No Led on SSR's

[RStetson]

I'm not getting any led light on my SSR'S. Here is what I've done so far.

I built the ssr like the wiki states and my grinch as well. I wanted to make sure I had everything working before taking them out into the yard and trying to trouble shoot from there, plus its poring out today! I have all power turned off and run all of my cables. Power up the Grinch, led comes on. Power up the pc and go into vixen. Try and run my sample sequence and still no led and no blinky flashy of my lights. I know the cat5 cable is not the problem since I did a continuity test on it after making it and then did it again now when I had no led light or blinky flashy. Oh and I bulit my ssr's into boxes like Wayne gives directions for to Daisy Chain them. Ok I think thats everything but I'm sure I'm missing some point of information some one is going to need. Oh wait I also took the led out and turned it around and still nothing. Now thats everything..LOL

Rick

[jwells]

Sounds like power is not getting to the SSR's from the Grinch. Do you have more than 1 SSR can you test with a pre-built cat5 patch cable to rule out any cable issues as well ? I would of course do this "Inside" not out in the rain. How are you getting 5V to the Grinch are you using the PC Power Supply ? or some other method just asking in case you don't have a strong enough 5VDC to run the Grinch and the SSR's

Jim

[RStetson]

I have a 5v power supply that is sending the right amount of power to the Grinch. Already tested that. The other ssr's are all responding the same way. The cables are good. In between posts I replaced an existing cat5 cable with one of the home made ones that I use for my online gaming racing wheel. It worked just fine, so now the continuity tests, done twice, and a manual test of the cable in something other then from the Grinch to the SSR'S proves they aren't the problem.

Rick

[Dan Ross]

Can you post pictures of the grinch and SSR?

[RStetson]

Ok here are top and bottom pics of the grinch and one of the 8 ssr's I made. This is the one I was trying to get working to begin with, but got the same result with all of them of no led light on the board coming on.

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/rsg8rs/Picture001.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/rsg8rs/Picture002-1.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/rsg8rs/Picture003-1.jpg

http://i109.photobucket.com/albums/n74/rsg8rs/Picture004-1.jpg

[Mudsculpter]

Do you have all the shunts installed?
Is the fuse good?

[Dan Ross]

Are you sure the resistors by the RJ45 jack are the correct ones?

[Mudsculpter]

from the pictures I see I think you have the +12v and the ground switched. Its worth checking

[Wayne J]

When you say "continuity tested" did you use a network cable tester? The cable wires have to be exactly the same on each end. If you have some crossed pairs, it is highly possible nothing will work.

[RStetson]

Ok what are shunts? The resistors are the correct ones as per the bom for the ssr's from Mouser. They came in a different package and when I cross checked everything between the label and the bom they matched up correctly. While they look very similar they have different color coding on them. The last thing is where is the +12 volt and the ground? If thats the power supply on the Grinch I have the power on the outboard side of the grinch. Is that correct?

[RStetson]

Wayne I held a tester to each gold connector. The black probe on one end and the red probe for the other. I checked each individual gold connection point against the other end and came back with everything being connected properly. I also use each cable as a replacement cable on my gaming computer and it worked just fine there. So I'm willing to bet I screwed something else up other then the cables..LOL

[Mudsculpter]

Sorry,... When I said check the shunts I was talking about the 595.
also I meant +5vdc power and ground on the grinch,... apologies

[Dan Ross]

Put your meter on pin 1 (+v) and pin 7 (-v) of your SSR and see if you are getting power to it.

[bmcgeeny]

I'm not getting any led light on my SSR'S. Here is what I've done so far.

I built the ssr like the wiki states and my grinch as well. I wanted to make sure I had everything working before taking them out into the yard and trying to trouble shoot from there, plus its poring out today! I have all power turned off and run all of my cables. Power up the Grinch, led comes on. Power up the pc and go into vixen. Try and run my sample sequence and still no led and no blinky flashy of my lights. I know the cat5 cable is not the problem since I did a continuity test on it after making it and then did it again now when I had no led light or blinky flashy. Oh and I bulit my ssr's into boxes like Wayne gives directions for to Daisy Chain them. Ok I think thats everything but I'm sure I'm missing some point of information some one is going to need. Oh wait I also took the led out and turned it around and still nothing. Now thats everything..LOL

Rick
Here is the best thread on trouble shooting the Grinch out there.

http://www.doityourselfchristmas.com/forums/showthread.php?t=3822

99% of these failures are cableing. Wrong wire where. Ground is extremely important. If you are usng an indipendant power supply and your grinch lights up, you next have to make sure you have power and data from the computer and the ground is good. Tie ALL the ground portts together. Some computers have only one pin grounded.

