[GreenKeys] M26 suddenly stopped coding, stuck on blank

[Duncan Brown]

Jomar,

I'm not real familiar with the M26, but for some general troubleshooting -

With the Power & loop off, can you move the selector magnet's armature 
up (mark) and down (space)?

If so, turn on the motor, but leave the loop open.  The machine should 
chatter ("run open") as it is essentially just receiving Spaces.

Now put a finger on the armature and press it up to the pole face. This 
should put the machine in Mark condition and stop the machine from 
running open.  If you pull your finger away from the armature some, to 
let the armature down a little, you should reach the Space condition. 
You should be able to move you finger a little to move the armature 
between the two conditions and see some printing of random characters 
and platen spacing.

 From what you have described, you probably won't see any random 
printing, but this is a general TTY troubleshooting practice and it may 
help you to isolate where the problem it.

Another possibility is something that I have often wondered about the 
M26 printing process: could the type hammer get stuck in the revolving 
type basket? I don't know how the linkages work in the M26 printing, but 
something to check.

Good luck & have fun,

Duncan,
K2OEQ




On 1/7/2025 9:40 PM, Jomar Quilatan wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> I'm still in the process of reviewing the M26 documentation I have, in 
> order to narrow down a sudden issue, but just wanted to throw it out 
> here in case the diagnosis is surface level.
>
> I was transmitting a text file from MMTTY onto my machine and all was 
> well until I noticed the carriage was roughly at the end of the line 
> and was not performing a carriage return, even though MMTTY was moving 
> along as printed in the text file.  I was expecting to see overlaid 
> characters on my copy, but to my surprise, it was blank.
>
> The line where it happened was only supposed to be printing periods 
> and ringing the signal bell in varying alternations--towards the end 
> of the line, it started printing out a few numbers (namely 3 and 5), 
> then went to blank. (Looking at the Baudot it seems like 3 involves 
> only the 1st selector and 5 only involves the 5th selector).  Almost 
> seems like something that engaged the levers weakened abruptly.
>
> I switched to transmit on my unit, and the result was the same - any 
> keystroke would cycle the machine but none of the selectors would engage.
>
> I don't know if I can fully rule out the selector magnet, but that was 
> one of my thoughts (maybe loop current suddenly increased due to a bad 
> resistor, etc).  Another was the actual assembly from the magnet to 
> the selector levers--but, observing that area at surface level, things 
> seemed to be moving as intended.
>
> Any recommendations on what I should look at, if not in either of the 
> above areas?
>
> Thanks in advance.
> Regards,
>
>
> *Jomar (Joshua Martin) Quilatan*
> Mississauga (Toronto), Canada
> RA 0-8045
>
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