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Volusia County October 9th Election Material Failure Report
- To: "Global Support \(E-mail\)" <support@gesn.com>
- Subject: Volusia County October 9th Election Material Failure Report
- From: "Ian S. Piper" <ian@gesn.com>
- Date: Thu, 8 Nov 2001 12:58:03 -0600
- Cc: "Barney Lucas \(E-mail\)" <barney@gesn.com>
- Importance: Normal
While Charlie Conrad and I were in Volusia County for
the Nov. 6th election, we examined the materials that had failed during the Oct.
9th election. Below is a report of those failures. I'll email the Nov. 6th material failure list
early next week. A report containing the info below and the Nov. 6th
info will also be faxed to the Volusia County Election Director
(Deanie Lowe).
Warning: The answers for the memory card errors
experienced on Volusia County's infra-red machines do NOT apply for similar
errors that you might have experienced with visible light machines.
The conditions that existed in the infra-red units have not been proven
to affect visible light units. In other words, we still need to find
the answers for visible light unit memory card
errors.
BTW: Word should go out through Support to
existing infra-red customers, re-iterating the importance of have good charged
power supply batteries in their units. The recommended test for
determining if a battery can hold its charge is to successfully print two to
three diagnostic printer tests using only battery power and without a
"battery low" message being displayed or, obviously, without the unit
dying. Of course, the battery charge would then have to be topped up after
the test, but at least it will be known that the battery is capable of
holding its charge. Just plugging a unit in overnight and running a
small test deck through it in the morning is not
sufficient.
Ian
1. October 9, 2001
election.
Precinct 815 wouldn't
upload to VTS. VTS generates
"Already uploaded error."
a) VTS: The audit log
reports that an upload started for Precinct 815 but it never reports that it
completed. Examination of AV-OS unit (SN 70598) found that the modem
serial port test failed. Obviously the modem worked well enough to allow
VTS to initialize communications and report that the upload had started, but
the modem must have failed during data transmission before the transmission was
completed. The audit log also
showed that VTS rejected subsequent upload
attempts, reporting that the precinct had already been uploaded.
Tab has confirmed that
although VTS shouldn't flag the precinct as "uploaded" until it is actually complete, there is
a possibility that this could happen.
b) AV-OS Modem: It was found
that the ribbon cable connector on the modem serial interface did not have
sufficient height to contact the locking levers on the CPU Board header.
The modem connectors were reseated and the
modem passed subsequent tests.
The ribbon
cable connector for the modem serial interface requires a strain relief to be
added to the connector to increase the height of the connector so the
locking levers of the CPU board header make contact with the top of the
connector to hold it in place. A modem serial interface using
ribbon cable was only required for the older "2400" modems. The
14.4K modems required a different cable that has a full height
connector.
2. October 9, 2001
election.
On opening the polls, three
(3) units printed the top half of the asterisks (first line of characters in a
report header) and continued to do so approximately every half minute. (AV-OS SN 70564, 70660,
70673)
The battery
was either dead or low
on these units. Testing on each unit repeated the error
described. When a unit
was powered up in the election mode, a zero totals report was supposed to be generated. In an
infra-red AV-OS, the printer needs to draw power from a charged battery to
operate. With a dead or low
battery, the printer only printed
three dot lines (the top half of the asterisks
that are printed at the beginning of a label header) before it
dragged the logic power down to a level
that triggered a reset (4.75Vdc.)
The AV-OS reset and tried to generate
another zero totals report, but the printer again dragged the logic power down to the reset trigger
level, starting this cycle again. In
the midst of these resets, SN 70660 also experienced an "OK to reformat this card?" error which
occurred as a result of the above condition.
The infra-red units require
a charged power supply
("PS") battery to allow printing to occur.
Expected sealed lead acid battery
life is five years. Most of the failed PS batteries are five to six
years old. Others may have been damaged by discharging to a flat
condition.
3. October 9,
2001 election.
