Strange issue with Cryptopay

[Greg Pack]

Wonder if it's worth having a separate, dedicated power supply for the cryptopay side to maintain a clean, stable power source for that unit?

IIRC It appears that the unitec control board gets it's power through a ribbon cable connected to the I/O board, so that is above my pay grade to figure out how to do that, but that might be a good idea.

I know this thread makes these units look unreliable but the WSIIs have been very reliable outside of this problem and it seemed to start with the cryptopay retrofit. I'm still running coinco bill acceptors and motherboards that are at least ten years old.

 

[Keno]

I have no experience with Unitec or cryptopay, but I would assume the power and ground are just 2 wires out of that ribbon cable. Can cut and splice in an external power supply into the ribbon cable on the appropriate wires?

 

[chrisg]

I’m having the exact same problem. I changed out the 5v power supply and it worked for a month. Even the speaker started working which I had never heard before. But when it started happening again I replaced the Cryptopay swiper (very old) with a new cryptotap. Still the same issue. In fact, because of the constant light show on the cryptotap, I started noticing it would intermittently start flashing yellow as if it had lost connection then it would reconnect.

It has been taking cash and starting the wash just fine. I’ll try moving the wires to see if that helps. Any other advise?

 

[Greg Pack]

Check to ensure your power supply is indeed at 5VDC with a meter. My problems started when the voltage was sagging into the low 4 volt range. When I disconnected some of the display LEDs the voltage crept up to nearly 5VDC and the problems went away.

Power comes to the display from the mulit colored ribbon cable on the I/O board, and I think comes to the I/O over from one of the light gray ribbon cables from the main board. I would follow that path backwards, checking for corrosion or poor connections.

 

[chrisg]

Check to ensure your power supply is indeed at 5VDC with a meter. My problems started when the voltage was sagging into the low 4 volt range. When I disconnected some of the display LEDs the voltage crept up to nearly 5VDC and the problems went away.

Power comes to the display from the mulit colored ribbon cable on the I/O board, and I think comes to the I/O over from one of the light gray ribbon cables from the main board. I would follow that path backwards, checking for corrosion or poor connections.

After I replaced the power supply, the voltage stays within tolerance (4.8-5). I also changed out the whole display board and LEDs.

But now that you mention the corrosion, I’m wondering if there is something on the J13/J14 connectors on the main board. Sometimes when the unit would start freaking out I would push on the connectors for any looseness and when I hit those two connectors the unit would come back alive and act normally. I’ve restripped those wires before but never checked the connector itself for corrosion. I’ll do that next.

 

[Sparkle_Brite]

So a possible fix!
The sale approved issue finally came to a head and decided to sale approve every single transaction the Wednesday before last, it would also do something new and beep the same amount of times as the wash price, immediately after selecting the wash I was trying to fire. (example: 16 beeps for my $16 wash) My distributor contacted Cryptopay for the 1000th time, and they literally had no idea what was going on. On a whim, Cryptopay told us to move the red and green wire from pin 6 to pin 5 (one coin pulse input to the other coin pulse input) and magically we haven't had one sale approved message in a week and a half. If you are struggling with this same issue let me know and I can take pictures of exactly what we did.
I don't want to jinx it by saying its fixed, but this is the longest that it hasn't had a sale approved message in a very very long time.

Hi 8th Street Car Wash - We've recently started having the same problem with a Unitec Wash Select II unit. We've had Cryptopay on it for ~ 4 years and only recently did it start acting up. We have had higher than average temps even for August (100+ here in Georgia) and we've also had regular thunderstorms with associated lighting that may have been an issue. Can you please share pictures of what you did?

 

[8th Street Car Wash]

Hi 8th Street Car Wash - We've recently started having the same problem with a Unitec Wash Select II unit. We've had Cryptopay on it for ~ 4 years and only recently did it start acting up. We have had higher than average temps even for August (100+ here in Georgia) and we've also had regular thunderstorms with associated lighting that may have been an issue. Can you please share pictures of what you did?

@Sparkle_Brite HI, sorry its been a busy last week. My machine has been trouble free ever since I moved the red/green wire over. If you look at my attached pictures, the red and green wire is on pin 5 now, and it had been on pin 6. If you are already on pin 5, you can always try to move it the other direction. This could have just been a fluke, but it worked for my machine.

 

[Sparkle_Brite]

Thanks @8th_Street_Car_Wash - I followed your instructions and moved the red/green wire from PIN 6 to PIN 5. I also disconnected the speaker since it was covered with corrosion and I suspected excessive voltage drop may be occurring as a result. After doing these two things, I tested with three different credit cards and initiated four different types of washes. In every instance, Cryptopay read the cards and passed the firing instructions to the Wash Select II without issue. After the was initiated, (Cryptopay was flashing green). After the wash started, the Cryptopay LEDs resumed their waterfall color cycle indicating it was communicating with the controller head and ready for use.

Apart from the high temps and possible lightning strike(s), I also had a guy putting a thin curved piece of metal into the coin acceptor and coin reject slots. I wonder if this action may have caused a minor "blip" in the Slugbuster II coin acceptor which could have resulted in a faulty coin input code?

I suppose I will never really know, but thank you and to all of those who posted here.