Hi, HB'ers:

My Junior D/1 has always had more 'character' than I'd have liked. I got it off craigslist with a bad brain box, which I replaced along with a new heating element. Lately, I've been having problems with the 3 way valve tripping 3 seconds into a pour no matter which of the 4 settings I set the dial to. It's been getting steadily worse until now it's essentially unuseable. Does anyone have any ideas how to trouble shoot this? I figure it must be something electronic since the solenoid is activated to release all the pressure (or is there some way that a gunked up valve could cause it to trip??)

edit: while I had some spare time, I did a little test. I took off the panels and disconnected the electrical hookup to the solenoid. The pump still stops prematurely about 3 seconds into a 'pour' (no pf inserted). I'm thinking this has something to do with the level sensing circuit in the reservoir or possibly some kind of short in the selector switch itself or (god forbid it happening again) possibly a brain box gone bad again.

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Mike

My GUESS would be that the signal from your flowmeter to tell the "brain" to stop is not functioning. The 3 seconds of operation seem like a safety "time out" feature. Is this machine plumbed in or do you draw from a reservoir?

. . . no matter which of the 4 settings I set the dial to.

What dial? Do you not have a button that has a "continuous flow" function?

This is an older Junior D/1. It has two dials and one button on the front. The left dial turns power on, the right dial selects one of four positions for the quantity of water to dispense when the button is pushed. You can interrupt the amount of water being dispensed by turning the 4 way selector, which trips something in the circuit, tripping the 3 way, and turning off the pump. To the best of my knowledge, there is no continuous flow button but I'd love to be wrong about that. It looks like the one here: http://image.usedvancouver.com/photos/0 ... 60_934.jpg

Neat machine . . . even neater switch. Ya learn sumptin new every day - thanks.

Unfortunately, you're going to need an electrical diagram and, if you see the other thread about a La Cimbali M32 Bistro - Trouble with used La Cimbali M32 Bistro, it looks as though Pasquini USA MAY have what you need.

An alternative would be to take a real close look at the switch assembly for any broken wires, corroded contacts, etc.

Since my last problem with this machine was related to the brain box, I do have a wiring diagram (I think there may be a wiring diagram in the downloads here on HB) and a reasonable understanding of the wiring. This morning I decided to just make French press and tear down Junior a bit (I did last night as well, but was tired so I figured a fresh start in the morning was required). I cleaned the probes in the brew reservoir tank, moved some wires around to get a better idea which bundle of wires goes where and then tested. The first push of the button had the 3 second cut off behaviour, but about 10 since then have gone better. I have the machine warming up and I'll continue testing and keeping my fingers crossed.

Update: machine warming up and I get a few more good runs, so I turn the dial to another setting and we're back to short bursts again. Starting to wonder if the dial is at fault.

Hey, when you push the button to brew it activates 2 relays on the board, one closing a live connection to the pump and the other to the solenoid for the group, my guess is that it is a bad relay on the board.

Ignore my first suggestion, just checked the wiring diagram, one relay activates both the ump and the solenoid, so if the pump is still on when the group solenoid shuts my guess is a bad solenoid or connection to it. The 4 way switch just connects a wire from the board to one told the probes in the tank at the back.

The pump and the solenoid cut at the same time, sadly. If it were just the solenoid, I'd be much less stumped. 3-4 seconds in, the solenoid cuts off the flow, the pump goes off and the brew reservoir solenoid allows the tank to re-fill. Removing the probes from the brew reservoir, cleaning and replacing them seems to have helped a fair bit, but we're still not getting 100% proper behaviour. I think the brew reservoir tank and probes are a ground circuit like the typical boiler probe circuit, but that's about as far as my electronics knowledge goes.

edit: further cleaning of the probes and checking the wires connecting them has led to 90% performance (9/10 times I get the expected dosing from the pump, 1/10 times it cuts off after 3-4 seconds). Not perfect, but going in the right direction. When I have time I'll have to trace all of the wiring and check all wires for continuity and make sure they are all making good connections at their termini (is that plural for terminus?)

edit (Oct. 20): for anyone searching for this problem in the archives, it appears that all the cleaning of the probes and their terminals has fixed this problem for now.