Author Topic: lights on without dongle plugged in  (Read 3531 times)

Offline Dennis Cherry

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #15 on: November 01, 2010, »
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You didn't say and I didn't ask, but what is the actual load on channels 12 and 14? Are they LED lights or incandescents? If LED, then just a tiny amount of leakage current can keep them glowing.

The LE's already that the snubber built in if you have the V5 units.

I would like to know more about the out come of the opto's on those channels. What was really found.
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Offline jnealand

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #16 on: November 03, 2010, »
i worked the election yesterday and finally had a little time to look at this LE today.

For the show all channels had a single C9 incan inside a pumpkin.  On the workbench it is only channel 14 that stays on and Chan 12 doesn't fail.  The voltage measures 69vAC.  I removed the optoisolator chip and it looks fine with bad plug in. I then swapped it with the one in channel 16.  The problem stays on 14.  I have a night light plugged into each channel.  Vixen test channels works fine with off/on/dim except that chan 14 is always on.  I tried it with all on and off and with single channels selected.  I removed the extension cord wired into 14 and looked for stray strands that may be touching something but found nothing and I still measure 69v even with no wires or bulb connected.  I checked the bottom of the board and cannot see anything even close to a solder bridge or stray wisp of anything around the pins on the chan 14 opto or the triac.  The resistor looks normal and not burned out.  Is there a way to check the triac short of removal.  I have removed and upgraded the voltage regulators for last years temperature problem so I'm not worried about having to replace it.  Just don't want to got to that trouble if there is a better way to verify that it is bad or ok.
Jim Nealand
Kennesaw, GA

Offline RJ

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #17 on: November 03, 2010, »
Is it always full on? if so then yes it is likely a bad Triac. Sorry I do not have better news.

RJ
« Last Edit: November 03, 2010, by RJ »
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Offline tbone321

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #18 on: November 03, 2010, »
I don't understand what you are saying here.  What do you mean when you say channel 12 doesn't fail and what do you mean when you say "it looks fine with bad plug in".  Also when you say that channel 14 is always on do you mean that it is always fully on or that it just doesn't turn completely off.  Does it respond to dimming commands at all?
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Offline jnealand

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #19 on: November 03, 2010, »
RJ - It is not full on but has a 69v reading.

tbone321 - In earlier posts I wrote that both chan 12 and 14 failed to turn off even though they seemed to work during a show.  The lights (a single C9) inside a pumpkin stayed lit, but dim.  I set an extra LE next to the one that was failing and moved just those two pumpkins/channels over to the 2nd LE and the show worked fine (both LEs set to be chan 1-16).  I also stated that I wouldn't be able to work on them until after the show came down.  Well the failing unit is now sitting on my workbench and chan 12 is no longer failing.  By bad plug I meant the outlet cord that was connected to chan 14.  I removed it to check for stray wire strands or anything else that looked bad.

I had not tested dimming, so I just now went back and powered the board back up.  Once again both Chan 12 and 14 are in a constant on and they do not dim even though all the other channels do.  I do not understand how in my earlier testing today chan 12 worked fine and is not gone bad.  Looks like I may have two bad triacs.  I will have to order some and wait for them to come in before I can replace them.  Good thing Christmas light up is about 7 or 8 weeks away.
Jim Nealand
Kennesaw, GA

Offline tbone321

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Re: lights on without dongle plugged in
« Reply #20 on: November 03, 2010, »
OK, now I understand.  Before you rip out those triacs, I would check the solder joints on the bottom of the 180 ohm resistors on channel 12 and 14.  Make sure that they are not bridging a connection to the 120V trace as they are very close to it and this will turn the triac on regardless of what the isolator is telling it to do.  It may even be a cold joint which could also explain why channel 12 appeard to work before and not now.
If at first you don't succeed,
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