Zahnrad Kopf
Diamond
- Joined
- Apr 5, 2010
- Location
- Tropic of Milwaukee
There have been threads recently about repairing this electronic board or that electronic board ( often regarding Haas servo amps ) and so I feel this very relevant at the moment.
We recently had our turning center go down. It would power up, but that was it. Nothing more. After much diagnosis it was narrowed down to this one board. The problem? The board is no longer available, and has not been for some time. The market is reliant upon the stock that exists, and being able to repair those when they pop.
As if that was not bad enough, there are apparently only two actual places in the country that actually repair them. And both of them are a core exchange only option. Give your old board to them, along with a large sum of money and they will send you a repaired board. If your board is not deemed worthy, you can pay even more because of it.
My EE friend that is my normal "go-to" in these situations was not available to me, and would not be for some time. We needed the machine running, and we needed it running yesterday. Going on past experiences, and learning what I could from him, I decided to replace the normal culprits like power components. There are not many on this board, so I went ahead and ordered replacements for the FETs, a voltage regulator, and a voltage reference. The voltage regulator replacement went very well. Smooth and easy. And I should have stopped there...
The FET replacements went sideways. And quickly. The traces pulled out of the board and ruined any hope of my amateur hands getting them fitted again. This is a multi layer board now and it was a mess. We were looking fairly screwed, and by my own hand.
While commenting in another of those other threads, a forum member that I am mildly acquainted with offered to look at the board for me, and fix it if it was possible. I agreed, and offered to pay his fees. He asked for the schematics and diagnostics if we had them. And there's the rub - There are none. Someone has done an excellent job of keeping any and all information about this one board from making it to the interwebs over the last 20 years. So he would be forced to work blind...
We shipped the board FedEx to Skyler ( member Bug Robotics ) and he got to work immediately. He repaired the multi level carnage I had caused, and diagnosed other things while he was in there. Without aid or benefit of a schematic and without diagnostics to guide him. He ended up also finding the RS422 chip had gone bad and replaced that as well.
The board arrived back here in less than 4 days. Only one issue remained. Skyler mentioned that he had wanted to replace the SIMM memory stick but did not have one there. I did. I replaced the memory and the board is functioning as good as new. And now, with refreshed components.
Skyler's price was RIDICULOUS. As in, incredibly less expensive than one would expect for such service. The bottom line here is that if you have the need for electronic repair and are hitting walls trying to find someone good that also has great service, along with good pricing, then do yourself a favor and call upon Skyler at Bug Robotics. You will not be disappointed. He'll be my first call from here on out.
We get no consideration for posting this. We are simply a very satisfied customer and thought to let other forum members know about this resource.
Thank you Bug Robotics! You have saved our butts.
We recently had our turning center go down. It would power up, but that was it. Nothing more. After much diagnosis it was narrowed down to this one board. The problem? The board is no longer available, and has not been for some time. The market is reliant upon the stock that exists, and being able to repair those when they pop.
As if that was not bad enough, there are apparently only two actual places in the country that actually repair them. And both of them are a core exchange only option. Give your old board to them, along with a large sum of money and they will send you a repaired board. If your board is not deemed worthy, you can pay even more because of it.
My EE friend that is my normal "go-to" in these situations was not available to me, and would not be for some time. We needed the machine running, and we needed it running yesterday. Going on past experiences, and learning what I could from him, I decided to replace the normal culprits like power components. There are not many on this board, so I went ahead and ordered replacements for the FETs, a voltage regulator, and a voltage reference. The voltage regulator replacement went very well. Smooth and easy. And I should have stopped there...
The FET replacements went sideways. And quickly. The traces pulled out of the board and ruined any hope of my amateur hands getting them fitted again. This is a multi layer board now and it was a mess. We were looking fairly screwed, and by my own hand.
While commenting in another of those other threads, a forum member that I am mildly acquainted with offered to look at the board for me, and fix it if it was possible. I agreed, and offered to pay his fees. He asked for the schematics and diagnostics if we had them. And there's the rub - There are none. Someone has done an excellent job of keeping any and all information about this one board from making it to the interwebs over the last 20 years. So he would be forced to work blind...
We shipped the board FedEx to Skyler ( member Bug Robotics ) and he got to work immediately. He repaired the multi level carnage I had caused, and diagnosed other things while he was in there. Without aid or benefit of a schematic and without diagnostics to guide him. He ended up also finding the RS422 chip had gone bad and replaced that as well.
The board arrived back here in less than 4 days. Only one issue remained. Skyler mentioned that he had wanted to replace the SIMM memory stick but did not have one there. I did. I replaced the memory and the board is functioning as good as new. And now, with refreshed components.
Skyler's price was RIDICULOUS. As in, incredibly less expensive than one would expect for such service. The bottom line here is that if you have the need for electronic repair and are hitting walls trying to find someone good that also has great service, along with good pricing, then do yourself a favor and call upon Skyler at Bug Robotics. You will not be disappointed. He'll be my first call from here on out.
We get no consideration for posting this. We are simply a very satisfied customer and thought to let other forum members know about this resource.
Thank you Bug Robotics! You have saved our butts.