power fluctuation

[rickyz]

The power supply worked fine with the A machine. that's whats weird, never had a power fluctuation problem before and it worked ok with small 15 minute carves. traded out on off switch too and made no difference. There were no thunderstorms or outlet problems so I am at a loss. Power went out when doing the antique chair picture frame project at about 30 percent into the job....weird....

[chief2007]

Did you put the power supply from the A machine into the one with the problem?

Just curious...

[Digitalwoodshop]

This is a Sad Story.... A Expensive Story too... Many lessons to be learned... I can totally understand getting to the point that you just send the machine in for repair... Since the Power Supply is most suspect here... If I had to do it over again, I would request a 2nd power supply... The L2 Coil on the Replacement could have popped the connection simply from shipping.... But since it worked in another machine then the crimp connectors to the power supply come into play...

So for future users in this same situation....

For "Testing Purposes Only".... ONLY do this IF working on POWER CIRCUITS is within your ABILITY.... PLEASE DON'T GET HURT.... THIS POWER CAN KILL YOU..... Have a 2nd person that can help if something goes wrong ready to un plug the machine quickly.

In review, The L2 Coil on the power supply is a weak link as since it can vibrate, the wire fatigue can cause the wire to snap below the surface of the board. The Power Output goes through the L2 on the way OUT of the Power Supply and that is why when the L2 Wire breaks, the power goes out like a blown fuse....

To TEST a Suspect BAD L2.... I would have someone solder a jumper between the 2 leads of the L2 Coil removing it from the Circuit by adding a Jumper. Since the L2 Coil on the Power Supply is already a Short Circuit in effect.. A Length of solid copper wire like 14 gage house wire wrapped around a ferrite or metal core. The Magic in what it does is that the expanding and collapsing Magnetic Fields of AC or Alternating Current "NOISE" riding on the DC or Direct Current of the power get eliminated when passing through the L2 Coil. By Temporally Shorting the two bottom contacts of the L2 Coil the Noise will not be removed. But during this test you may find the Power Supply is now fixed... As many remember from my posting the pictures many times... The L2 Coil Wires stick through the board from the top and are bent over then Soldered in a Wave Soldering tank. When the vibration causes the power supply L2 to snap, it usually does it where it is bent over inside the board. Seeing it is very difficult... If the process of soldering the bottom Jumper you may find that the snapped off wire from the L2 falls off..... Showing you the problem. Due to the Thickness of the L2 Wire and the thin Solder Pad, this soldering should be done by someone who has the ability. Ripping up the thin copper trace on the circuit board can easily happen, I have done it in my Sony Days...

That leads me to my 2nd thing I would recommend to the next person with this problem... INSPECT the Copper Pads that the L2 pass through and look for hair line cracks.... The pad is a Circle with a hole then a copper trace leading away from the contact moving the voltage to the next point.

The last thing would be to eliminate a bad switch... This was done by swapping the switch.... With no fix.... On another machine I would recommend re crimping the wires to the switch and trace the wires and crimp all the connections to the power supply too. And last but not least... In effect... Short the On Off Switch Wires... I would do this by un plugging them and finding a way to TEMPORALLY connect them.... Solder, another Slide on connector.... This Temp TEST will eliminate the switch.....

EVERY TEST I am suggesting is a TEMPORARY Troubleshooting TEST.... ALL JUMPERS will be removed after the TEST.... And when the On Off Switch is bypassed, un plugging the unit will be the primary method of turn it on and off....

And always UN PLUG the machine while working on the Power Systems.... YOU CAN GET KILLED doing this if you are not careful... So I warn YOU.... IF you are un familiar with working on Power Systems like this.... You are better off sending the machine in for repair....

Please don't get HURT or Burn Down you shop doing the tests....

Good Luck,

AL

[rickyz]

power supply from A machine worked for a while. it was in machine when the machine completely failed. The power supply from the B recon machine worked fine in the A machine so I think it's something other than the power supply. I also switched out the on/off switch from working machine and made no difference. is there something special in that switch? did a continuity test and switch tested ok. I crimped the connections just to be sure and even bypassed the switch to see if that was the problem... trading out parts is no problem for me, but i'm not that confident when it comes to the electronic side....

[chief2007]

Did you switch out the circuit board that is under the machine?

But the symptoms you describe point to the power supply.

A lot of times it just takes trading out parts until you find the bad one

[GrammaPam]

Thank you to all who have repsonded. I did not start this question but am having the same problem. This timely post has been very important to me.

Edit:
Should clarify, the power fluctuation part, not the shipping part. With two machine it seems there is always something (at least one something) wrong.

[mtylerfl]

The power supply worked fine with the A machine. that's whats weird, never had a power fluctuation problem before and it worked ok with small 15 minute carves. traded out on off switch too and made no difference. There were no thunderstorms or outlet problems so I am at a loss. Power went out when doing the antique chair picture frame project at about 30 percent into the job....weird....

I had an idea for something to try, but it probably has NOTHING to do with the problem. But, since you have nothing to lose, you may want to try this anyway...

1) Turn on the machine and Press "0" for "Options"
2) Press "5" for "User Options"
3) Press "2" for "Sleep After..."
4) Press the Green ENTER button until the Sleep After says <OFF>
5) Press the Red STOP button twice to exit out of the options menu
6) Do another test carve and see if the machine stays on through the entire project

If that works, it would surprise me, but if it were me I would at least try it.

[rickyz]

All I traded out was the power supply and the on/off switch... didn't feel confortable switching anything else out. I also didn't have any power fluctuation message with the A machine power supply... thought I had it fixed. It ran for about 30 percent of a project and just shut off. now power, no nothing. Very weird. I've had just about everything mechanical go bad at one time or another over the past five years. I'm interested to see what failed on this one. I do like the fact that this machine seems to run a lot quieter than the A machine even with the rock chuck which by the way I love. I just hope it doesn't cost a fortune to fix... I was hoping to buy the new software programs before this happened... oh well...hopefully my experience will help others when it gets figured out...

[rickyz]

I also didn't want to keep replacing parts because I needed at least one working machine since I have lots of orders right now that need to be filled...Hoping to have second one back so I can keep up with the demand for the holiday season...

[chief2007]

I hear ya on keeping a machine running, I got lucky and found a parts machine online.

Key components worked so I am lucky enough to have some spare parts I can use to troubleshoot with.

Hopefully all goes well with your orders and no other break downs until the backup machine is up and running