Haunted house light kit issues
Hi,
I recently set up the whole haunted house kit which was working fine until, after switching the lights back on after adjusting the lights contributing to the lightening effect, a large portion of the house ha gone dark and remains silent.
The only lights that are working are the flickering wall sconces and fireplace, all of which come from the A15 board. Any ideas on how to troubleshoot this?
If it was a wire pinch I have no idea where it is, the central IR controller (Trunk05) has it's power LED on as well, indicating it is getting juice.
Any advice would be appreciated!
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Definitely sounds like a wire pinch. Best way to troubleshoot is to take each of the four plugs connecting to the TRUNK05 board, carefully unplug each from the board, and connect it directly to power to see if it works. If a channel doesn't work, that's the one causing the issue. If all channels work, perhaps check the connection of the infrared receiver (make sure the plug is fully seated into the board) and also make sure there are no pinches in the IR cable itself.
Let us know how it goes!
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Rob Klingberg Hi again, so the porch lights, green lights, both lightening strips, and flickering fires all work. The only thing not working when it’s plugged separately is the speaker, but is that supposed to work solo?
I fiddled with the IR cable and plugged it in and out again but no joy.
I’m honestly at a loss as to what to do. Also, what should I do with a wire pinch if I find one? I find it hard to believe the speaker go pinched as it’s just been sat in the centre of the house with no stress on the wires.
Thanks.
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That does sound suspect - and while I'd always defer to the master of such things, and I'll have to dig out my House to check on the sound question - I honestly can't remember if it's a standalone or integrates into the effects. (My gut tells me yes, so the sound can sync with the lightning effect,)
A pinched wire, generally, is toast. If it's a rare or lengthy wire (like a specialty 3-wire variety, or a nice long 24-inch one) and I'm too cheap to toss it, I'll gently strip down the insulation around the pinch on both sides, twist them together and seal the deal with electrical tape. Obviously, if it's a visible wire - versus under a plate or behind the build - that's unsavory, but it's an option (albeit a goofy one).
I've pinched my fair share, and even have a weird short going on in my modular French restaurant that I still can't find - no obvious pinch, just sometimes it's lit, other times, not, still others, dim. Clearly an electrical challenge, just too lazy (thus far) to tear things down to the baseplate to find it...
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Thanks Paul, I really appreciate it. Please do let me know. What is the normal protocol with a defective kit? Is it possible to skype someone to walk me through the issues (I’m in the UK, or is it possible to return the product for inspection or or something?
If the speaker wire is pinched somehow then I’m screwed as I can’t replace any defective bits given that it’s all soldered together as one module.
I ordered an IR remote from your EU supplier especially to see if that will do anything, it should arrive in the next couple of days.
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Alex Reid Thanks for the additional details. The speaker is not supposed to work on its own, disconnected from the main control module. The main control module triggers the sounds in the module, so without being connected to that, it won't play any sounds.
OK so you have validated that everything works when plugged in separately (except the speaker which as I mentioned, shouldn't work by itself). When you plug everything back into the main controller board, what happens? Here I'm looking to see which channels are on (if any) and also if the little green power LED on the main controller board is lit.
If the green LED is lit, and if you have the IR receiver plugged into the SENS1 input on the main controller board (check the bottom side of the circuit board to see the labels), and if you have the sound module plugged into the SENS2 input on the board, can you tell me again what happens?
I don't recall if you have a remote-- I'm guessing not, since you ordered one from our EU reseller. If all of the ports are off but the green light on the main controller board is on, and if the SENS1 and SENS2 plugs are connected correctly, hopefully the problem will resolve once you receive your remote. You should then be able to turn the individual channels on and off using the remote as outlined in the instructions that came with your haunted house kit. If this does not work, let us know. In that case it's most likely something wrong with the main controller and/or IR receiver cable, but I'm hoping you are able to control things once your remote arrives.
Thanks again for your help with troubleshooting.
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Thanks so much for this Rob. I will be back in touch once the remote arrives and I have another go.
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So I found the solution for this issue and anyone else with this kit who has this problem. It wasn’t a pinch, it was something to do with the IR signal. I don’t know how, but the kit effectively switched itself off and could only be turned back on again with an IR controller. It’s a bit confusing as the instructions explicitly state one is not needed (I had to buy an extra one, I was already waiting for one anyway as I pre-ordered the Falcon kit but I didn’t want to wait 2 months to get this thing up and running ). I wonder if it could be interference from other controllers, such as the one I use for my sound bar?
Either way thank you Paul George and Rob Klingberg for your input. Aside from this initial blip I’m thrilled with the kit and will post something on your creations forum in due course.
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Alex Reid Hi Alex, thank you for the update and for your continued patience. I'm glad things worked out for you. And you raise a very interesting point about the IR receiver being activated/de-activated by other IR signals. The remote/receiver do use a common encoding scheme, likely used by other manufacturers' IR remotes (like the soundbar you mentioned), so it is possible that the controller could be triggered by another remote. In future versions of the instructions, I think I'm going to add a note saying that if you didn't order the remote to go with the kit, leave the IR receiver disconnected. This would prevent any stray IR signals from accidentally triggering the controller. Then in the future, if you did purchase a remote, you could plug in the IR receiver again.
Always helpful to get feedback from "real world" scenarios. Again, I'm happy everything is working for you, and I hope you enjoy your lights!