MY STRANGEST SERVICE CALL EVER-

The case of the Spider web.

In May, 1978 I relocated from New Jersey to Montreal, Canada.

Prior to my relocation, I had worked at Automatic Doorman in Paterson, New Jersey for more than seven years. During that time I worked every task in every department. I was skilled in every department and soon I was used to fill in when someone was late or sick. Lynx Industries of Canada had been selling and distributing Automatic Doorman Residential and Commercial door operators to local Canadian installing door companies for many years. In 1976 the Canadian dollar lost ground against the US dollar making it more expensive to buy America products. To offset the cost it came necessary to duplicate a manufacturing plant in Canada, I was the first choice to get it started. After getting a temporary 1 year Canadian work permit, I drove through New York State to the Canadian border to build the door operator production department. The plan was to start producing commercial door operators and then move on to producing residential door operators for the Canadian market. First we had to certify the commercial door operators with CSA--The national safety testing agency of Canada. This took 5 months because some major modifications were required to certify the operators for Canada.

About 35 miles North of Montreal is the town of Saint Therese. In St. Therese there was a very large General Motors production plant that built Camaros and Firebirds. Years before my move to Canada a Lynx Industries 575volt GH commercial gearhead door operator was sold, installed, and wired to an existing panel that GM had contracted to be built from their own specifications. I knew everything about the motor, gearbox, and limit assembly, but had NO information on the special panel. Since I was missing the most important information. It made it difficult to troubleshoot the overall system. The GM engineers were very adamant the problem had to be within the motor operator, because they had the same separate panel throughout Ontario, Canada and had no other problems elsewhere. Even so, I was sure the problem was within the GM factory in their panel, because they’re main complaint was phantom operation. I knew this conflict might escalate, but I knew I was right, so I stood firm. Plain & Simple; No motor can start on its own- It has to be told to go; by getting an intended input, which starts the process of connecting electricity to the motor. This is the same for all motors. Think about it. It’s like claiming the light turned on, even though nobody threw the switch. In theory, only a component in the panel or defective control could be guilty and I knew it!

  Basically any operator which moves without an intended input has what we call; Phantom Operation and 99.9 % of the time it is a faulty control or pushbutton. This is not up for debate. It’s FACT! An operator cannot just select to move. The command to go must come from a PB, radio control or other device. If the door opens without an intended input, then you must investigate all the units that command the operator to open. This could simply be the open button, a loop module, or a defective key switch. If the phantom operation to open is occurring while you are present, you can start by removing the control wires that connect to the operator and see if the problem goes away. Or disconnect the receiver and test the operation. . Most technicians have trouble grasping the idea that a push button or other defective device can alone command an operator to go. But that is what happens when a control or device fails.

After many months and hours of phone calls from the GM engineering dept., I was positive of my theory and really wanted to find a solution.

Eventually one Saturday I was forced to go see the job. I drove up to the GM plant with only a voltmeter and some basic tools. I met with the building supervisor; Ronald Gagnon. This is the guy I spent months talking to over the phone. He showed me the door that had closed on two new Camaro’s and I opened the panel to look inside. I saw an inline type reversing contactor, two transformers and a 3 –phase motor protector. There were also added loop detector modules and many timers in the panel. The wiring was totally disorganized and looked like a huge bowl of colored spaghetti. There was also a small circuit board with 4 relays on the board which I couldn’t figure out why it was there. To determine the purpose of the relay board, I had to study every wire connected to it. There was no diagram available, so I had no idea what was the circuit boards purpose and what I was looking at. I asked Ronald if I could start the door open and he said yes. I opened the door with the open button on the panel door and thought to leave it open for a minute, except almost Immediately I saw an LED flicker on the relay circuit board and the door started closing. I did this three more times with similar results. I knew a relay was sending power to the motor, but why was the relay engaging? I quickly determined which terminal was for the close command and disconnected all the inputs to this terminal. I opened the garage door, but the door still closed. WTF? I was confused and a little upset with myself. I never was stumped before and usually found the problem within the first five minutes.

I asked Ronald if he had a flashlight and he got one for me. I thought maybe I should look under the circuit board to check the tracing or if other wires were connected to it. I carefully removed the circuit board and got the scare of my life when a fat black spider nesting between two relays jumped on my hand.

In an instant I brushed it away and it disappeared in the maze of wires. You can always find some creepy critter in the motor portion of an operator, but I never saw any in a Nema 4 sealed panel before. However, this panel had many holes drilled in the side walls where I suspected the spider gained entry. Only by dumb luck I shined the flashlight on the back of the circuit board and noticed the entire board was covered with spider webs. I took a towel and wiped off the webs. My next test opened the door and it did not close. Wah Lah; I said. I carefully reinstalled the circuit board and ran the door ten times open without it closing. If you follow the “Occam's Razor” theory*, then the first conclusion must be the spider webs were somehow involved.

