Intellitec Power Lock Arm Problem

[ziaptrn]

Hello all -
I've researched online and have found a lot of information, but nothing yet which helps me. I've left a message for call-backs from Newmar and Intellitch Customer Service but no response and I have a slide that won't go out.
For some unknown reason (gremlins?), the front driver's side slide is pulled all the way in, and when I pressed the button to open, one of the power lock arms pulled away and stored, and the other lock arm stayed locked in place. No change with repeated button pushes and the rig is plugged in to shore power just in case low voltage was contributing. I swapped the control boards for the controllers and both seem to work fine, so I'm thinking it's the magnetic switches for the lock arms that I've heard about.
I do not know where the switches are located or where to bang with the hammer as noted in several threads.
Is there a way to simply operate ONE of the lock arm motors with a jumper? The slide is not attempting to go out - it just starts talking (voice) and then stops in mid-sentence. Relays click, and it is protecting itself appropriately by not trying to open the slide with a locked arm. That said, the locked arm does nothing...but stay locked!
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated - where to look for the magnetic switches or operation of only one lock arm motor would be great.
Thanks...
John

[Craig36]

I have an intemittant problem with one of mine. Newmar told me that the culprit is likely the magnetic proximity sensor. Each lock arm has its own. (I am having mine replaced on Wed). Newmar parts has them in stock for $70. What is attached is what they sent me. Hope it helps.

From Newmar:
Each slide has three proximity sensors that send information to the slide control module. There is one sensor in each of the lock arms, and one on the bottom rail of the slide room, near the cog wheel. These are magnetic sensors, the ones in the arms, tell the controller if the arms are open or closed, and the one on the room tells the controller if the room is out or in. The way the room sensor is designed to work is, when the room closes all the way inside the coach, a welded piece of metal on the slide rail, that will come within a ¼” of the proximity sensor. Once the two make a magnetic connection, the slide controller will send a signal to open the locks. So, most likely you have something metallic getting close to the sensor when the slide is out, or the sensor is starting to go bad

[Craig36]

PS: regarding using a hammer. Shine a flashlight in the crack, and you will see the metal lock arm in the locked position. You want to lightly tap the frame it came out of a couple of times. It doesn't need to be very hard.

Be sure to get your hand all the way out before you touch the button!

[ziaptrn]

Hi and thanks so much for the prompt response and documents. The docs that you sent were more current than the ones that I could find online, and were helpful.
The issue remains, however, than one power lock-arm is open and the other is closed. The slide is in. The slide won't move out (and shouldn't) because the one Power-Arm Lock towards the rear of the coach is locked in place. Even if the control box and motor were trying to move the slide out (which they aren't), the slide couldn't move. This is good, as I see it.
Following the guide that you sent, I had someone push the slide operation button, and two of the three LED lights do illuminate. The center and lower LEDs light, but top one doesn't. This is with the box oriented such that the 3 LEDs are on the upper right of the box; the voice connection 2-wire plug is at the far left, the 8-wire inline plug in the center, and the 9-wire plug is on the far right followed by the 3 LEDs.
This tells me that the lock arm that corresponds to that LED is showing closed and locked, not open. Which it is. So that part is fine - the lock arm proximity detectors appear to be working ok, with one Power Arm Lock open (completing the circuit and allowing the slide to move) and one Power Arm Lock closed (circuit open and preventing the slide from moving).
SO....how can I get the offending Power Lock Arm to unlock, so that both are in sync to allow the slide to move out? That is my question. The room sensor (center LED) seems to be doing fine.
Tapping on the arm of the locked Power Arm Lock didn't seem to do anything.
So - I'm still looking to see if it is possible to activate the closed Power Lock Arms and cause it to open so that the two match and thus don't confuse the controller and allow the slide to move.
John

[ziaptrn]

Just a follow-up to clarify what the problem was (now working perfectly) and what I did.
To answer my own question: Yes, you can operate either of the Power Lock Arms individually and without the controller attached. I used jumpers to connect the 12v+ and ground in the center of the 8-wire connector to the appropriate +/- on the motor to the Power Lock Arm. One of the Lock Arms worked perfectly, the other did not move at all but simply made one "click" with the application of power directly to the motor.
I removed the side of the cabinet interior just over the dinette to get access to the Power Lock Arm. Once the side panel of the cabinet interior was removed, there were a few screws holding a metal cover plate in place.
Once those were removed and the plate pulled away, it was clear what had happened.
The end of the linear actuator has a black rubber/plastic cover that surrounds the exterior of the larger section and allows the sliding piece to move in and out as the motor moves. The black cover is to be held in place by a small phillips screw, but the screw was missing and the cover hand 'walked' its way opposite from the base of the actuator and towards the moveable end with hinged parts. The black plastic/rubber cover had jammed in the hinged parts that moved and did not allow any movement whatsoever. Odd that it had jammed in the "locked" position, but that's what it was. After freeing the jam, the motor operated perfectly using the same jumper wires.
I re-attached the black plastic/cover to the metal end of the actuator with a new and slightly larger screw, and then used heavy duty tape to make sure that the cover and actuator were stabilized and would not come apart again.
From there, pressing the slide actuator button resumed normal function, with the paddles opening/closing and the slide moving in/out depending on starting position. While I was in the Power Arm Area motor area, I checked everything for tightness and applied some spray silicone to all of the moving parts.
So - bottom line - the linear actuator that drives the paddles was jammed and couldn't move because a screw fell out and allowed a plastic protective piece to jam the mechanism. Every time I pushed the slide operation button, the motor could not move the paddles, and the motors quit promptly (as they should) when they encounter sufficient resistance - such as at the end of the stroke opening or closing the lock arms.
I'm attaching a photo of the linear actuator and have circled the little plastic piece in red. This piece was loose and had moved away from the proper position to the end of the shaft where it hopelessly jammed the mechanism.
Re-assembled everything and now all work exactly as it should.
I'm posting because 1. this might help someone in the future and 2. I always wonder what happens when some folks post up a problem and then fail ever to return to explain the outcome - leaving me wondering!
Thanks for the assistance guys, and safe travels.

