BOFA Cart with ULS/Start Stop Card will not turn on automatically

BOFA Cart with ULS/Start Stop Card will not turn on automatically

BOFA now has the option to add a ULS Start/Stop card to the cart. This allows the Universal Laser to send a 5V signal to a card inside the BOFA to start it automatically. There have been a few cases where this has not worked. 

The way it should work is that the 5V gets passed on the RJ11 (phone style) cable to a card inside of the BOFA that is mounted to the floor of the system. This card then passes a 5V output on a 4 pin connector out to another card mounted to the inside of the service door on a 2 pin connector. You want to check for 5V across pins 1 and 4 of the ULS Start/Stop card, which is the one that the RJ11 cable is coming into. You should get 5V as soon as the laser starts. If you are getting voltage there, you then want to check for 5V across the 2 pins on the 2 pin connector on the BOFA board. The easiest way to do this is to check the voltages at the terminal screws. 

In one instance, the problem was the black connector that connects to the 4 pin connector on the ULS Start/Stop board. We were getting 5V across pins 1 and 4 on the ULS board, but no 5V at the BOFA board. We destroyed the connector and connected the wires directly to the pins and it started working. BOFA then shipped out a replacement cable that communicates between the BOFA board and the ULS Start Stop.

Pictures are below:

Location of the ULS Start/Stop Board and BOFA Board
Pins 1 and 4 of the connector highlighted in the box labeled "This connector was bad" should put out 5V DC when the laser starts.
The 5V needs to come into the connector highlighted in the red box in this picture. The white connector needs to be on top and black on bottom.









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