interesting SSR behavior

[robots4joey]

I have made about 7, 6-channel SSR boxes, all have tested out fine except this one.

for some reason channels 4 and 5 come on when either of them are triggered, then they stay on, even when vixen isn't telling them to. I unplug and plug back in the AC cord to my box and they turn off again until one of them is triggered, then the same thing happens.

I have tried my other SSR boxes and they still work fine.

Any clue what is going on?

Thanks!

-Joey

[xmus]

if you have socketed opto triacs you might just switch them out for fun.

have you inspected the top and bottom of the board for improper soldering (shorts from pins to other pins most likely?)

[tommy]

Hmmm...

Interesting problem. If it was in the audio world, I'd say you were getting cross-talk between the channels. Not sure if that would happen with your ssr's.

Tom :lol:

[NogginBoink]

Check for solder bridges on the board.

[robots4joey]

I did check for solder bridges, they checked out fine. I will switch out the opto's. that'll be pretty easy.

I'll let you know if that fixes it :)

[robots4joey]

Ok. I switched out the opto's and it didn't fix it :(

changing out the triacs will probably take a long time, so I was trying to avoid it... but I guess that is next

I just don't understand how they switch on and off together. the two inputs are not crossed(bridged), and the two outputs aren't crossed either. I've done lots of continuity checking and nothing has turned up any different on these two channels than are on the other ones.

If anyone has any clue I'd be very interested to know!

[robots4joey]

I switched out the triacs. that didn't fix it either!

i've compared it to my other working boards and it appears identical, I continuity/resistance checked each pin with respect to the working one and that also checked out fine.

HELP!!!! It's holding up my whole display...

:(

[NogginBoink]

That is indeed weird. The only other thing that I could think of would be to replace the opto's as well.

[flintman]

Maybe it's not the ssr. Have you tried lets say the bad board is A and you know board B is ok have you tried moving board A to boards B output to see if it's not the controller doing it ??

[holtm]

Check the switched AC for a short between channels. It's simple, but I forgot to break off the tab between duplex outlets, I was a while finding that problem.

[robots4joey]

Thanks for all the ideas:

That is indeed weird. The only other thing that I could think of would be to replace the opto's as well.
I've changed out the opto's and the triacs, still no difference

Maybe it's not the ssr. Have you tried lets say the bad board is A and you know board B is ok have you tried moving board A to boards B output to see if it's not the controller doing it ??
That was the first thing I tried, and the other boards all work fine in this one's output.

Check the switched AC for a short between channels. It's simple, but I forgot to break off the tab between duplex outlets
I continuity checked all of the AC ins and outs, no bridges there. I just checked the tabs and they are all broken off correctly. these two channels aren't even on the same pair of outlets.

These are great ideas guys! keep em coming! Hopefully we'll get this figured out by this weekend, or I'm 6 channels short :(

[holtm]

Switch cable? Maybe some 5v control connected? Are you using an Olsen or Renard? with olsen it gets a steady ground with on so you could do some probing with the AC not connected and see what get's 5V. If it is Renard and not PWM the brief signal to turn on the opto will be hard to see without a scope.