BFT LIBRA-UL-R Gate Controller Repair

BFT LIBRA-UL-R repair on the Phobos Gate Opener System

Introduction

LIBRA-UL-R controller

After more than two years of operation, the controller stopped working of the Phobos BT L system at the end of 2016. I wrote the company via the website multiple times, but received no response. From inspection, it was clear that the R23 power resistor (above the bridge heatsink in the previous image) was burned up. I could not tell the original value, so I had few options.

Analyzing the schematic
Prior to removing the board, I checked the power supply voltage at the white terminals at the transformer, and measured 33Vac (labelled as 25V on the sticker). Taking the board to my workbench, I was able to power up the board with a 24Vac transformer and could then measure voltages and trace the schematic.

Photo of the solder side of the board. The main driver for the relays is U20 in the middle of the photo (pin 1 is top-right).

I only traced the Power/IO section of the board. This is the section most likely to fail and besides, it would be nearly impossible to find a replacement for U6, the main chip of the logic section.

Power Supply Section
Referring to the schematic, we start at the bottom of the page for the power section. Incoming AC power is first filtered by C1 and RV1 and then applied to JP9 terminals #11+12 as the Aux output, and also D1 for full wave rectification. This creates the B+ bus, which is used to power the motor. At an input power of 28Vac, B+ will measure about 26Vdc. D20 isolates B+ from the C+ bus, which is filtered by the C3 2200uF electrolytic capacitor. Due to the filtering, this bus will measure higher, or around 36V in my case. After that, this bus powers the red LED (LD1), and a 28V zener preregulator formed by R30 and D24. This in turn feeds the 5V regulator.

Motor Control Section
I will focus first focus on how Motor2 is powered. Current for this is switched by K2 and K3. When these relay coils are unpowered, the motor is shorted, causing the motor to act as a brake. Throwing K2 (power from U20-15) will cause B+ application to terminal #4 on . If then Q4 is also turned on (via MTR_DISABLE from U6), current will flow through the motor and use R4 as the current sense shunt. Per the note in the Project Log below, the K2 is for the CLOSE function. The opposite occurs when K3 is thrown, and the motor runs in the opposite direction. The circuitry inside the motor and its limit switch is a guess, but I am pretty certain this is correct. It causes the switch output to go to B+ when that switch is closed, which pulls down the open collector output to U6. It is possible that Q4 is run in PWM mode at some point as the manual indicates a slow speed mode.

However an interesting and initially puzzling action occurs before the motor runs. That is when the start/stop button is pushed. The first resulting action is a 30 msec pulse low on the U20-12 pin (Sensor Check). Via Q22, R23 and D25, this applies C+ to both terminals of the motor and Q4 (neither K2+K3 are actuated yet). Initially, Q4 is OFF, but in the middle of the 30 msec pulse, MTR_DISABLE goes low for 10 msec, and that causes about half an amp of current to flow in Q4. This results in about 50mV across R4 for 10 msec, which is routed to the op-amp at U21. My best guess was that this 30 msec pulse is a sensor check, and a later check of the manual shows this to be probably the case (in the "CHECK" section). It causes power to flow to the attached sensors and allows the U6 controller to tell if the system is up against a limit switch, and if the current sensor is working. As an experiment, I shorted the base-emitter junction of Q20, causing the lack of the 50mV pulse. The result was that the motor move was immediately aborted, and none of the relays actuated. This matches what occurs with my original controller with the blown R23 and Q22.

When Q22 is ON, the instantaneous power on R23 is 17W. This resistor is rated for 1W per my inspection. It is unusual for these power resistors to fail shorted (they overheat and open), so my guess is that Q22 failed shorted in the original controller.

Actuation of Motor1 is similar, except power to it is not applied until about 920mseconds after Motor2 runs (this delay is settable in the menu system). This delay allows proper phasing of the gates. The Flasher output is composed by diode ORing all four motor output terminals with diodes D27 through D30, and applied to #9. Current from this feed is returned through steering diodes D31+D32.

The interface from the logic section to the Power/IO section is nine logic lines. Two of them are the MTR_DISABLE lines mentioned above. The remaining seven get buffered by U20. Momentarily jumpering the lowered numbered pins to 5V causes a relay to throw and a motor action to occur. These pins and functions are:

Motor 2 at +25V (Measured at JP9-3 to JP9-4) / OPEN

Motor 2 at -25V / CLOSE

Motor 1 at +25V (Measured at JP9-6 to JP9-7) / OPEN

Motor 1 at -25V / CLOSE

Enable Sensor Check (active low)

Small relay K8 (probably area illumination output on JP9)

Small relay K4 (probably "Safe" output on JP9 to power light beam devices)

One thing that you can do is jumper these to 5V one at a time and see what power output does not work. Note that these logic control lines into the U20 ULN2003A all have a capacitor to return allowing you to find them easily.

