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Ezpath sd computer replacement?

tarzan63

Plastic
Joined
Dec 20, 2015
I have a 1998 Ezpath SD that has a problem intermittently with an error that is a GPfault and sometimes it wont load the bmdc.
I had a guy troubleshoot it and he was not able to find the problem. I had another guy(both of these guys own machine repair businesses) come look at it because I could not get past the bmdc test at all. He turned the power on in the back and then spent an hour or so checking things in the cabinet and was not finding anything out of the ordinary. SO he proceeded to power up the control and the machine came back up and acted like nothing was wrong. He then stated that in this state there was nothing else he could do and gave me a $360 bill.

So in the interest of not wasting anymore money like this I am wanting to replace the computer in it or maybe convert the thing to Mach3 or some other control

My question is, can I replace the motherboard and bmdc with something more modern? Or do I have to replace the whole control?
I'm no electrical wizard, but I did manage to convert my Bridgeport Boss5 to a mach3 control, but I would prefer to use the ezpath system if possible.
 
The GP fault can be the BMDC, motherboard, software, or hard drive. When you power up the controller, look on the BMDC for a flashing light. Does the light flash on/off every other second or does it flash once every 3 seconds?

Have you tried reloading your software? What are your 5VDC and 12VDC signals?

Jon
H&W Machine Repair
 
If it hasn't already been tried, you can disconnect and reconnect connectors along with re-seating all peripheral cards, RAM, and processor(s). Static grounding is very important here, so if you don't know what you're doing or aren't willing to thoroughly research what you're doing, you might do more harm than good.

I sympathize with the pain of getting a guy to look at it, having nothing fixed, and getting a bill. But that's the way of intermittent problems, especially electrical/electronic. Unless you can catch it in the act, there's almost no chance in diagnosing the problem. The guy that came in should have warned you of such (if he didn't already) and have informed you of a minimum charge for having a look before starting. In all fairness, it was time spent on your machine that could have been spent elsewhere. But I digress. It doesn't sound like you're complaining severely about that part, rather just trying to avoid a repeat.
 
Solved!
So I never came back and updated the status of my error code problem. I did buy a Centroid Oak controller and was too busy to install it earlier this year. I was messing with the lathe one day because I really needed to make a part on the lathe but this controller issue wouldn't let me. SO I figured out that every time I moved the wires from the power supply that I could now reliable get the fault to come up, before I could sometimes make it fault but not always. It turned out that the connector at the power supply board was loose. It is a 3 prong connector so I bent the middle one in a little, reconnected it and have not had a problem since.
I'll still eventually install the Centroid control, but now I can do it when I get time.
Now to figure out how to align the tailstock to the headstock. I see that the tailstock has no provision to adjust it.
 








 
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