Sys error Avanti J-26 XP

Hello Don. I'm on the lab right now... I'm using the JA25.15 rotor. I tried to make the inertia and winding calibration with the code SET,ACCEL,SET,DECEL,RPM,DECEL, but it's doing nothing.

Although, the inertia code (SET,ACCEL,SET,DECEL,RPM,ACCEL) did work. So the centrifugue is now performing the inertia calibration.

Do you have the code to perform the winding calibration alone?

Thanks!

Agustín.

I'm not really sure why that code did not work.  Did the speed display change to 4500 RPM after you hit the start button?

There was no separate codes that could be used to only perform the windage calibration.  The codes that I gave you was for performing the inertia followed by the windage.  I did give you the cod for manually entering the windage and I guess if the codes that I gave you didn't work for the auto windage calibration then this is your only recourse.

To be totally honest, I'm not sure that the J26XP even has to do a windage calibration for the JA25.15 rotor because of its relatively light weight and low air resistance profile.  My older service manual is from a time before that rotor was manufactured and there were several changes to the centrifuge's firmware to deal with newer rotors.

Finally, is the centrifuge running OK otherwise?

Don

Don

Nothing happened with the code for performing the inertia followed by the windage calibration. The speed didn't change.  

The inertia calibration alone went well. Also I could check that the values for the 900 to 1900 RPM inerta value and the 3000 to 3500 rpm value were different of those I manually set using the front panel values (Using the codes you gave me to enter those values manually, but this time without changing them, only to see if they were different)  

The windage value has the original value (107)... The Inertia values for 900-1900 and 3000-3500 had dropped from 102 and 105 to 95 and 97 respectivly.  

Without performing the windage calibration, I checked the centrifigue and it's working, but with a problem. With the JA25.15 the centrifugue works fine in all the range velocity, but with the JS4.0, when you push start, the rotor dislpay indication changes from 4.0 to 7.5 (or 7.1, I can't remember right now), as if I had selected a different rotor. I don't know why if I set the knob to 4.0, it changes to 7.5... I think this could lead to problems if a distracted user after running a cycle try to increase the speed, don't you think?  

However, this last step was a huge improvement. Now it can be used in spite of this weird problem...  

If you have an idea of the cause, please let me know..  

Thanks again!  

Agustín.  

PS: It's been a while since I had to write this much in english. I'm sorry if the language I use isn't proper...

Agustin,

You are doing fine with your written English so that's not an issue for me.  The windage calibration, or lack thereof, using a rotor will not impact the use of the JS4.0 rotor as it never runs fast enough to get into the speed range where windage even becomes a factor so I really don't see that as the issue.  I just rechecked my old service manual and I now believe that you should try performing the inertia calibration with the JS4.0 rotor and see what happens.  Also, does your JS4.0 buckets have bio-safety lids on them?  If so, then perform the inertia calibrations with the lids on the buckets.  Get back to me and I'll see what I can find out about the windage calibration issue.

Don

Don! It finally worked!! I did the calibration with the JS4.0 and now everything is OK!

The buckets we have have no lids, so I did the calibration without any lids...  

Again, thank you very much!! If you ever come to Argentina, please let me know, we owe you a present hehe.  

Agustín.

I am very pleased that we were able to work through your problem together. Thank you very much for your kind offer if I ever make it to Argentina. I now have a passport so I might just take you up on that. Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any other problems. I was trained on most centrifuges, spectrophotometers, and liquid scintillation counters.

Don Klees (walkingscrewdriver@yahoo.com)

Good evening Don, may I please ask you to post here reprograming procedure for the Avainti I version just like the one you posted for the manual interface one. 

We have J-HC centrifuge (with digital display) that was working fine until the JS 5.0 rotor was installed, that was slightly imbalanced and appears that it got centrifuge out of calibration. It started giving "R1 Rotor not Identified Check rotor"

I had JS 5.0 rotor balanced, but now we are still getting "R1 Rotor not Identified Check rotor." We also tried placing original JA-10 rotor back that we previously used but the error persists anyway.

Hopefully we can just reprogram it to bring it back to life. Hope to hear from you soon.

Sorry to have be getting back to you late but I have been traveling and have just gotten home to where my manual is located.  I'm not sure that reproramming everything is going to fix your "R1" issue.  There are several things that I need you to do before even looking at reinitializing your centrifuge.

