channel 18 staying on

[cardoc13]

I am only running 32 channels for 2 nights 18 stays on at about 1/2 power all the time even when the show is not running?
i have restarted every thing dongel, express,computer what could be going on? 

Scott

[sirloinofbeef001]

I had one channel do that as well. Does it light up full when the lights is called for? I changed the triac and it fixed mine.

[tbone321]

What is connected to the channel and does the channel go above the 50% mark when told to?

[cardoc13]

yes it goes to full power when called to and drops to 1/2 power after that

scott

[jnealand]

You need to swap out the opto for that chip.  That;s what I did and it fixed the problem.  Much simpler to at least try that than to replace a triac, but I've done several of those over the years and have one sitting on my workbench that needs that surgery this week.

[cardoc13]

i will try switching out the opto & if it don't fix it i will have to do surgery

thanks for the help

Scott

[paul58]

I've got one the same way. Opto didnt help . Turns out to be the triac. We had a good spell of wet weather and might have shorted a cord. The LE board was good and dry. This is the seond one in two years, not bad i guess.

[tbone321]

Actually, all you need to do is pull the opto and see what happens.  If it was the opto then the channel should go dead.  If you are using LED's then you could have a leakage problem that could be caused by either the Triac or a dirty board and moisture. 

[sirloinofbeef001]

As I can best recollect, I think I changed both opto and triac .   That solved the problem. Those dang triacs are a small pain in the backside to change.

[cardoc13]

i just tried the opto no change
i guess i will do late night surgery i am down 2 express now i know what i will be doing next year
waiting on express coop!

thanks for all the help

Scott with the lights stuck on

[sirloinofbeef001]

Its not all that bad. I changed one the other day as well. It took more time to unplug the cords and plug it all back up. Good luck.

[tbone321]

Just remember NOT to try and remove the triac intact.  They hav incredable heat sinking capabilities even without the heatsink. Just cut the triac body free of the pins and then unsolder the pins from the board.  You never said what type of lights you were using.  If they are LED's, you might get away with simply increasing the load on that channel, at leasdt for this season.