Strange box problem

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

This happened last training, and I wonder if anyone has any idea on what was going on.

2-weapon box set to epee.
1. A and B fence epee, nothing unusual except that when A hits the bell of B there is a colored light - problem with floor cord, known before.
2. A and C fence epee. Problem above is still there. Also during some beats blade-to-blade stuff happen. First time: Colored light for C lights up. Second time: two colored lights. Third time: both colored lights, and the white light on A´s side light up. Most beats, however, do not result in any lights. All real hits result in appropriate colored lights.
3. B and C fence epee. As in bout#1.

What the heck is going on?

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[sallearmourer]

What type pf box brand name and weather it's a club machine or a FIE SPE machine. It's does makes a different.



Tim

[DHCJr]

It could be the box, it could be the reels, floor cords, body cords or weapons. There needs to be more information, but I can give you some ideas for determining where to look for the problem. The key is the old adage 'Tip to Tail'. Start at the tip of the weapon and eliminate each piece of equipment as the problem until you get to the tail end the box. Start by both plugging directly into the box, beat the blades and also check if the weapons are grounded. If you found no problem you have eliminated the weapon and the body cord. You have described two problems weapons not being grounded, which you have diagnoised to a bad floor cord. I would fix the floor cord (think of it as a body cord for a VERY tall fencer. Make sure there is no bare wire. Same as a weapon make sure the insulation completely goes all the way to the prongs. The reels can be a problem in they pick up dust which can sometimes conducts. To check the Floor cord use the floor cord as a body cord and go directly from the machine to the weapon and try the tests above. If it all works, I would suspect the reel.

As I said above, without knowing more about what type of machine and reel you have, giving instructions on how to fix them if you find they are a problem would be impossible.

[Purple Fencer]

Donald...please check your Juno mailbox.

[neevel]

The fact that a white light came on while the box
was on epee does hint that there may actually be an issue with the scoring machine itself, but it'd be best to follow Don's advice of
eliminating the problem floor cord and any other problems that can be traced to the weapons or cords.

If, having done that, the box is found to have problems, then the fundamental rule of troubleshooting flaky electronic equipment is "check the power supply first". If it's a model that has a separate power supply, check the output with an ohmmeter to verify that you're getting the correct output (12 V DC in almost all cases). If it's a battery-powered box (e.g., a Leon Paul club model), in addition to checking the batteries for voltage make sure that they're seated properly and that the terminals are clean and free of corrosion.


-Dave

[darius]

While we're at it, I witnessed this at an event last weekend, and was a bit baffled:

Eigertek Eclipse. If two sabreurs slid their blades together, both lights would go off.

We tried it with zero possibility of a sweat bridge connecting the lame to the weapon.

The reels/floor cords *seemed* fine.

darius

[sallearmourer]

From the sound of it they are using a older two weapon box battery or electric. I have a Preiur FIE model that when the fencer gets sweating it start doing werid things inclueding white lights in epee.

Tim

[DHCJr]

Originally posted by darius
While we're at it, I witnessed this at an event last weekend, and was a bit baffled:

Eigertek Eclipse. If two sabreurs slid their blades together, both lights would go off.

We tried it with zero possibility of a sweat bridge connecting the lame to the weapon.

The reels/floor cords *seemed* fine.

darius

First to Neevel: I did miss that about the white light. That does through a wrench in my theory.

There is a flaw in one version of the Eigertek. Contact American Fencers to see if you need an updated chip. There is no charge for the update. There may be a deposit, until they get the old chip back, but if there is, that will be returned. You will need the serial number of the box.

[PeterGustafsson]

Hi!

Originally posted by sallearmourer
What type pf box brand name and weather it's a club machine or a FIE SPE machine. It's does makes a different.

Tim

It is a Leon Paul box. I could not find any model number on it. Description: Blue pastic shell, with handle integrated into the shell. The box is a hand-me-down from another club, and it bears a note of have being calibrated 1989. The on/off, and epee/foil buttons are yellow, and slide fron side to side, they are not switches. The size is approximately 20*15*20 cm width*height*depth. The electric supply is from the mains, there is appereantly a transformer inside the box.

Does this ring a bell?

Have a nice time!

Peter Gustafsson

[neevel]

First off, check the power supply as I mentioned. We've got one of those LP boxes at my club that runs off of batteries, and it will start acting strange when they start to run down (usually the reset time becomes really short, but I have seen it throw ghost touches and other such odd things when the batteries are low). Low voltage output from a failing power supply will have the same effect as run-down batteries. You should be seeing an output voltage of 12 VDC (or a little above) from the supply.

Secondly, there was one instance with that box where it was giving odd behavior (including, IIRC, white lights on the epee setting), and the culprit turned out to be a dust-bunny in the foil/epee selector switch (which was presumably preventing one of the contacts in the switch from being made). After blowing the dust out of the switch, things worked fine.

-Dave