Angel LCD troubleshooting (won't fire)

[glaman5266]

OK, finally got my first Angel a few months back. Been having issues with it. 2K3 LCD with PM7 Virtue board and aftermarket HPR and LPR.

When I got it & tested it, it was shooting 220-230 FPS. Was told when I bought it the HPR was all I needed to tweak, so I bumped that up a bit with very little change in FPS. So I shelved it until yesterday.

Went to try again yesterday and the marker itself would not even fire. After degassing it I went to change the HPR to something I 100% knew would work. Same result. Tried adjusting the LPR a little & degassing/regassing, no change.
After further examination I could not hear the solenoid click, even with a fresh battery. Is solenoid stick a thing with Angels? I see no pinched or disconnected wires anywhere in the wiring harness, though I did not tear into it to look at the noid itself. The only other thing I can think of is I damaged the noid. In my first test a couple months ago I did jack up the HPR quite a bit to try getting more velocity... But isn't the noid controlled by the LPR, not the HPR?

This is my first Angel, so I'm not sure what to look for right off the bat. I'd rather not tear this down to nuts and bolts if I don't have to. Where should I start?

[Roger7pball]

Try pressing the little button on top of the noid, if it cycles then must be issue in the electronics. I’ve never heard of the solenoid sticking unless someone wrenches down the holddown set screw on top way too much.

[glaman5266]

I'll give that a try, thanks!

One other thing I forgot to mention... when I swapped out the HPR that came with it to the HPR from my tool box it degassed from above the VASA. I had the macroline disconnected when I removed the HPR it came with. It's possible the HPR that came with it may have held air in there from when I tested it a couple months ago.
For the record, the HPR that came with it was a CP reg. The one in my toolbox a BL Torpedo, if that matters.

[Shaftski]

What is the battery state? Is it the original or a new replacement?

Double check the integrity of the solenoid to board wiring harness. More than once I've seen a wire break free from the solder pads inside of the noid. Low strand count wire with minimal to no strain relief right at the noid.

[glaman5266]

This one has a Virtue PM7 board, so it takes 9 volts. Used a fresh battery.
I'll check the noid wires when I check the noid itself, per Roger. Thanks.

[Frank the Tank]

did you figure it out?

[glaman5266]

Unfortunately, I haven’t had time to do anything paintball related in the last couple weeks. There’s a big game coming up, so I’d definitely like to make some time to try a couple things. I’ll update this thread once I do.

[glaman5266]

FINALLY got this guy on the workbench. Tore it most of the way apart. The electronics all look fine as far as I could tell. Noid looks fine too, but the little button on top seemed kind of hard to depress. I'll put air to it later this week & see if it cycles.

[JCC]

See it a lot when people say velocity is in the low 200s there using a LP tank that only outputs 450. That’s not going to cut it. 475-500 for 280-300fps. Second thing is ram not being set properly.

Neither of those solve your noid not clicking now, but orange button test will help there. If noid pffs, but nothing happens…. Did you take noid out? If so maybe you reversed the rubber manifold/seal between noid and body. That gives the illusion of a noid issue as you get a bit of noise from noid, but nothing much happens.

good luck.

[glaman5266]

OK, I have this guy pretty much apart. I know, over a year later. :shrug:

Anyway, I have everything but the VA, valve & LPR have been removed. I don't want to remove those if it isn't necessary.

One thing I noticed is that my ram sticks when it's all the way back (bolt open position). I can pull it forward, but it's hard to do & it eventually "clicks" loose. I can push it back and then it "clicks" into place & won't move. So I take the little brass setscrew out of the back & there's an o-ring in there...

A ram diagram in a LCD manual I found online showed that an o-ring is supposed to be in there. But when the ram goes back I think it gets hung up/clicks into that o-ring or something. Is that supposed to happen? I can remove that o-ring & the ram moves freely. There's a bumper behind the ram head, so shouldn't that go back all the way to the ram body? Is the o-ring too thick & the ram shaft gets hung up in the back? Or is the ram head not supposed to go back all the way & my ram distance/adjustment was just off?

I'll mess with it some more & see what I can try. I just want this thing running, lol.

[glaman5266]

Jordan I see.
It "snaps" pretty hard, but I'll reassemble it & see if maybe it's a pressure issue. I just don't want to blow the noid or anything by bumping the LPR too much. I'm also struggling to find a tuning guide, but I can give it a whirl on my own. I've set up Timmys & B2Ks before, so...

And to set the ram you just screw the ram body in so the ram slot is even with the slot for the bolt pin, correct?

[Jordan]

I like to set the ram a hair forward so there's a slight click from the bolt pin engaging the hammer, but that's personal preference. Anything you can do to get the bolt as far forward as possible to help with rollback is a good idea in my experience.

[glaman5266]

Jordan Gotcha. I'll make that adjustment. Thanks for that & for all the help so far.

That little setscrew on the back of the ram was in pretty tight. I didn't crank it down so tight & now the ram moves a bit more freely. Now it's cycling. I wonder if that was why it wasn't even moving in the first place...

[glaman5266]

It's cycling! But now I have a leak around the valve area. HPR & LPR are set low (haven't done any tuning yet) and I can hear it through the feedneck, so I'm assuming something in the valve. I'll go through the online manual I found again & see what I can do for it.