Per the technical manual, the max working current to the motor is 3.5 Amps ("77" on display), and 1.5 Amps nominal ("33" on display). So a good dummy load is about 20 ohms. In the case of my board, repair was not possible so I purchased a new one for $211 (link below). With the new (working) controller in hand, I could better trace the schematic and could now read the value of R23.

Current Sensor
When the motors are running, there will appear four digits on the LCD display, separated by a decimal point, showing the peak currents. I decided to investigate how much current was being indicated by varying the load and then noting the amperage on an ammeter and the counts indicated. This investigation shows that each count is about 45.5mA. The equation for the current is shown in the graph below.

Cal curve for the current sensor.

During a move, the display indicates the peak current level of both motors ("Monitoring" section in the manual), in the format "Motor1.Motor2". So a display of '12.00' means 0.55 Amps on Motor 1 and no current on Motor2. The value is held while the move is ongoing, even if the limit switch is hit. The display then goes blank once the move is completed or cancelled.

Logic Section
The main processor is the H8/3672 from Hitachi. From the hardware manual:

This LSI is equipped with ROM, RAM, an 8-bit timer (TMR), a 16-bit timer, a watchdog timer (WDT), two types of serial communication interfaces (SCIs), a 10-bit A/D converter, and I/O ports as on-chip peripheral modules. This LSI is suitable for use as an embedded processor for high-level control systems. Its on-chip ROM is flash memory that provides flexibility as it can be reprogrammed in no time to cope with all situations from the early stages of mass production to full-scale mass production. This is particularly applicable to application devices with specifications that will most probably change.

A search shows this chip is not available in retail distributors and needs to be purchased in bulk from sources in Asia. The markings on one of my chips is:

64F3672FPV
H8/3672

AJ03959
1138

The first line is probably the actual part number, and the second line the generic number. The third line may be some kind of production or batch code, and I am guessing the last four digits is the date code, which would make the date of manufacture the 38th week of 2011.

The main chip is connected to a four-digit numeric LCD display with 18 interface pins. I have not been able to find much about it, but it looks like a simple direct multiplexed interface from the processor to the display segments. With 7 segments, a decimal point each, and four digits, the minimum number of pins needed is this sum, or 12.

RF Section
The RF receiver is on a small daughter board that is soldered to the main board via a SIP. The main receiver is either a TDA7210 or a TDA5200, basically a single chip superheterodyne receiver. The JP16 antenna connections route to this board via some small ceramic capacitors. Other than +5V power and ground, there is a "Data Out" line on pin 14, and some kind of ready or signal strength line on pin 13. These two output data lines are buffered by an LM358 dual op-amp in an 8 pin SOIC package. Keying an RF pendant should causes a data stream on pin 14.

Phobos Actuator Arm
I could not find good videos or photos of the BT L being disassembled. Instead I found one of its successor, the BT A25/A40. My examination and analysis of the A25/A40 actuator mechanism focused on items most likely to wear. So places where there is rubbing or sliding. These are arranged from highest to lowest in the text below.
The first place is the "Madrevite Chiocciola Ricambio", or spool nut (item #52 in Parts List, Part number I100006 10005). This slides along the main lead screw and travels along it to push the gate open. A good kit to obtain this may be this one, and you can can see the spool nut as the white object in the upper left. This kit also has other potential wear items such as bushings.

View inside the gearbox. From here.

The second place is in the gearbox. From my analysis, Motor (11) has wormgear (18) on its output shaft. This engages the double pinion gear (22), the slanted part of which engages with and turns gear (39), which is fastened to lead screw (66). Of this sequence, the pinion (#22, ingranaggio doppio) is plastic and probably the weak link. This is Part number I100015 10002. It can be purchased individually here.
The third place is the motor, Part number I100171 10001.
The BT L has a different sequence of gears (diagram). From the motor, there are a pair of right angle bevel gears (53, 57). These then drive the worm gear (49,78), and that spins the main screw (24). A traveling plastic nut (94) moves along the screw. This is enclosed by two halves of the clam shell (93, 92) that has the pin that pushes the gate.

Repair Case #1
I was sent a broken unit in August 2020 and was able to repair it. It failed in the same way as ours and I could verify that Q22 was shorted. This would have led to R23 burning open. I was unable to tell much about Q22 and the markings are "AL W72". Based on the resistors around the control pin, I am pretty sure this was originally a MOSFET. However, if you calculate the Vgs, it is a very high value, and I think this would have caused long term stress. This is probably a vulnerability in the design. I addressed that in the repair by changing the resistors around the transistor.

Damaged Q22 transistor.

