Pucks not advancing, weird motor and arm movement.

[tomk]

Opened up my DBS smoke generator and tried to find out why the pucks skips 2 of 5 times.
Checked all electrical and found no faults.

When i run it with the cover off i can see what the problem is, but i dont know why ?
When it skips, the motor arm makes a tiny tiny turn one way before it tries to turn the other way and then it stops, in other words it hits the microswitch twice.
When it works the arm just turns without this little movement first.

i Have tried the tips to reset the cycle, and cleaned everything and checked wiring.

Anyone ?

[Habanero Smoker]

It could be that the arm is not depressing the micro switch in far enough; each time it strikes it. First make sure that the wires are connected tightly. Unplug and reconnect the wires from the motor to the micro switch box. Next make sure that both the motor and micro box are fasten snugly, so that there is no movement in the motor mount, or micro switch box. Then test it again.

If that doesn't work, you may need to adjust the motor a hair so that the switch gets pressed in far enough each time. To adjust the motor, loosen the two nuts and realign the motor. If after you have aligned the motor,  and you can't adjust it in any further, then you need a new micro switch.

Also even after aligning the motor and it works, if you feel that the switch may be faulty, call Bradley.

[tomk]

I have tried to release the motor and pushing it closer to the microswitch but it still has this weird movement.
I have called bradley on earlier problems, but they cant send me parts because i live in norway, so i have to go to my dealer in Norway.
He is doing the best he can but there is always delivery problems from his dealer in the UK, so or the time being i have to feed manually every 20 min  >:( :-\

[gundylake]

I know this post is a year old. I had the same problem and it was the motor. I just replaced the motor so I took the old one apart. I found some of the nylon gears were stripped.

[KyNola]

Welcome to the forum.

[Neil Mortenson]

I'm havinh the same issue - I have cleaned the slide area thoroughly, and tried adjusting the motor position, but the issue continues.

[beefmann]

also might want to  check for any burs on the path of the  puck advance and  linkage,,, sometimes they hang up on a  burr

[Gibsons Graham]

I had the same problem with the pucks not consistently advancing automatically. After living with a 20 minute timer to advance them manually for a long time, I replaced the motor and solenoid. It now works fine. Cost $20 and delivery time 1 week. Perhaps you should contact Bradley Canada or US directly and have them mail you the parts.

[tomk]

Hello

I dont know if this is an good answer but i will try, first i changed the microswitch but that did not help, then my dealer changed my whole unit beliving it was a bad sample because of all the trouble i had with it.

But he also tried to find what causes the weird motor behavior.
He changed the motor but it still skipped every now and then. So he thinks it is the Circuit board.
My unit was the secound one he had with this problem, so he was determined to find what causes it, last time i checked he had not recieved the new board from bradley.

My new smoker worked for the usual three times  :( and then it started to skip pucks again, ruined two days work on jerky, tasted like old tar.
I got so tired of it that i just gave up and put it away, i guess i will pull it out when sommer comes to see if i can work it out.

But my best quess would be the circuit board, since we tried changing both the switch and motor on my smoker without any luck.

Good luck to you.