FoamLogix "LoSP" Error

[MG3610]

Hale Foam Logix 5.0 system. Got a 'Lo SP" error code. Waiting for the mechanic to have time to deal with it. Any ideas. Book only says possible low system voltage but the rig seems to be running fine. The flowmeter is not registering and I have already removed it and inspected it, seems to be ok.

[chiefengineer11]

Hale Foam Logix 5.0 system. Got a 'Lo SP" error code. Waiting for the mechanic to have time to deal with it. Any ideas. Book only says possible low system voltage but the rig seems to be running fine. The flowmeter is not registering and I have already removed it and inspected it, seems to be ok.

Mike, when you say you removed and inspected it, do you mean the paddlewheel that provides the signal to the computer? That assumes that Hale uses paddlewheels.

We had something similar to it with our Waterous Eclipse/Advantus where we had water flow, but no foam and a reading of zero flow. Turns out that we had been out drafting and had taken a stone it. Small enough to pass through everything but it lodged in the paddlewheel enough to stop it from turning. As soon as I cleared the stone everything went back to working fine.

In ours, water flow is what tells the foam proportioning pump what to do, when to pump and how much. If it doesn't see a flow of water in the foam manifold, the foam pump doesn't turn on at all.

[MG3610]

Mike, when you say you removed and inspected it, do you mean the paddlewheel that provides the signal to the computer? That assumes that Hale uses paddlewheels.

We had something similar to it with our Waterous Eclipse/Advantus where we had water flow, but no foam and a reading of zero flow. Turns out that we had been out drafting and had taken a stone it. Small enough to pass through everything but it lodged in the paddlewheel enough to stop it from turning. As soon as I cleared the stone everything went back to working fine.

In ours, water flow is what tells the foam proportioning pump what to do, when to pump and how much. If it doesn't see a flow of water in the foam manifold, the foam pump doesn't turn on at all.

Yes, its a paddlewheel. It spins smooth as glass. The only clue in the book points to low system voltage....but I'm scratching my head, as the dash gauge says 14 volts when running and 12 when off. I tried to trace the wires and fiddled with all the connections I could find to no avail.

[chiefengineer11]

Yes, its a paddlewheel. It spins smooth as glass. The only clue in the book points to low system voltage....but I'm scratching my head, as the dash gauge says 14 volts when running and 12 when off. I tried to trace the wires and fiddled with all the connections I could find to no avail.

My knowledge is very limited here, but that paddlewheel has to do something - generate a voltage or pulses of some sort for the computer to read. I don't know if it generates a voltage that rises and falls with the speed of the wheel, or generates pulses that are longer or shorter. I do have several Akron paddlewheels that were used to drive flowmeters on a wrecked FDNY engine that I stripped a bunch of parts from - I'll try later today to hook my VOM up to one and see if I can get any kind of reading from it. I'm thinking is it possible that even though the wheel is turning freely, there's no signal coming off of it?

In the meantime, since your book suggests possible low voltage, and you checked the connections, can you trace out and see if there are any marginal ones that are creating a voltage drop? Any places where wires or connectors are getting excessively hot? I know that our foam pump requires 50 - 70 amps, so it wouldn't take much of a resistance to create an under voltage situation at the pump.

[chiefengineer11]

Mike – I did check one of the Akron paddlewheels that I have. It’s a guess, but it’s possible that Hale may use them, too. This one has a 4-prong plug, two female and two male. I spun the wheel by blowing air through it. I was unable to get a voltage reading at any pair of pins. However, I did read 210 KΩ across the two female pins. Hope that helps. - Sam

[MG3610]

Interesting thought.

We have been having issues with water flowing back past the chack valve for a few months, its on the repair list.

Is the paddlewheel turning backwards bad for it, bad enough to cause malfunction?

Another thought. When I unplug the flowmeter, the display changes from flashing "LoSP" to "FLUSH". Dunno what this is all about.

When I messed with it the other day, the display was looking haywire with the rig wasnt on and running, but as soon as I unplugged the flowmeter, it cleared and went right to "FLUSH" on the screen.

Could this be as bad as a simple flowmeter? I'm gonna try calling Hame today.