F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

[sma11y]

I have a 13 yr old smartdrive 701 with problems. The following is a run down of what happened:

1. a wash did not seem to complete, ie. the clothes were still wet.

2. the next attempted wash, the inlet solenoid was switching on momentarily then off again. It would do this about 5 times before stopping and beeping.

3. I opened it up to take a look, saw nothing obvious, but then with it wired up with no covers on the mains fuse blew as soon as power switched on (whoops…). I replaced fuse but it blew again.

4. found dead short on main controller PCB between HVDC and 0V tracks, and traced fault to two of the IRF840 MOSFETs (marked as ‘A Upper’ and ‘A Lower’)

5. replaced MOSFETs and was able to power up again and get a fault code: I’m not sure which direction I should be reading from but the 3rd and 4th LEDs from the left are both on, so looking at the panel from left to right the code is 00110000.

Does anyone have any ideas? What does that code mean and what are those MOSFETs driving (I assume it’s the motor…??).

I haven’t tried a wash yet. I thought I might find out what the code was first for fear of blowing more things up.

Thanks

[Penguin45]

Re: F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

Run diagnostics as per sticky at top of forum – much easier!

Code you have shown is 12 (r->l), flood protection activated – usually related to water valves been turned on electrically but not being shut off. May tie in with your MOSFETs?

Penguin45.

[sma11y]

Re: F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

I did run diagnostics as per the sticky and that is the code I got (00110000).

I’m still a little confused about which way around the number is. The two LEDs that are on are the third and fourth wash progress LEDs.

Which LED is considered the least significant bit? The sticky suggests it is the rightmost one, so 00110000 would represent 48.

I know that the MOSFETs I replaced don’t drive the water inlet solenoids, I think they have something to do with the motor.

Could you clarify the number direction.

Thanks very much. Great website you have by the way…

[bigsmokepiker]

Re: F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

Fault Code 48

Motor Controller has measured voltages from valve diagnostic circuit that indicate hot & cold valves are faulty
Check wiring harness to valves
Check valves
Motor controller Faulty (valve drivers ,valve diagnostic circuit)

[sma11y]

Re: F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

Thanks for that, I shall take a look at the inlet solenoids and driver circuit and report back.

[sma11y]

Re: F&P Smartdrive 701 problems, fault code

I measured the two inlet solenoids, both were 15 ohms.

I applied 12V to each one using a seperate power supply and the cold one did not appear to be opening properly (no audible clunk and only a trickle of water came out), the hot seemed ok.

I wired the control board back up, started a wash cycle with taps off, and measured about 7.5V on each solenoid when it was trying to fill. This seems a bit low????

I had a look for faults on the controller board but found none.

I wired it back up again and tried another was cycle and, bingo, all of a sudden the cold water solenoid started working???????

I did a full wash and everything is working.

Might be an intermittent fault, loose connector, bad solder joint, or maybe the solenoid was jammed somehow, not sure but it works so I’m happy.

Thanks very much for your help

[Author]

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