I am using the etowah valley meter boxes in my selfserve bays and it seems about every 6 months a function will keep repeating over and over again due to the rear board on the timer unit going bad. It seems to be a different function each time and its not the same bay all the time so I don't believe its bad solenoids or anything like that. I have even changed transformers to get the voltage as close to 24 volts as possible. Does anyone else have this problem with these boards. I had my boxes about 2 years now and am getting ready to replace my 4th board. At $150 a board I am wondering if I should do away with the voice.
Etoway Valley Voice Functions Keep Repeating
- Thread starter sparkey
- Start date
lighthousecarwash
Active member
I have the exact same problem. Jim told me to install the 3 amp fuses on the meters, but I just had another one go bad after I had the fuse installed. I am probably on my 5th one in 3 years. Problem is that they can't seem to tell me what is causing it. I want to get on the phone with them and go through all the connections and check voltages and grounds with them, but you know it's hard to get Jim nailed down for a couple hours. I would love to have a solution.
Lighthouse.
Lighthouse.
lighthousecarwash
Active member
Philosphy was that a voltage spike was seen at some point and damaging the back board on the timers. The fuse was supposed to blow when this spike happens, but on my last board, it did not. And out of 6 bays, I have never had one not work because the fuse was blown, so I am not really sure if the fuse solution is valid.
Lighthouse.
Lighthouse.
I have tried a 2 amp fuse and still have the same problem. This must be a poorly designed board. Hopefully he will update this board so its not the weak link in the entire system. Even if you did see a spike the electronics shouldn't be that suseptable to spikes. Nothing else at my wash or home is that sensitive.
If you are beign told that a fuse will protect some component from an electrical spike, I would make that person explain how a fuse does this. Fuses protect things from a short or too much amp draw. There are devices called opto isolators that protect from spikes.
I think the fuse idea was geared more towards a stuck solenoid or something that would draw more current than the board was rated for. Spikes are usually supressed by MOVs. Opto isolators physically isiolate the field side circuit from the control side as do most PLC Input cards. Either way it leads me to believe these boards are poorly designed.
