power fluctuation

[rickyz]

in the five years i've owned my machine, i've never come across this problem. after about 50percent of the carve, the machine keeps stopping and saying a power fluctuation. I hit enter and it will keep carving for a little bit, maybe a couple minutes then the same thing again... I'm about 65% into the carve and it's driving me nuts. it's a recon that I bought a couple months ago... any help would be greatly appreciated... it is a second machine. never had this problem in five years....

[gwizpro]

Holy Cow, Mine did the exact same thing yesterday, I would hit enter , it would carve a lil bit then code out again I kept hitting enter and it finally finished the carve.

I think some software engineer is messing with us....

I checked L2, all solder connections on the power supply board and checked incoming power, all stable and good. This is a C machine....

I think this is part of the upcoming Zombie Apocalypse.

[Digitalwoodshop]

The Most Common reason for this is a Bad L2 Coil in the Power Supply. The L2 Coil is just some copper wire like 14 gage house wire wound around a ferrite core. It acts as a filter to AC Noise on the DC Power Output. The coil is glued to the board but over time if not glued well enough the heavy weight of it moving as the machine vibrates especially after a QC is worn out and the machine has more vibration. If you took 14 gage house wire and bent it in your hand over and over, it would change color to a lighter color and SNAP... This is what has happened to your machine. The Wire Snaps below the surface of the board where it is bent over on the back side of the board and soldered. In my pictures you can see where I push on the Coil with a pen and the broken wire comes out of the hole in the circuit board like a Carrot being pulled...


The L2 Coil is in the Final Output of the Power Supply and is much like the Ferrite you see on the End of a Laptop Power Supply wire. That is why the power goes out.... then comes back on....

A Electronic TV Repair Shop can fix it quick for you.... Print the Pictures for them. OR order a new one from LHR. IF you have 2 machines you can swap the Power Supply and see the symptom move.


Good Luck,


AL

Edit: Just saw the above post.... I type too slow... A Temp FIX for testing the L2 is to solder a Jumper Wire under the board between the 2 pins of L2 ONLY.... It is already a Short... Just a longer wire wound around the Ferrite core.... As the power loops through the turns, the AC Noise Expanding and Contracting Magnetic Fields interact with each other and cancel each other out... The result is Noise Free Power..... Back in the 70's you could buy a 12 volt Filter Coil at Radio Shack to fix the "Whine" of the Alternator in you New CAR RADIO.... Newer Transistor type Car Radios would pick up the NOISE on the 12 volt DC Car Power and as you stepped on the Gas the "Whine" of the Alternator would be picked up by the Radio and you hear it on the Speakers with the Music.... Same Theory..... The Noise Filter eliminated the Noise....

DO this TEMPORARY TEST to Prove that the Wire is BROKEN between the underside Solder Pad and the COIL. Usually as soon as you melt the solder on the underside of the board of the BROKEN LEAD, it will FALL OFF..... Showing you the Broken TIP of the Wire....

BUT.... Things change.... This could be a whole new issue.... That I am just learning about....

I have seen pictures of a different version of the Power Supply, one with a different configuration, and 3 metal bars... Your power supply may not look like this.... All my machines are 2007 "A" Versions....

Let us know....

AL

[chief2007]

I has a similar problem a while back, C version machine - power supply was bad. Luckily I had a spare, put in the new power supply and all is good.

[rickyz]

this one is a b machine that I got for the recon 999.00 price. originally had issues with the on off switch from the get go... thanks everyone for the tips. i'll have to check it out tomorrow. anyone know what a replacement power supply costs just in case I go that route?

[brdad]

I have this problem every so often, and for me it has always been one of the connectors on the power supply board. If I slide it repeatedly on and off several times, the issue disappears. I'm tempted to solder the wires directly onto the posts, or solder in a connector designed to be in the harsher environment the CW creates. Sometimes I wonder if some of these power supplies people are replacing have the same issue and changing the supply restores the connection and nothing was wrong with the supply in the first place. I also thought the power switch got a bad connection once, I took it apart and cleaned it and it worked fine, but looking back that could have moved the power connector enough to reestablish a connection at the connector.

Assuming there are no intermittent physical connection issues on the board itself (as in the case of a broken L1), if you're getting the correct voltage from the supply, I'd gamble the issue was elsewhere. It seems unlikely that the electronics of the supply would have an intermittent fault, more likely it's go or no-go. But anything is possible...

[rickyz]

can I put a power supply from an A machine into a B machine to verify that is the issue? or are they not compatible... would hate to get a new one if there is nothing wrong with this one.... I was first having issues with the actual on/off switch at first. the leads to the switch actually came off in shipping.... as usual, anyone's help is greatly appreciated...

[fwharris]

can I put a power supply from an A machine into a B machine to verify that is the issue? or are they not compatible... would hate to get a new one if there is nothing wrong with this one.... I was first having issues with the actual on/off switch at first. the leads to the switch actually came off in shipping.... as usual, anyone's help is greatly appreciated...

The power supply should work with any version machine.

[rickyz]

well, got around to changing out the power supply. I tested it out with the antique chair frame and got the same error message after it carved the back side and made it to 10 percent of the other side... anyone have any suggestions as to where I can go from here? figures I would have problems with a recon while my a series machine keeps on truckin....

[Digitalwoodshop]

The Connector Plugs to the Power Supply can have a weak Crimp from Wire to Plug.

The On Off Switch could be Intermittant.....

Any chance you got a bad power supply.... I would move the power supply from a Good Machine and see what happens....

AL