Error - Empty Hopper

An explanation and troubleshooting steps for Error 112 - Empty Hopper

The Empty Hopper error will occur when the machine detects that there are no more cards in the hopper to feed.  This can be due to either:

  1. No cards being left in the hopper
  2. Cards being unable to feed into the scanner
  3. A jam in card intake of two or more cards

Dusty feed wheels can prevent cards from being fed properly into the scanner due to lack of grip.  A card being unable to feed inside or a jam of multiple cards can also be caused by a misaligned part of the feed system.  Cards only have a thickness of 0.3mm, so the margin of error is very small!  When properly calibrated, the machine should only allow one card through at a time.  The PhyzBatch will attempt to feed cards 5 times and will generate an error afterwards if no cards are detected entering the scanner.

Cleaning Feed Wheels

Adjustments depend on what model of PhyzBatch you have:

Gate Model

gate_model


Feed Fixer Model

feed_fixer_model

Cleaning Feed Wheels


Tools Needed

  • cleaning sponge (provided)
  • card weight (provided)
  • isopropyl alcohol (optional, not provided)
  • microfiber cloth (optional, not provided)

Approximately every 20,000 cards the feed wheels will become saturated with enough dust they will start to lose their grip on cards.  To clean the wheels:

feed_wheels

  1. Lightly dampen one of the cleaning sponges with water. Wring-out any excess water.
  2. Place the damp sponge on the feed wheels and place the card weight on top of the
    sponge.clean_wheels
  3. From the Sorting page, select Clean Wheels from the Maintenance icon dropdown icon dropdown menu.  The feed wheels will spin continuously until Clean Wheels is disabled.

Using a microfiber cloth with isopropyl alcohol has been found to be more effective than water alone.

The wheels will lose some black coloring (carbon from the vulcanizing process of the rubber).  This is normal and will not impact the longevity of the rollers.  Cleaning should continue until the blacking or dust coming off the wheels has been significantly reduced or removed.


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Adjusting Gate Height

The method of adjusting the gate depends on the model of the gate in your card sorter.  To determine what model you have, proceed through the following steps.


Checking Model

  1. Remove the extended feed hopper using the thumb screws on each side.
  2. Remove the four 2mm screws and remove the top cover plate to expose the gate adjustment bay.
    cover_screws

The gate in your machine can be either a Bushing model, or a 3d Print model.  After removing the cover, the gate mounts will be one of the following:

Bushing Model

bushing_model


3d Print Model

3d_print_gate


Aluminum Model

metal_gate

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