Indoor Range In Minnesota Needs More Lanes

Sentinel Range Service got a call from a commercial indoor range that needed some help getting all their lanes working properly. We were happy to help. From the description on the phone it sounded like they needed some encoders and a keypad. On site, we found several issues, most of the lanes were not traveling down range and failed when they tried to do so. This is a classic indicator of an inoperable encoder. Srets have an encoder mounted to the backplane just above the drive wheel axel. Mounted to that drive wheel is a magnet. The retriever knows where on the track the trolley is because the encoder counts the poles of the magnet. If there is slippage, or the encoder loses a hall sensor or something similar, the target will run but it won't know when to stop etc.

We began moving all the trolleys down range by hand to gain easier access to the trolleys. Because these targets were non-turning, the customer was using a less expensive cable system, 550 paracord! The paracord had it's own issues to deal with. Most were not tight enough from drive to idler and the paracord was getting spit off the cable retention system, stopping the trolley dead in it's tracks. So, which gets fixed first, the cable or the encoder? We chose the cable. Several of the idler pulleys had missing hardware which made it very difficult to keep the paracord straight on the rail. We fixed that with some of the various hardware we travel with for such an occasion.

Once all the hardware issues were fixed, we tightened up the paracord where needed and trimmed the excess. Now it was time to replace the encoders. This range had 12 lanes and 10 of them needed encoders. We began removing all the drive wheels and belts to gain access to the encoders. Next, we simply replaced all the broken encoders.

Once all the encoders were replaced, the targets started working properly. There was a missing keypad that we were able to replace. Finally, this indoor commercial range had lanes that were functional and customers could determine where to stop the trolley on the track. Oorah!