8' Exploradome shutter failure.


George Dunham
 

I thought I would post about this shutter failure to see if I can get some feedback.  Do to the upper shutter switch failing to activate on the upper shutter reaching "open" state, the driver misinterpreted the cycle and tried to open the bottom shutter when the upper shutter was still closed.  I know this doesn't make sense but it happens when one of the switches fails to report on an open or closed state.  In any case, the bottom shutter actuator struts tried to open the bottom shutter and actually popped the actuator struts mounting bracket out of it's 5 screw holes on the dome leaving the bracket dangling.  On inspection the holes actually look like they were not damaged (very much).  I have remounted the bracket but am waiting on a switch to replace the top "open state" switch.  Is this actually designed into the dome for safety?  Also of note: the lower shutter "closed state" switch mounting bracket was actually bent slightly down (after the errant opening action) so that the "closed state" was not activating (the adjustment of contact on this switch has always been twitchy and may have led to this failure as well).  I bent the bracket back and adjusted the switch position to have contact but this will all need to be retweeked once the upper "open state" switch is replaced and the control board gets the correct switch states.