I decided to build an interface board to help test the controller, which is shown below. It allows me to easily tell if the motor has power and the polarity (red/green LEDs). It also allows me to easily start and stop the motor as you can see in the video. There are also equivalent buttons for the travel limit switches.

The Libra Tester board. Start/Stop button is on the right.
Red / Green LEDs indicate polarity of the motor power and
the switches on the left are the travel limit switches.

As shown above this only tests one of the two motors. I would later (2021) modify this to add the second motor. This board is used in Repair Case #2 and later. The added LEDs are orange and yellow for the other Motor.

Video of repaired Libra (Case #1).

Photo of new MOSFET installed onto the back of the board (middle right).
Note the old FETs is the size of the ones in the bottom left.
New one is much bigger and stronger.

Repair Case #2
This unit was sent to me for repair and I traced it down to a bad U20. I replaced it and the unit worked great afterwards. This was my first time replacing a surface mount integrated circuit and they are very tiny. I think I did a good job with it.

U20 replaced on Case #2.

Video of above Case #2 being tested

Repair Case #3
This was also sent to me for repair and I traced it back to a bad input MOSFET Q31. Some associated components were also bad. These items are very small, as small as a grain of rice and smaller, but I managed to get them aligned and soldered down.

Video of Case #3 being tested

Repair Case #4
This one had a sensor circuit issue and was quickly repaired. It was also the first time I navigated the board's menu function, performing a factory reset and changing the language to English.

Video of Case 4

Repair Case #5
This board has an unusual configuration on the power input with regard to location of fusing and power connection. It is also in an auto-close setup, where it waits for a delay after opening and closes if the opto sensor is clear.

Video of Case 5

Repair Case #6
On this unit, Motor 1 was not working in either direction. I narrowed the problem down to a bad CPU (U6). The outputs into U20 were not toggling for Motor 1. I tried pulling up the control lines with a 330 Ohm resistor in case the internal pull-up was the problem, but to no avail. The CPU is not something I can replace so the owner generously gave the board to me for parts reuse.

Repair Case #7
Input power was completely shorted and damaged my test transformer. After replacement I addressed the short and the unit worked.

Video of Case 7

Repair Case #8
Added a high power test case. Using a 20Vac transformer and 15 ohm power resistor, the run current on the LCD display was 19-20. In particular, this unit was set up for single motor operation (Motor2), and it would show "20.00".

High power test. Video of Case 8.

In the light of the Libra being phased out and replaced by
the (much more expensive) Thalia, I think it makes
sense to repair these boards. Send me an email
if you want to have me do it.

Project Log

Spring 2014 - BFT dual gate and controller installed

December 2016 - Gate controller fails and this blog started

January 2017 - Controller successfully replaced and operators regreased.

October 2018 - Got an email from Frank W that his single motor system only would open and not CLOSE. With the help of this blog, he tracked it down to a bad K2 relay, and got his system working by swapping it for his K6 relay (he only has a single gate). This proves that K2 is for the CLOSE function.

April 2019. I have purchased numerous after-market remotes on Ebay and all seem to work well. We prefer the type with the sigle row of buttons. See link below.

July 2020 - This website states that the Libra has been replaced by the BFT Thalia Board SD 120V. This page was pointed out to me by some emailing me about repair of a Libra. The Thalia does not appear to be a drop-in replacement, and is quite expensive at almost $380. Manual.

August 5 2020 - The person above was kind enough to send me his unneeded Libra and I was able to repair it and confirm my theories on how this board works (Case #1)

Feb 2023 - The West gate of the system started to malfunction. It seemed to occur after a rainfall and the gate would not open. Close inspection shows that the actuator would jerk/click upon start. Doing a temporary manual release and then opening the gate by about 5 degrees would remedy the issue. It would open and close as long as I did not let the gate fully close (the problem would repeat if the gate was allowed to close fully). So to me this told me it was clearly an "open limit" switch issue. Somehow, the "open limit" was firing as soon as the open command was given and the actuator/gate was in the fully closed position. The problem evolved in that it would occur in the morning (when the system is presumably cold), and then resolve itself by 9am (and things had warmed up). I resolved to obtain tools to open the actuator to inspect it, but by that time (a few weeks), the problem stopped occurring. Other notes: In our system, the West gate is Motor 2. Motor measures about 15 ohms of resistance. Motor will close is positive power is applied to its red or green wires. See below for an update

August 6 2023 - I received an email from Alan C with a similar problem:

I found your web site whilst googling for some information about a faulty BFT LIBRA that I have.

