I have a gate opener, that was acting slow, so I tested the battery and the solar charger. Everything appeared to be working correctly. I put the cover back on the enclosure and pressed the button to open the gate and the 12vdc car battery literally exploded inside the enclosure. I pulled the battery out and cleaned up any acid i could find. I replaced the battery and now the gate is not working correctly. When you call for “close” of the gate nothing happens, I know the motor works because I can apply the 12vdc to the motor and it will open or close with now issue. Now when the gate is closed, and I press the operate button it will open the gate. This issue only applies to “closing” of the gate. None of the fuses on the board were blown, there is no visible damage that I see. A new board can be purchased but its not cost effective at this point. Does someone have an idea on how to diagnose/repair this board?
Hello,
Unfortunately we would not know how do diagnose your board.
Your best option would be to contact the Manufacture of the gate opener.
I see no part numbers on the chips. K2 looks like it suffered some damage or it may be a shadow on the image. Has D102 failed, again, it’s hard to tell?
This would require some serious troubleshooting and the ‘Close’ circuit would have to be analyzed and some reverse engineering would have to be done. It appears there is splatter from the battery failure in the center of the board.
I agree with Karl_1696, I think it’s time for a new controller. Maybe one could be found on the used market?
I realize my request is hard via some pictures and over the internet. However, the replacement board is 435$. I’m not an expert by any means but seems this should be easy since 99% of the board works as expected. Again I could be completely off on this matter. Any help you guys could shed would be great. Thanks
For troubleshooting, you would have to have the board in hand, and be able to test the functions, and the components. It could be as easy as replacing a relay, or it could be one of the IC chips.
If you or someone in your area can not troubleshoot the board, then you may have to get a new one. But we would not be able to guide you in troubleshooting the board over the TechForum.
Hi StubbornOx ,
Although the board is conformal coated, it is possible the battery acid splashed into certain components. It wouldn’t hurt to clean the board, do not breathe in any battery vapors and handle with caution.
It appears the initial problem was a bad battery since the gate was slow, which probably was because of the charger system overcharging the battery making it bad (& explode). Being everything worked otherwise on the board, i’d double check the fuses, DIP switch settings, potentiometer settings, overall wiring, connections, and all solder joints to see if there is any cracks in the solder or cracks in any of the components or traces creating an open.
If that doesn’t fix it, it is possible to have an open on one of these resistors, you may want to measure them with a multimeter.
Also check the value of these pots, overall resistance, and resistance from pin to pin:
You could also apply voltage to the relay coils assuming they are 12v (possibly 5v), and test the resistance value of the closing contacts, if they are measuring higher than a near short, the contacts might be bad inside or not working at all.
I have to agree. If I was to troubleshoot this I would power the board and trace the ‘close’ signal back until I found the point where it was working. Then I would troubleshoot the local circuit to see why the signal is not getting to the terminal on the board. As David_1768 says, that may be a diode or burned resistor or it could be a transistor, etc. You would have to understand how those all work together to switch signals on and off. It may be a logic chip in which case you would need to understand how that chip functions. You may see no problems externally on those chips or other components yet one could still be not functioning.
If there is 120vac on this board, be very careful. A slip of a probe and you and/or the board could be seriously damaged.
Ryan_2724 mentions some good tests.
Attempting to measure such things in-circuit is extremely problematic, because one’s also measuring everything else that’s connected. Without a schematic and intimate understanding of the device, such tests are more likely to seed confusion than yield useful information. Besides, those look like ballast resistors for diagnostic LEDs, which are frequently not essential to device function.
Again, without a schematic and intimate knowledge of the system that’s probably not a good idea due to risk of causing further damage.
That’s… Anomalous. Plausible explanation for a properly boomy explosion would be ignition of hydrogen that’s commonly liberated during the charging process, possibly by the arc of relay contacts. The corner of that one below looks like it might have had an experience. Sealed relays commonly have a vent nib that’s broken off after assembly in order to disperse schmoo that happens during contact arcing in the interest of prolonging contact life. Would stand to reason that there might be a bit of blowout if enough H2 got in to make things spicy.
A typical “car” battery of the flooded/sloshy type would perhaps be a questionable choice for use in an un-vented or partially-vented enclosure for such reasons. AGM type would be the better choice.
Failure to close is commonly caused by improper function of the anti-squish mechanisms that are almost universally included these days to take all the fun out of racing Grandma’s garage door. Highly plausible that there’s a bad connection, limit switch, etc. in that apparatus that’s giving issue, and that the board itself is fine.
