PLEASE HELP issue w/ PLC & I dont know how to fix it

[LazyBee]

OK so let me start by saying I've only been working/managing this Automatic Tunnel Carwash for 9weeks, didn't know anything about carwashes prior & I was only doing it for a favor to my boss at the stores I usually work at. So only know what I've ben learning along the way cause the dumbass owner 1st hired 2 guys (1mechanic & 1data) guy and both were screwing him over so all the things that didn't work or needed repairs I've been having to research and figure it all out on my own. And the data guy has had remote access to the web server and I honestly don't know if I've found all his remote access ways in or not, found 10 so far and blocked them, so don't know if this is his doing or not and all though I'm not tech savvy ill figure it out.
So 1st about a month ago I came in and the Pro Suite Programming we've been using, so I have access to our card reader lanes and gates, somehow turned into zip files and i wasn't able to access that program anymore and he was making it into a whole different issue but weeks later found out I just needed to redownload the program again. So then I came into work this Monday my card readers and program were working fine, Tuesday I didnt have anyone use a debit and Wednesday I took my 1day off to come back Thursday and find that the program wasnt working anymore (only cause I had a cash payment that went into the Debit lane so I was going to manually open) but then Im thinking ok l;et me just start troubleshooting and I realized the both card readers werent even communicating with my other computer (Guardian Wash Command Program) which usually would send the signal letting the program know there's a car waiting and what package they bought. So then I went back to the Pro Suite 2 Program and I noticed it was in stop mode for some reason so I went to put it back into run but i got an ERROR message. And unfortunately after I clicked on it to see the ERRROR messages Non Critical Messages and I accidentally hit the clear error messages. But I've been doing digging and called Automation Direct and the REALLYYY PATIENT gentleman was trying to explain and try and direct me into looking in the correct spots but even thought I tried to explain to him I was looking inside my pay station it wasn't until afterwards that I realize he was thinking I was in the mechanical room looking the the whole system. Which I didn't know he could said something. So anyway now that there's the back story.
Ive found that its giving an error code of E01106 RemGrp Comm Err G011 & E02206 RemGrp Comm Err G022. And under event history its saying G00B01S00 192.168.1.244 Now Ive understood that theres a communication error but I dont know what to do to fix it. But then also I noticed that in my Lane 1(card reader 1) the thermalelectric AC wasnt working properly. Because we've been getting down to the 40's-50's it was set at 70 degrees but for whatever reason it had frost on the ac box. And I had noticed in another thread on a different website someone mentioned it. So I had completely turned it off. But the system still wont communicate. And I don't know how to even get it to re connect. And unfortunately the automation guy told me to take pics and also send the PLC program which other then the Pro Suite Program I have no frickin clue where to find the PLC program.

SO PLEASE IF THERES ANYONE THAT CAN HELP ME, I'D TRULY BE GRATEFUL CAUSE THIUS IS DRIVING ME NUTS!

 

[Axxlrod]

You need to call tech support at the manufacturer.

 

[LazyBee]

You need to call tech support at the manufacturer.

At what Manufacturer?

 

[Kimberly Berg]

Look around the equipment, inside the pay station box for any manufacturer information or model # you can find. Google anything you find, looking for an on-line manual or technical support #.

I'm not familiar with PLC or Pro Suite Program.

Also, if you're doing this as a favor for your boss - don't let it drive you nuts. Not worth stressing over. Good luck!!

 

[LazyBee]

Look around the equipment, inside the pay station box for any manufacturer information or model # you can find. Google anything you find, looking for an on-line manual or technical support #.

I'm not familiar with PLC or Pro Suite Program.

Also, if you're doing this as a favor for your boss - don't let it drive you nuts. Not worth stressing over. Good luck!!

I know but I'm ADHD & OCD so it be driving me nuts, I cant half ass shit, but yeah I been trying to google everything I possibly but Im still alil worried I might do the wrong thing. I feel like I already messed up when I accidentally erased the error history. cause alot of that couldve probably put me more in the right direction by looking up those codes. But I was hoping someone on here wouldve known more.

 

[edredtop]

"I cant half ass shit..."

User name: "LazyBee"

 

[Axxlrod]

At what Manufacturer?

I may be wrong, but I believe Guardian controllers were made by Tommy's. That system has been EOL'd, but will still be your best bet on getting some info.

 

[LazyBee]

I may be wrong, but I believe Guardian controllers were made by Tommy's. That system has been EOL'd, but will still be your best bet on getting some info.

Yeah we have a lot of Tommy's stuff but because a lot of it was obsolete the system is a mixture of stuff. The data guy

 

[LazyBee]

Yeah we have a lot of Tommy's stuff but because a lot of it was obsolete the system is a mixture of stuff. The data guy who pieced everything together unfortunately is a scam artist and I refuse to call him up to figure this out. He's made well more than what he should've and still every chance tries to scam even more. But he didn't leave any of the manuals for anything he installed and God knows I don't even know where to look for the program that actually runs and connects anything. So that's another thing that's holding me up from sending pictures and videos to the automation direct guy cause he wanted me to send the program as well and I've dug through the web server computer but I can't find it.

 

[eckert16]

If you post your city/state... maybe if you ask kindly someone on the board may be able to stop over and provide you with a quick assessment of your situation. Just saying they may private message you.

 

[Keno]

What do you consider a scam artist and making more than what he should have? As you are experiencing, knowledge of these systems costs time and money

 

[Keno]

Don't fire the I.T. guy without having a suitable replacement available - learned this the hard way in my retail days

 

[eckert16]

So it sort of sounds as if your are having an issue with the customer interface equipment, and not your actual carwashing equipment.

