RJC

E6000 Curly Cable – Problems RJC 02/03/2021

Introduction:
As many of you may well know myself Richard Croucher and my wife Anne Croucher as the
Croucher and Sons Design company in Poole UK.
Anne has been a ‘knitting machine person’ for many years and I, before retirement, was heavily
involved in the UK Electronics Industry as an Electronic Design Engineer (nothing to do with
knitting). I should emphasise that we have never been dealers and most of our knowledge has
been gained from personal experience.
Although we often carry out repairs on the E6000 parts, this can often be inconvenient
particularly when the actual owner is not located within the UK - customs duty and taxes may
be relevant in both directions and carriage can be both expensive and awkward.
One thing that we have determined is what must be a common fault associated with the Curly
Cable and its link from Console to Front Lock. Unfortunately, no one else seems to
acknowledge this problem, nor devised this relatively simple and low cost approach to fixing.
Attached are some diagrams detailing the combined Passap/Pfaff/Madag parts involved.
The main problem we have encountered (and normally cured) is where Item 28 on the
Overview Diagram (2nd) requires attention. Basically; this plastic part and the associated curly
cable must be dismantled and the 6 pin DIN socket within must be cut/removed from the
original. The end of the curly cable must then be cut back by about 30mm, all solder joints
remade and the whole combination re-assembled. In many circumstances (although not
essential) the plastic cable protection sleeve associated with the cable clamp maybe
damaged/broken and we tend to automatically replace with black neoprene cable protection
sleeve.
Often, removing this length will reduce the ease of lock movement towards the extremes, the
curly length can easily be increased my releasing the cable compression clamp at the mast
head, moving the ‘straight’ part of the lead forward and re-clamping.
What Goes Wrong:
This lead is a multicore cable, from the E6000 Console to the Front Lock, providing the
necessary +15V DC Power Supply, signal lines from the optical sensors within the Front Lock
to determine its physical location and control lines to electromagnets within the Front Lock to
manipulate the Pushers/Needles. Including the ‘chassis/screen’ a total of 7 internal wires are
involved.
The frequent stretching/flexing of this cable tends to place excessive strain on this cable and
the internal wires can become damaged with wear etc. Such damage may involve more than
one particular wire and may be intermittent - e.g. a fracture may only result in a definite signal
break when particular components are under particular stress – say at extreme ‘stretch’ and at
one end of the bed/angle. Also, as signals may well be electronically monitored/sampled at
particular times, such a break may not always even be noticed by the electronics etc.
From experience we can state that when repairing this area:
a) Damaged wires do not typically result in simple continuity test failure of that wire.
b) There may be no obvious physical damage noticeable under close examination or repair etc.
c) Such repairs have nearly always resulted as a success/cure!

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E6000 Curly Cable – Problems RJC 02/03/2021

F
E6000 CURLY CABLE + MAST +
TOP BRACKET + TENSION
WANDS/SPRING

8
8

Issue No.
SLOT IN METALWORK – approx
2mm wide by 5mm high – plastic
nub from beneath holding bracket to
plastic– same on non-visible side

7
7

NOTE: This folded metal piece and

the ‘eyes’ @ the front may be difficult
to remove and will not seriously
increment postal costs etc if cable
WAND SPRINGS ON part and it are not separated etc
PLASTIC BIT

Drg. No.
6
TITLE
6

DRAWN:

DATE:

5
5

This drawing is the copyright of

Croucher & Sons Design and must not
without their written consent be passed
on copied or used for any other

4
4

purpose.
MAST

3
Croucher & Sons Design,
3

Poole, Dorset, UK.

2
2

1
1

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E6000 Curly Cable – Problems RJC 02/03/2021

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E6000 Curly Cable – Problems RJC 02/03/2021

How can I test for this:

In our experience the best way of testing most E6000 components is by substituting known
‘good/working’ parts to determine which parts are failing. This approach is fine IF you have
necessary spare parts to use – something most knitters do not have access to.
In this case there is a simple solution – use the internal to console, CAST ON 97 option and
monitor its display/Error Messages and the front bed pusher activity with ‘air knitting’ both with
and without the curly lead in situ.
The curly lead, in principle is no more than an ‘extension cable’ from the E6000 Console’s top
mounted DIN socket to the cable mounted DIN plug of the Front Lock. It may be a ‘two person’
activity BUT the Lock can be directly plugged into the console (now loose/free unmounted) and
the pair physically moved/carried across the knitting bed as required.

Detailed instructions for this may be found on the pages https://www.knittingparadise.com/t-

513327-1.html#11761254 where I attempted to help some other knitters in late 2017!

Can I repair this?

If you/your associate can employ a soldering iron then probably YES. We have never found
anybody who even seems to know about this, but no real electronic components etc are
involved here!

What are the alternatives?

Various dealers may have particular Passap parts available – however please be aware that
such items are extremely expensive, rare and some dealer may well supply something other
than the original. Also without any testing – are you even sure of what is faulty?

Our alternative:
Although originally designed/made as temporary alternative – we have made a limited number
of simple/low cost cables! We cannot guarantee the reliability as although of good quality these
have never seen ‘years of use’ etc. Also as many of the components involved are ‘custom’ to
the E6000 it is almost impossible (at a low cost) to replace all the original.

Our alternative is simple, a cable with a straight and curly part (made from 2 off standard PC
cables etc with suitable cable mounted straight DIN connectors at either end). Effectively you
keep some of the old combination and add/use our cable etc,. instead of the original – we
supply various cable ties etc with the substitute to assist here.
Please see below and our “Replacing_CurlyCable.pdf” document.

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E6000 Curly Cable – Problems RJC 02/03/2021

RJC Curly Lead Substitute:

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