[GreenKeys] M26 suddenly stopped coding, stuck on blank

Duncan Brown duncanancy at earthlink.net
Wed Jan 8 13:11:11 EST 2025 

Jomar,

Yes, sounds like some sticky parts somewhere - give it some more 
lubrication.
The old lubrication can dry up and leave a sticky mess.  Sometimes you 
can get away with just doing a good lube job (the oil tends to dissolve 
the crud), but other times, things have to be taken apart and 
individually cleaned.

I tend to be lazy (and don't want to break or loose parts), so don't do 
a full disassembly if I don't have to.

Have fun,

Duncan


On 1/8/2025 12:40 PM, Jomar Quilatan wrote:
> Hey Duncan,
>
> Thanks for the troubleshooting tips.  Indeed, the magnet armature is 
> working as intended.
>
> Interestingly (albeit somewhat a worrisome outcome), after letting the 
> machine rest overnight I came back this morning to find it in the same 
> constant blank condition at first, but then slowly all the selector 
> levers went back to working after some RYRYRY keyboard input.  
> Eventually all the functions and figs followed suit.  Makes me think 
> that something stopped responding or got jammed last night, but slowly 
> reverted overnight.
>
> It makes me wonder if I was starting to hit the threshold of the M26's 
> intentions for "light-duty use", although I recall being able to run 
> it for longer than an hour on a couple of occasions (last night it was 
> copying various ITTY feeds for just over half an hour or so).
>
> Perhaps there's some preventive maintenance I may need to look into in 
> order to brace for the next time this could occur.  (Could be some 
> re-oiling?)
>
> As an aside, definitely going to read up on the type basket 
> operation.  At one point in my troubleshooting last night one of the 
> selector levers engaged out of cycle and the type basket kept spinning 
> in one direction until the lever was pushed back in.
>
> Regards,
>
> *Jomar (Joshua Martin) Quilatan*
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 8, 2025 at 10:33 AM Duncan Brown 
> <duncanancy at earthlink.net> wrote:
>
>     Jomar,
>
>     I'm not real familiar with the M26, but for some general
>     troubleshooting -
>
>     With the Power & loop off, can you move the selector magnet's
>     armature up (mark) and down (space)?
>
>     If so, turn on the motor, but leave the loop open.  The machine
>     should chatter ("run open") as it is essentially just receiving
>     Spaces.
>
>     Now put a finger on the armature and press it up to the pole face.
>     This should put the machine in Mark condition and stop the machine
>     from running open.  If you pull your finger away from the armature
>     some, to let the armature down a little, you should reach the
>     Space condition. You should be able to move you finger a little to
>     move the armature between the two conditions and see some printing
>     of random characters and platen spacing.
>
>     From what you have described, you probably won't see any random
>     printing, but this is a general TTY troubleshooting practice and
>     it may help you to isolate where the problem it.
>
>     Another possibility is something that I have often wondered about
>     the M26 printing process: could the type hammer get stuck in the
>     revolving type basket? I don't know how the linkages work in the
>     M26 printing, but something to check.
>
>     Good luck & have fun,
>
>     Duncan,
>     K2OEQ
>
>
>
>
>     On 1/7/2025 9:40 PM, Jomar Quilatan wrote:
>>     Hi all,
>>
>>     I'm still in the process of reviewing the M26 documentation I
>>     have, in order to narrow down a sudden issue, but just wanted to
>>     throw it out here in case the diagnosis is surface level.
>>
>>     I was transmitting a text file from MMTTY onto my machine and all
>>     was well until I noticed the carriage was roughly at the end of
>>     the line and was not performing a carriage return, even though
>>     MMTTY was moving along as printed in the text file.  I was
>>     expecting to see overlaid characters on my copy, but to my
>>     surprise, it was blank.
>>
>>     The line where it happened was only supposed to be printing
>>     periods and ringing the signal bell in varying
>>     alternations--towards the end of the line, it started printing
>>     out a few numbers (namely 3 and 5), then went to blank.  (Looking
>>     at the Baudot it seems like 3 involves only the 1st selector and
>>     5 only involves the 5th selector).  Almost seems like something
>>     that engaged the levers weakened abruptly.
>>
>>     I switched to transmit on my unit, and the result was the same -
>>     any keystroke would cycle the machine but none of the selectors
>>     would engage.
>>
>>     I don't know if I can fully rule out the selector magnet, but
>>     that was one of my thoughts (maybe loop current suddenly
>>     increased due to a bad resistor, etc).  Another was the actual
>>     assembly from the magnet to the selector levers--but, observing
>>     that area at surface level, things seemed to be moving as intended.
>>
>>     Any recommendations on what I should look at, if not in either of
>>     the above areas?
>>
>>     Thanks in advance.
>>     Regards,
>>
>>
>>     *Jomar (Joshua Martin) Quilatan*
>>     Mississauga (Toronto), Canada
>>     RA 0-8045
>>
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