Question/Problem
There is a suspected break in the power chain between carriers on a CB4000 and you need to locate it. This is likely causing brush to conductor rail faults or power supply health alarms.
-Presents in ICW as faults related to power supplies in the conductor rail panels.
-Also can present as a series of carrier being disabled in the ICW TTCB Carrier status panel view.
Environment
CB4000:
Cart
-Component on which the carriers are mounted.
Carrier (Cross-Belt Unit)
-Unit mounted on each chain link and on which an item is placed
as it is transported around the sorter. Each belt unit consists of
a 'cross-belt', which moves transversely to the sorter direction
of flow.
Answer/Solution
You will need a multimeter, an old carrier wiring harness, a wire cap, and electrical tape to complete this.
1 - The wiring harness will need to be cut to create two pieces. The first is a connector for the leads on your multimeter. Shown in this picture on the left.
The second is a jumper which has both wires shorted together using a wire cap. Electrical tape can be used to secure the cap. The pins should be verified to ensure they are shorted together.
2 - You will need to disconnect on of the carriers to measure the circuit. First you should measure resistance from male pin 1 to female pin 1, followed by male pin 2 to female pin 2. The expected resistance is around 0.006 ohms per carrier and we are meaning the entire sorter right now. The multimeter will likely round this up to 0.1 or 0.2 ohms for a continuous circuit. If a resistance greater than double digit ohms is seen, there is a break in the power chain and you should proceed to the following steps.
3 - We will then use the jumper cable to isolate part of the sorter and narrow down the location of the break. If the alarms called out a carrier with repeated faults you can start focusing on it. Make sure to test -+100 carriers from it since the conductor rails are spaced out roughly that far. If no carrier is known from alarms, is it recommended to start by cutting the sorter in half.
4 -You will need to break the connection between two carriers in two places. At one location install the jumper that was created earlier. At the other end install the connecter for the multimeter leads.
5 - Measure the resistance using the leads and the jumper to loopback the connection.
6 - If the resistance is above double digits, there is a break between the measuring point and the location the jumper is installed. Continue narrowing down the location until you find the break.
If the resistance is negligible, the break is elsewhere. Go back a step and look at the other section that was excluded from the previous measurement.
7 - Once you have found the problem. Remove the test cables and reconnect all carriers. A final test of the sorter (step 2) can be done to verify continuity through all carriers.
Note. Even on an open loop you may measure less than 1000 ohms. This is from the brushes in conductor rails which will each read as 1500 ohms in parallel from the monitoring circuits.
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Template updated 2022-09-20 kwk
Pending approval