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Permalink Reply by ryan mcdougall on September 20, 2010 at 2:41pm

yes, i've had this experience. Is the machine plugged in? Is there water going to the machine(is the valve open)? Have you rebooted the machine? Is there a chance the machine is mad at you for something you've said about it? Did you perhaps cross any wires or allow any wires to touch a ground of any kind. Have you checked all the fuses? Have you checked if you're getting power coming out of the triac/relay on the cpu? have you tested the motor on another machine? Is the start capacitor on the pump still working? Are there any loose or corroded ground wires in the machine?

I guess you've checked your power coming in and some questions don't apply. But, how are you testing it? ac or dc? or are you just sticking your tongue between the wires? If you haven't already, don't.

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Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on September 20, 2010 at 9:28pm

Hello Todd - As Ryan has pointed out we will need some additional info to be able to help you as what you are experiencing could be a number of things. Let me ask you a couple of questions (Let me appologize in advance if they are too basic);

You say you disconnected a lead to the pump. Where did you take the lead off from? The pump motor itself? Which lead was it? Did you turn the power off to the machine when you did this? How did you teminate the exposed wire while you were doing the work?

You say that you are not getting power (seemingly) to the motor. How do you know? Is it just that the motor does not activate? Did you take any readings with a multimeter?

Now for my big question: You say you were trying to depressurize the brew boiler. Why? Unplugging the pump motor will not depressurize the boiler. Turning off the main power, the water, and then cracking one of the bleed screws on top the group will. Unplugging the lead on the pump motor will only keep the pump from activating when the CPU calls for pressure. Were you trying to run the valves of the machine without the pump? I'm thinking that if you took off a lead and left it unterminated and then continued to keep the machine on you could have blown the pump fuse if the cpu tried to fill the steam tank while you were doing your service work and the wire was touching something.

If you can provide a little more information I'm sure we can help you out.

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Permalink Reply by todd.mackey on September 21, 2010 at 7:11am

Thank you guys so much for responding!

I disconnected a lead to the block on the motor on a recommendation from Roger (lead LM tech). He instructed me to cap off this wire, shut off the water inline ahead of the machine, and use the group solenoid to let off any positive pressure remaining in the brewing boiler.

Power off, service done, wires reconnected, water line opened, power on.....no motor response.

Going in right now to check the fuses and transmission of power with the multimeter.

More to come.

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Permalink Reply by ryan mcdougall on September 21, 2010 at 8:16am

Roger's great. He's helped me out of a similar situation where a customer had burned out a capacitor, a motor, a switch, a group solenoid, and the pump triac on his machine. All in a row, one after the other. The simplest answer is usually the right one, but in this case it was the most ridiculous answer that was the right one. The worst part is that the machine's warranty from my company had just expired, but we were trying to help the customer out, so I ended up going back several times fixing one thing after another for 2 weeks while trying not to make them pay for it. Which in the customer's eyes either looks heroic or makes you look like you have no idea what you're doing because it's 5 or 6 problems and fixing one makes you say "uh, well I fixed this, but this other thing is also broken." It seems at that point like you're fishing when it's a system and sometimes a whole system can break down. All the symptoms pointed to someone messing with the switches, clicking them on and off over and over. Now that I think about it I should bill them for it. ugh! At least I learned a lot.

todd.mackey said:

Thank you guys so much for responding!
I disconnected a lead to the block on the motor on a recommendation from Roger (lead LM tech). He instructed me to cap off this wire, shut off the water inline ahead of the machine, and use the group solenoid to let off any positive pressure remaining in the brewing boiler.
Power off, service done, wires reconnected, water line opened, power on.....no motor response.

Going in right now to check the fuses and transmission of power with the multimeter.

More to come.

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Permalink Reply by ryan mcdougall on September 21, 2010 at 10:00am

I ramble on and on before my coffee kicks in...

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Permalink Reply by Bill Warnock on October 5, 2010 at 8:03pm

you should have at least some pressure on the gauge when the waster alone is turned on maybe <3 bar

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Permalink Reply by Brady on October 6, 2010 at 4:30am

Yeah, what'd you find out, Todd? Fix it? What was it?

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Permalink Reply by todd.mackey on October 6, 2010 at 7:26am

My sincerest apologies for the delay here....crazy times in PVD getting set up for the Mid-Atlantic Northeast Regional Coffee Conference. So....the big reveal.....it was the fuse. Not entirely sure how it blew, but it did. It seems like removing this fuse and opening the group valve is a fairly reasonable way to depressurize the brewing boiler for future applications. Either way, problem solved.

Thank you all so much for weighing on this...espressos or beers next time you come through Providence!

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