Dirkcheap SSRs one output only lighting 1/2 LED string (other half lit dim)

B

burtonmadness

New member
Built 8 Dirkcheaps over the last week. All working apart from on in which one channel, only lights half a LED string. The other half is just very dimly lit. Swapped the LED string that particular channel lights, and the symptom follows the SSR.

Going to crack open the 1" PVC pipe I built them in, but before then, anybody have any ideas what might be the issue?

/BM
 
Same controller driving all the SSRs? Or is this one on it's own controller?
(If on it's own.. check the H11AA1 isn't an H11A1) (ie. only detecting 1/2 of zero crossings)

That's from the "been there, done that" school of debugging.
 
Yep... had the same issues... I don't know if it's the fact that the MOC can't take alot of heat, or if there is something trully wrong... I'll tell you this.. Had 16 "black" Dirk Cheap SSR's from when they first came out... and not one bit of an issue... Bought 5 this year and they were "blue" These look like a different MOC. All of the Blue ones had some sort of issue... in fact I had some black ones left over and could replace most of the blue ones.... and the ones still out there only have three or less working channels. Which is fine because I have them attached to things that only need three channels... a pain because I had to remove the SSR and change the channels... and then the channel output as well. There is one element that one channel is 1/2 lit and sometimes fails to light, very sensitive to voltage coming from the controller. Not going to change it now as I am out of SSR's and not going to change it this late in the game... I thought it was just me and something I was doing... But looks as though it may not be.

Edit** mine are incans.... 50ct light strands amp draw not an issue, and quick soldering was used... I even re-worked the ssr's when I noticed failures, I soldered a RJ45's on them for the cable
 
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DaveJZ said:
Yep... had the same issues... I don't know if it's the fact that the MOC can't take alot of heat, or if there is something trully wrong... I'll tell you this.. Had 16 "black" Dirk Cheap SSR's from when they first came out... and not one bit of an issue... Bought 5 this year and they were "blue" These look like a different MOC. All of the Blue ones had some sort of issue... in fact I had some black ones left over and could replace most of the blue ones.... and the ones still out there only have three or less working channels. Which is fine because I have them attached to things that only need three channels... a pain because I had to remove the SSR and change the channels... and then the channel output as well. There is one element that one channel is 1/2 lit and sometimes fails to light, very sensitive to voltage coming from the controller. Not going to change it now as I am out of SSR's and not going to change it this late in the game... I thought it was just me and something I was doing... But looks as though it may not be.

Edit** mine are incans.... 50ct light strands amp draw not an issue, and quick soldering was used... I even re-worked the ssr's when I noticed failures, I soldered a RJ45's on them for the cable
Click to expand...

I have yet to see blue ones, every batch I have received has been black. Wonder if they made a production change.

Wait, Are you talking about the PCB maybe?
 
Yes... the PCB is blue.... but with that you can definitely tell the difference between the MOC's from a year ago... When I bought these last year the MOC had a gloss finish... this years were dull... maybe a different source supplied the recent ones? I don't have two in front of me to check...

AND- before swapping the SSR out... I had many issues with 1/2 dim lights and no working channels... it was to the point I was going to pull the display elements that these were on... but a little swapping channels, ssr's, etc... I was able to get them working to an OK standard...


Let me throw in the fact that these cost alot less the a regular SSR... some channel failures I can live with because of the cost difference... all in all they are still cheaper then any other SSR....
 
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DaveJZ said:
Yes... the PCB is blue.... but with that you can definitely tell the difference between the MOC's from a year ago... When I bought these last year the MOC had a dull finish... this years were glossy... maybe a different source supplied the recent ones? I don't have two in front of me to check...
Click to expand...

Ah okay. Hopefully it was just a bad batch and not a production change.
 
So every other Dirk SSR on the Ren32 is working fine, plus every channel on this Dirk SSR is working fine.

So I have channel4 on this SSR in which 1/2 the single White LED 50ct string is lit brightly, and the other 1/2 is dimly lit.

Going through the process of checking the board. Soldering, resistor and channel lines all okay. I'll swap out the ZO2223 and see if that helps.

/BM
 
Turns out to be a faulty ZO223A. Replaced and now working fine.

(Thanks Dirk for including a few spares in the kits ;-))

/BM
 
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