High Velocity hitting cars (video)

[TechGuy]

I've had two reports of our Wash World High Velocity hitting cars today and I found video of one of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6T9XgAE8Vrs

(Jump to around 3:25.)

What the heck could be going on here? It looks like it rotates, then goes back to the passenger side instead of to the rear of the car... and then does it a few more times!

This unit has been upgraded with the VS2 sonar and has run hundreds of washes without an issue.

 

[lag]

If you have the long flag at the front of the bay, I'd guess the middle limit is going off. The Plc then "thinks" bridge is at rear of car.

If you have short flag then rear limit is coming on, for some reason, again Plc thinks it's at rear of car.

Also you need to adjust your impact system so that your impact switch makes a lot sooner... Damage claims waiting to happen.

Hope that helps

 

[TechGuy]

I'm very concerned that the impact sensing didn't work. I will be doing some testing on that.

The flags have not been changed and this issue happened only twice with two dozen "good" washes in between (and has been shut down since I've seen the video). I don't understand what would cause it to believe it's seeing the wrong flags while at the front and only once in a while. That will make it difficult to troubleshoot.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[lag]

I should clarify... At the front of car, the rear limit is coming on causing it to rotate, like it's at the back of the car, and move across the car.
On our HVs if the middle limit switch goes off , while at the front of the car, it will do exactly what your video shows. It will do it because the rear limit is on, but the mid limit fell off.

You also could have an issue with the rear limit coming on when it should be off..

If your front flag is like ours, and , longer than the other two flags on the bridge rail, then I suspect a mid limit switch problem.

If the front flag is the same size as the other two( I doubt). Then I suspect a rear limit switch problem.

It's not a flag issue, but a prox switch issue

 

[TechGuy]

Thank you!! I'll be doing some investigating tomorrow.

 

[whitescout]

I agree with Lag about getting a false input from the rear limit prox. This could be attributed to a bad prox, a bad prox cable, or a bad wire in the festoon cable. Have you had any problems when you are manually parking the bridge at home?

I would also check the front limit switch and cable, as the rear limit prox appears to work fine when the machine parks itself at the "end" of the wash.

I would also agree with Lag, in that you should investigate why the impact switch did not stop the wash, make correctios, and attempt to continue the wash. With the virtual attendant you have on the machine, it would attempt this, and if unable to, would instruct the customer to exit, and would reset itself after the bay was clear for 60 seconds.

Lag, this home flag is different than a PDQ, at all the way to the stops, all three proxes,( front, middle,and rear) are on. Then holding down on the joystick moves it towards the entrance of the bay, about 8-12 inches.

 

[TechGuy]

Thanks, Scout!

You're right about the new Home position since the upgrade. Our instructions read:

"The front, middle and rear limit prox's (inputs 1/5,1/6 and 1/7), will now be ON when the carriage is all the way to the exit of the rail.
The new home position is when the "front limit" only is on - which is at the entrance end of the new flag. To drive the carriage to the new home position, Using the joystick control, move the carriage forward (toward the exit) all the way onto the limit. Once stopped, move reverse with the carriage until it stops at home position by itself (it will move at a slower rate than normal for manual mode). Moving reverse again will move the carriage at the normal manual mode speed."

You had asked if we had any issues parking. About a week ago, the wash shut down all the way in the front of the bay (where all three prox's should be on, but I did not confirm this). However, moving the joystick to reverse caused no action. The other three positions (including forward) worked properly -- although I was surprised that it was willing to "try" to move forward considering that it was against the front guard, but was unwilling to move in reverse (away from the front guard and toward home). I ended up having to disconnect the front limit switch (the lone one closest to the entrance) and could then move in reverse. Since the VS2 upgrade, I get a host of unrelated errors (Bay Freeze Alarm, Slow Tank Refill, etc) any time it starts up without being in the home position. I reset the machine and they all went away and worked great for 100 washes until this impact issue.

In retrospect, I now wonder if the front limit prox was working, but one of the other two were not, causing that unusual inability to reverse to home. Strange that we've had a hundred washes since then with no issue, though.

 

[pgrzes]

I had a similar problem and it was tires were low. The machine upon traveling back to the front of vehicle rolled past the front limit flag and the rear limit just got to the rear edge of flag. The other questions I would have is, why the door didnt open at end of cycle and the impact limit didnt shut down wash cycle?? Have you rebooted machine lately?? I have had a few weird issues that cleared up after a reboot.

 

[TechGuy]

You guys nailed it. When the VS2 upgrade was completed, the new front flag was installed in such a way that if the wheel somehow rolls all the way to the front wheel stop, the prox's for the front and middle were only partially blocked. When that happened, only the rear prox was on, which is obviously why it was willing to try to drive forward, but not willing to travel backward until I disconnected the rear limit prox. I suspect that this is exactly what happened in the video. It's a little surprising that there isn't a sanity check built in to the code that would check to see if it went from the front of the vehicle to the rear in less than a second.

I also discovered a broken signal wire coming from the impact switch. It still had power, which meant that it would light when we swang it, but it did not light on the PLC. I did some tracing and found the break. When we tested it near the rear of the vehicle, it properly reversed and went to the rear limit and tried again. When I blocked it a second time, it shut down, told the vehicle to Pull Forward, and reset automatically. Beautiful!

 

[pgrzes]

Ok, but why was it going past the flag is what you need to figure out?? That was what drove me nuts, and we kind of figured it out when my helper leaned against the downtube. I saw the machine move about 4 inches or so. We started to rock it back and forth and noticed that the tires were just sliding on the rails. Upped the pressure a few lbs and its been good since. I agree with you the machine should realize that it cant get from front to back that fast. Where in Pa are you? And who is your Distributor?

 

[TechGuy]

I'm not sure why it was going beyond the flag. It happened very rarely (after 200-300 washes). I'll double-check the tire pressure today to make sure they're not getting low. Now that the flag has been moved, it's not possible for it to go past it again.

We don't have a distributor -- the company that did the install no longer handles Wash World. I'm also happy to work on it myself. The last guy I had in here to work on it knew less about the HV than I do. I'm open to suggestions in case I really get stuck, though!

I'm located near the Mason-Dixon line, about 30 minutes west of Gettysburg.