issues or any other thoughts. 

One interesting observation I noted fixing things.  If I had the issue with a V3 SSC it always resulted in a fried pic but to my surprise the V4 could be re-programmed.  In addition, I would always suspect the hub fuse would be blown with this problem but most often it was not. 

[keitha43]

I use blue RTV Silicone to seal my holes. It is a silicone type tube.

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[Steve Gase]

I redid all of my SSCs this past year --- not only did I move to waterproof connectors for input (pixelnet) and output (strings) but I had both connectors enter through a single PVC cap -- the other was untouched.


Each SSC was also oriented so that the cap (with the connectors) was pointing to the ground.  I used stakes, i zip-tied to a wire leading up the wall, i tied them to fence posts -- but in each case the water could not flow into the SSC unless the laws of gravity were ignored.


not a single problem.


2 years ago I lost 50% of my SSCs to far less rain and ice.

[tbone321]

There is no harm in using corrosion protection on the boards.  The only thing that I would look at is what is required to remove it just in case you need to work on the board.  Of course, make sure that it s designed to protect electrical devices.  As for water entry, I find the trick is giving the water and humidity a way to escape.  If you make it water tight and not air tight, then you tend to get the issues with condensation that you are dealing with.  Humid air gets into the tube and condenses but the water has no way out so there it stays, eating away at your boards and allowing incorrect voltages to reach the wrong components. 

Steve has a really good idea to bring in both wires on the same end and make sure that end of the SSC is pointing down.  I would add that in addition to that, leave a space between the two wires open.  This will give you a built in weep hole which will allow both the humid air and any condensation a way out of the controller, preventing most of the damage that is currently occurring.

[zwiller]

Good thoughts guys.  I think it was condensation mostly.  I think there is a possibility that since my show ran so little due to other problems there was no time for condensation to evaporate as it did in the past.  Gonna try and see if I can switch all to vertical rear entry style and sealing the few that I can't.  Do you think it is normal to anticipate a few failures during a season?

[tbone321]

Normal - yes, desirable - no.  This is the price for cutting edge and at minimum cost. 

[zwiller]

Yep.  Boy did I luck out in 2012 and get my butt handed to me last year.  I had so much go wrong it was comical. 

[tjbrickner]

Not sure if this will help anyone but I'm extremely pleased with my results.  Instead of the normal enclosure recommended for the Express I bought a full weather tight enclosure that is big enough for 2 Expresses (just need to figure out proper mounting to protect against shorting.  In order to get the extension cords in I used 2x 2" PVC caps and used duct seal around the cut edges to offer a seal.  I then connected all of my pig tails.  Using a jury-rigged mount, I kept a hair dryer on the open case for about 30 minutes to help burn the humidity out.  Screwed on the sealed lid and then continued to heat the enclosure with the same hair dryer.  After a short amount of time I began packing duct seal into the PVC pipes with the pigtails until I was satisfied.  I just pulled the enclosure open after being outside for the blinking season and see no evidence of moisture.  Not sure if this was just dumb luck or not, but I'll try it again next year.

[duane.mosley]

I have yet to remove my ssc's from the house but I didn't have any issues with any of my ssc's this year or last. now with that said, i'll probably have all kinds of troubles next year. I ran my show non stop threw the rain and snow though so not sure if that makes a difference. I had similar weather as you from the sounds of it. I have holes at both ends of my ssc's  and once they were programmed and running fine, I put silicone one each end. no issues.

[mitch09]

I had a few issues with SSCs due to the heavy rain and some snow here in the Pacific Northwest. My issues were with some serious corrosion of the cat5 pigtails. All my SSCs boards are coated with corrosion x. The boards were fine just the exposed pigtails. A few that we're sitting in snow for an extended period of time had issues even though I sprayed the connections  with corrosion x.


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[jnealand]

My SSCs with cat5 pigtails are all mounted up under the eaves or under my front porch roof.  Have had no issues with them after 3 seasons for my window frames.  The SSCs that are out in the yard have both cords exit one end of the pipe with the cord end mounted down. They have a long enough cat5 to reach all the way from the pipe to the passive hub so no exposed cat5 except for humidity type exposure.  I do not seal anything or coat anything.  Been doing this for 6 years and never had a problem.  I have found a little water in the bottom of the marine battery boxes and in one SSC that got flipped upside down, but never enough to reach any electronics.  I have put a piece of 2x4 in the bottom of a battery box just to keep a power supply up a little way in case of water infiltration, but never got enough water in anything to make a difference.  My insurance philosophy is to have backups available for everything and not do things like corrosion x.  I bought a can a year ago, but never put it on do to the issues of having to clean it off when a repair was needed and I have had to replace triacs and pics over the years so did not want to impede that work which for me has been more commonplace than having moisture issues.

[zwiller]

Thanks guys this is helping.  I am thinking about using some zeuses (zees? ) for the elements nearest to the ground rather than using SSCs.  ALL of my ground elements and SSC are under over a foot of snow now.  Eliminates pigtails from the equation too.  I should be able to get to all things around a 24' radius.  My testing of the v4 was good to 12'.  Time to test the Zeus but thought was same distance. 

[taybrynn]

I like the idea of putting both cords on the same cap ... eliminates my issue or never remembering which side to pull to reprogram.

The zeus could eliminate the pigtails, but then you have add the considerable work in attaching each string to the zeus outdoors overtime you put out or take in.  I think adding them is such a nominal extra cost its well worth it in terms of saving you time on hookup. 

I do hope that the quality of the quick connectors returns to normal, as mine had about a 5% internally shorted rate and the threads were horrible ... I have connectors for prior years and no issues whatsoever.  Someone Ray used produced some real duds and I got them. 

[zwiller]

+1 on the connectors...  Besides the shorts, intermittent, and dead ones (my failure rate was well over 10%) nearly all of mine this year were messed up in some way.  Deformed, etc.

As I just typed that, that really describes my show last year.  No matter what I could only get it 90%.  Maybe that's something I need to embrace or prepare for... 

[taybrynn]

I have wondered if the 4-pin quick connectors were more mainstream and perhaps better quality?