door not closing consistantly

[Jud]

The exit door for my Ryko Softgloss does not always close in cold weather. I guess that about 1 out of 5 washes, the door does not close as it should. This is really a problem in extreamly cold weather when the door would remain open all night (it has happened). I know that the Ryko door control puts out a short signel to close the door once a car passes over a magnet which I have 5' outside of the exit. I also understand that the Ryko will not repete that signel if anything should happen to cancel the door closing out. For example, a car leaves and the door is told to close, but maybe the car backs up to get more drying from the exit blow dryer and at the same time blocks the door photo eyes and as a result the door won't close. This example has happened on a rare occasion at my location and I use it as an easily explained example of my understanding of the machine operation, but I'm sure that this is not the cause of my on going problem. I really don't know if the Ryko is sometimes missing the close signel, or is something canceling out the close signel. At first I thought that my thermostat was faulty for the exit door, so I took it out of the circuit and hooked both doors to the enter door thermostat for which I have not had any problems. That didn't change anything, so I swapped the exit door stop and exit door close ice cube relays, and again, no difference. Last effort, I replaced the photo eyes for detecting door obstruction, no effect. Any suggestions?
What I would really like is for the door close signel from the Ryko to repete it self, say once every minute, until the door closes. This is the way my wash with a Futura works, and I love it. If the Ryko control cannot do this, is there some third party gaget that can be put in my door circuit to accomplish the same? I know that this is long, but thanks for any help. Jud

 

[soapy]

My doors close using the photo eyes not a magnet. I have ryko controls also. I have never had a problem with ryko controls but have had contactors stick in the door openers before. Is there a way to stop using the magnet control and just go with the photo eye setup to close the door.

 

[pitzerwm]

I added switches to my doors so if they were suppose to closed and weren't the alarm would call me letting me know.

 

[Rudy]

I added a small PLC that watches the safety photoeye circuit. If the door is open for more than 10 minutes, it sends a close signal. No longer do I come in on a 15 degree morning to find the doors up.

FWIW...I use this same PLC to signal the opening and closing of the doors (instead of timers). When the PLC sees the photoeye "blocked" for more than 2.8 seconds (the average time a short car blocks the beam when exiting), I tell the PLC to "close" the door 1 second later upon seeing an unobstructed beam. If the exiting car somehow races out, therefore not triggering the 2.8 second requirement....the door simply closes 10 minutes later as described above.

Works like a champ.

 

[Jud]

Thanks for the interesting thoughts. First, the photo eye idea. I don't know if I can use the photo eye as an input or not, I'm going to have to find out. Althogh I do know that my magnet is working because the exit door blow dryer shuts down when cars leave early, and also an indicator light in my wall box shows the activation of the magnetic loop when a car passes over it.
Adding the PLC like Rudy has done sounds like a good idea, but how is this done. Is this something that is compleatly seperate from your car wash machine? I'm not sure how you hook into the photo eye (which is looking for obstructions) to indicate if the door is down or not. These eyes must remain clear in order for the door to come down, so it seems to me that another sensor (eye or magnet or maybe an input from the down limit switch in the door operator) must tell the PLC that the door is not closed. Your idea of a time limit is on the mark. My Futura machine has a door control which works very similar to this, and it utilizes a small magnet to indicate when the door is closed. With it, a signal to close the door is sent about every 60 seconds until the door finally closes. It works beautifully and has been trouble free for years.

 

[Rudy]

I simply watched photoeye control panel relays. I was able to find the circuit that goes from low to high (maybe it was vice-versa??) with a blockage of the beam. From there, it was simply a matter of using the high-low logic as an input to the PLC.

 

[Jud]

Rudy, I guess that I'm at a loss. 1. Is the photo eye control panel you speak of in your car wash machine or in your overhead door operator? Are you working with a Ryko machine? Is the PLC seperate from the wash machine or are you somehow using the PLC in the Ryko controller. My photo eyes are wired directly to the door operator and do not feed any signal to the Ryko controller. Maybe my photo eyes are hooked up different than yours since mine simply look for door obstruction to verify a clear path for the door to close. I like the concept of your idea, but I'm having a hard time seeing how to make it work in my application. Jud

 

[Rudy]

I have a set of Wyndstar doors which has external control panels. My automatic is similar to the Pro Navigator. When the automatic signals the last cycle (in my case it's a Spot Free final rinse), it starts a small delay on make timer which signals the door to open about 30 seconds later. This little timer is not part of my automatic wash machine, but was added on. Actually, we just pick up the signal to our light stand which displays, "Spot Free Rinse Being applied". 30 seconds after this light gets voltage...an open signal is sent to "open" circuit on the door.

The photoeye setup I described is independent of the above. I use the photoeye/PLC setup to close the door, whereas I use the delay on make timer to open the door.

This setup should work for whatever type of automatic you use.

Make sense?

 

[Jud]

Rudy, yes, the idea is comimg together, I have to find the pieces and parts to make it work. In thinking this through I have to be careful to not interfere with the normal operation of the door opening which is working fine. But you have given me the information that what I want done is possible. Where did you get your PLC at, and does it have a timer in it. Thanks, Jud