[ziaptrn]

After my initial repair, the power lock arms again resumed their one in/one out malfunction.
I replaced the linear actuator, which had again become fouled after my attempt at re-securing with a screw and metal (aluminum) tape.
With the new actuator in place, the power lock arms work perfectly when I use a jumper wire on the 8-pin connector to provide power directly to each lock arm. The arms move in and out freely without binding, etc.
When I set both power arms out (the slide is fully in), and then press the slide operation button, one of the power arms opens and the other does nothing. The slide does not move, and it shouldn't since one power lock arm is still shut in place.
I switched boards again with the rear slide Intellitec control board, but the same behavior persists. The rear slide then works (with the forward slide board), and the forward slide opens one power lock arm but not the other (using the 'good' rear control board). So I've pretty much ruled out the boards as being bad.
I called M & M RV Electronics who said that the first thing to do is to run a dedicated ground wire from the inverter/charger to the controller 8-pin plug, which I did. The same behavior persists.
When I look at the LEDs on the control panel(s), they show the center one illuminated (meaning slide is physically in, which is correct), and then the outer two (top and bottom) flash.
According to intellitech, this means that the R13 potentiometer is sending too much current. I therefore moved the potentiometer counter-clockwise until 1 of the stops at 270 degree arc, but the behavior doesn't change at all. The same holds true with the boards swapped - so again, I don't think it's the board.
The led lights show that the proximity sensor is working in that the led glows and the power arm is locked with the slide in.
Any further assistance would be appreciated. If there is a way to reset the whole board or resequence their operations to be bothin or both out but not one in/one out, that might be helpful.
Thanks for any feedback or assistance.
John

[ziaptrn]

I think that it's done, this time.
After checking and re-checking everything and contacting Newmar and M & M RV Electronics (support for Intellitec), the problem was identified and corrected.

As noted previously, I replaced the Linear Actuator for the slide Power Lock Arms on the rearward Lock Arm. The Lock Arm worked perfectly when run individually using jumper wires from the motor to the 8-pin connector at the controller, but when using the button to operate the slide, one paddle would open and the other close and vice/versa.

At the suggestion of Chris at M & M, I replaced the existing ground wire with a #10 stranded wire from the 8-pin connector to the negative post of the inverter/charger. This did give a nice, clean ground with zero resistance (the other 2 controllers show some resistance on the ground wire, so I'll replace those in the future - again at Chris's recommendation).

Replacing the ground wire did not change the error in function, sadly.

So I called M & M again, and this time Chris came through with the winning ticket. The new linear actuator was installed and I connected the wiring the same as the original, connecting black to black (ground) and red to red (12V power). Specifically: the harness black wire to the black wire on the linear actuator, and the harness red wire to the red wire on the linear actuator. As it turns out, sometimes the linear actuators are 'wound' or wired in reverse despite the color of the wires. So - I swapped the wires to change polarity to the motor - black harness wire to red actuator wire and red harness wire to black actuator wire. BINGO!

So now I have everything buttoned back up and all works perfectly - which is a relief with some planned Thanksgiving travels pending.

The situation seems obvious now, in retrospect, that the polarities were opposite between the two Power Lock Arm motors - with one closing while the other opened and vice-versa. Like so many things - once the answer is known, it seems kind of silly.

Safe travels to all - and apologies to anyone who suffered through the thread.

John

[enjoyrv]

Glad you got it figured out John. We have spent many hours ( and $) fixing ours and learning something every time. I’m glad they got away from this design on new coaches.

[Craig36]

John,

A frustrating DIY journey.

We just got ours fixed by our repair shop. The head mechanic had worked on these, back in the day. Had to replace the magnetic sensor in one of the arms, that was intermittent. Cost several hours of labor plus the part, but now it works fine.

Glad you found your problem.

[ziaptrn]

Thanks for the words of support, guys.
I wasn't as frustrated as much as puzzled. Of all the weird things, eh?
That said - I hope to be able to help others who may run across the same or similar in the future.
It's always something!
John

[Craig36]

Just curious, did you ever have an issue that when the slide was fully open, the locks would pop out to their locked position?

[ziaptrn]

Yes, I did see that happen one time. I have no idea what brought it about or what it meant exactly.
When the slide first went out, I heard the lock arms opening. Later, when I pressed the switch to bring the slide in, the Power Lock Arm 'paddles' came in first, and then the slide moved followed by the arms locking as they should.
I hadn't done anything different from the usual open and close routine, and the slide that had them open up once the slide was out was not the one with the problem referenced in my posting. The slide with the broken actuator was the driver's side main slide, and the one time that I saw the lock arms open when the slide was out involved the passenger side bedroom slide.
I'd be happy to understand WHY this happened, but it hasn't done it since.
John

[STRich]

If this happens to you it is because for some reason the controller is not seeing the open sensor. In my case, the foam seal on the slide had deteriorated and this allowed the slide to travel a little further out and OFF the open sensor. Or, the open sensor needs adjusting.....

Make sure that you do not leave the paddles extended while the slides are open. Water or critters could get into your slide walls.

Originally Posted by Craig36

Just curious, did you ever have an issue that when the slide was fully open, the locks would pop out to their locked position?