Can you explain this phenomenon?

[jnealand]

I finally got rid of my red night light on a mini tree in the yard buy swapping out the LE.  I am assuming a stuck triac on that one. but now I have a blue night light on my megatree.  It is not a stuck triac since the show runs perfect.  Also there are two strings of blue LEDs plugged into the same outlet, BUT only half of one string lights up.  If I plug each string into a constant on source each string comes 100% on,  If I plug the two together and connect them to power they both light up.  This morning I had no blue night light, but this afternoon, the half string is back.  There is no LED on in the LE and the show does run fine.  This is a V5 LE in its 2nd season.  Both of the LE strings have snubbers on them as well.  How can I be picking up power to half of one string when two string are plugged into the same outlet and both work fine when connected to a constant on source?

[meman]

I have had similar issues in the past after accessing the same com port with different sources (Vixen, testers, etc,). Does it still light up if you unplug the dongle from USB and reset the express?

[dlhoppe]

Half string of LEDs?  Sounds like DC voltage on the output.

[jnealand]

When I wrote the post I had a half string of blue on.  At the moment the show is running and the only time I see blue is when both strings are fully lit.  This is the weirdest thing I have come across since the phantom flashes on wireless a year ago.  At least then it was a whole string and only happened during a show.  I was testing a new LE with wireless in my basement this morning, but I only had channels 1-16 being tested.  But this LE starts with channel 97 and does not explain a half string that otherwise works perfectly.  Will see what happens tomorrow?

[jnealand]

Today after raining all day I have no blue night light.  This is really puzzling.  I hope it is gone forever.

[jnealand]

I came home from work today and found my half string of blue LEDs on.  I took a meter to the channel outputs in the LE and find that I am getting 62v AC to that outlet.  That must be just enough to turn on that part of the string.  There are two strings plugged into the outlet with one on top of the other so I am not going thru the first string to get power to the second string.  What should I be looking at on the LE.  It still runs fine during the show and there is no channel LED lit on the LE board when this is occuring.  This is a V5 LE in its second season.  It is about time for the show to start or I would try more troubleshooting now.  Will be able to look at the unit more closely tomorrow during the day.  Could this be caused by a failing opto.  I have spares.

[caretaker]

Hi Jim,

Yes I would suspect a faulty opto or a leaky triac. Try a opto first and then if that solves it.

[jnealand]

I measured the voltage across the channel late this morning and it measured 4.7v as opposed to the 60+ yesterday.  No blue LEDs were lit.  Replaced the opto and I still get 1v.  There are two other channels with measured voltage on them.  One at 8v and one at 2v, but no LEDs are lighting.  I assume that they should all measure 0 when the show is off.  I did notice that the data LED on this V5 LE is flashing rapidly.  Would that mean that it is picking data up from somewhere (thru the wireless) or is it just the dongle telling everything to stay at 0%.  All my DMX stuff comes thru the hub and into a v2 TX with all the DMX boxes have their own EXRX, even the SSR4s.

[tbone321]

As said before, triacs leak so there can be some voltage on the output.  The dongle continues to transmitt the last settings that it received so as long as it is powered it will send data.  This is a good thing otherwise the boards could pick up some stray signals and turn on some channels.