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Minivator 950 Cutting out
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Hi, can anyone help?
My wife has a minivator 950, its about 5 years old now. Last week the powered footplate stopped going up and down when pressing the button on the seat arm, however the stairlift still functioned normally going up and down. However now it is cutting out whenever you switch it on, it stays on for about 40 seconds and you can move it up and down the track, then it just goes dead until you switch it off, leave it a few minutes then power it back up.
There is no error code showing on the display, but I have noticed that the little line that normally shows when the stair lift is idle (-) begins to flash a few times before it cuts off altogether.
Any help would be appreciated, as I dont have a maintenance contract on the stairlift but I am a retired electronics engineer, but have no experience with stairlifts!
Many thanks in advance! -
Sounds very much like batteries are failing. The Minivator 950 is not the easiest lift to change batteries on. To be honest a local indipendant stairlift engineer might be your best bet. He could also check out the footrest issue.
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Hi ianb,thanks for your reply, if the batteries were failing, would the error display not show error “7” (Low voltage alarm)?
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In theory yes but not always in practice. Old school thinking points to batteries and any engineer would make it his first port of call esp if the batteries are 5 years old.
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Ian, isn’t a flashing centre line – no charger connected?
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no it gives an error 2 I believe
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When the lift is travelling up does it run at full speed? First sign of low/faulty batteries is usually half speed activating in up travel “n” on the display instead of 8 or 9. Very rare for a minvator PCB to detect low batteries in my experience. At five years old a battery fault/worn is very possible.
When you operate the footplate switch do you hear the motor turning? Your lift will have a plastic drive sprocket which often snap or work loose. You will still hear the motor turning but no movement.
After that its meter out time to check batteries and comms
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Hi Rik,
When the lift moves up and down it does so at it’s normal speed, and I get the usual 8 and 9 on the display.
However after a few feet of travel it simply cuts out, no display, nothing!
When I operate the footplate switch there is absolutely nothing,no noise or movement. I’ve put a voltmeter accross the motor terminals while activating the footplate switch but there is 0 voltage.
My wife has a mobility scooter that uses the same batteries as the stairlift, I swapped them round and exactly the same result with the stairlift.
When I checked the manual, there is reference that if the lift stops and the display goes blank, the cause could be the “thermal fuse overheated”. The cause according to them is a short on “comms circuit” and the solution is “find short between track and comms and rectify”!!
Please excuse my ignorance, but what circuit is regarded as “the comms”?
Really appreciate any help with this, as the lift has been out of order for over 3 weeks now, and unfortunately I don’t have a maintenance contract out on it, as it was an expense that I couldn’t afford as I had to give up my job in order to care for my wife full time.
Kind regards
Derek -
The coms wire is the grey wire I believe and that could well be the problem as I’m sure the footrest motor uses a coms feed so it could be related so check the footrest board if there is a grey wire bell that to earth and if its shorting try trace it back to the board. Good luck
Also does the lift have a power swivel or slide track as these both use the comms circuit. If it doesn’t have either you could disconnect the comms wire from the board and try the lift and see if the fault of cutting out cures. That would then prove your theory
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Latest update!
I measured a short to earth when disconnecting the grey wire off of the powered footplate pcb. So I worked my way back towards the main pcb .
I disconnected the grey wire from the spade terminal on the main pcb and belled that out and it was clear between it and earth!
However when I put the meter on the actual spade terminal of the MAIN pcb I was getting a short between the terminal and earth, i.e there was nothing connected on to it!
Does this indicate that the pcb is fried? Or could it be another connection on the main pbc that’s giving me a short condition? -
Looks like the pcb is faulty mate. Is it green plug connection or white plug connection as there are 2 types
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As far as I can make out, it’s exactly the same as the one in this pic, Ian!
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so the cable connectors are white? I have sent you a pm mate
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Hi Ian, yes the connectors that plug into the board are white, except for the spade terminal connectors.
I ‘ve answered your pm, Ian, many thanks for taking the time to help me, mate!
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