WS2 crashes dispensing coins

[schnapdragron]

Hey,
I have a wash select 2 that crashes when it has to give change. If I unplug then replug the hopper cable to the main cup board it will work for a few days then go back to crashing. The harness is new
And all the set screws in the green block are good.

any ideas what it could be other than having to throw a spare cpu board in there?

cheers

 

[schnapdragron]

Turns out its not tied to change dispensing. it appears to crash now after triggering a wash relay

 

[Greg Pack]

That's likely a power supply issue. I very rarely had these problems before cryptopay, but seems like I am dealing with them more and more. But in all fairness these machines are over 20 years old. The easiest place to check voltage is on the six pin plug on the lower left of the I/O board. You should be able to measure all three pertinent voltages here- 5VDC, 24VAC, and 12VDC by measuring across the adjoining pins. . You need at least 4.5 VDC it seems for a cryptopay to work properly. If you measure low voltage (low 4s) there that is an easy diagnosis. If not you could still have corrosion/connection issues. since I believe the cryptopay power is fed by the ribbon cable from the main board. You can try cleaning those pins and checking for corrosion. I've got one unit that I have to occasionally bang on the shroud that has the power supply on the back of it because I'm too lazy to actually fix it the right way. I have a friend that simply re-stripped and re-landed all his wires on his power supply and his problems went away. Not fun because of the power supply location but can be accomplished in an hour or two on a quiet day.

An easy hack that may get your 5VDC voltage up enough to help is disconnect all your display LEDs. Takes five minutes and may get you out of a pinch, for a little while anyway.

Unitec was selling an updated power supply kit but since they are discontinuing the WSII I don't know if they are still available. RDM in North Carolina sells most everything you need to keep the WSIIs running.

 

[schnapdragron]

Thanks Greg. It was showing 5.1v and 12.08V on the multi meter. Once I removed the sound board / printer board (neither of which are useful to me) It seemed to stabilize. and I couldnt make it crash again. Probably time for an upgrade but gosh new pay stations are expensive!

 

[Greg Pack]

Sounds like the power supply voltage itself is good and hopefully you found the offending component. Keep an eye on it. I know in the past I’ve removed components I thought were bad and the crashing would stop for a while. But it would come back weeks later. When you first mentioned the change dispenser that was my first thought. I had to replace a hopper last year because it would crash when it attempted to dispense change. Checking and cleaning the pins on the display and cryptopay module and even replacing the ribbon cable might not be a bad idea, as well as checking the power plugs on the main board.

I’ve considered replacing these machines but just like my automatics I know them well enough that I’d rather deal with them and their quirks than going through a learning curve with a new machine that essentially will do the same job.

 

[getnbusy]

FWIW I had the same exact problem as you in your initial post. Crashes when making change. I've fought it for years. The problem was it didnt do it every wash. I tried almost everything. harness, coin hopper, plugs etc etc. I thought i found the problem several times. Skint wires and such. When i say crash, i mean the power would cycle and thus void the purchased wash. About 3 months ago it happened again. Frustrated i pulled the main board to replace it. I decided to give it a quick lookover just for kicks. I found a chip in the area of the hopper plug that had 2 pins on it that were not in the holes. It must have been like that from the factory. I pulled the chip, straightened the pins and seated them in correctly. Problem hasnt happened since. Fingers crossed. I have not asked what that chip does yet. its on my list

 

[PEI]

Probably time for an upgrade but gosh new pay stations are expensive!

The WS2 is discontinued December 31, 2024 and parts are not going to be supported after December 31, 2025. We are trying to figure out a new Paystation as well to replace all our WS2's and Hamilton ACW5's. What paystations have you looked at and what are your thoughts. We are just starting the process.

 

[schnapdragron]

TBH, the pricing of the current offerings has blown me away. I can't fathom $20-40k for a pay station at our little IBAs. Im not really sure which path to go down

 

[schnapdragron]

Greg you weren’t wrong…the problem returned

 

[Greg Pack]

Ha ha, I still haven't changed out my power supply. I just have to beat on the back of the unit when it screws up every couple of months.

It's hard to get in and work on it on a sunny day. but I do plan on eventually changing out the power supply and cleaning all contacts and wires. I'll need to borrow a pop up canopy and work on it on a rainy day. I also need to get my fan working again as I think high heat is messing with my displays.

Someone that's motivated could program a PLC and tie into a Nayax for an economical wash unit that could retrofit into a unitec or Hamilton case. Total mfg. cost less than 2K I bet. There would likely be a market for a retrofit kit as the old units crap out. But I suspect aftermarket parts will be readily available for WS2s for another 5-10 years.

Oh, and check out the other thread about a 5V bulb on the power supply.