Rotary switch briefly kills power to Dixmor timer

[OurTown]

At least that is what it appears to me. It is a D&S combo vac that I bought used, had an IDX Big Time timer, and an 8 position 3 deck rotary switch. The timer had a bunch of bad LED display modules so I converted it over to a Dixmor LED 9 multifunction timer. After wiring it up I noticed that sometimes when I activate the timer and you switch from vac to fragrance the timer goes dormant. It zeros out the time left and shows the version number on the display like when it is first powered on. (that is why I think it is very briefly losing power) After really digging into it I thought that the rotary switch was possibly shorting that position to ground very briefly when turning it but not long enough to blow the transformer fuse. The switch looked like it could have been original so I replaced it with an Electroswitch 31303A. The only difference was that the new one had the "Make Before Break" on the first deck instead of the third deck (or maybe it was the other way around) but I compensated by moving the wiring. BAM! Fixed it! Two months later, the same thing is happening. WTF? I might make a video showing exactly what it does but I'll try to explain in more detail. The 3 left positions when looking at the outside of the vac are for the different fragrances. The 3 right positions are all for the vac motors and are all the same. The straight up top and bottom are dead positions. I'm not sure why D&S wired it like that but I kept it the same and made our new custom decal to fit that. When switching from one of the vac positions to one of the dead positions OR one of the fragrance positions to one of the dead positions is when it seems to kill the power to the timer briefly and reset it. It is intermittent which is what drives me crazy. The "Make Before Break" deck is wired to the vac motors and fragrance air compressor contactors. One of the other decks, "Break Before Make" goes to the three different fragrance solenoid valves. The other "Break Before Make" deck puts 24VAC to the second pricing input on the timer from the 3 fragrance positions. I'm now suspecting that the rotary switch is fine and it is just playing into the issue. One notable difference between the timers is that the Dixmor uses a 24VAC hot input for changing the pricing rate and the IDX needed the wire connected to common. I don't think that plays into the issue directly but was a wiring change I had to make. Thoughts?

 

[OurTown]

After thinking more on this I don't know why it would reset the time with a power interruption. Usually if it loses power while there's time left it remembers it when it regains power and continues count down. I checked it again today and although the time does not get reset now the version number still comes up sometimes. (Seems more often today) What about putting a capacitor on the 24 VAC hot going to the timer? It's probably a band aid and wouldn't fix the core issue but that might keep the power from cycling.

 

[Eric H]

Can’t help with your problem but you can buy replacement numbers for that old Big Time timer. They are very easy to replace.

 

[chaz]

Can’t help with your problem but you can buy replacement numbers for that old Big Time timer. They are very easy to replace.

where do you get those led modules Tks

 

[OurTown]

Can’t help with your problem but you can buy replacement numbers for that old Big Time timer. They are very easy to replace.

Do you also need a programmer for it? Dixmor timers do not need those.

 

[Eric H]

where do you get those led modules Tks

I was trying to find a link but I can’t even find the IDX website. They used to give out a small catalog at the ICA show. I may have bought them from mouser.com but it’s been quite a few years

 

[Eric H]

Do you also need a programmer for it? Dixmor timers do not need those.

Yes, the big time timer needs a programmer. I only had one of those timers in a Fragramatics carpet shampoo vac. The sales guy from my distributor would borrow the programmer from someone else and use it to change prices.
Maybe some kind owner here will lend you a programmer

 

[OurTown]

I was trying to find a link but I can’t even find the IDX website. They used to give out a small catalog at the ICA show. I may have bought them from mouser.com but it’s been quite a few years

You can't find the IDX website because they are out of business. Supposedly another company opened them back up but they don't have a website either. I can't remember what it's called. I think the word Dynamics is in the name of the company. Maybe I should have said the LED modules are bad, I don't have access to a programmer and want to get away from IDX products but I already wrote a novel.

 

[TMoliver]

You are looking for Dynamic Wash Solutions. Mos of the guys from IDX work there. They do not manufacture timers and coin acceptors but they do phone tech support for Kleen Rite and a few OEM's that have the marketing rights on the old IDX product line. You can call 870-862-3468 and ask for Robert or Mike.

 

[Keno]

where do you get those led modules Tks

LED modules are available from digikey - replace all modules at the same time, makes a huge difference if your leds are old and faded or dead pixels. The led modules are also available for the smaller GT200 IDX timers - same thing, replace all at the same time.

Big Timer - Kingbright TA20-11SURWA
Small GT200 Timer - Kingbright TA07-11EWA