 *For those interested--- “OCCAM'S RAZOR” simply states that of any given set of explanations for an occurring event, the simplest explanation is most likely the correct one.

Still, I had never heard of such a thing before even from my mentors or other troubleshooting experts, I was definitely confused. Were the spider webs carrying low voltage like a thin copper wire and causing a short-circuit? A few days later I called a smarter friend of mine who was studying at MIT to ask him if a silk web could act as a conductor like copper wire. I met Frank at RETS Electronic School in Nutley, NJ. We were both the best students, and he wanted me to join him at MIT, but he was on a Scholership, and I didn’t have the large amount of money for the tuition and to live in Massachusetts.Besides, I was now vested in the Canadian start-up and couldn’t just leave. Finding Frank was no easy task; because I knew Frank lived off campus and I didn’t have a phone number for him in Massachusetts. I had to call Frank’s Mother in New Jersey to get the number. When I finally got through to Frank, he didn’t have an immediate answer, but he asked me for a little time to get back to me. A few days afterwards, I got another call from Ronald explaining the same problem had returned. I was sick in my stomach. How could this be I thought? He did not see the spider, nor the webs the first time and was not convinced of my explanation and story. Three days afterwards I heard from Frank at MIT. He said it is possible, but only with the lowest voltages that only carry milliamps. Anything higher would fry the silk line. I thought I was on to something, but I had to make the visit again to prove myself right.

In the early stages of this problem, the people at GM were considering legal action, so it was super important I remedy the situation. I decided to visit the site again. After driving around the huge building I found Ronald standing by the garage door. This time I walked right by Ronald, but was too weak to make eye contact. This time I went directly to the circuit board and started to remove it slowly. I didn’t want to be scarred like the last time. No spider came out this time, but I discovered more webs and brushed them off while Ronald looked on. I suspected the spider had to be in there somewhere, so I began to remove the panel back-plate which held all the electronic components. I wasn’t going to leave there this time without killing the beast.

As soon as I pulled the back plate toward me, thousands of tiny red spiders came running out from behind and ran over the entire plate. In only seconds, both my arms were a moving sea of red. I asked Ronald if he had any insect repellant, but he did not. I instructed him to get some and give the insides of the panel a good dose. But even then Ronald was NOT convinced. All alone Ronald had a very difficult , but I had his respect since I was the only one that actually made the visit to him and he liked the fact, I was teaching him about door operation. Even the people in Michigan who made the specialized GM panel wouldn’t speak with him. After brushing away all the webs,I ran the door five times without incident. I asked Ronald to wait and see and I also asked him to place a strip of duct tape over the holes in the panel to keep other critters out and to be patient. A week later, I got a call from Ronald saying everything has been good so far. His call gave me the biggest relief. I wasn’t 100% sure the spider and its webs were the perpetrator until Ronald’s call. Even today, I wonder if I discovered something mostly unknown or did I just get Lucky? That week was the longest stretch without a problem. I had a huge sigh of relief and hoped I had finally resolved the weird issue. I liturally lost sleep over this one, because I was worried on being sued by the big corporation right at the beginning of our new startup. To date, I had never been spoofed and always found the best and sometimes the only solution. To truly be a great troubleshooter, you must be able to think outside the box-As they say. In 2012 I found a mouse dead in the electrical enclosure. The poor thing was trying to build a nest and bit through a 460 Volt power line. Its jaw was stuck shut on the wire and I had to pry him off with a screwdriver. The poor thing was completely dehydrated and looked like an over-done chicken wing. Electrocution will do that. All the liquids in your body boil and evaporate within seconds. When a tree is struck by lightning, the sap quickly turns to steam, and will split a tree wide open.

After the case of the spider webs, I said to myself; Wow! That is one to remember. And I did, even though it happened over 40 years ago. Who would of suspected a simple spider web could cause so much wasted time, damage to two new cars, and so much aggravation. Honestly, I expect to never come across a weird one like this one ever again and after 40 plus years I have not, although I have seen other insignificant problems at times, excluding insects. ‘In 1987 the St. Therese GM plant was repurposed and began assembling the Pontiac Grand Prix and Cutless Supreme. In 2002 the plant was closed and demolished. I was happy to never need to visit that factory again, but since I had moved to Arizona, I would rarely need to go to Quebec again. Next time someone says we have to work out the bugs, think of the Spider case.       

If you found an outrageous situation and want to share it with me, please don’t hesitate to contact me. I would love to hear from you. Maybe I’ll include your case in a future article.

Roy. Email: [email protected] CELL: 480-543-0620

NOW GO GET EM!