Tmax shutting bed off early

[Birddog]

I have a tmax timer on a 20 min. Sonnen Braune bed that every so often turns the bed off mid session. When it does, the tmax shows a solid dot, no numbers. The Tmax manager up front still has the correct time counting down on it. This problem started about a month or so ago. Prior to that, no problems.

What I have tried:

I have taken out the two wires going to the "sensory" ports on the tmax (at Kevin's recommendation).

I have switched out the tmax with one that is working from another room with same type of bed.

I have replaced the comm chip in the tmax manager.

What else could it be??? Busy season is not the time to have this sort of problem. Beds shutting off mid session is a sure way to lose clients. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

[Brian Oshman]

Let's determine what kind of timer you really have, either a standard T-Max or an OEM T-Max. You say it is a T-Max, does it say T-Max 3A on the decal or does it say Sonnenbraune on it? If it says Sonnenbraune then ADI/T-Max made the timer for it but the timer on the wall is not like standard T-Max timers. It is just a controller that controlls an on board circuit board.



This board is located in the bottom of the bed. This is where the timer function actually takes place. If you just switched out the wall controller then you really didn't switch out the timer to another room.

Just a note, there same boards are used in some Sonnenbraune, some Heartland, some Montego Bay, and some other brands as ADI makes this board as an OEM timer board and the chip is supplied with the software protocol desired of the manufacturer using the board.

Anyway, The fact that you said the the timer was showing one dot led me to believe that your bed contains this board and it is not running on a standard T-Max timer (even though these are T-Max Manager compatible).

Is this a problem that is consistent? or, does it only happen periodically?

Have you added anything to the salon that might be interfering with the timer operation in close proximity of the bed?

What is the condition of the data cables?

Is the bed properly grounded?

What does the Manager display up front? You said that the time keeps counting down. What kind of Manager do you have? Regular or Pro?

If regular, does the period flash or go solid when this happens?

If pro, what does the display read, i.e. "on", "pause", "cool" "dirty", "ready"?

[Birddog]

Correction, when the bed goes off it shows 2 solid dots.

It says Sunnenbraune on the face plate.

All cables are good.

I haven't added anything that would interfere.
The problem seems to occur about once a day, but hard to say since the girls shy away from using this bed now.

As far as I know it is properly grounded as I haven't had this problem until recently and nothing was moved or disturbed prior to this.
I have a Tmax manager. I'm not sure if period is solid or blinking after this happens. I only know that if the bed was to shut down with 15 min. left, the manager still shows 15 and continues to count down. e

[Brian Oshman]

Does your bed have the board pictured? ^^^^^^^^

[Birddog]

I don't recall ever seeing a board like that in the trays under the bed. I'll double check this afternoon when I get there, but I'm pretty sure it doesn't.

[Din]

My recommendation is that since you are in NJ, to get Brian to come in person and take a look at it for you.

I wish i had Brian in my back yard.

[unity]

In your back yard? What good will that do. Is he good at gardening?Rather have him in my salon lol j/k, I know what ya meant.

[Birddog]

hmmm, that may be a possibility....I didn't even realize Brian was from Clifton...

In the meantime...

No Brian, I do not have that board.

Also, after double checking with the girls today (the bed went off again), BOTH the tmax timer and the tmax manager show solid dots when the bed goes off. I oringinally told you the tmax manager continues to count down, but I was mistaken. Both show solid dots as if the bed is ready to be cleaned.

The face plate on the tmax timer in the room says :SonnenBraune, but when off the wall, it says "TMAX 3A REV J" stamped on board. I took tons of pics of the board and the trays...if it helps, I can email you a few...?

Here are 3 pics (if they come out okay, never posted a pic before)... The first is the back of the tmax on the wall. The second it the tray showing the "mess". The third is where the wire goes from the tmax timer to the tray. It hooks up into a plug, then to the "mess" (lol).

I ran the bed for 3 twenty min. sessions this morning on my way home from work, and of course I couldn't duplicate the problem to see for myself. The girls are shying away from using the bed, but we are getting real busy come 4pm (not complaining) and they are forced to use it. Tonight they used it 3 times and it shut off during one of those 3 sessions.

Any ideas???

[Brian Oshman]

Well the T-Max is turning off and showing that it is dirty. Are you sure that it is sending 20 minutes to the timer or is it really sending less time? It may be getting different information from the computer.

The timer will only show the dots when the time has elapsed so it is not losing power and resetting and it is not the customer pushing the stop button and it is not a button stuck down but is is the time that is sent to the timer running the full session that was sent.

So, you need to look at what time is actually being set or sent from the computer.

The T-Max is fine.

[Brian Oshman]

Also, my locattion reads Califon, not Clifton (armpit).