The ‘anti-squish’ circuit, that’s a very good possibility. Good call StubbornOx rick_1976 ! Depending upon the age of this circuit board some openers have an electronically adjustable open and close pressure sensor. The newest ones are set by the microcontroller automatically. On the very old openers it’s a mechanical adjustment.
If you apply power then check the voltage on the close terminal, does it change voltage or is always high (+12v) or always low (ground or 0 volts)? Does the LED light? If there is no change, follow the PCB trace to the next component. I think D26, D27 and D29 are diodes in the close circuit; I would guess they are protecting U4 from reverse EMF (a solenoid or relay). When diodes fail 99.9% of the time they fail shorted which could prevent the coil from energizing. What is the part number on U4? Knowing what that chip is could shed some light on this.
Remember, I’m attempting to trace this from a photo so I could be completely wrong. I think what I saw as acid on the PCB was a reflection off the conformal coating.
Mike
Thanks for the suggestions. This is a 12VDC system. The output of J7 goes to the actuator itself and the limit switches in it are what stop the motor. The board reverses polarity to open or close the gate. I have attached part of the manual that shows the pin out for J7. When the gate is at its limits either open or close you can press the LED enable button and it will light up the appropriate LED. If the gate has hit the closed limit and you press the button the Master close LED will light, and the same if the gate is open. However, I haven’t tested that circuit yet. I will try that this weekend. Again, thanks for all you guys help!
Also, one other note. I moved the “master” wire harness to the “slave” outlet and it is the same results. So not sure if the same components run both the slave and master plug. So it very well may be related to the limit switchs inside the actuator.
Nice Apollo 1500 Gate opener.pdf (5.1 MB)
Rick, you nailed it. It was in fact the limit switches inside the actuator. Apparently when I replaced the battery for some reason the limits were messing up. I am unsure how the physical limits were not working correctly but they were. However, I opened the actuator and the open limit was set way past the physical ability of the actuator so it was never reaching “open” so that is why it wouldn’t close. It was confused. I set the open limit switch correctly and voila it started working correctly. THANKS AGAIN!!! saved me $435 dollars!
I am having a similar problem, where is the actuator at , inside the gate arm itself?
I am able to bypass the problem by putting a jumper between the test button prongs for the board.
I did this because i could hit the button after clicking the gate opener and he gate not working worked. It only happened when opening not closing so I am guessing i Have the same problem. I am not sure if there is a universal pcb that works with apollo but not that I can find.
Thanks!
Hi @txcowboyforhire ,
Yes I believe the switch is located inside the actuator.
So I went and pulled off the jumper wire on the led test light , because one side was not working jumped them, and with the arms off pushed the buttons until they both hit the limit and showed either open or closed. I tested it several times and then went about adjusting the arms in the closed/ extended position. It took awhile but I finally got them synced by doing one side at a time! I tested them one at a time first the master with the slave disconnected then slave with master disconnected and bobs your uncle! I believe the motor in the arms is starting to go out and the limit screws are continuing to loosen with use so I will just have to keep an eye on it if it gets out of position and throws off the limit again.
I want to thank everyone on here for posting all their knowledge and information as all of it helped when scouring the forums for information. I’ve be dealing with this problem for the entire year with the gates not working off and on and only one side then the other it has been a nightmare! I really thought the board was shot but low and behold it is still working, for now!
Thank you for your response @txcowboyforhire,
For what its worth, from what we’ve heard anyways here at DigiKey its almost always that switch, as @Rick_1976 mentioned which takes the fun out of racing out of grandmas garage door, back in the time when danger was the ‘fun’ element.
well it all went down again. Now the light that shows master and slave gate open or closed stays on for the slave side so there is a short some where from my guess. I have to go work on it again today. I’m not very happy wit the apollo system. They have put 3 boards in it and replaced the wires no telling how many times. Boards under warranty except the last one and the gate company, guy, who installed all of it has passed away so now I’m trying to figure it all out. worked from original installation for not quite 2 years then new board , then 1 year new board. Through the process they installed more and and new solar panels, new battery every year, now 1.5 years after new board and it does not work again. I want to just install a new board but I dont want to use an apollo board. Has anyone used a different board with these gate arms and actuators? They had new gate arm actuators and motor installed all ready this year so I would like to not waste more money with apollo.
looking at this diagram it seems the open limit and close limit wires are in different positions but the gates will work if you swap the plug sides. Now I have to go and test which position is open and closed as both arms are wired the same which means all the wires are in the wrong pin position if this diagram is correct. Not sure how the gates have been working all these years off and on but maybe, MAYBE, this would be causing a problem. I’ll pull the board out and test for circuit direction by pin number i guess.
Oy Vey!!
Here is hoping that works!