denstep motion control board not working

[Large519]

Microrouter v3-
using
VR5.54

I have gone to run my machine tonight and the seven segment LED on the denstep control board is not lit, I have checked all the fuses but they are all ok, the LED's on the spindle drive board and relay module are all on. Can anyone shed some light on this and hopefully point me in the right direction.

I have been experiencing issues with the R232 connection the last 4 times I have used the machine, either not connecting after a long time or when it does connect every time it would not recognise the .mnt file and I would have to download the file from the PC, is there any connection between this issue and with the LED's not working?

[Martin]

It may be the voltage to the board. Check if the LED displays a "-" briefly when you turn off the power.

viewtopic.php?t=3092

[Large519]

I don't believe it does display a "-" when it is swtiched off but I will check. I've read the link and am a little confused about swapping over the logic supply voltage... Also I'm not entirely happy with overall condition of the Denstep board maybe due to its age, please see the below pic,



Has the battery gone? I assume the 9 pin should not be touching the battery (is that the correct connector), also some of the board connections do not look good ie U34,U17 and U16.

Is there a check and repair service available from Denford, do they service and repair for the general public? Is there a possibility of exchange or upgrade to the nextstep board

[Large519]

You should be Ok just removing the 2 wires from the control transformer (bottom left) wire numbers 27 & 28 I presume & moving them to the terminals 60 & 61 (24volts). Both wires should be long enough to be moved. I often rewire this on service visits.

Success, thanks guys


Now to sort out the com's issue

[Large519]

Well, that was a short lived success. Now no LED. Have taken a closer photo of the connection's that do not look very good, (excuse the badly drawn arrow) but it now points to a burnt out blob on the surface of the board that was intact on the previous photo



Obviously something else wrong with the board!!!! Or was it a result of transferring the logic power to 24vDC

Would this have of affected the other board underneath???

Now may be a good time to convert the machine to mach3, but would need to know if the drive board underneath could be damaged too.....Some advice very much appreciated!!!!!

[Martin]

It does not look good. The board will work on either AC or DC so I guess it's down to component failure.

[Large519]

Yeah, I suspected a component failure, is it posbible due to the condition of the battery, that may have leaked onto the board, and caused further damage?

Do you know where I could get the drive board tested? Obv don't wanna have any more surprises.

[Steve]

I would guess that the cost of us checking the board and the cost of shipping it both ways would be too much to be cost effective it would take a few hours labour and may then be unrepairable.

When the unit fails is it shutting down the PSU? If so if you remove the top card and then try again provided the PSU supply remains OK then a good guess would be all is OK with the bottom card.

Looking at the damage to the board this is a plated through hole so there has been a short that has fused the track.


A whole new unit with the USB top card is a BI00435C and costs £900

The bottom card is a BI00435CB Cost £535

[Large519]

Yeah, i imagined it would not be cost affective to have it replaced, so decided to go the mach3 conversion route.....

[david]

Hi Steve,

I have faulty baldor D281 motion control card for a triac P. C. (denford). The firmware is ESMINT 3.28 V1.6H/S - JD5. We would like to purchase this card, is it still available? Please let me know as soon as possible, I need it urgently for students' semester projects.

Thank you.