Forum › Forums › Stairlifts › Acorn 180 Relocation / Reprogramming
- This topic has 5 replies, 4 voices, and was last updated 7 months ago by
RobsRepairs.
Acorn 180 Relocation / Reprogramming
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jkiel
ParticipantI’m trying to learn everything I can about Acorn 180 stairlifts before potentially purchasing a few used systems and trying to cobble together one for my father. We can’t afford the cost of a new curved stairlift that he’ll require, and multiple straight stairlifts wont be a good option.
From what I can tell, the system will need to be reprogrammed, and that’s where things get murky. I’ve found what seems like 3 different programming procedures, one for older systems that have switches on the PCB, and then two others for newer t565 board systems depending on the revision. (One for “PCB Software Version 0.812 or higher” dated 22.03.2016 and another apparently for those lower than 0.812.)
I guess my question is, are there more known than these? Has the reprogramming procedure changed again on even newer systems? I read a few posts and comments from some saying that new used Acorn 180 systems are worthless. Is this really the case?
There doesn’t seem to be much if any people sharing DIY instructions for the Acorn systems and none of the installers that install used systems work with any of the curved systems, saying the can’t “crack the code” for installing an Acorn 180 and the others are too unreliable or too custom to be able to reconfigure.
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jkiel
ParticipantHere’s the Acorn 180 programming/installation instructions I’ve found so far:
Acorn 180
Please let let me know if you have any others-
Tom
ParticipantBefore you try to buy a couple of used units to combine into one unit you need to consider a couple of things. First the units come as either left hand or right hand depending on which side of the stairs you intend to install from bottom up. After that is determined you need to buy a unit that closely matches the configuration of your stairs. There are some rail pieces of various lengths and angles available but it can be a challenge to find what you need. I installed a used 180 unit in my house and fortunately I was able to find what I needed on EBay. I purchased a second unit for parts which has come in handy and I sold enough parts off the second unit to pay for it. My 180 has the T565 circuit board and I am not aware that there are more than one way to program the T565. I could be wrong! I have not found the Acorn 180 to be very reliable but since I am handy I have always been able to repair it myself. A big advantage of the Acorn is that it can be configured onsite instead of from the factory so it can be installed yourself if you are somewhat handy. Let me know if you need any more info.
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Terry
ParticipantI also found it very hard to find concise instructions to program the Acorn 180 and a lot of what I did find were out of date, obsolete or just wrong.
Eventually after lost of searching I found the guide in the link below which enabled me to program the stair lift for my wife.
I’m sure you will find this will enable you to get your’s working.
Good luck
Terry
<div>https://www.docdroid.net/WsFvAjF/dbffd-t565-v12-quick-guide-pdf
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RobsRepairs
ParticipantAm getting calls from used stair lift dealers from all over. Yesterday’s call from a reseller who installed his first Acorn 180 to a woman end user who is not satisfied because the lift tilts when moving, but intermittently, and unpredictably. His customer is demanding that the Acorn Curve be replaced. There are several Acorn 180 variants available for free in BC, Canada. This reseller has just learned that the 180 curve instruction programming guide in Docdroid does not work unless it is specific to the unit being worked on [six versions, so far] and, the model 180 stair lift has no symptoms, i.e. all repairs have been completed on this complicated model.
He thanked me for opening his mind to a creative workaround which bypasses a crucial safety switch. That workaround is meant for a very temporary problem. His client demanded that the stair lift be fixed or removed within the hour.
There are 1,200 displeased Acorn customers in the Facebook (now Meta) public group who are getting mostly (2/3, by my count) bad advice (online guesswork) and wrecking their stair lifts even further. These 1,200 people are telling everyone to avoid Acorn purchases, new or used. They opine that the resale value of a barely used, new, Acorn 180 stairlift is $100 in the USA or £200 in the UK.
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RobsRepairs
Participant<div>A client who took too long to heed my advice to buy replacement lithium batteries (and also only bought one, not two) had the bad luck to listen to an actual Acorn company engineer to use an electric drill to move a dead pre-2018 Acorn 180 curved stairlift to the bottom charge pads, whilst realizing that reprogramming the Datum would be necessary, after a DIY battery replacement. So, two bad advice were implemented, resulting in fatal error codes. I repaired this 180 without replacing any parts. This client also forgot my warning about installing replacement batteries by himself. However, this client correctly named himself as the culpable party — rare, these days, unless uhunbacked clients. That engineer is no longer working at Acorn.</div>
Fyi, I provide Acorn 180 (on six variants, so far) Programming Anywhere in the World by Zoom
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