Card Dispenser Issues - Asahi-Seiko
This article covers troubleshooting the Asahi-Seiko card dispenser (standard and large capacity models)
If your card dispenser is black in color, you most likely have a SyncoTek card dispenser (shown below):
For issues specific to the SyncoTek brand card dispensers
see this article: Card Dispenser Issues - SyncoTek
Issue: Jams or unable to push cards
If the VAC is unable to dispense a card, you'll first want to confirm that the card dispenser is attempting to dispense a card.
Try to dispense a card remotely, or purchase a card from the VAC, and listen to confirm that the card dispenser is attempting to dispense a card. If the card dispenser isn't making any noise at all, you may be dealing with a power issue with the card dispenser. If you hear the dispenser making noise, but no cards are coming out, you're dealing with a card jam of some sort.
Before attempting to make any adjustments or fixes, it's important to figure out the type of card jam you're dealing with, simply knowing that "cards are jamming" is not sufficient to resolve the issue.
You will want to open the VAC (Value Add Center) kiosk and take note of the final position of any cards that are getting jammed, and if possible, observe the behavior as cards are getting pushed out.
Follow the table below based on the type of card jam you're experiencing:
Symptom/Description of Issue | Action |
Card jamming against the front of the VAC | Loosen the card dispenser base and align the card dispenser so that the cards come out perfectly centered through the front New Card slot |
A single card gets stuck half-way through, and may stick out partially at the front View from inside: View from front: | Follow the sections below to adjust two things: 1. Raise the support rod. See the Raising the Rod section below for a video. 2. Increase card slot thickness. See the Adjusting Gap Thickness section below for a video. |
| Two or more cards are fed into the card dispenser slot, they are stuck together | 1. Fan-out cards before putting them into the stacker. Especially during hot summer months, it's possible for cards to get stuck together 2. Check slot/gap thickness. Hap may need to be decreased so that it's not possible for more than one card to fit into the slot. See Adjusting Gap Thickness section below for a video. |
Cards are struggling to be pushed into slot | 1. Check slot/gap thickness. Increase thickness if unable to freely slide one card partially into slot. 2. Add some roughness to the push roller. See the Adding Roughness to Push Roller section below for a video. |
Raising the Support Rod
This can help if the card gets stuck midway through the slot. Remove the card dispenser, loosen the two screws holding the support rod, lift rod to the top (it allows 1-2mm movement), and tighten.
Adjusting Gap Thickness
Adding Roughness to Push Roller
This might be helpful if cards are struggling to get push into the card dispenser, especially for systems that have been operating for a couple of years or longer.
Issue: Loose card detected message
NOTE: This error does NOT indicate a card jam. The VAC is detecting a card is loose inside the VAC (not necessarily in the card dispenser itself)
The VAC display and/or the web Portal are reporting "Loose card detected". This typically results from one of two things
1. A card is stuck half-way through the dispense path.
See the above section for how to resolve (it's likely resolvable by lifting the support rod slightly and/or adjusting the gap thickness)
See the above section for how to resolve (it's likely resolvable by lifting the support rod slightly and/or adjusting the gap thickness)
2. A customer managed to insert a laundry card into the card dispenser slot (instead of putting the card into the card holder).
This is different from a card jam - in this case, there's a loose card near the card dispenser assembly and it is preventing the proper dispensing of cards.
This is different from a card jam - in this case, there's a loose card near the card dispenser assembly and it is preventing the proper dispensing of cards.
Open the inside of the VAC to look for a loose card (it may NOT be a laundry card, a loose credit/debit card has also been found to cause this error)
The loose card might be found underneath the green RFID/NFC board mounted to the front of the card dispenser,
The loose card might be found underneath the green RFID/NFC board mounted to the front of the card dispenser,
underneath the white plastic mount that the RFID/NFC card reader board is mounted to,
or the card might be near the card dispenser, either on the side of it or on the underside.
Below are a few example of where customers have found a loose card in the past that was difficult to spot initially:
Note: We have also seen this loose card message being caused by a coin.
In 1 example, a customer found a quarter was inside the card dispenser slot, and this was stopping the NFC card reader from being able to detect the presence of laundry cards.
If you get this error, and are not able to find any loose cards in, or around, the card dispenser area, it is recommended that you remove the card dispenser so that you can inspect the card slot for any foreign objects pushed inside of it.
Issue: Dispenser is dispensing two or more cards each time
The VAC is dispensing two or more cards instead of just one, meaning the VAC dispenses a single card, and then seconds later another card comes out separately.
If two cards are being dispensed at the same time (one on top of the other), this is a different issue (more similar to a card jam).
If the VAC is dispensing multiple cards, one after another, this often means that the VAC is having trouble reading/writing to the first laundry card it dispensed.
When this happens, the VAC will automatically dispense a 2nd card, and attempt to write the value to the 2nd card instead (it assumes there may have just been an issue with the inital card that was dispensed)
If writing the value to the 2nd card was successful, this could indicate it was just an issue with that specific laundry card,
however if this is something that's happening consistantly, then this usually indicates 1 of 2 things:
- The card dispenser's RFID/NFC Card Reader Board is not positioned correctly over the area where cards are dispensed
- The card dispenser's RFID/NFC Card Reader Board needs to be replaced as it's experiencing a hardware malfunction.
If the VAC is dispensing multiple cards, when checking the VAC Logs, you'll normally see an error when looking at the Results column for the New Card transaction records:
Below is a picture showing how the Green RFID/NFC Card Reader Board should be positioned depending on the Card Dispenser Model:
You'll want to ensure that the antenna section of the RFID/NFC Card Reader Board is centered over the area that the cards travel through when being dispensed.
If this antenna is not centered over the card's travel area, it may not be able to read the cards consistently, resulting in multiple cards being dispensed during a new card purchase transaction.
Try re-centering the antenna over the card's travel area to see if that resolves the problem (in most cases you do NOT need to loosen the mounting nuts to reposition this reader slightly).
Try re-centering the antenna over the card's travel area to see if that resolves the problem (in most cases you do NOT need to loosen the mounting nuts to reposition this reader slightly).
If this issue still happens repeatedly, it's likely the RFID/NFC Card Reader Board has a hardware issue, and will need to be replaced.
You'll want to contact your dealer in order to place an order for a replacement RFID/NFC Card Reader Board (Part #: ASSY-02-03-11).
Issue: Portal reporting "No Cards in the Card Dispenser" but there are cards in there
Take out all the cards and make sure there is nothing obstructing the bottom of the card stacker.
You can used compress air to clean the area where the cards sit if there's a lot of dust accumulation.
Always ensure that the steel weight is resting on top of all the cards, NOT underneath them, as shown in the picture below:
Removing the Card Dispenser
Open the VAC, and use a socket-wrench to loosen the three (or four nuts depending on VAC model) holding down the card dispenser assembly, as shown below.
Make a slight adjustment, and try dispensing a card to ensure it comes out perfectly centered before fully securing the card dispenser to the VAC cabinet.
Replacing the RFID/NFC Card Reader Board
This is a plug and play replacement part, so no programming will be required to get a new RFID/NFC Card Reader Board working with your card dispenser.
For detailed instructions on and RFID/NFC Card Reader Board Replacement, follow the steps provided in the following article:
Card Dispenser Connectivity
If the Card Dispenser does not seem like it's receiving power, or you're seeing a "Card dispenser jam or out of order" error in the VAC status, you'll want to confirm that card dispensers wiring harness is connected to the VAC control board correctly.
You can review our VAC Control Board Connectivity and Replacement article for details on where the Card Dispenser's wiring harness connects to the VAC control board