Jobo ATL2 help needed

[monkeymon]

I acquired ATL-2 recently, and it seems to be stuck or something.

Only thing it does is make loud beebing noise and display "30.00" on the screen with the number "3" is blinking.

Some features, like thermometers seem to work. Water pump is also working and the water flows nicely, it even heats the tempering bath but it doesn't seem to stop heating it. And it does not try to lover after it reaches 38c.. the small amount of information i have found, points out it should open the cool water valve to cool down the tempering bath if needed. It does not, it just keep beebing. Pushing the buttons doesn't seem to do anything. Expect the thermometer monitor buttons.

I would appreciate any help, i think this "30.00" and beebing is a error message of some sort, i just don't have any idea what it could be!

 

[willem]

Hi,

I had a problem with my ATL-1000 some time ago. I could repair it myself with some info of these two guys that both have repair service for Jobo.

Joboman@aol.com
kds@fotolaborservice.de


good luck,

willem

 

[monkeymon]

I actually have tried sending an email to that joboman address, but haven't got any reply.

I'm a bit surprised how little there is information about these jobos on internet. On the forum of that joboman, there were some person with the same problem. So i really think that the blinking "3" is direct error message, just nowhere to verify what it actually means.

There is a repair manual on ebay, but haven't got any moneys on me just no.. have to wait. I was kinda hoping someone would have these and could check if there were any mention about error messages.

 

[Shadow Images]

In the manual it shows that it could be air distributor defect and says call for service. I am new with the ATL2 so take it as a guess

 

[monkeymon]

No where getting somewhere! I'll check if my if pump is getting power. If you have an atl2, does the air-pump start when you switch it on? Mine doesn't, i didn't think it should start right away when it is no yet needed. But maybe it does something like a diagnostics at start. But i now have something to check!

There were no power, and only very little if i metered directly from the wire coming in the panel where you presumably can adjust the pump by "jumpering" the wires on different inputs. If i switch the wirings, it seems it flashes a different number very shorty before it starts blinking the number 3. So it seems the problem is somehow connected to the air pump.


(there was a url link here which no longer exists)

This post has an image of the "jumpering" panel (where the brown wire from the pump goes), and it seems i have a similar problem.

 

[monkeymon]

I'm starting to get some sense in this, also i got the atl2/atl3 repair manual in .pdf format. Is there any sensible place to put this file, so people could fine it if they need it?

 

[martin@jangowski.de]

The problem with the blinking 30:00 in the display has nothing to do with the air pump... there is no sensor checking airflow or filling level at the ATL2/3. The error indicates that the sensor indicating zero position of the air distributor (the thing with the thin silicone hoses going to the bottles) doesn't give a "zero position" signal correctly. There are two hall element sensors in the air distributor. They are connected to plug ST3, pin 3 and 4. These things are active low, so the signal at pin 3 and 4 is normally "high" (TTL values, >2V). I can't remember correctly, but there are one or two magnets in the air distributor. The usual sequence after start or reset is to turn the air distributor (with the attached black arm seen on the left side) the the frontmost position. This is indicated by the zero sensor.

I suspect your machine doesn't get the zero position signal. Check with a multimeter at pin 3 (this is the zero position indicator). Ground is at pin 7 and 8. The signal at pin 4 should go low shortly at every step of the stepper motor. The stepper should go left until the zero indicator goes low, then the arm should turn back half a step to the right until the zero indicator goes high again. In this position the machine knows that the chemical arm is at the first position. IIRC after a reset the machine tries to reach zero position with a maximum of 6 steps to the left. If the zero position switch isn't working (because its faulty or the the arm doesn't move at all) the 30:00 error will be displayed. I'm not sure if the bath thermostat is working if the machine isn't going completely through the reset sequence, this is not your problem now.

I had problems with the hall sensors in the past, some aggresive chemicals had reached the connecting cables and these were corroded away. The sensors should be easily available from a supplier for hobby electronics. AFAIK Jobo replaced the hall sensors with reed contacts at a later time. These work exactly the same, the inputs are standard TTL inputs (active low) with pullup-resistors to +5V. The hall element (or the reed contact) just pull the line low when the magnet is directly at the sensor. You can simulate this by shortening pin 3 (input zero sensor) to ground (pin 8 or 9) at ST3.

What kind of manual do you have? Could you please indicate size in bytes and a MD5 checksum? Thank you.

Martin

 

[monkeymon]

In my case, the air distributors motor wont move. I metered the motors power input and it read zero. I allso got all other functions working, so now i can program it and the lift seems working, it even started when i press start. It seems there were bad connections and unplugin and rebluggin the atl2 head cleared them out. But the warning is still the same, and now it also shows the red triangle because i unplugged the water connection to repair it.

I think the motor works, now i just have to figure out why it isn't getting any power.

Repair manual is 3,153,920 bytes

 

[martin@jangowski.de]

Your manual seems to be different than mine. Do you have a schematic of the interface? If not, the motor gets its power from the pins 1 & 2 from ST3. These lead to IC1 pin 3 and 5. However, there is a thermofuse (R30) between pin 3 of IC1 and pin 2 of ST3. Check this first, these things can fail. The pulses for the stepper motor enter IC1 from pin 2 and 7, it seems to be just a booster. The power (from the 24V rail) enters IC1 via T11 (cooled). Check supply voltages

Martin