Grinch in my display

[therealbigjim]

Had several problems. First, not up-dating channel configurations when I edit or fool with a sequence...spent several frantic moments thinking I had a hardware problem. Second, failed power supply. I worked an extra shift and came home to see none of my mini trees working. The 730w power supply was fairly new and I felt it was not under a heavy load (10 100ct dumb strings.)  To add insult to injury the power supply manufacture's web site is a product portal with no customer service link and I am past my return window with Tiger Direct.   $55 
Third, rain (3" in 24hrs) 2 of the 10 trees quit working last night. I dried out the plugs and found I had some blown fuses. Plugged them back in and one quit again a few min later. Rather then stand in the rain I will work on it today. I am thinking I will place the DSC in battery boxes and re visit how I attach the DSC to the hub next year.   With all that said my ether dongle and active hub are operating flawlessly and are playing nicely with LOR and the scheduler. 

[therealbigjim]

Still chasing a short in one tree. I would like to see the active hub redesigned to configuration similar to the Zeus with the screw terminals and blade fuses.  I have to replace 6 fuses and they are a pain to get to. I am reinstalling them on the back of the board for easer access. Next year I am going to dump all of the rj45 connectors in favor of the 3 or 4 plug water tight connectors. I had plans last night and just left the tree off. I hate to do it because it is the #5 tree in the middle of the line. The rain was so hard there was water in the battery box, luckily I had standoffs under the PS so it did not get wet. I had filled the vents with hot glue and felt they were water tight. I ended up stacking all the DSC on top of the battery box and placing a container over the whole pile.  

[tbone321]

It is not a good idea to fill the vents.  All that does is trap water and water vapor in the box.  It is better to let the box breath.

[jnealand]

You have to be kidding.  The vents are right on top.  There is still lots of breathing room from the 4 cable exit points at the ends on one side.

[tbone321]

Unless he has the same exact box that you do, how do you know that the vents that he sealed up are only at the top?  Many of them have vents at the top and the bottom.  The fact that he has standing water in the box and his standoffs are the only thing keeping the boards and supplies out of the water, it appears that the cable exit points are also sealed or are not enough to keep the box drained.

[therealbigjim]

The box is the standard battery box with the two small vents on the top and the openings on the sides for the cables. I replaced 7 fuses  and cut the end off the cat 5 cable and soldered it to the DSC. I covered everything up with a bin so it all stayed dry. So the  rain came and the show ran just fine. Because of the rain there were no luminaries put out and very little golf cart or foot traffic. Instead of sitting outside talking to the folks we went to a friends open house. There was a trickle of traffic till 1130 when I shut down the show.