We picked up two of the Arlec Connectable 15M LED Rope light sets before Christmas for our deck and we've had 4 controller failures to-date.

• Arlec 15M Connectable Multi Colour LED Smart WIFI Rope Light Low Voltage
• Model LVE1015HA
• https://www.bunnings.co.nz/arlec-15m-smart-grid-connect-connectable-multi-coloured-led-rope-light_p0180227

The power supply and controller are indoors and the lights are mounted under a sheltered pagoa. The actual lights don't appear to be the issue as we've swapped the controller and everything starts working again.

We've tried swapping the controllers, and recently swapped two complete sets of the lights, only for the issue to re-occur.

As the controller starts to fail it can only manage the white lights rather than the white and colour LEDS. After another couple of days it fails completely. During the initial failure if I reverse the 2 wire connection to the rope lights I can then control the coloured lights and the white LEDs no longer work. I have also tried resetting the controller which allowed me to re-connect with the Tuya App, but provided no control to the LEDs.

I began to suspect it was due to the Grid/Tuya app providing a bad firmware, but with the latest controller we didn't enable the smart features and connect it to the wifi. Controller failed within 2 weeks.

Checking the Power Supply it is rated as 24V but appears to be providing 31.7V. I've confirmed this across 4 power supplies.  The actual control unit appears to be rated from 3.6V upto 36V.

I have reached out directly to Arlec, but they can provide limited help, other than recommending I return the units again, as the units appear to be missing their quality control stickers which confirm which batch they are from.

Anyone else had similar issues and can provide guidance as otherwise the lights are a perfect length for  our deck space.