Jobo ATL-2300 chemical pumping error

Greg "Blank" - Lizard King. wrote:

I thought I was asking Baxter.....

Reminds me of my grandmother: "You better let the horses do the
thinking. They have bigger heads!"

:-)

Ralf

--
Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany
private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de
manual cameras and photo galleries - updated Jan. 10, 2005
Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses

Thanks Greg and Ralf

Been night time here in the UK, it is now 0515...

Yes I do have the original ATL-2300 manual and also the more up-to-date
pdf from the JOBO website. However no mention is made of techinical
faults such as this, only about the effect of processing on the
different film types.

Once I have the machine in pieces, I shall now centre my investigation
upon the IC sockets and the sensor wire. Although if it is the latter,
I haven't any idea what i might find or how to rectify. Shall cross
this bridge when I get to it!

Baxter

Nicholas O. Lindan wrote:
"Ralf R. Radermacher" wrote

There is a wire pieced through the hose leading to the lift. This wire
is used for a resistance measurement in order to determine if liquid is
flowing through the hose.

Bingo -- that is where I would say the problem lies.

Yep. And (at least at the ATL3) you can deactivate this !&%$§&$%
feature. It is dip switch #3, visible when you remove the three knobs
(On-Off, Speed and 25xx-volume) and the cover under it. IIRC it has to
in the lower position to deactivate the feature.

Additionally, this allows that you can use different volumes
for different steps. I regularly use B&W-developer 1+1 or 1+3, so the
volume of the developer is much larger than that of the fixer. For one
135/36 in a 2513 (170ml) I use 250 or 500ml developer, so I set the
volume to 330 or 470ml, but fill the fixer-bottles only with 170ml.
This will pump some excess air into the fixer bottles, but who cares...


Martin

Martin Jangowski wrote:

Yep. And (at least at the ATL3) you can deactivate this !&%$§&$%
feature. It is dip switch #3, visible when you remove the three knobs
(On-Off, Speed and 25xx-volume) and the cover under it. IIRC it has to
in the lower position to deactivate the feature.

But then, as I understand this, the bottles will be emptied completely
in the first run, won't they? So, no way of filling them with enough
soup for two runs anymore, right?

Well, nothing keeps us from putting a little SPST switch into the front
plate. Most ATL's should be well out of warranty, by now. :-)

Do you know anything about the functions of the remaining DIP switches?

Ralf

--
Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany
private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de
manual cameras and photo galleries - updated Jan. 10, 2005
Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses

Ralf R. Radermacher wrote:
Martin Jangowski wrote:

Yep. And (at least at the ATL3) you can deactivate this !&%$§&$%
feature. It is dip switch #3, visible when you remove the three knobs
(On-Off, Speed and 25xx-volume) and the cover under it. IIRC it has to
in the lower position to deactivate the feature.

But then, as I understand this, the bottles will be emptied completely
in the first run, won't they? So, no way of filling them with enough
soup for two runs anymore, right?


Right. My workflow is like that: fill the bottles with the correct
volumes for the drum on the machine and start the run. As soon as the
developer bottle is empty, I fill it again for the next drum. The fresh
developer should have +/- 1 Celcius tolerance, this will level in the
time it takes to finish the running batch (about 25 min). I use
everything one-shot except the second fixer (I regularly use
twobath-fixer), this one will be put into the first fixer bottle.


Well, nothing keeps us from putting a little SPST switch into the front
plate. Most ATL's should be well out of warranty, by now. :-)

Do you know anything about the functions of the remaining DIP switches?

Only the information found in the ATL2/ATL3 "service-manual". This one
looks like a collection of unsorted scrap with global information about
the ATLs. The most interesting parts are missing... but I remember
something about dip-switches, you can put the machine into a test mode
and recall counters and perform a relay test.

Martin

Today I have been working on the processor. I stripped it down so that
I could access the ICs and check that they were all correctly seated.
All seemed to be firmly in their holders and no signs of damage to the
circuit boards.

I also removed the top cover so that the flow sensor could be checked.
There were no obvious errors here. I tightened up the top snesor with
the white wire and by shining a torch from below was able to see that
the wire was free of corrosion/debris. The 3 pronged lower sensor with
the 2 blue wires proved more problematic. I couldn't see a way to get
in to check if the wire was corroded. There was a small amount of
scaling on the outside, but I have no idea what the situation is within
the black plastic moulding.

After reassembly I ran with water in front tanks 1,2 and 3. Once at
correct temp, the problem recurred with bottle 1.

The air pump activated for 1-2s, it sounded like some fluid was
transferred, then the error alarm activated. I pressed "start" to clear
the error, the pump activated once more and the bottle was emptied.

The rinses were fine, then repeat of error on bottles 2 and 3. Again
cleared by pressing "start".

I didn't cry "Full House", ............ but did nearly cry........ so
frustrating.

Clearly the processor is not usable in this state and I would be
extremely grateful if anyone can offer help as to how to rectify the
issue. Presumably I need to be able to strip down the arm assembly so
that I can try to get inside the manifold to look at the lower sensor
with the blue wires. I assume that replacement parts are at a premium
price and thus are a deterrent.

Failing that, I shall have to revert to using my ATL-1000 which can
only be construed as progress in that the streaking will be absent.

Many thanks and sorry if it looks as if I have wittered on. It has been
a long and fruitless day.

Someone in this thread mentioned that a dipswitch can be thrown
to bypass the liquid sensor error detection.

Does this work?

--
Nicholas O. Lindan, Cleveland, Ohio
Consulting Engineer: Electronics, Photonics, Informatics.
Remove blanks to reply: n o lindan at ix . netcom . com

Thanks Nicholas,

The dip switches were on a different, earlier model. On mine, I think
this is all software controlled, I didn't see a bank of dip switches
when I had the machine in pieces; but am happy to be advised where to
find them and what to do.

Being out of my depth here, I hesitate to suppose another option might
be to try to link the two white and blue wired sensors.

Baxter

Baxter wrote:

Being out of my depth here, I hesitate to suppose another option might
be to try to link the two white and blue wired sensors.

Might work as long as there's no routine checking for a short-circuit
between the two on power-on. In this case, you'd need a switch and close
it after the processor has gone through the power-on routine. Just to be
on the safe side, I wouldn't connect the two wires directly but rather
through a resistor. Something between 1 and 10 kiloohms should do
nicely.

Ralf

--
Ralf R. Radermacher - DL9KCG - Köln/Cologne, Germany
private homepage: http://www.fotoralf.de
manual cameras and photo galleries - updated Jan. 10, 2005
Contarex - Kiev 60 - Horizon 202 - P6 mount lenses