C-touch colour cannot send instructions at night time

Hi,

My C-touch colour started acting up last week. It cannot control anything at night time between 7 pm and always resolving at around 8 am the next day. The screen knows however the status of the lights, whether it is on or off. I have disabled the schedules, restarted the touchpad and even powered down the whole house for a few minutes but still this problem has not resolved.

During the day (After 8 am) everything seems to work fine. In addition none of the schedules seem to be working even when it's active. My schedules are programmed to turn on some lights at sunset and turning it off at 10 pm.

The log file shows either one of these issues when I try to switch on or off a light:
C-Bus broadcast failure, App 56, No acknowledgement
C-Bus broadcast failure, App 56, Application is off-line

Running C-touch colour with Home Gate v 4.13.0

All of the switches and DLT switches around the house work fine even at night, problem just with the c-touch.

I find this to be a very bizarre problem - I was wondering if you guys could help me out.
Thank you

 

Hi Pico,

I would have a look at this thread:
https://www.cbusforums.com/threads/...-not-send-out-c-bus-messages.8591/#post-51238

The capacitors or power supplies are the usual culprit. I think it is interesting what you are finding with the time of day though, however that is making me think it is the capacitors even more. There is probably something that turns on at 7pm each night that adds a little interference onto your C-Bus network, which if the capacitors are old and failing aren't filtering out properly or ect.

 

Just wondering if you resolved the issue you posted? I have exactly the same issue. Down to the times! Did you try the capacitor fix?

 

The above issue could also be caused by a faulty transmit cicuit in the 5080CTC Color Touch Screen.
This is a common fault caused by the age of the unit. These units can still be repaired by Arbor Australia. We were the original manufacturer of the units for Clipsal. i have attached our RMA form that is used to provide use with all the information we need to proccess your repair. I have also provided my contact details if you need to contact me directly.

Symptoms of the transmit error....
The Color Touch Screen can see all activity on the C-bus network but will not transmit commands to any devices when a control on the Color touch screen is pressed. This may happen all of a sudden or progressivly get worse with time. This fault causes the C-bus voltage to drop to a low level, if you disconnect the color touch from the C-bus network and the voltage is ok, this indicates it is most likely this fault causing the problem.

Note:- All 5080CTC Color Touch Screens CTC1, CTC2 and CTC3, can still be Serviced/Repaired by us. Any Spectrum B/W units can still be repaired by Schneider-Electric directly.

Note:- The RAM for the CTC1 and CTC3 is located between the two main PCB's and is not that easy to get to, as a complete disassembly is required to do so. The RAM on the CTC3 can be repalced after removing the unit from the black plastic.


Regards,

Trevor Callaghan
Workshop Technician
Arbor Australia Pty Ltd
Unit 1/72 Bayfield Rd
Bayswater North
Victoria 3153 Australia
Mobile : 0404 887 463
Phone : +61 3 8736 0328
Fax : +61 3 8736 0325
Email : [email protected]

 

I have a problem with my CTC3 that it seems to loose connection with the c-bus network every time it gets hot, (as in the ambient temp) maybe around 25 deg C or so. It works fine all winter and in cooler months but as it warms up i start having the issue - always when its a nice toasty day. Could this also be an issue with the capacitors etc that may be repaired?

Thanks

 

Hi Jake,
It is possible that some of the PCB components and/or capacitors are suffering from age, the CTC3 does have an improved CCT for the C-bus conectivity and is less suseptable to the same issues that the CTC1 and CTC2 units are having, but I have seen a couple of them like this and changing a selection of capacitors has fixed the problem. (It's not the same caps as in the CTC1 & 2 models) If this is the case it can be repaired. Also the thermal compound between the BGA IC's and the heatsinks could also be dried out and contributing to overheating the unit. If you want me to look at the unit one of the things I do is replace this with new compound to help with heat disipation to the heatsink. If it is related to the CPU's overheating then it could be an issue as these are no longer available. You can send the unit in for repair and I'll check it out. If you decide to do this please use the RMA form in the above post to provide your details.

regards
Trevor