wessex liftboy?

You may find this useful. "John" has taken the time to draw the circuit board schematic himself and post it.

http://www.johnandfrances.com/Open/WessexLiftBoyGB1Schematic/

Clay
March 2021

I had the same problem with the door only moving a small amount and then backing off. With the old filament light bulb in it worked but not without the bulb or with a new low energy bulb. It turns out that there is an opto sensor in the square metal box on the end of the shaft that detects if the motor is turning or not. The sensor contains a light emitter and detector so probably the emitter is not working. I could get it to work by shining a torch at the sensor. I replaced the sensor, CNY70 and that fixed it. You need some soldering skills. https://www.vishay.com/docs/83751/cny70.pdf
Steve

Steve Taylor
July 2018

Same problem, opens a little and shuts. Troubleshooting guide points to the reverse switch and/or circuit. Can anyone please identify the reverse switch for me and give me the specification to find a replacement. I’ve tried all the ideas on this forum without success. It’s such a minor glitch that it should be solvable after years of great service. I know that genuine spares are not available. Thanks

David March 2018
March 2018

After much messing about, I finally found the problem with my doors. On the main PCB, there is an electrolytic capacitor to smooth the supply to the ICs. After 30 or so years it had degraded down from 220uF to about 10uF and the circuit goes haywire when the relay comes on and drops the voltage. Because there is a slight variation in capacitance with temperature, this problems shows up first at low temperature. Replacing this capacitor fixed everything - the doors open and close properly and the motor stopped sensor works as well.

David
February 2018

There are 2 micro switches - one at each end of the track mounted on the red track stops - inside the track .When the trolley becomes worn it does not contact the switch and the door
continues until the obstacle over ride operates and reverses the door - not easy to fix . I bent the bracket holding the switch until
it met the trolley and I could hear it click .
Could work for you.

John
March 2017

I found that unplugging the circuit board with the 2 potentiometers on marked OPEN and CLOSE allows it to operate perfectly as a door opener and closer. However if it hits an obstruction it will not back off, so I need to use it carefully.

Terry Paget, Midsomer Norton, Somerset.
December 2015

Pressing 'close' door moves a bit, then reverses. I have set both 'open' and 'close' strain gauges to 1 setting, but fault persists. I rang Verwood today, they offer me a new operator for £346 plus VAT. Motor still works, most things work, seems to me the PCB needs replacing. Are they availlabe?

Terry Paget, Midsomer Norton, Somerset.
November 2015

i have a problem with my door inasmuch that the bogey appears to have come loose from the spiral

P.McGuinness
May 2015

Hi hadthe same problem as Goeff Southapton. Mine turned out to be cos I had replaced the couresty light from the now banned filiment bulb with the latest energy saving bulb. I ran this past an electronic nerd who said this was possiblely because of the starting circuitry inside the energy saving bulb. Maybe this is rot but its worth a try, before you call in the door company and £££££

brin
August 2014

I've had a problem with the door constantly stopping and being a real issue to either open or close. After I removed the slightly flickering light bulb in the front of the unit it now works fine! This must have been affecting the light pickup mentioned by Geoff below.

TimR
February 2014

I have a wessex lift boy GB1. On opening the door from the inside the door encountered an obstacle parked on the outside and stopped. The overhead light still works, the motor hums, but the worm drive won't turn. When disconnected from the worm drive the door opens freely.

Any ideas?

Roger Smith
October 2013

I have the same problem everytime the temperature
drops below 10C No amount of WD 40 or grease helps
Any suggestions

Gordon
November 2012

my door will open everytime but when i want to close it, it looks like the small black bogey disengages itself and pops off the worm drive leaving the door open...if push the bogey onto the worm drive and hold it until the door begins to move then the door will close the rest of the way on its own...is there an adjustment or is it a replacement bogey? Many thanks

mikeyboy
April 2012

clean spiral shaft & nut boggy with paraffin and spray with WD 40

warwick
December 2011

I had the same problem the drive would only go about 6 inches in either direction. I believe that I have now solved it. On the non belt end of the motor is a small cover. In the top of the cover is a pickup and light source. The motor shaft has a cover in which there is cutout slot. This cutout acts with the light source to provide motor rotation detection. In my case this area was dirty, and therefore the control circuit could not pickup any rotation, and stopped the motor, because it thought it had stalled. After cleaning the Liftboy started to work again. I was able to recreate the fault by moving the detector away from the shaft until the unit again failed. Best of luck

Geoff Southampton UK
March 2011

I have two doors like this - and they play up when it's cold. If you give them a nudge as they are opening, or keep trying, they will go up.

I improved the performance by tightening up the springs at either side of the door, as it seems that they have less "pull" in the lower temperatures.

Nick
January 2011

Ours had the same problem, After removing the power and taking the cover off, there were two sensitivity adjusters - marked 'Open' and 'Close'. Adjusting the 'Open' sensitivity until the door opened reliably, worked a a treat.

ColinCo
December 2010

Ha. When I disengaged the drive and ran the motor the nut thingy had shot along the spiral and dissapeared. Found it, moved it back, and re-engaged.

So the problem is the cold.

You need to adjust the sensitivity of the motor stop control.

Apparently some GB1s have open and close sensitvity dials.

Ours didn't. The adjustment is a wing nut on top of the unit. Tighten it up; ours took 3 turns.

Job's a good un.

Paz
December 2010

Hi Tom,
Yesterday an elderly friend asked me to look at her door. Same problem as yours. I checked the track supports; ok. Then I disengaged the door from the screw drive by pulling the little lever to check that the door was not jamming. The door moved freely. So I then went to re-engage the drive but found that it wouldn't.

I'm thinking that the engaging mechanism has broken and that is what was jamming the drive. I'm waiting to hear back from a techy.

I'm told by Wessex that parts are not available. Could get interesting.

Watch this space.

Paz
December 2010