Intermittent no-vend

[Waxman]

One of my drink rows will arbitrarily turn only slightly when selected and will not vend or try to vend once it stops the first time.

I bought new side scans after the problem 'migrated' to other selections and it seemed to fix the problem. Now it's back, but only intermittently and in 1 row. Bad motor for that row?

TIA

Wax

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wax,

These intermittent problems are a pain to solve. Let me think about it and ask some smart people some questions at the factory.

Uncle Sam

 

[mjwalsh]

One of my drink rows will arbitrarily turn only slightly when selected and will not vend or try to vend once it stops the first time.

I bought new side scans after the problem 'migrated' to other selections and it seemed to fix the problem. Now it's back, but only intermittently and in 1 row. Bad motor for that row?

TIA

Wax

Wax,

We just had a very similar problem. A brand new wire harness seems to have corrected it.

MJ

 

[Waxman]

Wax,

We just had a very similar problem. A brand new wire harness seems to have corrected it.

MJ

Sounds complicated and expensive.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wax,

Don't get all wound up yet!! If it is a broken wire it will just be on that tray. Everytime you service that tray by pulling it out and pushing it back in, a broken wire may or may not make good contact again. Yours is a refurb so that tray has been pulled and pushed 100s of times. Tomorrow i'll talk to the service reps at AMS.

Uncle Sam

 

[Waxman]

Oh, I'm not worked up. It has been working fine as of late.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wax,

I talked to the factory this AM and got some ideas on your problem, so you need to watch very closely for clues to what is happening.
#1---Low voltage to the vendor. If a pump starts up or you get low voltage to your vendor at the precise moment the vend is needed, it might act that way.
#2---If the problem migrates to other selections or to different selections on the same tray, the control board may be the problem.
#3---You might have a wire in the harness that has been pinched or partially broken to the motor in question. Inspect the harness to see if you can find anything broken or loose.
#4---Do you have a surge suppressor on the power cord of the vendor? With the squirrely power that is sometimes provided by your power company, wierd things happen to the electronics.
#5---If the vendor is on the same circuit as some other piece of equipment, that can cause trouble.

Watch it closely and try to pin down what is happening.

Uncle Sam

 

[Waxman]

I did look at the wiring harness. It is possible to pinch a wire in the door, so I will be wary of that.

It happens on multiple trays/selections.

I do not have a surge suppressor.

I do get a low voltage situation sometimes when all things are running at the wash/detail.

If I reset the power to the machine it seems to vend fine.

 

[pitzerwm]

You might get a UPS and put it on the machine, if low voltage/brown out is the issue, a UPS could be a cheap fix.

 

[MEP001]

Unfortunately, since it's a refrigerated unit it will require an extremely large UPS to handle the inrush voltage when the compressor starts. You might be better off cost-wise by isolating the voltage to the electronics from the compressor and running that on a UPS.

Another note: most UPS units don't switch over with a brief brown-out. You'd need a voltage-regulating UPS to do that. A cheapo UPS like the $60 from Sam's just passes through the current unless there's a complete outage.

 

[Waxman]

It failed to vend for me this afternoon during a 'quiet time', when the wash and detail were not busy and large motors were not running.

 

[Uncle Sam]

Wax,

I talked with the customer service people at the manufacturer to get some more ideas. The low voltage power supply you get occasionally could cause the sensors to get low voltage also and not work. Since you posted that it happened when no equipment was running, that is probably not the problem.

The fluorescent lighting in the vendor could be the problem. If you have a bulb that is flickering near the end of its life, it becomes noisy electronically and interferes with the sensors. You could remove one of the bulbs and then the other to see if the problem persists. If the removal of the lights does not work, then the ballast can be getting old and also cause electronic noise that interferes with the sensors. To shut off the ballast you have to go inside the vendor to the bundle of harnesses that goes from the door to inside the cabinet. Find the 3 wire plug that has 2 blue wires and 1 red wire; disconnect the plug. This will kill the ballast and the lights.

Uncle Sam