4 out of 6 LED lights not syncing

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M

Miro

0
Jan 27, 2017
7
PEMBROKE PINES
Hi,
i have recently bought my house (Florida, the pool is operational all year long) and the pool came with a built in LED lights, 5 in the pool and 1 in the spa. The lights were working fine and were all syncing and changing colors, following patterns etc . I did not have them on for a few months and last week when i turned the switch ON i have noticed that only 2 lights are syncing up. The rest light up, but stay on a steady purple color (not as bright as the other 2). Tried syncing up with the ON / OFF 10-15 seconds power cycle, but it does not seem to help, only the 2 lights are doing what they are supposed to, the rest are just going off and on and coming back to the steady dimmed purple color.

Any ideas what could be causing the issue? Is it the controller, transformer, the bulbs or something else?

Thank you in advance for all the help.
 
Hey there Miro, welcome to TFP!

Any clue as to what brand of lights? You have a lot more lights than me, but I have a page in my manual that gives the directions for re-syncing mine. I found the manual online.

Yippee :flower:
 
GaryT58 said:
Also can try turning off the breaker that supplies power to the LED controller and back on to give it a "hard" reset.
Click to expand...
i have tried with the breakers, but it does not make a difference. Not sure where the LED controller is. I see the transformer which is converting power is 100W, which in my opinion is not enough for 6 lights. The thing that confuses me is that it all worked fine before. Do you think i should replace the transformer first and see how it goes?
file.jpg
 
YippeeSkippy said:
Hey there Miro, welcome to TFP!

Any clue as to what brand of lights? You have a lot more lights than me, but I have a page in my manual that gives the directions for re-syncing mine. I found the manual online.

Yippee :flower:
Click to expand...

Thanks Yippee,
i do not know the brand and as per my pool tech i would not be able to tell unless i pull one from the wall, which would be the last thing i want to do. Is it possible that every light has it's own controller? As i do not see any particular controller box, just the transformer and the power switch.
 
Some LED lights, like the ones I have, are 2-wire 12v AC. They change color by cycling the power quickly on off.

It looks like they are using both the 12v and 13v outputs. So possibly running one pair (i.e. white-yellow) to 2 lights and the other (white-black) to the other 4. So IF you can disconnect from the output of the transformer, disconnect the yellow wire and see which lights come on (2, 4, ??) and if they are working as expecting. Then reconnect yellow and test with the removal of the black. If the problem is on one output of the transformer, then yes, you can replace it. If the problem is not isolated to one side, then you can measure outputs while connect with volt meter to see if they are meeting the expected voltage. Yes, transformers do fail.
 
GaryT58 said:
Some LED lights, like the ones I have, are 2-wire 12v AC. They change color by cycling the power quickly on off.

It looks like they are using both the 12v and 13v outputs. So possibly running one pair (i.e. white-yellow) to 2 lights and the other (white-black) to the other 4. So IF you can disconnect from the output of the transformer, disconnect the yellow wire and see which lights come on (2, 4, ??) and if they are working as expecting. Then reconnect yellow and test with the removal of the black. If the problem is on one output of the transformer, then yes, you can replace it. If the problem is not isolated to one side, then you can measure outputs while connect with volt meter to see if they are meeting the expected voltage. Yes, transformers do fail.
Click to expand...
Thank you,
my lights work exactly the same way, switching power changes the color and pattern.
i will try to disconnect and see what happens. On that note, would it be safe to connect all 6 lights to one wire (yellow or black)?
 
I can't find any data sheet on that transformer - must no longer be made, so can't really comment for sure about output capacity per output. But if one side is dead/defective, may want to just replace. If you exceed the current draw, I would expect the voltage to drop on that output, but could burn out the transformer.
 
Miro said:
I see the transformer which is converting power is 100W, which in my opinion is not enough for 6 lights.
Click to expand...

My controller is only about 35W (2.8A @12v) and supposedly can handle 8 of my lights (I only have 2). So depends upon the bulb. Since it was 100W, would probably stay with that to be safe.
 
The first thing you need to do is scrap the transformer. How old is that?



You need a properly sized transformer that is UL listed for use in a pool. That one is not. We need to know the make and model of your lights and then we can advise you on a transformer.
 

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Thank you all, the transformer is about 10 years old as per the neighbour.
Looking at the Hayward LED manual, it suggests the similar size bulbs are either 13W or 23W.
6X13w=78W
Since the price difference between a 100W and 300W is not significant i might as well get the 300W one, having in mind future expansion ideas for the backyard ambient lighting.
I will go ahead once i get to test and confirm the failure as per the suggestions from GaryT58
I am looking at the Intermatic PX300S which has strong reviews, any thoughts?
 
I have replaced the old transformer with a new Intermatic PX300S. Just in case the wire length would produce a drop in voltage, i have connected it so it runs 13V output to the lights.
Unfortunately, there was no improvement nor any change to the functionality of the lights. 4 lights are still coming on with a dimmed static purple light and do not respond to any reset or pattern change. The other 2 continue working as expected.

broken1.jpg
broken.jpg

I guess the next step will be pulling them out. Is there any other troubleshooting that can be done once i pull them out? I do not really feel like spending the $$$ as these things are really pricey.
All suggestions are welcome.
 
As I recall there looked to be two sets of wire attached before. Are the lights that do not work on on wire compared to the ones that don't? If so, then it may be something in the wiring on that chain, or one light on that chain is bad and and causes the rest on the chain to also not act correctly.

So if you pull out, then can test each light individually to see if one is bad. And/or you can pull "good" light and swap with "bad" to see if behavior follows the original "bad" light or if the original "good" light goes bad.
 
I was thinking the same, but this is the actual situation:
the transformer has 2 wires as output. all lights (6) cables terminate at the transformer box. Every LED light cable has 2 wires (black and white). All 6 black wires are connected to one output, and all 6 white wires are connected to the other output.

Would it be reasonable to disconnect all and try them one by one?
 
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