Is my controller bad?

[Ulan]

I have a f16V3 that runs my 24 strand 225 pixel  (20% brightness) mega tree.  It uses 2 HP 1200 watt power supplies with breakout boards with 10amp fuses (red).  Its worked for multiples years and this year even though I have not made any changes seems to keep blowing red fuses on the breakout board.  I've replaced the power supply's (4 so far, no idea how to verify a bad server power supply) and the breakout boards (3 times) and now i'm wondering if it could be something with the controller and expansion board or even the lights themselves?  This year i have 5 strands that the top few pixels that do not light.  Powered from the bottom but these are one side of the controller and both sides and the expansion has busted fuses.  I get it working and put it in test mode, the last time for over 20 minutes, without any issue but when it got dark i noticed it wasn't on and the fuses popped at some point again.  I have 2 of these trees and the other tree is identical programming and running just fine.  I'm not sure what to look at next??  Thanks!    

[tbone321]

It looks like a problem in either your light strings or possibly a power injection point if you are using it.  I would start by removing all of the light strings from the system and powering back up.  If you are still blowing fuses, take a close look at whatever else is connected and make sure that nothing else is shorted.  Then start connecting and testing your strings until it blows the fuse again and look over those strings for issues.

If you are using power injection, you might want to describe how you are doing it.  Some methods can cause this issue if a few points fail, putting the entire load on one connection which in many cases, can blow a fuse.

[Ulan]

No power injection.

If its a strand its one or many in 1-8 and one or many in 9-16 and one to many in 17-24.  =(

Both sides of the controller and the expansion board have independently blown fuses.

Sadly the breakout boards fuses are under the controllers and its a lot of effort to pull apart and add new fuses.  =(

In Test mode it always works on all the strands.  At least for the time I stand outside in the freezing cold to watch. The last time was 20 minutes which is a long time in test mode.