clear board sensor error

[dcozort]

I have been to the trouble shooting section with this issue and tried all the fixes they recommend.... no help 1) tape lpaced on the board ect,ect.. Bard you wanted to know the conditions in ordered to better triangluate the problem... The machine carved just fine earlier that day.. light in shop daytime lots of windows... Went back later that night kept getting clear board sensor error unable to read..... Trouble shooting section said to place tape on the board where the sensor is going to take a reading,,,,, or press down on rollers while cranking down on the shaft or place a light in that general area... Tried a hand held flouresant light no fix... Tried a 1000 watt shop lamp ... No fix went to option 7 and took reading over board.. It read O the machine has 10 carving hours on it... I then grabbed the truck and happened to noticed the led jump to 114 and back to 0.. I placed a little pressure on the truck and it jumped to 114 again.... as I released pressure it went back to 0 again.... The glass is clean all that I know to do is done... I will try again this morning with full daylight and post results... please respond.... I did all fixes power clear ECT,ECT.

[Jeff_Birt]

Two simple things which I'm sure you have tried. 1 ) Clean the sensor with compressed air. 2 ) What type of wood are you carving on? Any knots etc?

When you grabbed the Z-truck did anythign feel loose loose, i.e. does it wiggle, it should move up and down with slight pressure, Y-Trueck should also not wiggle. The board senosr is actually mounted to the bottom of the Y-Truck, it does not move up-down. If your board sensor reading changed when you played with the Z-truck it might indicate somethign being loose electrically or mechanically.

[dcozort]

Jeff just talked to carvewright people.... The wires to the board sensor run along the back of the truck assembly in a plastic channel.... I removed my sensor to check for wire kinking .... As soon as I pulled to sensor down sure enough there was about 2 inches of slack balled up in the sensor housing with numerous kinking.... The C/W boys said to go to the top of the truck and slowly pull the wires until the slack was at the top of the channel.... So I did I also noticed the ribbon wire was a little lose.. This works by a snap lock after inserting ribbon as far as it will go snap a black lock located on the ribbon housing.... C/W put a little bit of silicone between housing and ribbon in order to prevent it coming lose from viberation it is black in color.... This silcone appears to roll of fairly easy... Anyway if anyone is having a clear board sensor error this fixed mine very quickly.... Taking the cover of was very stright foward as well as understanding what goes where...So far if these are the types of bugs I have to look foward to they are no problem.... That was about as easy as adjusting infeed and outfeed tables on a jointer... Well back to carving... By the way for all of you that are wondering why the copy offset was removed from software version .115 it is because it is not polished yet .... it still has some bugs that require work .... That is stright from carvewright 1-25-07... see Ya Thanks Jeff and all at C/W...

[Jeff_Birt]

Glad you got it worked out!

[Digitalwoodshop]

As a former Sony Service Tech, this sounds like a little problem that might be very common to many over time. 90% of Play Stations 2's I fixed, got a new laser optic because the gamer's smoke and the tar sticks to the lens. The cooling fan sucks the smoke past the optic causing a read error. It got where you could look at a unit and know what was wrong before even plugging it in.

Sony had a web sight where tech's could post fixes for other tech's to research and read. This is much better.

Good Job Guys !!!! GREAT Job Troubleshooting, give yourself a pat on the back.

AL

[The Bard]

There is a .pdf we can send you that shows how to take off the cover and I THINK one on how to replace the board sensor. If not, I'll make one.

[dcozort]

hey Bard if you would send me a pdf on sensor replacement I would appreciate it.... One of the other chris's was going to send me a pdf yesterday on cover removal,, I couldn't wait if you know what I mean.. Besides if you can't figure that one out...well I say no more... A pdf on sensor replacement would be something to put with my machine documents.... That looks like an item that would probably need replacement in time..... Thanks for the help.... Dennis :D P.S. What is a suitable replacement for the black colored silcone used on the electronics parts to seal them in place ???

[The Bard]

We used Liquid Nail before... but we've moved on to 3M weather stripping... it's yellow and in a red and white tube.

I'll ask around today about the sensor replacement...

but honestly it's very easy. there are two screws at the bottom of the sensor and when taken out, it's just a matter of unplugging and replugging the wires.

[pontiak]

I just had the same problem with my machine. 17 hours on it. The wire kinked. I need a new sensor. Out of stock. Have to wait for them to send me a new one. :cry:

[The Bard]

and unkinking the wire didn't help?

[HandTurnedMaple]

If the problem is definately the kinked wires, and you are down until CWs supply department gets you an out-of-stock part :sigh: it might work to strip back the wires and repair them (if you are comfortable with that). Wires aren't like a garden hose, kinking them won't make the electricity stop. But its likely that the thin wires inside broke. If unkinking them causes it to work, it just means the wire pieces are making contact again. I had to repair any number of broken sensor wires in my days as a field mechanic.

[pontiak]

Thanks for the help guys. I'm up and running again. The wire had pulled the plug .Bent it sideways.I bent the plug back straight.Carving away again! :D :)

[dcozort]

On the contary kinking wires adds a higher degree of resistance to any wire low or high voltage-- As I am currently studying to obtain my master elect license.. The NEC gives radius for the turning or bending of any wire in order to mininmize additional resistance which as I understand increases the heating of the wire in that area ... This is why there are only so many wires that can be placed in conduit with a specfic turn radius and that can not be exceed... My guess is that sensor's requiring a specific amount of ohms should recieve that amount. To bend a wire at 180 degrees might not break it but it will cause an increase in ohms... But what do I know as I said I'm still studying please correct me if my inturpation is wrong or obviously my spelling :oops: :oops: .. Thanks Dennis...

[JBarr]

Yes, bending wire and actually putting pressure on a wire distorting its radius will cause a change in resistance, but on the microohm scale. The guage wire and currents in question though, should not cause it to stop functioning by bending the wire. Probally what happens, is the small guage wire by excessive bending and stretching is breaking the conductor.

[Jeff_Birt]

Your right, sort of...resistance does change very, very slightly with bending (or more precisly stain). This is the principal on which thin foil strain gauges work, but we are talking in terms of micro-ohms, so you need to employ a Wheatstone bridge and a very good instrumentation amp in order to see it.

Specifications that deal with wire bend radii are in place due to the physical properties of the material, in other words you can only bend a wire so much before breaking strands. I would imagin the turn radius in the conduit spec comes about because you will have a higher effective 'fill' in the bends as the wires will buch up more there.

[fishmasterdan]

Dennis;

You are pretty close to what you think. Just to clarify I have been an electrician for 17 years.

360 bends is so the next guy can pull wire in your conduit.
The resistance of copper wire does not change with the amount of bends in it. It changes with length, and heat. The reason for the conductor fill charts is to dissapate heat within the conduits.


Smaller wires like # 22 can break easily if the are bent to tighly.
The bending radius in the NEC is to make sure you dont use a hydraulic wire bender and bend wires to tight and break them.

I suspect the problem people are having with there kinked wires for electronics is EMF and getting errors that are spuratic.