Ghost Washes

[JustaGuy]

my apologies, we are in the midst of several upgrades and you know how this business is, start working on one issue, and 5 other pop up.

Everything I have heard or when I talked to DRB i think my best bet will be to replace the wiring from amplifier to the controller.

I appreciate all the ideas, and have considered switching from eyes to a loop but that will be my last resort. As my brother and I get older and 20 years in the business we are trying to make everything easier on ourselves.

I think I am going to switch to a higher quality banner eye, and just redo all wiring from eyes to controller. I will keep you posted when and if I fix it.

Thanks everyone.

No worries, glad to see you back. For sure, quality devices and good wiring are essential to proper operations, regardless of the type of device being used.

 

[carwashmd]

@Manko76 I'm having the exact same problem with a 100' ICS controlled tunnel. Everything else seems fine (voltage and lights on eyes, relays etc) but some cars aren't seen by the eyes and send a ghost wash.
We also have another strange glitch where cars that either pay or get RFID scanned, don't get added to the stack. Gates go up, payment processes, but no car on stack.
The two issues combined has led us to running on our auto setting. That's where the eyes do not control the length of the wash, its run by the same distances and timing for all cars. That's solved our ghost issue, as well as the cars missing thing, but we're running incredibly inefficiently.
Did you find any solutions yet? I've spent hours on the phone with ICS and can't figure it out.
Thanks!
Max

 

[Manko76]

@carwashmd It actually hasn't happened to me in about a week and a half. I know the issue isn't resolved because sometimes it can go a month without happening, and sometimes it will happen 20 times in a week. I have someone coming out for a few upgrades to our wash at the end of this month, and I am going to have him put new "banner" eyes in and rewire them all the way to the controller. I'm not too familiar with banner eyes, but from what I have been told they don't rely on an amplifier so thats one less thing to go wrong. To me that's what makes the most sense because I keep getting the "car too short" warning on my DRB tunnel watch. Somewhere its losing its connection as the car goes through so I'm hoping that's all it is.

I will come back and let you know how this works. I know how frustrating it is, especially when you have to run in simulated mode. Good luck, and let me know if you find out what it is before me.

 

[Manko76]

@Manko76 I'm having the exact same problem with a 100' ICS controlled tunnel. Everything else seems fine (voltage and lights on eyes, relays etc) but some cars aren't seen by the eyes and send a ghost wash.
We also have another strange glitch where cars that either pay or get RFID scanned, don't get added to the stack. Gates go up, payment processes, but no car on stack.
The two issues combined has led us to running on our auto setting. That's where the eyes do not control the length of the wash, its run by the same distances and timing for all cars. That's solved our ghost issue, as well as the cars missing thing, but we're running incredibly inefficiently.
Did you find any solutions yet? I've spent hours on the phone with ICS and can't figure it out.
Thanks!
Max

Looks like the issue is finally fixed. After 6 months of no ghost washes I finally feel confident saying that. I replaced my input card in my controller. My old input card tested and looked fine to the naked eye, but something must have been off with it. I had several people look at it and just rule it out as the issue. most people guessed the eyes, the amplifier, and the wiring, all of which i tried first.