MARS bill acceptors in Vacs not working- why?

[Sequoia]

I have 6 MARS bill acceptors at my wash. 4 of them are 24v, and none of the 24v models have ever failed. I recently upgraded the 24v versions to accept the new $5 and all went smoothly.

When I went to upgrade the MARS acceptors in the Vacs, I discovered two things. First, the acceptors are 115v so I could not do the update. Next, for some unexplained reason, both acceptors refuse to accept any bills and each rejects them in the exact same way.

If I insert a bill, the acceptor motor will pull it in about half-way and then immediately reject the bill. The bill doesn't go in all the way before being rejected.

The bill acceptors in the Vacs get very little usage as they are located very low on the Vacs and the factory signage is poor. I only check them every month or two so I don't know how long they have been inoperative.

Why would both of them fail like this-- in the exact same way?

 

[Randy]

How old are these Mars validators? A couple of years ago Mars got a batch of bad side scan sensors. The symptoms of your problem sound like a bad side scan sensor issue.

 

[jprb]

I had a similar problem at one time. There is a small, clear, plastic sensor on the bottom of the bill box. It had come out slightly and was catching the bill as the validator tried to pull it in, causing the validator to reverse and reject the bill.

JPRB

 

[Sequoia]

Age

The vacs are each 2 years old.

 

[Sequoia]

I did everything I know how to do to get the acceptors working. Nothing worked.

So, as a last resort, I called tech support. The first question was "what is the serial number?" The s/n confirmed that these acceptors were in the batch that had the bad start sensor. So off they go for repair.

 

[MEP001]

Looks like Randy knows his stuff.

 

[JMMUSTANG]

I had 6 Mars units that I had to send in to get fixed several times.
When I got them back they would work for 1-2 months and then some of them would go bad again. Get them fixed and they would do the same thing again.
What fixed the problem so far is the last time I sent them in the technician said to fix the problem he has been having good luck reprogramming the units for the new $5 bills.
So far (3 months) they have been working.
So I would suggest that you ask them to program the units for the new bills too.

 

[Randy]

Mars extended the warranty on the LED side scan sensor issue. They should be covered under warranty.
The $5 bill software upgrade corrected some of the operating problems of the validator. Primarily with the LED side scan sensor, instead of being on constantly now they pulsate on and off.