cdreed06 Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Bought a used Dixie Narco 501E and changing from 20oz to 16.9oz bottles. So we bought the shims for the 8 narrow columns and the rods, bought shims for the 1 wide column. Now the problem is first vend dispenses 2 bottles, second vend does nothing, third vend 2 bottles and fourth nothing. That is on one of the columns that work. Some of the others won't work. I am making sure that the soda is hitting the sold out flap. My brown cams are set to 3, the rear spacer is set to 23 I think (hard to see). Anyway I have worked on this all day and really got nowhere but did get the parts in. The rods by the way are in the #2 slot in the trough. I had to take the plastic cam pieces off I could have put them on 180 out but tried it both ways. I am trying to vend just the 16.9 oz 7 Up bottles right now. I plan on selling 16.9 Pepsi, Mt. Dew, Coke, Dr. Pepper, and Aquafina. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Don't take my advice to the bank but at least maybe I can give some help... First off, I am assuming that the double-vends happen one after another... meaning, You make your first vend, one bottle falls out... then another bottle falls out.... but they don't come out simultaneously, but correct me if they are SOMEHOW coming out simultaneously. To my knowledge, the 501E relies entirely on the vend motion and the sold-out switches and nothing else... so I believe that there is a couple of things potentially wrong here. Firstly, it seems as though the machine is set for bottles as it makes a full rotation on every other vend, so that's good... if it were set to cans, it would make 3 vends per cycle. So... I suspect that the selection in question here is possibly not set in the correct position. The machine is SUPPOSED to grab 2 bottles simultaneously and start to turn clockwise until the first bottle vends. At this point, the machine stops. On the second vend, the machine drops the 2nd bottle as it goes back to home position where it grabs 2 more bottles and repeats the process. So I would start by homing the motors if they aren't doing so already... but I thought the 501E homes itself, but see if you can figure that out anyway. I believe that there is a command somewhere to home the motors. Also, regarding the homing, when you start the machine up, it should say "HOME" (I think) and home the motors... or give you some error code and say something like "7" which means an error in column 7 (for example).. or you can open the machine up and see if it gives you some error codes... On to the 2nd possible problem... lets figure out why some selections wont' work. I recommend that you take most of the product out of one selection and make sure that the rear spacer is not pushing the bottles too tightly into the sold-out switch... there needs to be some wiggle room there... now assuming that the sold out switch is definitely pushed in and there is wiggling room, try to vend it again... if this doesn't work, it may either be something jamming up the motor or a faulty sold-out switch. I suspect that you have things too jammed up but that may certainly not be the case. Either way, give the machine just enough so that it can try to make its full cycle without any serious friction (due to things being too tight). Now I haven't changed out a sold-out switch in a while but I believe on the 501E you can easily swap out sold-out switches by just lifting them out and swapping them... try the one that is working and move it to the column that's not working to see if that does anything... this should be able to narrow down bad switches and replacing switches is cheap and easy to my knowledge. If it does NOT make a difference, it may be faulty motors or maybe they just all need to be homed... In summary, try to figure out the homing process and home all of the motors and then try again, this may easily fix all of your problems. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdreed06 Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 I really appreciate the help. In reading your answer it does seem like it is a homing problem and when I get there today I will work on that and let you know how it goes. I really appreciate it!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
falls Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 Just in case you haven't found it yourself, the Dixie Narco site has the package setups for most products on their site: Package Setups Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technivend Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 The 501E relies on the cams and cam switches to home and stop the motor. It does not use an electronic sensor. Your shimming should probably be closer to a can then a bottle due to the diameter of the bottle. How many deep are you filling the machine and how many notches are there on the brown cams? 3 deep should have 3 notches. Chris is right though in the sense that we really need to know when and how the double vend occurs. one after another would probably be a cam setting. At the same time the side shim would be suspect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdreed06 Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Ok, they vend one after the other not both at the same time. I am filling it 2 deep. A local vending company sold me the shims and rods for the 16.9 oz bottles. The whole thing worked fine when I bought it but it was set for 20oz bottles with the narrow side shims and no rods. I do need to home the motors and I am not so sure that I put the cams back on correctly. I took the cams off to be able to roll the motor to install the rods and only after I did this and reinstalled them did I notice that they could go back on 2 different ways. I really appreciate the help here. I am new to this and trying to get this machine ready to place at our car wash. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Technivend Posted December 30, 2011 Share Posted December 30, 2011 2 deep means you want 2 valleys in the cam. If you put the cams on 180 degrees off you will certainly get major multivends and miss vends so that is what I would try first. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdreed06 Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 Ok I will try that first. Thank you all for the help and I'll let you know how it goes this morning. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cdreed06 Posted December 30, 2011 Author Share Posted December 30, 2011 IT WORKS!! I think it was a homing issue as well as other things. Some of the cams were out 180 and the switch arms were bent in from pushing the cams on. Got that all straightened out and then the back spacer was too far back allowing the bottles in front to hang on the side shims then when the next vend came it would release the front bottle as well as the rear one. So when I adjusted the rear spacer out more it keeps the front bottle in front of the side shim and then it vends correctly. I have ran about 10 vends through each column, all with the same 2 6 packs of 7up. So I guess when I get it to the location and load with the correct soda I should run them all through at least 4-6 vends to ensure that the rear spacing will work with the different bottles. I appreciate all the help you all have given me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AngryChris Posted December 31, 2011 Share Posted December 31, 2011 And I wasn't entirely sure if I was going to help or not . I was just hoping to send you in the right direction incase a more advanced technician (like technivend) didn't. I'm glad to hear it finally started working and I hope it works for you on location too and doesn't give any more headaches! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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