Schwintek controller and battery disconnected

[Love2GoFastUSCG]

So I was reading this thread
https://gdrvowners.com/forum/operati...on-t-slide-out
and this got me wondering. Does the controller forget zero after the battery has been disconnected after a certain amount of time? Do I have to hold down the close button for 4 seconds before opening it up for the first time? When I put my trailer into storage I remove the negative cable from the battery so it doesn't drain.

Brent

[howson]

I have never read this as a requirement. I assume at first power on the controller is set at zero. ( "Zero" being a made up term to convey a concept.)

[Country Campers]

I have found that I have to push the button a couple times before it will operate after the battery has been disconnected, not sure if this is typical or not. Mine is disconnected quite often and has never been a problem.

Brian

[StephenO]

We disconnect our batteries when the trailer is in storage, which because of our local bylaws, is always between trips. I have never had to do anything special with the slide after reconnecting the batteries.

[Love2GoFastUSCG]

We disconnect our batteries when the trailer is in storage, which because of our local bylaws, is always between trips. I have never had to do anything special with the slide after reconnecting the batteries.

Yeah this was just a thought I had. I know "zero" as Howson put it is a concept. When i disconnect the battery in my truck for a bit to work on it the radio does a soft reset and forgets my radio stations. I wondered that resyncing the controller on the slide has a memory or something knowing the count of turns and if disconnecting the battery makes the controller loose that count or if when you put the slide out and hold for a few seconds once the motor stop the controller syncs again. Just a thought.

[Guest]

Yeah this was just a thought I had. I know "zero" as Howson put it is a concept. When i disconnect the battery in my truck for a bit to work on it the radio does a soft reset and forgets my radio stations. I wondered that resyncing the controller on the slide has a memory or something knowing the count of turns and if disconnecting the battery makes the controller loose that count or if when you put the slide out and hold for a few seconds once the motor stop the controller syncs again. Just a thought.

The controller most likely stores the sync in NVRAM where it will retain the setting in memory after the power is removed from the system. Only reason I suspect this, is that my system will set an initial code for a battery interruption but works perfectly to stay in sync. I have only sync'ed my system one time after a motor swap.

Jim

[Country Campers]

The "zero" setting is actually set by the load on the motor. This is the reason for holding the button for 5 seconds at each end of stroke. There is no way for the motor to know where it is at in the motion of the slide.

Brian

[Love2GoFastUSCG]

As always I appreciate all the info I get from here.
Brian, that makes sense. But it does make you wonder why the manual has you do the whole go in and out 10 inches multiple times to resync.
Jim, hopefully I dont have to swap a motor again for awhile let alone resync the system.

Brent

[Jlawles2]

Not knowing how the controller is programmed, but the in and out thing is most likely also part of the encoder control system counting. My guess is the controller is looking for both load increase when it hits the hard stop and load increase as it travels indicating one motor is traveling faster.

[Guest]

The "zero" setting is actually set by the load on the motor. This is the reason for holding the button for 5 seconds at each end of stroke. There is no way for the motor to know where it is at in the motion of the slide.

Brian

Brian,

The count is reset based on load at the end of travel where your correct that its critical to hold down on the button at the end of travel for 5 seconds. This sets the count to zero where the slide once re-activated begins to look at the edges on the motor encoder. Once in motion the edges of each motor is being counted and when one side begins to lag behind, the controller will reduce power to the fast side to allow the system to stay aligned. If the button is not held, and depending on the resolution of the encoder, once side may be in between edges and the count is not reset so the slide can slowly become skewed at each activation. There are other types of rotary encoders that use a slotted wheel where a laser counts the slots but I seriously doubt our schwinteks use a laser optical encoder.

Below is a link which describes the operation of several types. Another encoder on the very high end that I've used extensively is the $20K model from AVL where I could analyze engine position in 0.5deg increments. These use laser optics and are good for 20,000 RPM.

https://www.machinedesign.com/automa...w-technologies

https://www.avl.com/-/crank-angle-encoder-of-366-series



Jim

[Love2GoFastUSCG]

Jim,

I select your answer as being the correct one no matter what else is presented lmao.

Brent

[Guest]

Jim,

I select your answer as being the correct one no matter what else is presented lmao.

Brent

Brent,

I'm not privy to their algorithm but as a controls engineer, this is how I would do it.

Jim