I noticed that you have repaired many units so are obviously very familiar with these PCBs and their common faults. I have a 24V system with 2 gates operated by Phobos gate actuators. However in recent weeks one of the gates will open but not close. The gate motor starts to move but then, within a few hundred milliseconds it stops. The other gate continues and closes properly. I did think it might be reading an overcurrent/stall but that fault results in both of the motors reversing a small amount before stopping. There are no photo sensors on it (I need to add some but it was like that when we bought the house). I am not sure whether to replace the PCB or the actuator as I don't believe I have enough information to discern which is most likely to be at fault. Also the Libra seems to have been replaced by the Thalia and I don't know how similar these are. From photos they look physically very similar though. If you have any thoughts on this fault or have seen this type of fault before I'd be very keen to hear.

After a few weeks correspondence, the problem appears to be related to the wires between the Libra and the actuator being wet and there were open connections that may have been resulting in shorts. This does not exactly match our fault above as the actuator state (being within 5 degrees of open) affected the fault.

Sept 2023 - Tools needed to disassemble actuator arm is 7mm deep socket (9/32" could also be used). Socket needs to be at least 18mm long. Also need a C-clip (snap ring) removal tool to remove arm from gate.

Socket needed to disassemble arm is 7mm deep socket.
In addition, a snap ring removal tool is handy to use
to remove the C-clips and lift the arm out.

October 2023. Revisited the problem described above from Feb 2023. After a summer of good operation, it started to occur again after a rain storm. I applied silicone to the perimeter of the access door and tape on the body seams to seal the actuator from moisture and added a 4k pull down resistor on the limit switch wire to return reference. That remedied the problem and the system no longer stops after a rain storm. System return is accessible at the loop of R7. The reason I did that was that I suspect the initial application of voltage to the motor bleeds through to the limit switch circuit due to moisture. The 4k load suppresses that pulse. 12/23 Update: Despite heavy rains this fall, the controller link has worked perfectly.

December 2023. I had been struggling with third party remote controls for some months. Remotes that used to work reliably suddenly don't. I also bought many new units on Ebay to try find a 'good' one (unsuccessfully). This month I obtained a flipper and one of my first projects was to use it to figure out these remotes. The results were extremely enlightening. It turns out that the Libra remote are rolling code type (not surprising), but these third party remotes are able to replicate the Libra. Perhaps by sampling a long enough sequence. However one important thing to note that a press of any Libra remote will 'roll' the receiver, and the third party remotes will then need to be reprogrammed. So to use them, you must switch completely to the third party remotes or any use of a Libra remote will invalidate their code. This explains our experience as I would be able to program them, but they would mysteriously stop working after some random time. Search for remotes on Ebay with "433MHZ, cloning remote". We prefer the type that are four buttons in a row so that it is clear which button to push regardless of the orientation of the remote. These are usually around $2 each, compared to the authentica Libra remotes, which will run about $20.

Sept 2024. Check of actuation current draw. Close current is "31.30", or about 1.5 Amps. Open current is less at 25.19.

May 2025. Another check of current shows Close 31.31 open 25.18. Max over a few runs. Looks similar to 2024 results.

July 2025. Received a note from a reader on the RF module and replacing it.

May 2026. Adding oil to the hinges and grease to the drive screw in the Phobos has reduced current draw. Post-service the Close is 29.31 to 32.31. Open is very low at 16.14 to 16.18. Pre-service numbers are 26.31 to 32.34 for Close and 18.21 to 19.21 for open.

May 2026. Added analysis of Phobos arm.

Notes on the types of Phobos systems

Phobos BT - obsolete, telescoping tube. From about 1997.

Parts list for this actuator

Sequence of gears starting with motor: 34, 53, 57, 49, 78, 39, 24, 22

Primary Reduction Kit (I099804). Buy.

Secondary Reduction Kit (I105808). Similar.

Traveling Nut (I105826). Note, both traveler screws on same side. Similar.

Photo of motor (Part no I100220 1001, from Mark G)

May be known as Phobos UL

Phobos BT N and NL - perhaps an intermediate generation, no telescoping tube

1.8m/3m & 250 kg

Installation manual. Quick reference manual.

Phobos BT L - long stroke, no telescoping tube, same drive as BT above.

Started in 2008, 1.8m&250kg / 3m&100kg capacity

Total length is 37.125". Stroke is 10". Min and Max length from axle pin-pin is 22" to 32".

Replacement Parts for this actuator (Florida shipping address)

Exploded view (no part numbers).

Installation manual.

Phobos BT B40 - successor to A40 (started in 2016) and the BT L

Started in 2024, 12' & 500kg

Parts List for this actuator

Motor is now Part number I100171 1001.

Uses Thalia controller

Comparison between A and B lines

Phobos AC A - high voltage version

Links

Installation manual for the board only

Replacement board 1 (No longer stocked)

Replacement board 2 ($400, but photo does not match correct board)

Thalia Controller (possible replacement, but different pinout)

Mitto 433Mhz remotes on Ebay.

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