Given this assumption, then you have been to their site:
https:// blog.tommycarwash.com/take-control-of-your-car-wash-success-automate-with-guardian-wash-command

you have matched your equipment with the pictures they show on the link, it helps to use the same words for the equipment...each word has meaning and words matter when troubleshooting:
https:// shop.tommycarwash.com/Tommy-Store/Guardian-Control-Systems

You can explore their online help guides as well:
https:// tommycarwash.zendesk.com/hc/en-us

oh...and they have a 'Contact Us' section as well.

 

[Islandwash]

Most conveyor carwash Point of Sale system suppliers offer Tech Support. It does cost a monthly subscription fee but is invaluable. Consider it in the same category as your Business Insurance. Expensive but necessary.

 

[LazyBee]

So I'm located in Milwaukee, WI

And I consider someone a scam artist that is legit saying their going to do something, charge for it, receive the money, and it was never done or they have embellished what they needed to do or made up extra things.

And as much as I wished to be able to rely on the I.T. guy I had no choice in the matter. He had already been pulling his crap before I came in, and after I came in he said it was an issue of being paid by the owner so I made sure to have all the money in hand and guaranteed as soon as the job was completed or if he needed parts money upfront he got it but then when it came to doing the job he lied about what he had to do/what he had fixed/that he needed more money for parts that he didn't need (and still didn't spend the parts money from the start), and even tried to put in a cheap Band-Aid to make it seem like it was fixed knowing it wasn't going to hold just to get the remaining money. And he was doing all this right in front of me so by all means tell me what else was I to do? He had to go.

And unfortunately the current owner isn't going to pay for any monthly subscriptions and not all of our equipment isn't Tommy Car Wash. The I.T. data guy ripped a lot of the pay station stuff out and pieced together a bunch of stuff. but all the pay station stuff is Automation Direct and like I said in the beginning I had already called them but he was wanting me to send pictures and email him what program we were using. (I don't know where to find the dang program so that's holding me up from emailing him anything) And from EVERYTHING I've been researching it is looking like the communication between the pay stations to the rest of the system is what is the issue. Everything else works as usual so that's why I don't know if he had came thru on my day off where it was closed and had done something. I cant imagine how its just going to stop communication without something actually happening. And there wasn't any issues the last day it was working. Also as I've been trying to figure this out I noticed that on the P1-16CDR inpute1 has a red light on but none of the other ones have it lit up and I don't recall it being on the week prior when I was in there just trying to look at things and remember how things look as everything was working. Don't know if that helps anyone that'll put me in the right direction.

But as for the current owner paying for subscriptions that's not going to happen, I honestly don't even think he's got Insurance. He was trying to flip it. But dummy doesn't know anything about car washes and he wasn't involved or hands on when it came to the 2 guys fixing up anything. and he's trying to sell it now. But in the mean time I'm suck here trying to fix al the crap the 2 guys were suppose to do without any financial backing from the owner and because of my ADHD & OCD things not working drives me nuts and plus I feel bad for any customers if they're not getting what they paid for. And it being worth it. I dont know but thats why after researching so much crap about carwashes I came across this forum and was hoping the things I do have issues with I could just get some info so I'm not spending days-week on figuring whatever out.

 

[OurTown]

Have you joined any of the car wash groups on Facebook? TalkCarWash has a lot of active conveyor wash guys that might be able to help you figure out more.

 

[Waxman]

The problem is you have no idea what you're doing and you have no way of accurately describing what is going on in a way that anyone on this forum will likely be able to help you. My suggestion is to find someone locally and pay them to come in and figure it out for you.

Otherwise, you're like a bird with one wing. You're not going to fly anywhere like that.

 

[eckert16]

You could spend a lot of your personal time and energy to find software on https://www.automationdirect.com/support/software-downloads and then try to teach yourself ladder logic. However, if you don't know what you are doing when you download/upload, you can delete the programming and never be able to recover it from the PLC or the HMI which would leave the machine really down.

This is a quick flip scenario for the owner, so why bother at all with all this stress? Is the owner offering you 'equity sharing' as part of the sale if you get this frankenstein up and running? or are you doing this to 'help out' with little to no renumeration? ("I was only doing it for a favor to my boss"). In other words, are you spending dollars of your personal time and effort and the owner is just earning pennies on the business/sale end from your work (what are you going to get out of this 'deal' when he sells it)?.

As it is a quick flip (from his perspective) then he already knows he can discount the price of the carwash for sale to make it more appealing to a new buyer. He could just sell it without the cash component of the IBA functioning.

 

[Dan kamsickas]

I'm not in the tunnel segment of this business but here's some food for thought:

1)Automation Direct is a manufacturer of system controls for a very wide variety of industries. They are not going to be able to trouble shoot your particular system if it's a "field engineered" system and you shouldn't expect them to.

2)Your initial post said you were doing this as " a favor to my boss at the stores I usually work at ". In my opinion, that's a mistake. You should have taken one look at it, said this is way over my head, and politely suggested the owner needed to find a qualified person to make it work. If there wasn't some sort of equity promised, in writing, bow out.

3)You haven't posted any pictures of said system, but from your descriptions it sounds like this a rigged up system that pretty much any reputable carwash company is going to tell you to replace because they aren't going to want to touch it. I routinely have techs/managers call me with problems at a site that is decades old and field engineered beyond all recognition. I do feel bad for them but if the owner is unwilling properly invest in their business it's really not my problem.

 

[Axxlrod]

"Field engineered". Ha. I like that term. Seems like it's a nicer way of saying "fubar-ed", "Jerry-rigged" or "hodgepodged".