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by **EagleSignalFan** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 8:31 pm

I've been having some issues with my EPAC M42 controller unit recently. I'm thinking that one or more of the chips that control the TS-2 SDLC port are going as sometimes the controller will run fine, and others it will start giving me weird diagnostic fault messages pertaining to Port 1, the "Transmit" LED on the front panel will flash as if data is being transmitted even though no TS-2 devices are defined as being present in the "Port 1 Setup" menu, and the controller will be locked up in TS-2 diagnostic fault flash.

Given this controller was running SEPAC version 3.34c (which includes features such as FYA, advance warning signals, and red protect), I wanted to run this software, but the controller was too unstable to reliably run my intersection. It then occurred to me that I still had an EPAC M36 that I purchased from Nick several years ago, and thought that it may be possible to get 3.34c to run on this controller. So I pulled the EPROMS out of the M42 and installed them in the M36.

Despite the fact that the M42 has more keys than the M36 (20 vs. 16 - and apparently a different keypad controller as well), SEPAC 3.34c started up and ran perfectly on the M36. The only downside is that the "Help" menus aren't accessible as these are accessed by pressing the "+" key, which the M36 doesn't have.

Here are some pics of 3.34c running on the M36:

by **ARIESHEART** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 9:32 pm

That is very interesting!One of my old friends made an attempt to add newer software(3.33c)on his M36,a few years back.Unfortunately,the unit went frozen on him and the CMU logged a fault and placed the mini intersection on flash.He ended up downgrading the software and firmware to a M10 series controller.I still have my own M10 series controller inside a M36 body.I wish I could upgrade my M03/M05 to a M10 series.However,they are two different processor styles and run different speeds of communication for the master.

by **EPAC-EPIC-MARC** on Sat Aug 10, 2013 11:39 pm

Cool to see my old M36 still hanging on over there! :cool:

It was definitely one of my favorites in the lengthy line of EPAC300 controllers!

That does surprise me that the software from an M42 would work in an M36 with the keypad differences between the two models. I would've bet money that the keys wouldn't work correctly or the menus would freeze. Glad everything works! ....well other than the "useful" help feature :crazy:

Sounds like the M42 had a bug somewhere and the TS-2 circuitry was activating only momentarily, but enough to log the diagnostic fault and cause an issue.

For those who don't know EPAC300 controller defaults to standard TS-1 operation unless, like Jeff mentioned the TS-2 communication ports are turned on individually. TS-2 is so finicky...you have to have it working just right... or it causes so many issues because the controller can't find the other cabinet electronics to talk to! In TS-2, if the controller can't get responses from the monitor or BIUs for the other equipment, it throws everything in flash mode.

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