First, let's look at the centrifuge itself and its leveling.  Remove the front cover and get down and look inside where the drive motor is to check on the condition of the drive mounts.  If you see ANY cracks or separation on any of the mounts then they need to be replaced ASAP with the new style mounts, which are bright RED in color.  Drive mount issues have plagued the Avanti series centrifuges for many years until the new formulation of the rubber compound was developed.  There is no waffling on this matter, especially if there aare any signs of cracking of the mounts.  If the mounts are OK, place the JA10 rotor on the spindle and place either a small, round bullet level or other small level on the center adapter of the rotor.  Adjust the centrifuge leveling screws for the best fit possible realizing that you may not get it perfect but depending on the floor that its sitting on, you should be able to either get a front to back or left to right level position.  Just make it as good as possible.

If you're still with me, remove the rotor in order to check the gap between the bottom of the spindle and the rotor ID sensor with a feeler gauge.  It should be somewhere between 0.040 and 0.045.  If it is not then adjust accordingly.  This may be the reason why you have the problem you do and it may have come out of adjustment for any number of reasons driectly related to how carefully the rotor was placed on the spindle.

OK, now the fun part.  I will now post the procedures to reintialize your centrifuge.  Follow the steps exactly as listed and you should, assuming everything else that I told you to check is OK, be back on line in a relatively short period of time.

First, push [ENTER] 911 and [CE] to clear the S7 system diagnostic if you haven't already done so.  Then press [ENTER] 711 to set the elevation of where your centrifuge is at in the field that is blinking and then press [ENTER] again when finsihed.  This is something that you need to do.

Next, to set the P2 Ambient Air Pressure push [ENTER] 622 and the ambient pressure will show up in the display.  Adjust the setting so that the two fields match and the push [ENTER] again to store the value.  Then, the P4 value is set by pressing [ENTER] 722.  The air pump will turn on.  When it stops, enter the P4 value that was previously recorded on the label.  It may not be perfect but it will better than nothing.  The rest of the vacuum calibration is kind of dicey because an engineer would be using a low vacuum monitor to set things up so unless you can get the correct vacuum monitor, I would recommend that you leave these values alone as they will not come into play if the fastest rotor that you are using is the JA10.

The next thing to do is either enter all of the information previously stored on the label posted in the centrifuge for all of the other parameters.  This is the quickest way to get things done but it does not take into account the wear and tear factor on the drive motor assembly.  So, to perform an automatic WINDAGE and INERTIA check, place the JA10 rotor on the spindle and secure it with its lid.  Close the door of the centrifuge and push the following keys:  [ENTER], 422, [ENTER] [START].  The centrifuge speed display will show 4500 RPM for the inertia calibration.  It will perform an inertia calibration first which is then followed by the windage calibration.  DO NOT interrupt the calibration mode once it has started.  Assuming the windage and inertia calibrations proceed without failure, you will then have an operational centrifuge, that is assuming that your rotor ID sensor is adjusted correctly and is indeed functional.

If you choose to enter the values for the the inertia and windage then press the following keys and enter the values that are on the label.  To enter the 900 to 1,900 RPM value, press [ENTER] 611 and then enter the value from the label and then press [ENTER] again to store the value.  To enter the 3,000 t0 3,500 RPM value, press [ENTER] 333 and once again enter the value from the label and then press [ENTER] again to store the value.  Finally, to enter the Windage Calibration value, press [ENTER] 522 and enter the value for the windage from the label followed by [ENTER] to store that value.

After leveling the centrifuge, setting the altitude and vacuum values as well as either performing an automatic windage and inertia calibration or entering the values manually, you should now have an operational centrifuge.

By the way, here's another couple of useful codes:  [ENTER] 822 clears the 45 minute door lock timer should this ever be required.  Also, you can clear a system lock-up by pressing [ENTER] 443 should the centrifuge not seem to function but DOES NOT give you an S7 diagnostic.  There are other service codes available but these are the ones that you need to get your centrifuge up and running based upon what information I currently have about the state of your centrifuge.

Don

Thank you Don,  You responded plenty quick enough and I appreciate you taking the time to help. I checked level and the mounts they checked out good. So then I performed the re-program and now every thing is functioning properly. I can't thank you enough. The mounts amber in color and the rubber is very soft and there are no cracks. I didn't see any other mounts so I assumed those were the ones. Either way I'm back up and running and I owe it to you.

Pleased that you are back up and running. The service manuals went all electronic many years ago so any paper copies around are at the very least out of date. If they still exist in the paper form, they will be expensive and you can usually only get them with the local service manager's approval.

The only reason that I could help you with the codes was that I kept the section of my original paper manual with those codes. There's a lot I remember about servicing everything that I worked on for over 32 years but as I no longer use the information that much, I am forgetting a lot of it. If you have any other issues relative to centrifuges, spectrophotometers, or LS counter, I will be try to assist you but if I don't know something anymore, I won't make it up just so I have something to say.

Don