We have had several recent situations involving passengers being struck by closing doors equipped with Lambda and Janus PanaForty detectors. In both situations the door strikes were either witnessed by others or caught on video. In these situations the detectors were checked after the people were struck and found to be working properly. Any thoughts on what can cause intermittent failure on these units and how it can be prevented would be appreciated.

-- patrick a. carrajat (lickem@cblconsult.com), January 26, 2005

Answers

Could be that your detector edges may be needing cleaned on both sides. u could also try shorting out edges( se) usually in panel and run lift to see what happens-or faulty unit on top of car-replace only option!!!!!!

-- kvs (kaph9@aol.com), January 26, 2005.

In response to what could cause it I can not help however my recomendation would be to replace the door units with Tritronics Edge units they are available at Parts Specialists Inc In Posen Il. and can be reached at 1-800-598-2444.

-- Curtis A. Wilcox (Curtiswilcox@flash.net), January 26, 2005.

you say that you have it on tape or by the grace of GOD someone was video taping around it .Or was it a security cam? The pana 40 are good units from what I have seen for the last couple of years. In the video tape what "hit" the person hoist way door or car door ? I have seen to many people just hit or stick hand to wards hoist way door and not break the beams and wonder why the doors didn't open .

Richard

-- Richard (the4gals@knology.net), January 26, 2005.

Richard is right. What about your controler? Maybe you have some shorts in traveling cable?

-- Ivica (ivica@indeplifts.com.au), January 26, 2005.

If you have the 3-D type edge you may also have a relay in the "run" curcuit to turn off the infra-red during travel, this is to prevent it from "seeing" the landing doors during travel. This could cause the doors to be able to close and ignore any re-open signal. The usual problem IS the trailing cable to the edge, as nothing else moves other than the relay in the control box. Rather than testing the re-open with a large object such as a leg, have you tried placing just 1 finger horizontally in the doors and moving it from top to bottom and listen for the "click" of the relay in the car top unit? This will check each diode output 1 at a time.

-- geoff judge (geoffjudge@bchtgroup.org), January 27, 2005.

Lambda Australian designed, can accasionaly fail with relay contacts welding up on power supply board, ensure that controller relay drops out when beam is crossed, also if you have nudging remove it so you get total protection with door scanners. Have seen a lot of accidents with elderly and young getting there wrist or arm caught in hall doors and car with nudging.

-- Phil (ledgard.services@bigpond.com.au), January 27, 2005.

Sometimes the pana40 will have intermittent problems if the control unit and detector edges are not properly grounded. We have been changing ours to the Cedes/Adams Gatekeeper edges over the last couple years with no problems related to detectors.

-- rich moore (rmooreisgoingup@aol.com), January 27, 2005.

DON'T use cedes edge, it's crap. It wasn't mean't to work on our 120vac pwr. @ 60htz., hence Schindler and Adams have had a TON of them burn up the current resistors @ the 120vac supply connections. What you may wanna try two things. First make sure your relay on the control board is good and replace it periodically second MAKE SURE you properly installed your grounds on the transmitter, reciever and controller. These have been the only problems we've had on Janus edges.

-- George Westinghouse (Longshaft@aol.com), January 27, 2005.

I'm not sure about the panaforty, but on some Otis door operators (recent) the doors continue under power for a bit after the beam is broken.

If the beam is broken close to the door the door can hit the person before reversing.

Hope this helps.

-- Dan (justsomeguylookin2@hotmail.com), January 29, 2005.

The Lambda 3 detectors have an optional 3-D bypass when the doors get to a point in travle. If the detector is a lambda 3 try checking to see if the 3-D bypass is on.

-- Jeff Damato (hotDamatos@att.net), February 12, 2005.

janus makes a good product, which over the years i have had few problems with this unit. make sure all the components are properly grounded, the lenses are clean and all the seetings in the door controller are normal, (not on the time out feature), make sure all your door control circuitry in the main controller is operating properly and also in any door control board that may be located on the car top. check the relay located in the janus controller to be sure it is working properly. janus also has a tester that can be used to check diodes on the TX detector strip, but this is usually used to test for bad diodes if the doors are staying open.

-- big joe (jospro@msn.com), February 12, 2005.