Toyota 9000 Tech Question

AJST · May 9th, 2014, 10:25 AM

I have a curious tech question that I hope you might help me with. I have a customer that has a Toyota 9000. A year or so ago I did a service on the machine. It would boot up to the initialize screen and then freeze.

I opened the machine and found a rat’s nest on the main board. It looked like the rat would piddle and short out the board and when it dried it would be ok. I cleaned the board and it worked as it should until about two months ago. The machine started doing the same thing… stalling on the initialize screen. I checked the board and it seemed ok.

I suggested she send the board to PLR Electronics. She sent the board to PLR and they said the board was working but they did not have a machine to test it on.

Do you know of anything else that would cause the machine to stall at the Initialize screen?

minimalist · May 9th, 2014, 11:17 AM

There has to be a loose circuit on the board. Did PLR reflow the board? You probably know this but reflowing a circuit board requires heating in a oven to reflow all the solder connections. Maybe a hard reset on the machine as well?

AJST · May 9th, 2014, 11:57 AM

Thanks for the response, Minimalist.

I did a hard reset, before I removed the board.

She sent the board in and PLR checked the board and said they couldn't find anything wrong with it. I have left a couple of messages with PLR trying to speak with someone about it but they must be reeeeeeeal busy, I haven't heard back from them.

I have heard about re-flowing the board but have never tried it. Is that something I can do in my oven or should I keep trying PLR?

minimalist · May 9th, 2014, 03:02 PM

Reflow is best left to professionals. Maybe try this company:

http://www.acsindustrial.com/repair-catalog/tab-a.html

AJST · May 9th, 2014, 05:55 PM

Thanks, I will see what she wants to do. I appreciate your help.

Robert Young · May 12th, 2014, 03:44 PM

kinda sorta off topic.. but isnt that a hybrid? home vs commercial machine? to me the issue would be more GET RID OF THE RATS! if the machine was used enough I would hope the rats would not be near it? sorry could not resist.

DeepWoods · May 12th, 2014, 10:07 PM

Hopefully this machine was in storage? If not, I'm with Robert that getting rid of the rats would be my first task!

As urine is acidic, it's possible that it has etched thru the copper traces on the board. Maybe not visibily but enough to cause shorting issues. If there was that much rat **** on it to eat through the traces, I believe it'd be time for a new board or machine...whichever is more economical at that point.

Rob

AJST · May 13th, 2014, 08:20 AM

Thanks for the reply's, she is going to get a new board.

You would be surprised at how many machines I have worked on that had rodent problems. The last one was last week. Pellets and droppings stored on the left side, and a fiberglass insulation nest on the right.

A very tidy, and well organized mouse.