[RStetson]

Where is pin 1 and pin 7?

My cables are done right as I've tried them in place of existing cables on my system and they all work. The cable coming from the computer has all of the ground wires connected together and has power from it as well.

[Dan Ross]

http://www.christmasinshirley.com/wiki/index.php?title=Pinouts#RJ45_and_CAT5

[RStetson]

Ok I was so frustrated last night that I had to just stop what I was doing and leave it alone or I would have fixed it the way my 8 year old suggested, use my framing hammer! LOL So today I did the grinch troubleshooting test that bmc suggested I look at. In that thread there is a pdf for a test. I ran that test and found that I have power to pin 1, 5 and 8 of my data in port. The test says I should have a power reading of 5v to pin 5, 7 and 8. What have I done wrong that I'm not getting power to pin 7. I'm not bringing power off the pc and at the led I have 5.10v. I'm really getting frustrated with all of this and ready to just toss it! This isn't as easy as I had believed it would be. I'm a pretty handy guy and understand electric circuits fairly well, and if I don't I can call my dad who was an electrical engineer, but this is killing me how tough it is to figure out.

One other thing, that same pdf says I should run a test sequence in vixen. I made one just like it says for all 64 channels at 1 sec and 1 sec off. To make it work do I just click run or is there more to it then that?

Rick

[Dan Ross]

Did you tie the ground from the power supply you are using to a ground on the PC? This is probably not the problem but can cause one after you get it working.

You could try taking the chips out of your grinch and making sure you have 5v with your + lead on pin 24 and your - lead on pin 1

[RavingLunatic]

I think your best option right now is to: take a deep breath and start from the beginning and not look at anything as "already being checked".

You should start with the beginners step up guide:

http://www.christmasinshirley.com/wiki/index.php?title=Beginner%E2%80%99s_Setup_Guide_%E2 %80%93_The_Grinch

[RStetson]

Dan I brought in the power from a 5v power supply right into the grinch. I didn't see anywhere that said I need to create a ground for that also. If so how do I go about doing that?

RavingLunatic that link wont work, but I'll search for that topic here on the foums.

[RavingLunatic]

wiki must still be experiencing problems :(

[Dan Ross]

Dan I brought in the power from a 5v power supply right into the grinch. I didn't see anywhere that said I need to create a ground for that also. If so how do I go about doing that?


I'm not sure it's a written rule, but it's something I always do. It assures me everything in the circuit has the same point of reference. This can be done by taking the ground from your grinch power supply and attaching it to any metal screw on the PC.

[Dan Ross]

What kind of power supply are you using to power the grinch? When you power the grinch the LED on it comes on, does it go out when you plug the SSR in? Have you tried plugging the SSR into different ports on the grinch?

[RStetson]

Ok here's the deal...LOL I need only 8 ssr's, but made 9 to have an extra. Of the 8 I was using I had no led come on. Just for, as the saying goes poops and giggles, I took the spare out of the box and plugged it in. Don't ya know the freaking led comes on! LOL Turns out I put the other 8 led's in backwards! LOL By taking the day and half off from messing with this I guess it cleared my mind and I started thinking alot more basic about things and sorted it out. Now I have flipped all of the led's around and they all come on! YEAHHH!!!! Now I gotta figure out how to make everything blink! LOL Next thread in a different section I guess.

Dan when I plug the ssr's in the led on the grinch does not go out. I plugged in all 8 ssr's adn everything lit up. So by flipping the led's I solved this problem. Now I don't need that hammer, well not for this project atleast! LOL

Thanks Guys for the help!
Rick

[Dan Ross]

Glad you got it solved. When you get it working let me know, I'm not sure when we are going to do our tour of lights but I'd like to see it.