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I was getting a little frustrated with my machine this weekend.  Even though I wasn't running up to the edge of the throat space on either end (top or bottom of the design), half-way through quilting a row my machine would stop because of an obstruction.  I cleaned the wheels, oiled everything, yada yada, and still kept getting the error.  I could have looked more carefully for a problem if the obstruction had been at the same spot each time, but it wasn't.  Sometimes it was at the beginning of the row, sometimes in the middle, and a couple times on the end at the bottom.  I just wanted to shake the snot out of it to break free whatever it thought was the obstruction, but prudence got control of me.  Whew! 

Have you ever run into anything like this?  If so, I would really appreciate it very much if you could share with me how you fixed the problem.  I've got seven more quilts to get done this week, and this problem is a complete time killer. 

Thanks in advance for your wonderful insight and advice.

Lora.

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Lora

A couple of things you could look at.  Clean and inspect the rubber drive wheels with a q-tip, there is is a button to turn them on in one of the menus.  Also look for dust or oil on top of the carriage and rail where the drive wheels run.  Has the plexiglass shifted and rubbing the side of the drive wheels.  If all else fails try bumping up the engagement strength on the motors.

Nigel

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Are you talking about a computer generated "obstruction" message?  I have IQ and had that happen to me.  I cleaned and cleaned everything over and over.  Right before I was ready to go to manual, I found the smallest piece of lint at the top of my drive wheel, ugh!  Never looked at the top always concentrated on the bottom of the wheel.

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Now if we're talking about an IQ , then you should definitely check and see if you have yellow jacket MM wheels on your head.  You can tell by looking at the bearing covers.  If it has a yellow cover then you have un-lubed bears that need to be replaced.  Another thing is if theses bears have been on the machine for a while then your motor might have gone bad as well.  Since the bears are un-lubed it makes the motors work harder to move the machine around, thus making the motor go bad.  Had a client have this happen.  It may not be your case, but looking would be an easy fix.  If you have the yellow jackets call APQS and get new one at no cost.  They came from the factory that way by mistake.  Zeke.  

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Connie, like  you, I've cleaned and cleaned the wheels, rails, and everything else I could think of.  Ugh.  Didn't fix the problem.  Not positive that I checked the top of the wheels.  Mostly I just clean the inside of the wheels with a Q-tip and batting soaked in alcohol (unfortunately not the drinking kind ... lol).

Zeke, I must not have the yellow wheels cuz I don't see anything yellow at all.  I have the white edge rider wheels.  Could they be problematic?

Nigel, I never thought about bumping up the strength on the motors.  What a good idea.  I do clean the drive wheels, but was told not to use alcohol on them, so have just been wiping them down with a clean piece of left over batting.  Maybe I'm not getting them clean enough.  I'll be more careful next time. 

 

Thanks all for your insight.  I'm finishing up one quilt today and will be putting another one on the frame tomorrow.  Wish me luck. 

 

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Lora, I use alcohol to clean my Edgeriders and drive wheels.  It's been said on the IQ group that it will dry out the wheels but it gets them clean!  I get those long medical q-tips (they have a long wooden stick on them), dip them in alcohol and get my wheels really clean.   I've had my IQ for 6 or 7 years with no problems using alcohol but that's my decision to take the chance.   I clean my rails with the vinegar based Windex (no ammonia around plastic).  Here's another thought, check your hopping foot height, if the loft of your batting is a little high or the quilt has bulky seams (i.e. where 4 blocks come together), it could give you an obstruction.  The last time I got a continuous obstruction (other then the tiny piece of lint in the wheel),  I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned for a couple hours just to realize that one of the cables in the back was catching the carriage in the back.  I never noticed it because it only happened as the machine was moving.  Let me know how you make out.  I'll keep my thinking cap on.   One question, do you have the Super Motors or the older originals?

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On ‎3‎/‎16‎/‎2017 at 6:47 AM, Gator said:

   One question, do you have the Super Motors or the older originals?

Hmmmm.... good question.  I'm guessing that since I've only had the IQ since Nov 13, maybe I have the super motors.  :huh: ???

Would that make a difference?

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Okay, I'll try all the suggestions.  I'm pretty sure I have the super motors since I bought the IQ with all the bells and whistles.  Gave it a spa cleaning this morning and loaded on another quilt.  This quilt I KNOW will give me an obstruction error, but that's because this quilt has several very very bulky seams where blocks come together.  It's not pieced particularly well and has super wavy borders.  I love these!  (jk).  Will let you know how it goes, but probably the best test for the obstruction error will be on the quilt I load after this one.  It will go on the frame this afternoon and the quilter that made it is a perfectionist.  I love working on her quilts.  They are always square and flat.  :rolleyes:

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Well, on the quilt that I thought was going to give me lots of problems due to the thick seams, I only got the obstruction message once.  Yea!!! 

I've got the next quilt ironed and ready to go on the frame this evening.  It shouldn't give me any problems.

 

I think what I've figured out is that even though there is plenty of room for the machine to move (at least another two or three inches), when moving close to the take up bar, it get's scared and that's when I get the obstruction detected message.  I haven't tried to adjust the motor strength yet, so will see if I can figure out how to do this.  I want to be able to use the most throat space that I can since some of my designs or blocks fill all of the usable space.  Ugh!  .... I may just have to get the Millie 30..... (in my dreams).

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Lora

Well it happened to me today.  I heard a funny noise and I could see little bits a rubber on the table rail.  Also I could see the machine was not tracking as well as it usually does.  One of the drive wheels is starting to get a flat spot and you can feel the lump when moving the machine with the motors engaged.  I put on my spare and had to adjust the motor strength.  The setting is  under Utilities, Configuration, Motor Control Setup/Test.  There you can use the auto setup first and if you are still having a problem you could highlight the engagement strength and use the up/down arrow to make a manual change.  I used the auto setup at a couple of different places on my table used the highest number it found, only one number higher the the lowest.

