82-30 problems with electronic chassis

[Mark Pondelicek]

We fought the good fight with the old 6525 chassis for as long as we could but we finally threw in the towel and bought CTI's MP chassis. This has created a whole host of problems that we never faced before: out-of-cycle blackouts, doublefeeds, and even times when the machine mysteriously will not operate whatsoever. Occasionally, a high-v fault is indicated but not all the time. We've looked to the things that the manufacturer suggests: poor wiring in the table, J-box, and to the motors, poor J-strip connections, and switch settings. Has anyone been through this before that has found the magic bullet?

[Ed Fox]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

Did you install the the new chassis in one shot or did you put one in and run it for a while? (a year or so)
Ed

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[Mark Pondelicek]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

Because of the problems, we have been going one lane at a time. We have seven of them running pretty good with seven more to go. The ones running longest have been in about a year.

[Ed Fox]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

I hav'nt tried the chassis but I did install one of the smart boards and cant get that to run. Ive been talking to Bill @ CTI and havent gotten very far with it. I do have aprox. 12 of the MK-30 boards in and cant really say that Ive had any problems with them. I thought by using the smart boards I could delete all of the PR's and not put out as much money replacing the entire chassis. IM not knocking all of their products, I think the eagle eye kicks *** and hope to soon resolve the problem with the smart board, if not it will just get sent back!

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[A(8)2-30 Techy Boy]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

i have found with the electronic chassis upgrades, that when they fail to run the machine completely its usualy due to being confused by TA1 and TA2. there is a way to rewire these switches to counteract this.

[Mark Pondelicek]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

I'm certainly not knocking the chassis. They are a huge modernization for the 82-30 and give far greater control over the machine. CTI has been as helpful as they can be also. For lack of a better technical explanation, the microelectronics in the new chassis seems to recognize microgremlins in the machine that 6525 didn't seem to care about. Our problem here is that we are not skilled enough on the electrical side of the pinspotter to systematically weed these out. What we have been trying is hit and miss and I hate to admit this, but in a couple of cases, we really don't know what we did right. This is where we can use some advice from some of you out there who may have been through this before. Agree with you Ed, though, the Eagle Eye pincounter has been plug it in a forget about it.

[Mark Pondelicek]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

Jason R. You slipped in while I was posting my last note. What can you tell me about the TA1 and TA2? We seem to have them pretty well adjusted.

[len marsden]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

hi mark,
i'm not quite sure which chassis you are talking about,i think it is the fully electronic one (no contactors etc).
i installed the model 3000 chassis in several centres back in the 80's, this chassis had a single mp board plus a sparemaker slot. we were told then that due to the different signal voltages running thru the micro switches (24vdc in the 6525 and 5vdc in the 3000) it was advisable to change the switches due to possible arcing marks on the contacts creating a high resistance and thus impeding the low voltage from flowing properly.
also with the different switching characteristics of the two chassis', the 6525 switched a loop circuit and the 3000 switched a pulse circuit to earth, the earths were extremely important.
check your earthing connections between the chassis case (probably painted) and the copper earth points on the back of your j box.
you may also be getting a high voltage spike from your spot solenoid.you may need a varistor across the terminals.
another problem i had with 3000 was that the k-l circuit instead of being a loop from j26 back to j27 was a signal circuit from j26 through the sw-6's then to earth. i occasionally got a problem where the k-l cct. shorted across a pinlite sw-6 connection and zapped 12vac through the 5vdc cct.. the chassis did weird things then.

i hope this helps,
len.

[psrts]

Re: 82-30 problems with electronic chassis

Mark:
When going from a stepper chassis to an MP you must do the following or you will have problems.
1st:Tighten all the J Strip connections using the AMF special tool.
2nd: Adjust the sweep cam so the sweep arms are at 3/4" offset at 76 & 270 guard positions, you do not want the dog legs like you had with the stepper chassis.
3rd: adjust the table cam so that it stops 10 degrees before top dead center.
If you still have random problems start replacing sweep and table micro switches, with an MP chassis the voltage is so low any coating on the switch contacts will cause problems