Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2001/02/21
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> Austin, there's a minor credibility problem here.
No, not if you know (or asked about) the detailed story...which I did not
feel was that important to go into gross detail on the LUG. If anyone was
interested, they certainly could ask!
When I started a process, the temp light was on, saying the temp was OK.
Note that my ambient is also 75 in my lab, and I happen to be processing B&W
at 75 then. When I arrived to empty the processor, and run a cleaning
cycle, I went to fill the bottles with water...and I noticed the water was
quite hot...I checked and the steppers were not ticking. I power cycled the
Intellifaucet, and the thing came back to life and eventually tempered the
water fine.
There have been other occasions that I BELIEVE it may have been stuck, since
now I watch for it, and I just reset it to make sure it goes through its
little power-up cycle, audibly moving the stepper motors. If they steppers
move, I believe it is working correctly. The temp light can be on and the
unit not working, so just the temp light on is not a good indication of
correct operation.
So, I only know for sure it was stuck once. The other times it may or may
not have been.
> You are not consistent. Your story changes to
> meet the moment.
That is silly. This is a detail of a story, the story did not change. You
might want to ask for clarification before making such judgments.
> This is not a flame or
> criticism, simply a
> friend asking you to stop and think about what you say.
If so, then why would you do it in a public forum, instead of by private
email? A bone you and I have picked before!
> There are a lot of
> folks here that will analyze every word and make important decisions based
> on what they think is fact. Like shan@montana.net who said:
>
> So Austin, which is it. Did your unit fail "once" or does it
> "sometimes" fail?
I only find one post by this person, and that ("...once or sometimes") is
not the subject line, nor is the 'question' contained therein. I apparently
did not receive the post you reference, or did not receive it 'yet'. It was
not inadvertently deleted, since my deleted folder has yet to be emptied
today. So I can hardly reply to a post I did not receive. My web server
and email was having problems earlier today, and they could still be having
problems, which may be the cause of the missing post. I do not know. Nor
is it really important to me.
> Actually, steppers are incredibly powerful and these valves are
> geared with
> a very fine thread.
> This allows a very fine temperature control that will
> overpower a sluggish or stuck valve. I do not believe in a nanosecond that
> you had a stuck valve. The microprocessor went into the weeds and
> it took a
> power-on reset to start it up again. As you said, power glitch.
> The bane of
> microprocessor controlled products.
I have a very good idea of how this works, having designed a number of
mechanical system using stepper motors and the control systems that run
them... The valve was stuck, in that it would not move. That IS stuck. It
could have been caused by either a mechanical or electrical problem, that
does not change the fact that it was stuck. You and I agree, it was
probably a power glitch that sent the processor OITW.
BTW, when I called Hass, he mentioned that these valves can get stuck due to
sediment. When they do, they typically need to be re-built. In those
cases, the stepper isn't strong enough to un-stick the valve apparently.
When I told him my unit got 'stuck' he believed it was stuck due to
sediment, and not due to a power glitch.
As you should know, having had a temp controller for many years, temp
controllers need to be re-built every so often. That is not unusual.
Rebuilding an Intellifaucet is much cheaper and easier than most other types
of temperature controllers, which is another advantage of this unit.
> I run mine off of the battery backup unit that powers my JOBO, which,
> during a power failure, will both run my processor to complete any ongoing
> process and supply it with the correct water temperature. The UPS
> also acts
> as a super line filter, filtering out any nasty glitches that can cause
> processor crashes to either my JOBO or Hass.
My Jobo has a built-in UPS. I do not have my Intellifaucet on one now. We
are building a new lab building, and when it is moved over there later this
year, that will not be an issue. For now, it works fine, and I don't mind
the precaution I take to make sure it's operating.
Now you have the grossly overdrawn details of my 'sticking' valve.