 

Nigel

 

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Well, during another "spa cleaning" I noticed that the cables at the back of the machine were a bit tight when moving the machine head toward the take up bar.  I gave the cables some slack and voila!  no more obstruction errors.   .......you would have thought that I would have found that a lot earlier, right?  Just glad it's smooth sailing now and I have the full use of my throat space again.  :)

Nigel, sorry to hear you are having problems, but it sounds like you got it fixed without too much down time.  Thanks for the detailed instructions on how to set the motor strength.  It probably would have taking me a while to locate the right menu to adjust the settings. 

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Yea, glad you found the little devil!  I think the cables is the last thing we think about but can cause the most trouble.  I noted my cable problem a comment ago, you really have to watch those sneaky boogers.

Nigel, I'll ask you the question I asked Lora, do you have the original motors (not the super motors)?  They had a bad batch of wheels on some of the older motors, the rubber came off the drive wheels.  I had this happen to me in the middle of a wedding quilt.  Zoltan sent me new rubber to replace what came unglued.  I don't remember when the new "super motors" started to come with the IQ.  I haven't had any problems (knock on wood) with the wheels on the super motors, even after sitting for a couple months when I moved.

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Connie

Super motors here as well.  The IQ is about seven years old and probably getting close to a thousand quilts so no complaints here.  I think the wheels are the same but I remember something about some not holding up well a few years ago.  My spares appear to be a different material than my originals, could be they are just new and shiny.

 

Nigel

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No complaints here either.  I think I bought my IQ in 2010, the motors that came with the unit were very picky about obstructions.  I just happened to have motors with the bad rubber on the little drive wheels but Zoltan came through as usual.  Something was wrong with the adhesive on the rubber.  I switched to the super motors when they came out a few years ago, no problems at all and I moved my machine from VA to MI. 

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Okay, now I am waaaaaaay beyond frustrated!  :angry:

I've cleaned the machine to the point that it looks brand spanking new.  No lint, dust, threads, grease, or anything else anywhere -- not on the wheels, the rails, the table, or even the body of the machine and frame.  It took forever, but I figured it was worth it.  Then I made sure all the cables had plenty of room to move without binding anywhere.  Then I checked all of the wheels, drive motor wheels and anything else I could find that was a moving part.  All the wheels seemed smooth to me.  I didn't notice any flat spots.  One of the motor drive wheels does appear to have a very very very slight "seam" (for lack of a better term), but it is so slight that I'm not even sure I'm not making it up.  Lastly I go in and increase the motor strength and sensitivity and obstruction detection settings.  Hopefully I'm on track for smooth sailing from here on out.   .....WRONG! :angry:

Quilt is loaded, first pass it beautiful.  Second pass is fine until the bobbin thread runs out.  Then it's obstruction detected error messages from hell!  I can't get it to clear.  I've tried starting the machine in a different place and that works until it gets to the same point in the quilt.  So I check the quilt, the underside of the quilt, all the wheels and rails again and still can't find anything that could be causing an obstruction.  It's not even stopping over a seam in the quilt, so there's nothing nothing nothing that I can find that would be causing an obstruction.  The machine moves freely when I'm moving it manually, so I'm literally loosing my mind trying to figure this out. 

You know how frustrated you get sometimes with a computer and feel like you want to throw it off the roof of a very tall building?  Guess where I am with my longarm ....same roof! 

For all you experts out there.  Is there anything possible that I could be overlooking in my frustration.  I've even gotten to the point where I manually (one stitch at a time using the single stitch button) sew through the design area for a few inches then turn the IQ back on to keep sewing.  That works fine for about 30 seconds then another location in the quilt and BAM! Obstruction detected.  I've had it for today and I didn't even get one whole pass done.  I either want to cry, take a sledgehammer to the machine (I'll show it obstruction detected), or buy a new machine and start all over (can't really do that, but it is soooo tempting.)  I would normally settle in with a nice glass of wine and a good movie and let my frustration abate, but since this all started at 10:30 this morning, it's probably too early.  .....well, you know they say it's 5:00 somewhere. Maybe I'll just go there!

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Lora

Make sure the other set of wheels are contacting the table as well.  The obstruction message occurs when the drive wheels and the other set don't agree with each other.  I was adjusting the height of the drive wheels the other day and managed to the other set out of adjustment and they were touching sporadically.

 

Nigel

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Oh Lora, how terrible.  Zeke is totally correct, call Zoltan.  I can't think of any other reason for your obstruction, sounds like you did everything.  Only other thing I can think of is check to see your frame is level but you have Bliss so that shouldn't be a problem.  Your wheels are the new ones so they should be good to go.  If anything has to be replaced Zoltan will send them free.  IQ service is top notch just like APQS.  Zoltan is really fast at replacing things too.  Zeke is correct motor replacement is a piece of cake and Zoltan will provide simple instructions.  So sorry, you are having these problems.

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You guys are great.  Thanks for your words of encouragement. 

I was going to send an email to Zoltan through the support link on the IQ website, but found out that I should be running some kind of logs and stuff so that I can send him all the info.  I'll do that tonight and let you know how that goes.  I'll make sure to print off the instructions before I start trying to run the tests that are recommended. 

I'm going to have to take off the quilt that I have half way completed until I get the motors fixed.  The other quilts that I have in the queue will have to be done the old fashioned way -- manually!  :o

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Lora:  One more thing to check.  Is there adequate clearance between the leveling roller, and the machine bed. I know on some tables there is no adjustment for that, but on some there is.  I can imagine clearance being one "obstruction".  Probably not the problem, but worth a check.  Jim 

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