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Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 10, 2010, 5:08 PM
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Of course this happens late Saturday afternoon! My Handiquilter 16 regulated machine model is 2 years old. I have sewn 4 quilts on the machine with no problems. My last quilt was December 2009. I loaded a quilt onto the machine today July 10, 2010.
When I turned on my machine only the light above the needle came on. The LED lights on the Handle bar area was dead. The control box was dead. The control box did have power because it was lit up but the buttons controling the arrows wear dead. The contol box on the back of the machine worked. The control area on the side of the machine near the back of the machine work. Handle bar controls will work for the up and down of the needle, and I can turn the machine on and off. The control box that is nonfunctioning in the front is displaying this: Handlebar 3a Version 3.21 Handiquilter Sixteen The Back control box is displaying this: Handlebars Version 2.2 Handiquilter HQ Sixteen The side control box area on the machine does not display anything when the machine is turned on but it does read booting up then goes straight to the control areas with the arrows such as regulated, needle up or needle down. With no dealer to call and being Saturday just after 6:00pm central time I am posting this here. Any suggestions? I will be calling Handiquilter on Monday as soon as possible. I do have the second set of handle bars in the front, for the fine detail work, and the dealer installed them for me. Those are functioning. I am one of those people that wants the machine to work as designed and the LED lights are needed when quilting as is the control box in the front. I do free motion quilting all the time.The last time this machine was turned on was Dec. and it was working wonderful. Any suggestions from those who might have experienced this? Thank You, Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 11, 2010, 9:27 AM
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Kathy, I am sure that I will be of no help, but since your last quilting was in 2009, and all was well then, this is my thought:
There are some connections that will connect the handles to the machine. Just make sure that they are in their post tight. They could have been bumped and dislocated from their tight connection. Just a thought. Good luck, Cathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 11, 2010, 9:47 AM
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I will have my husband checkout the connections today. He concluded last night after looking at the machine that it most likely is the control box. I have faith in him since he is a mechanical engineer.
I did sew on it last night some and discovered that the stitch regulator really isn't working or at least the alarm is not going off. I always out run the alarm. I had it set for stitch regulator and for alarm mode. Maybe the alarm actually uses the front box only? When I used it last night I did not have the LED lights or the regulater working correctly so it was like I was sewing on the origianl HQ Sixteen. The machine does sew but when I paid for a stich regulater and LED lights I want them to work. As far as quilts sewn, I was incorrect last night. I sewed in 2009, 2 baby quilts, 1 queen size quilt and a practice quilt sandwich. In Jan. 2010 I completed a king quilt that had been pin basted but never quilted. So the last time the machine was used was Jan. 2010. When I bought the machine in October 2008, I waited 6 months before I used the machine to quilt my first quilt but I did do the practice quilt. It is normal for my machine to sit about 3 to 4 months between quilts. I also unplug my machine from the power source because I have long periods of time between use. Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 11, 2010, 5:09 PM
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Well, my husband checked it out and nothing is loose. He did tell me the LED lights work. Later in the day I had time to work more so I turned on the machine, then I turned on the LED lights with the little red push switch that my husband used. Machine would not work. Turned off power, turned on power turned LED lights on, nothing. Turned off power, turned power back on but left LED lights off, Machine will work. The handle controls only work if the LED lights are off. Control box still is non functioning. Monday can't get here fast enough. As far as stitch regulator, I don't think it works. I did check all cables once again and all are plugged in correctly.
Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 11, 2010, 5:21 PM
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I am so sorry Kathy. Maybe tomorrow HQ Tech will be able to walk you though something simple to fix all your problems. I can't understand what could have gone wrong with the machine just being idle. Makes no since to me.
Good luck on you machine. I know how dishearting all of the problems can be. Let us know how it works out. Cathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 12, 2010, 9:42 AM
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Just an update for those who may also go through this. Called, spoke with customer service, since I don't have a rep since she went out of business, I was instructed to remove handle bars from front and plug them into the back and see if I can get the handle bars to work. Now the handle bars did work if I kept the LED lights off. I am assuming I need to also remove the unit/control screen also becuase she said see if you can use the box. This is to determine if I have a handle bar problem or a CPU problem. She did answer my question on how much does a CPU replacement cost? About $300. I didn't ask about the handlebars.
