How the numbering works
An error is an ID and a sub-ID — 04-01
is family 04, item 01. The family tells you roughly where to
look before you read anything else:
- 01 — communication, between the control unit and a module
- 02 — sensors: thermocouples and their cold junction
- 03 — the controller’s own electronics
- 04 — monitoring: the kiln is not behaving as the programme says
- 05 — self-tests and everything else
Warnings are numbered separately, 00 to
18, and are a different thing: they generally do not stop a
firing. They also do not go into the controller’s error archive, so
a warning you did not see on the screen at the time is a warning you will
not find later.
Some errors can only be cleared by switching the controller off and on — acknowledging them on the screen is not enough. The manual marks those; they are mostly in family 03.
Errors
01 — Communication
| Code | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
01-01 | Bus zone. The control unit has lost its link to a control module. | Is the module seated firmly? Is its LED red? Then the cable between unit and module, and the plug at the control unit. |
01-02 | Bus communications module. The link to the Ethernet/USB module is down. | The same two things: the module seated firmly, and the cable to it. This is also the module the cloud reports through, so this one can be why the kiln has gone quiet online. |
02 — Sensors
| Code | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
02-01 | Thermocouple open — a broken circuit where the temperature should be. | The thermocouple, its terminals and its cable; the contacts in plug X1 on the control module. |
02-02 | Thermocouple connection. | The thermocouple type set in the controller, and the polarity — a reversed pair reads as this. |
02-03 | Cold junction (“compare point”) error. | Control module fault. |
02-04 | Cold junction too hot — around 70 °C in the switchgear. | Why the cabinet is that hot: ventilation, ambient, a failing fan. |
02-05 | Cold junction too cold — around −10 °C. | An unheated workshop in winter is the usual answer. |
02-06 | Encoder separated — under 2 mA on the 4–20 mA input. | The sensor and its cable. |
02-07 | PT100 or PT1000 sensor defective. | The sensor, and its cable for a break or a short. |
03 — The controller itself
| Code | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
03-01 | System memory. Often after a firmware update. | Off and on. If it persists, the control unit. |
03-02 | ADC error — the analogue-to-digital converter is not talking to the controller. | Control module replacement. |
03-03 | File system defective — display and memory chip not communicating. | Control unit replacement. |
03-04 | System monitoring — the watchdog caught the control unit. | A USB drive pulled out too early can do this. Off and on first. |
03-05 | Zone system monitoring — the watchdog on a control module. | Off and on; then the module. |
03-06 | Self-test error. | Nabertherm service. |
03-07 | Analog output at the wrong voltage. | An electrician’s job: de-energise, disconnect the loads, retry. If it clears, the load; if not, the module. |
04 — Monitoring
This is the family a potter actually meets. These are not electronics faults — they are the controller saying the kiln is not doing what it was told.
| Code | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
04-01 | No heater power. Twelve minutes of a ramp with the elements called for and no temperature rise. | Elements and their connections; the safety contactor; the door switch; the heating control. This is the one that usually means an element has gone. |
04-02 | Excess temperature. A control zone is 50 K over the maximum setpoint (above 200 °C). It can also mean a programme was started with the kiln already hotter than the programme’s own maximum. | The solid-state relay, the thermocouple, the controller — a stuck relay keeps heating. If you started hot, let it cool and start again. |
04-03 | Power failure beyond the restart limit, or the main switch thrown mid-programme. | Stop the programme before the main switch. If the supply is the problem, a UPS. |
04-04 | A configured alarm fired. | Whichever alarm you set. |
04-05 | Auto-tune failed — the values came out implausible. | Do not auto-tune at the bottom of the kiln’s range. |
| Battery weak | The clock is wrong and a power failure may not be handled properly. | Export your parameters to USB first, then replace the battery. |
05 — Self-tests and the rest
| Code | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
05-00 | General malfunction in the control or Ethernet module. | Nabertherm service, with the service export. |
05-01 | Self-test failed, lower limit switch. | Off and on to repeat the self-test; if it fails again, Nabertherm service. |
05-02 | Self-test failed, upper limit switch. | |
05-03 | Self-test failed, heating. | |
05-04 | Vacuum pump / pressure switch — evacuation did not succeed. | Is the pump on? The connection to it, the table seal, and dirt on the seal. |
Warnings
These do not normally stop a firing, and they are not written to the error archive — they appear on the display and in a parameter export, and nowhere else.
| No. | What it means | Check first |
|---|---|---|
00 | Gradient monitoring tripped. | Usually the gradient is set too tight for the kiln. |
01 | No control parameters — no P value in the PID set. | Enter a P value; it cannot be 0. |
02 | Charge thermocouple missing or defective, with charge control on. | Plug one in, or turn charge control off in the programme. |
03 | Cooling thermocouple missing or defective. | Controlled cooling falls back to the control zone thermocouple. |
04 | Documentation thermocouple missing or defective. | The thermocouple and its cable. |
05 | A power failure happened, but the programme was not interrupted. | Nothing to do. |
06–11 | Alarm 1 and Alarm 2, band / min / max. | Either the control parameters want tuning or the alarm is set too narrow. |
12–15 | External alarms on inputs 1 and 2. | Whatever is wired to that input. |
16 | No USB drive inserted. | Insert one to export. |
17 | USB import or export failed. | FAT32, full format not quick, up to 2 TB. Never edit the XML in a text editor. Imports must be in the Import folder. |
18 | Heating blocked — a door switch is fitted and the door is open. | Close the door. |
Where this dashboard shows it
Kiln Dashboard reads the controller’s error code through Nabertherm’s cloud and shows it on the Live view, and carries it into the firing’s spreadsheet export so a run that failed has the code attached to it afterwards.
One honest limit, and what to do about it. The dashboard shows the code
the cloud reports, as a number. No kiln on this install has ever
reported a non-zero one, so I have not been able to confirm how that
number lines up with the ID–sub-ID pairs above, and I
would rather say so than publish a mapping I have not seen.
So take the pair off the controller’s own screen, which is the authority on which error you have, and read it here. If the two disagree, or the code is not in the tables above, tell me what each one says and I will fix this page.
When the answer is Nabertherm
Plenty of these end at a module, a control unit or a self-test that will not pass, and the honest answer is that the manufacturer should look at it. Nothing on this page replaces either of these, and both are worth having open before you take anything apart:
- The operating manual, M03.0022 (PDF) — the full remedy for every code above, the wiring, and the parameter numbers the remedies refer to.
-
Nabertherm service and spares
— for
03-0x,05-0x, anything asking for a service export, and any part number you need.
Anything involving the switchgear is an electrician’s job, not a potter’s: the manual says so and so does this page. De-energise the furnace first, and let the chamber cool.
See a firing on the dashboard or connect your kiln. Also: which kilns this works with and what the firing log keeps.