PROBLEM WITH WIRE EDM

I just bought Brother HS3100 wire EDM machine at auction and after powering it up everything was fine for few days. Than one morning I turned it on and the screen and the keyboard were dead.(except green ON and red OFF lights).The rest of the machine was ON. (fans and all the electronics inside the machine were running). I checked all the fuses and I found one (3Amp fast glass) blown inside the control. And now, after replacing that fuse when I try to turn on the machine , it powers up but after 5 seconds it turns itself off. Same thing happens when I disconnect CRT monitor.(no difference) Is it possible that the monitor is bad ,and there is no confirmation to control board that the monitor is working and that's why machine is shutting off ? Any idea? When I remove the replaced fuse machine powers up but the keybord and monitor are still not working. Thanks for any response! One more thing. This machine is wired for 240 V. It has other 4 options (200, 208, 220 and 230 V) In my place voltage varies from 205 to 215 V) Would that be a problem

(My original answer posted at cnczone)

The electrical variance could well be enough to cause problems. On most machines they want it within 5%, yours is out of that range. Another common problem on used machines is the battery that backs up the operating system is dead. When you power it off it loses it's memory, and you have to re-load the software and all the parameters.

I never shut my machines off, the control, servos, and pumps are constantly running.

Cheers!

Roy Solomon

I am not familiar with Brother, but based on your available transformer settings, I believe the machine is designed to run on 200vac on the output of the transformer. IF you have 205 coming in and are on the 240v taps, your voltage is running low.
Check the output (U,V,W,) of the transformer and tap the transformer to get as close to 200v as possible. (You'll probably want the 208 tap). Double check your documentation, but if this is a Japanese designed machine, it almost certainly uses 200v.
Not saying that this is the problem, but it seems some attention to the incomming voltage is definately in order.
And Roy is right, +- 5% regardless of what any sales guy might tell you

Check for any blown fans in the control. That could have been what blew the fuse. If you have a fan that is locked up, it could be pulling the voltage down to a level where the computer will not boot properly, or cause errors. I don't know how the Brothers are wired but guessing they are the same as many older CNC machines; a 100v power supply runs the computer, fans, and a bunch of other 100v functions.

Also, you might need to reload software. Is there a backup battery in the contol anywhere? Turn the breaker off, give it 10-15 minutes, and test the battery. It should be holding a charge.

Jinxx

For the most part you can disregard the voltage variation when it comes to the Brother.
I do have a variation from 220 to 260 for days and the HS3100 has never given me any fits in 8 years.
If it was power, the PowerFail light on the control would be lit.
The backup battery is 4 AA batteries. Worth the try, but you should be seeing the Battery indicator on the front panel lit.
Are there any lights lit on the main control board? That's the half footballfield size board in the back.

Seymour, what I remember now there ara like 8 or 9 diode lights in vertical line on main control board , 5 of them lit all the time and 1 in the middle blinks fast. Obviously, the blinking one is trying to tell me something. If I just knew what! I changed 3 AA batteries when I bought the machine, so I guess it's not a problem.

It sounds like your transformer taps and breaker are the most likely problem. If the machine is able to power up at all with the transformer set the way it is, it's likely that the main breaker is also too small to be used with your incoming voltage, and the machine is drawing more voltage than the breaker will allow. I would set the transformer to the 208 incoming voltage and check the KVA power requirement for this machine. Guessing it will be around 20 KVA or so, I'm thinking you'll need a 60 amp breaker to keep everything from shutting down at 208V.