LED problems with SSR's

[CheapOLights]

I just bought several new strands of LED M5 lights because the icicle lights that I normally hang on my roof were burnt out (melted cable). The lights look great, but when I plugged them into my SSR board, they came on at about 30%. The board does not have dimming capabilities and this behavior occurs across all channels even if the control cable is disconnected. I do not believe this to be an issue with the SSR's as they work fine with the rest of the incandescent lights.
This is a very frustrating problem as I would like to eventually upgrade my entire display to LED's. At this rate, I'd just like to get the one strand to turn off completely!

Thanks in Advance!

[ukewarrior]

I use 100% LED lights, half wave with REN's and SSR-4's.
No problems and dimming works great.

I just bought several new strands of LED M5 lights because the icicle lights that I normally hang on my roof were burnt out (melted cable). The lights look great, but when I plugged them into my SSR board, they came on at about 30%. The board does not have dimming capabilities and this behavior occurs across all channels even if the control cable is disconnected. I do not believe this to be an issue with the SSR's as they work fine with the rest of the incandescent lights.
This is a very frustrating problem as I would like to eventually upgrade my entire display to LED's. At this rate, I'd just like to get the one strand to turn off completely!

Thanks in Advance!

[CheapOLights]

when you say "half-wave" do you mean that you have a high current diode installed to limit polarity of the AC to the lights?

[dirknerkle]

This is an apples - oranges - cabbage poll. I'm confused.

[CheapOLights]

I just wanted to see what people's opinions were about LED lights. It's apples/oranges/cabbages because different people might have different opinions, but I wanted to condense the available choices into only a few options. Since you posted, do you have any thoughts about the problem I originally posted?

[holtm]

I had this problem with some of the SSRs I use too. I made some terminators (47K 1 Watt resistor across the AC lines) and they turn off (and on) much better.

[dirknerkle]

I just wanted to see what people's opinions were about LED lights. It's apples/oranges/cabbages because different people might have different opinions, but I wanted to condense the available choices into only a few options. Since you posted, do you have any thoughts about the problem I originally posted?

Some SSRs may not fully shut down voltage going out the line to the lights. Since LEDs have a sort of "threshhold" for turning on to begin with, it's possible that even when the SSR is "off" it's still leaking enough voltage/current down the wire to keep them on.

I noted I was confused because I could select all four of those choices. Yes, I think they're the wave of the future and yes, I think they're too expensive. They're worse than incans because they're harder to work with and (so far) don't seem to last as long as advertised yet they're better than incans in the current usage arena, which allows for more lights overall, and their response is a lot faster because an LED doesn't have a filament that has to heat up to provide light.

[Matt_Edwards]

LEDs are great.
They can have a high Light Output for a small power dissipation.
They can have a very short life if you don't treat them properly - there are far less tolerant than incandescent lights.

But are best controlled with a DC SSR using PWM.

[mschell]

LEDs are great.
They can have a high Light Output for a small power dissipation.
They can have a very short life if you don't treat them properly - there are far less tolerant than incandescent lights.

But are best controlled with a DC SSR using PWM.

Matt,

I tend to agree with you, but the issue here in the US is that we have 120V AC LED lights readily available. So using a DC SSR isn't always an option.

I like LEDs because of the low maintenance, lower power consumption, and durability. However, I'm seeing some minor issues this year with flickering. Probably going to add a snubber on some circuits to see if that helps. Interestingly enough - I'm seeing the most problems on my Lynx Express circuits, while my older AL controllers don't show it a bit.

[Entropy]

when you say "half-wave" do you mean that you have a high current diode installed to limit polarity of the AC to the lights?

Fundamentally LEDs are diodes themselves.

Cheapo LED strings just have a bunch of LEDs in series that only light up when forward biased, i.e. they only light up for part of half of the AC cycle. (When the AC line voltage rises above the total forward voltage of the series LEDs.)

Better LED strings have a bridge rectifier built in such that the LEDs light on each half-cycle.

It's a known issue that a triac-based SSR with too little load will behave oddly. Options are:

1) Add more LED light strands on that channel to increase load.
2) Add an incandescent light bulb or a resistor on that channel in parallel with the LED strands to increase current consumption.