I am really from Stewartsville now. I guess I will change that.

[Birddog]

Califon...sorry about that, didn't read correctly, was a long night!

Okay, so, I guess it is getting narrowed down...??? The timer in the room and the manager both read 20 min to start. But, the bed will shut down at any random time and it is not every session. So any ideas how I would fix it if it were a computer problem?

If it's not the tmax, I'm completely at a loss. The idea that it started happening recently and is getting worse leads me to beleive it is something that is going bad (hardware) and not a software problem. That being said...what do I know??!!

Any suggestions?

[Birddog]

Also, when the bed shuts down and goes into bed dirty mode, the computer (running sun touch) still reads the correct time and continues to count down.

[Brian Oshman]

The computer is separate from the Manager. It just sends time and monitors the T max, the Manager is just a controller and just sends time to the room and the in room timer is where the actual clocking takes place.

You said before that you swapped out the timer from another room and the problem stayed there. That definitely leads to the information that the computer is sending to the manager. It would not be the manager because that problem would occur all the time on all of the rooms.

Sun Touch is riddled with bugs and is most likely the problem here.

Disconnect it from the computer and set the time from the manager and see if it still does it. ( I bet it won't)

Are you sure that the timer in the room starts at 20 minutes and actually goes to dirty early or are you not sure and it actually is starting at a lesser time (my bet it is) than you think and is actually shutting off at the time that was sent but the computer is telling the manager the wrong time and no one is actually noticing? (I bet that is too as most don't understand the actual operation of the computer, Manager, room timers, and the relation to the bed that they have.)

[sparky]

SunTouch does not read the timers for elapsed time. It 'thinks' there should be 20 minutes there and uses it's own internal computer clock to count down time.

[Brian Oshman]

So you are just taking it for granted that the computer is still showing time and the t max stopped early?

There's your problem, there is none. That is why it never does it for you.

They also think whenever I unplug the manager that it will shut down all of the beds. LOL

Problem solved. There is none. Ignore the Sun Touch display, it is like an idiot light on a '68 Chevy. Use the T-Max Manager to accurately monitor the session times. Use the bed.

[Birddog]

I do know that the manager showed 20 min. one time when I actually was there and the bed shut down about 6 minutes into the session. What it read on the tmax timer in the room at the start....that I do not know as I was not in there to check until after it shut down.

I figured that if the manager read 20, the room would read 20.

As far as not using it through the computer... that sure leads to employees giving away free sessions.

FYI - My computer is NOT hooked up to the internet (no viruses) and we have never had this problem in all the years of using the same program. I'm not saying it isn't the computer, just adding that note. At this point, I have no idea what it is.

I guess I will have to run a series of sessions, watching both the manager and room tmax till it does it again. Then I will know that the room started at the correct time also.

All I know is that it is very frustrating.

[Brian Oshman]

The Manager will not read something different than the room. The time is kept in the room and the manager just monitors the timer and displays what the timer says. It can however be set to start in three different modes and that is when the manager will display differently than the room timer. It can start from zero, max time (displayed on manager before time is set), or last time set (which is also displayed before time is set). This will be displayed when the timer is off and shows zero in the room.

If it shows two dots then both displays will always show that. When the room shows zero the manager will display either a zero, max time, or last session time depending on haw you have that parameters set but it will always show the same time when the session is in progress.

Have the staff watch closely every time they set the bed to make sure that the time set from the computer is actually the same that they intended to set.

Also, check the settings in the computer and make sure that something as not changed on its own, this is not unheard of with software. The parameters for each room can be changed so compare it to others to see if everything is the same except for the address, max time, and bed selection for pricing. Compare it to like beds settings, the only thing that should be different in that case is the room address.

It is definitely something in the computer since we narrowed it down. The timers are functioning properly. Always monitor the manager for what it is actually set for, not the computer screen but do make sure that what is set in the computer is properly transmitted to the manager and it is the intended information.

Run the bed, it will never be figured out if it just sits idle.

[Birddog]

It was the computer!

We found out tonight that when we "cleaned" our VHR on the computer screen, it shut off the bed in question.

I went into the setup (Sun Touch) and found that the VHR booth (which is the only bed NOT run through the tmax manager) had "N/A" under port number (bc it isn't run through the manager). Well, I guess because it didn't have a port number, it just "adopted" #1, which was the problem bed. I changed the port number to a port we don't even use (10), and everything now works fine.

That certainly explains why I couldn't duplicate the problem after hours...because we weren't "cleaning" the VHR while the problem bed was running.

Thanks for all the help Brian. Huge concern off my mind.

[Brian Oshman]

Good job. Glad everything works now. Thanks for posting what you found to be the problem.