Mosfet error - panelised lighting

[South Africa C4 user]

I have 15 or so panelised lighting panels.  9 pr 10 of them were damaged by a bit of flooding (don’t ask) a year or so back.

Since these were replaced, I have repeatedly (say once a month) had mosfet errors on 3 of the circuits (across 2 panels).  I must say that I tried (unsuccessfully) to understand MOSFET errors a couple of years ago.  Now I am simply trying to understand what could be causing this? Faulty wiring?

TIA

[Cyknight]

Hmm. Well if you can reset and it comes back it's not a hard short - in which case the most likely reason is a voltage leak between output and ground.

Problem is finding WHERE it comes from.

-Most commonly it's a bulb or fixture. The first is easy enough to swap and see if it follows the problem, the latter is a lot harder to do, but usually means putting up a (teporary) different fixture, replacing a transformer if it has one.

-Could be the panel itself. Easies way to figure that out is to swap them and have dealer RE-ID them in their respective spots

-Could be in the wiring...if so well that can be near impossible to find.

[crash1977mtl]

I’ve started to have these mosfet errors on panel lighting installed in 2014. In all cases swapping the module fixed the problem - it was never the wiring or the fixture

 

[South Africa C4 user]

3 hours ago, crash1977mtl said:

I’ve started to have these mosfet errors on panel lighting installed in 2014. In all cases swapping the module fixed the problem - it was never the wiring or the fixture

 

Interesting… thanks

[Cyknight]

On 9/28/2023 at 10:18 AM, crash1977mtl said:

In all cases swapping the module fixed the problem - it was never the wiring or the fixture

Just because swapping the module 'fixes' the problem, doesn't mean it isn't the fixture that's the cause. Just ask my client that we replaced (at his cost) 4 dimmers in 1 year before he believed us over his (own) electrician (to be clear, we have our own electrician in house that checked the transformer) that the issue was the transformer in his fixture that was pulling (and creating heat with) 5-10 extra amps of power...

4 APDs vs one $40 transformer

 

[crash1977mtl]

On 9/29/2023 at 5:56 PM, Cyknight said:

Just because swapping the module 'fixes' the problem, doesn't mean it isn't the fixture that's the cause. Just ask my client that we replaced (at his cost) 4 dimmers in 1 year before he believed us over his (own) electrician (to be clear, we have our own electrician in house that checked the transformer) that the issue was the transformer in his fixture that was pulling (and creating heat with) 5-10 extra amps of power...

4 APDs vs one $40 transformer

 

in my case I had multiple dimmer modules fail - all on different fixtures , mainly pot lights. I guess every situation is different

[Cyknight]

7 minutes ago, crash1977mtl said:

in my case I had multiple dimmer modules fail - all on different fixtures , mainly pot lights. I guess every situation is different

To be clear, playing devil's advocate a bit:

But what you're saying can STILL mean all or some of them have a CAUSE of the module failing that has to do with those pot lights (especially if they are ones with transformers).

Again, not sying that IS the case: just pointing out that 'just' replacing broken devices may be fixing the effect, not the cause.