On opening the polls, the
AV-OS unit reports "Memory Card Removed -
System Halted". (AV-OS SN 70560)
The battery was
dead on this unit. Testing
the unit repeated the error described. When the unit was powered
up in the election mode, a zero totals report was supposed to be generated. In an
infra-red AV-OS, the printer needs to draw power from a charged battery
to operate. With a dead battery, the printer dragged the logic power down to a level that
triggered a reset (4.75Vdc) and affected the signal lines on the memory card
interface. In the midst of this
logic power brown-out, the AV-OS CPU lost the signals that indicates a memory card is installed and halted the system as it is meant to if
it believes that a memory card has been
removed.
The infra-red units require
a charged PS battery to allow
printing to occur. Expected sealed
lead acid battery life is five years. Most of the failed PS
batteries are five to six years old. Others may have been damaged by
discharging to a flat condition.
4. October 9, 2001 election.
On opening the
polls, the AV-OS unit prints "memory card error". (AV-OS SN 70589)
The battery was
dead on this unit. When the unit was powered up in the
election mode, a zero totals report was
supposed to be generated. In an infra-red AV-OS, the printer
needs to draw power from a charged battery to operate. With a
dead battery, the printer dragged the logic power down to a level that
triggered a reset (4.75Vdc) and affected the signal lines on the memory card
interface. In the midst of this
logic power brown-out, the AV-OS CPU determined there was a memory card failure and
printed that message to the paper tape.
The infra-red units require
a charged PS battery to allow
printing to occur. Expected sealed
lead acid battery life is five years. Most of the failed PS
batteries are five to six years old. Others may have been damaged by
discharging to a flat condition.
5. October 9, 2001 election.
On opening the polls, the
AV-OS unit reports "I Install memory card". Note the extra "I" at the
beginning of the message. (AV_OS SN 70536)
The battery was
dead on this unit. When the unit was powered up in the
election mode, a zero totals report was
supposed to be generated. In an infra-red AV-OS, the printer
needs to draw power from a charged battery to operate. With a
dead battery, the printer dragged the logic power down to a level that
triggered a reset (4.75Vdc) and affected the signal lines on the memory card
interface. In the midst of this
logic power brown-out, the AV-OS CPU lost the signals that indicate a memory
card was inserted and displayed the message "Install memory
card". The extra "I" in the
displayed message indicates that the message data was also affected by this
logic power brown-out.
The infra-red units require
a charged PS battery to allow
printing to occur. Expected sealed
lead acid battery life is five years. Most of the failed PS
batteries are five to six years old. Others may have been damaged by
discharging to a flat
condition.
6. October 9, 2001
election.
Memory card is difficult to
insert. (AV-OS SN 74439)
The memory card cover
mounted on the CPU board was
squeezing the memory card connector. This was due to interference of the memory card cover with tabs on the
sides of the memory card connector that were improperly trimmed from the
connector.
After trimming the tabs correctly, the interference
was no longer present.
7. October 9, 2001
election.
Printer prints squashed
lines. (AV-OS SN 73888)
The front edge of the
paper roll holder was binding against the paper roll, stalling the paper feed in the printer
mechanism. The paper roll was only 2-1/8" in outside diameter.
Inside diameter was 7/16". The paper roll
was in spec.
The paper roll holder needs to be
replaced.
8. October 9, 2001
election.
(21)
Memory card failures. (10) new 128KB (non-shuttered) and (11) older
32KB (shuttered).
Dirty contacts on the
memory cards were the cause of the errors. All of the errors were
repeatable. The material on the contacts appeared to be thin films of
adhesive residue. When the contacts were cleaned, the memory cards
passed all tests. This was found on both 32KB cards (shuttered) and
128KB cards (non-shuttered.) One 32KB card was found to have lost
the springs in its shutter mechanism which caused its failure. Three (3)
of the new 128KB cards (non-shuttered) had the cover labels improperly
installed.
A method has to be determined for the customer to
clean the memory card contacts without compromising the memory card. The
32KB memory card without the shutter springs will be replaced. The three
(3) 128KB memory cards with the improper cover labeling will be
replaced.
9. October 9, 2001
election.
Repeatedly started and
stopped. (AV-OS 74450)
The unit printed non-uniform squashed lines of text. The
front edge of the paper roll holder was
binding against the paper
roll, stalling the paper feed in the
printer mechanism. It was found
that the paper roll was an 1/8" larger than the maximum paper roll outside
diameter specification of 2-1/4".
After reducing the diameter of the
paper roll, the system printed text in the correct format.