She mentioned the word power surger, "we don't know if you had a power surge." Well, it is hard for a power surge to affect the machine when it is kept unplugged when not in use. Then she said, well it might have happened when using the machine. Again, the machine would have failed to function if that was the case but the last time I used the machine was Jan. 2010 and I completed a king quilt. It is obvious no power surge happened because the machine did not fail. Power surges are bad for electronics and can ruin electronics and that is why the machine is kept unplugged when not in use and that is why I have a powersurge protector between the machine and the wall outlet when it is being used. I will post more info once we do the test to see if the handle bars work in the back. The machine does sew if no handle bar LED lights are switched on with the tiny red switch but it is sewing in nonregulated mode and only with the one light above the needle. My guess right now is that it is the handle bars because the machine will work but then maybe the CPU unit has nothing to do with the machine sewing, it only controls the stitch regulator? Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 12, 2010, 10:39 AM
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Husband was just home, did handlebar move and yes they work. Surprised me. That means the CPU is bad? I now need to call customer service. Ok, just spoke to Cust. serv. and the tech will be calling to ask more questions: it is either the C pod or the Power Pod. Handlebars are functioning so he will ask questions to determine which pod is bad. On the up side of this: cust. serv. rep did tell me that is it relative easy to fix. My husband just told me to make sure that send directions with whatever replacement part that is needed.
Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 12, 2010, 8:43 PM
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Gee Kathy, sure hope that part is still in warranty. What a bummer if it is not. That should not have happened with only about 4 or so quilts quilted on the machine. I am so sorry to hear the bad news. Hopefully it will be a breeze to replace, which I think it will be.
I too, keep my machine unplugged when not in use. And a surge protector when it is plugged in. Good luck, Cathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 13, 2010, 9:41 AM
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Good Morning all. The machine is out of warranty, the electric warranty is only for one year. We do own two old fashion pinball machines that also have circuit boards in them and they do break from time to time for no reason. That is probably what happened with my HQ machine. My husband said it probably is a wire on the board that broke and is causing the problem after dealing with our pinball machines. He told me it doesn't take much to make a board not function. He is hoping that HQ can refurbish the bad board so we have a back up board. I still need to call this morning.
We put the front handlebars on the back, they worked. The tech instructed the cust. serv. rep to tell me to: open the C pod unit and switch the cables and then see if the handlebars work. The unit did not work. The actual up/down, start/stop do work but not the box arrows. Another prolblem I noticed, the machine is suppose to stop stitching when it isn't moved. Mine keeps stitching. This also happened after my husband left the cables switched in the back inside the C pod and reattached the front handle bars. It appears to work and the regulator is working for the machine does not stop stitching when it is stopped. I need to call HQ and let them know what happened. I do wish somebody would become a dealer in our area, it would be a great help. As my husband said last night, "I bet you never thought you would be seeing the insides of your machine when you bought it did you?" Nope but it is fixable. If it is a broken wire I wonder if having it on my original table might have caused part of the break? I had the portable table but it was always extended out to the largest length. This in turned caused severe vibration when quilting in the center of the quilt. Now the quilt didn't bounce but the table did vibrate--a lot. I bought the Quiltable, no longer on web site, about one year ago and that help a lot, very little vibration but the damage probably was done. I do more large quilts than small quilts so my table is always at the longest length. The studio table would be ideal but I just don't have room for a table that large, I need to move the table next to the wall to store it and then roll it out for quilting. Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 13, 2010, 2:03 PM
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Answer from the Tech doing his trial and errors, the C pod unit needs to be replace. Lucky for me I do have the newest software so I didn't have to buy that also. Unit cost is arount $270.00 plus tax and shipping. It could have been worse. My husband will install it.
As far as preventing the problem, my husband just told me that sometimes the boards just fail and sometimes connections on the board break. Machine will be back up and running as soon as I get the C pod unit. Karen in customer service was wonderful. Thank you Karen. Kathy |
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Re: Machine malfunction and my dealer is out of business!
Posted: July 13, 2010, 8:16 PM
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Good Deal Kathy,
Glad you will be back up and running soon. Good luck on everything. Thanks for letting us know. Might help someone in the future. Cathy |
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