Missed trims and new needles...a correlation?

[Judy]

Hi all. I did the 4 million stitch maintenance last night. Stitched about 50k after that. Ran like a dream. This a.m., loaded a new design, and Smokey turned into Hal. LOTS of pops after thread trims. Did the dryer sheet thing on the pinch rollers, and then had needles breaking because of missed trims. Replaced needles, and pops AND missed trims went away.

For the techs out there, will aging needles cause pops after trims?

[Juli in Kona]

I have a 1 yr old Smokey XT and have just been experiencing the same as you. After putting up with it for hours, I finally called tech support. It was so simple! Robert told me to hit the left arrow and the up arrow and I heard a clunk. He said that was it - and apparently it was because it now trims. He said that occasionally it gets confused as to which trimmer is actually on the machine. Sometimes, but not always, rebooting everything will correct it. When hitting the two arrows, it resets something and the correct information is then transmitted for trims.

If you take off the cover over the trimmer, go into Maintenance and select Steppers and do the test on the Knife and on the Selector. They should both go in and out until you End Test. My Selector didn't do that so I knew something was really wrong. That is when I called tech support.

What a relief!

Juli in Kona

[The Embroidery Authority - OLD]

Judy,
It's not so much that the needle is aging as much as the needle's walker or wheelchair get in the way.
Heh, heh..
What do you mean by an aging needle??
Do you mean it's bent, burred, tip is mis-shapen, rotation is wrong, is not inserted all the way up into the needle clamp, wrong brand, wrong size for garment or design, etc...?
A needle is either good or no good. If no good or not sure, replace it and follow all steps in replacing a needle as outlined in the Amaya training class.
This should eliminate the needle as being a part of your problem.
Remember that a needle can last for 10 years or more in some shops and that another needle can be compromised or destroyed after one stitch in other shops. It all depends on many factors.
Ed Orantes
Melco Tech & Trainer

[HERB]

Judy,
Can you expound on the dryer sheet thing.

[The Embroidery Authority - OLD]

Yes Judy,
I too was wondering about this dryer sheet thing. Does it make your embroidery smell springtime fresh???

Ed

[signman]

I'm wondering if the 'dryer sheet' trick is a temporary fix for static electricity? Our tech showed us how bad ours gets-winter is the worst when humidity is low. Dangle a 12" piece of thread from your fingers and move it towards your needle head-and watch it. We had it sticking almost straight out once it got within a couple of inches-like a kid's hair in a school science project. He showed us how that can affect thread tension, breaks, etc. because the thread will 'drag' across the rollers and such. So the machine has to be grounded well. Has anyone tried putting their Amaya on those 'antistatic' floor mats (Staples, Office Depot, etc.?) and did it work? On my plotters, we had to wire in a direct ground line from the machine chassis to the ground screw on the outlet box and that cured it there-static was building up enough to cause the 'internal computer' to go crazy. I wouldnt be surprised if the Amaya can have the same problems-a couple little St Elmo sparks dancing around on your mother board could raise havoc.

[Judy]

Ah, Roland, you know the trick! I'm on the coast so I don't usually have to deal with it. But it's been freezing here lately, and freeze equals lower humidity equals static -- especially now that I switched from rayon to poly thread...

Maybe Melco could think about making the red pinch rollers and the yellow feed rollers out of anti-static materials?

When I start to see the static affecting Hal, I take an UNSCENTED (so no April Freshness, but that would be cool) dryer sheet and rub it all over the face of my project before I restart the machine. Then I start Hal up and hold the dryer sheet on the red pinch roller that is feeding for a count of about five. Seems to work..!!

Maybe Melco could think about making the red pinch rollers and the yellow feed rollers out of anti-static materials?


Judy

[Gini]

I am having this exact problem and when I press the left and up arrows absolutely nothing happens, no thump, and no fix. I ran the test of the cutters and both seem to work. I re lubricated the red rollers. I am still getting thread breaks most of the time after a trim. HELP!

[Judy]

Not sure where you are in terms of maintenance timers, but it never hurts to pull off the needle plate and clean in there. To quote Mr. Monk, "It's amazing."

[Judy]

OOPS, and forgot my other dryer sheet trick area -- the bobbin case. Every now and then the bobbin thread end doesn't stay where it should, but instead tucks itself up to where the upper thread won't catch. Take out bobbin case, take out bobbin, wipe inside of bobbin case with dryer sheet, put bobbin back in, wipe OUTSIDE of bobbin case with dryer sheet, and sometimes for good measure wipe where bobbin case sits in Hal.

[Gini]

I tried all of the above, and then called a tech, who walked me through the trimmer tests, and then had me adjust the needles in the center of the holes. After all that, it is doing the exact same thing. This is where having a tech in the same state would come in handy. Anyone else have a suggestion?

[Steve F.]

Was there a resolution to this problem? I am about to set "ole Smokey" on fire! I have spent 6 hours today sewing out about 15 hats with a design of about 8500 stitches. I ran about 2 dozen hats earlier and then the problems started. When a trim is issued, the machine will usually not cut the thread, but leave intact. If the next stitch / color is farther than the leader the thread will snap/break which usually results in unthreading, or when the needle attempts to start the next stitch it will not lock or have enough slack to engage properly. Other things that occur is the bobbin thread appears to snap back to a place where the next stitch will not pick it up.

I have spoken with Tech Support and they had me check the pressure foot settings which seemed to help a little temporarily (about as long as the tech was on the phone) then the problems returned. I have also tried the keypad keystrokes which have no effect. The design has been reloaded repeatedly and the machine has been power cycled a couple of times. I have checked the knife and selector tests and all appears to function normally.

The thread isn't the only thing getting a little frayed with this problem. Anyone have a suggestion?

[Judy]

Hi there. When all else fails, turn EVERYTHING off, machine first, then computer. Clean the hook and lubricate. Check the tension on the bobbin case (a little tighter than normal), then floss the bobbin case. Then turn the computer on, wait around five minutes if you have one that takes a long time to boot up, open OS, then turn on Smokey. For some reason, occasionally it just has to "get up on the wrong side of the bed". Smokey don't care, but you sure do!

[Steve F.]

Thanks Judy. This has all been tried and has had no effect on the problem.

[Steve I]

I don't know what version of the Os you are running but on mine under maint/steppers down at the bottom there is a button labeled detect trimmer. When I start to have trimmer problems that are not related to an obvious problem I click the button and the trouble stops. I have not been able to get the left arrow and top arrow function to work either.

Steve I.
Trinity Embroidery