Looking for reasonably priced Fanuc electronics repair (oxy-moron?)

Chevy427z · Dec 23, 2014

Hi folks.

I hope this is the appropriate place for this question. I have a late 90’s LeBlond Makino RMC55 4 axis mill. It has a Fanuc O-M controller. A local repair guy has determined that I need the servo control board (A16B-1100-0280 ) looked at. (400 error code upon start up and the motors are cold) I about died when I got the first estimate to have it repaired. (Approx $1000)

Is it unreasonable to think that that is a bit over priced? Don’t get me wrong, I respect knowledge and skill. I am a one man operation on a very low budget. Is there someone out there doing electronic repair like I am doing machine work? (on the side at reasonable prices)

Do you have a favorite go to repair place? Many thanks, in advance!

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Mark

twr · Dec 23, 2014

I don't know price to repair but you want to get a quote from Industrial Electronic Repair and Surplus Solutions - Global Electronic Services, Inc a bud of mine used them once. They are in GA.

Guest · Dec 23, 2014

Try CNC Electronics in Charlottesville, Virginia. (434) 971-1394. They are always my first choice but they are limited on what they fix. I believe they do stock and repair the O series. Cheap and good board repair don't go in the same sentence. The good places have a lot invested in specialized test equipment and simulators.

Guest · Dec 23, 2014

That unit has a retail price over $2500, most places charge 50% of new to fix. PLC center who I do not trust wants $1500 for a 5-20 day repair. Hate to tell you this but that makes $1,000 cheap, not expensive.

CBlair · Dec 23, 2014

Yea Mark, I wouldnt be too upset with that price, if that fixes the issue. About Global, I know they bench check stuff but I dont think they actually do repairs, I think they send them out. But of course please double check that as I could be wrong, I have never used them but I know of them.

Charles

Chevy427z · Dec 23, 2014

That's what I was afraid of. I guess it's been a while since I had to buy anything for my machines. I will count my blessings on that, and with the $1000 price. I do understand about specialized equipment. Thank you all very much for your input!

Mark

twr · Dec 23, 2014

CBlair you maybe correct about Global but it says they repair in house I don't know for sure either way.

BigHoss · Dec 23, 2014

80% of electronics failure in computer hardware are electrolytic capacitor failures, which may be easily identified with a $100 esr meter while still soldered to the circuit board. What that meter does is check the capacitor's internal resistance at an a/c frequency of about 100kc. It test the caps, without leaving any trace evidence, you tested it. When the caps fail their resistance goes up at those frequencies.
IMHO it's worth a try.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72sJ5Infuu0

Chevy427z · Dec 23, 2014

Gotta love youtube. Obviously, electronics is not my strong suit. Anything can be learned, though. And I've learned a lot from youtube. I'll be contacting the folks mentioned above for quotes. I've used 3E Services, too, in the past and have had great work from them. That wasn't cheap, either, but they were able to repair a monitor from a 1984 Sharnoa controller.

ranchak · Dec 23, 2014

Try Calling John Galbreith at 714-330-3370, he has a huge Fanuc used board surplus. Pretty reasonable on pricing, Dualkit might even know him.

Guest · Dec 23, 2014

ranchak said:
Try Calling John Galbreith at 714-330-3370, he has a huge Fanuc used board surplus. Pretty reasonable on pricing, Dualkit might even know him.

Never heard of John. I used CNC Surgeon in Covina guys name was Joe, he had a good stock of used Fanuc OT boards. He would come out and swap out boards for less than others charged for the board alone. Unfortunately there aren't any Joes in my neck of the woods now.

pgmrmike · Dec 23, 2014

Great info, guys.

Mr Wizard · Dec 23, 2014

FANUC World.com : Tennessee Industrial Electronics, Inc.
I have used these guys in the past , they have usually had what I needed in stock and it was a swap out, never any DOA, or you can purchase straight out. Not cheap but a lot better price/delivery than others I checked. Local to me

Vancbiker · Dec 24, 2014

400 alarm and a cold motor is not enough diagnosis, IMHO, to decide to replace the board. What are the contents of diagnostics 720-723? What LEDs are lit or not on the board? Did the tech meter out the thermo switch wiring to the affected motor? Put a scope on the voltage test pins to look at noise on the DC voltages?

Hopefully your tech is good and has gone through all these and other tests to verify the need for a new board. Too often "techs" are really nothing more than parts changers.

Guest · Dec 24, 2014

Mr Wizard said:
FANUC World.com : Tennessee Industrial Electronics, Inc.
I have used these guys in the past , they have usually had what I needed in stock and it was a swap out, never any DOA, or you can purchase straight out. Not cheap but a lot better price/delivery than others I checked. Local to me

I have used them also. Not the cheapest but competent and they have a good stock. My major beef with them is they have started to not sell individual boards if more than one board make up a unit. I had a two board servo drive for an OT only one of the boards was bad. I got a quote for $1100 for the one board, then when I went to buy it they only wanted to sell a complete unit for $2100. I got this BS that the person who originally quoted me was not authorized. That is when I found CNC Electronics for my 0T needs they sold me the single board for $875, and they are only 60 miles away. Unfortunately they only have full stock on 0T's and a few 16, 18, and 21 items.

Guest · Dec 24, 2014

Vancbiker said:
400 alarm and a cold motor is not enough diagnosis, IMHO, to decide to replace the board. What are the contents of diagnostics 720-723? What LEDs are lit or not on the board? Did the tech meter out the thermo switch wiring to the affected motor? Put a scope on the voltage test pins to look at noise on the DC voltages?

Hopefully your tech is good and has gone through all these and other tests to verify the need for a new board. Too often "techs" are really nothing more than parts changers.

The places I use will test yours before exchange and some won't even charge you if it comes up good and others will only charge $100. The places I recommend CNC Electronics or T.I.E. just pop them in a control simulator. You do not want to use places that do component level testing they are hit and miss. Also stay far away from PLC Center in New Jersey. The only good thing about them is the pricing you can find on the internet.

Looks like you are on the wrong end of the state to make a road trip to CNC Electronics, they have tested things for me on the spot for no charge. (they are 60 miles from me) Instead of paying a tech I would just pull whatever boards could be bad and have them tested if you could find someone to do it for a couple hundred or less. Forget T.I.E. for that they want $200 each and sometimes more if they are backed up and you want quick service.

Ox · Dec 24, 2014

Vancbiker said:
400 alarm and a cold motor is not enough diagnosis, IMHO, to decide to replace the board. What are the contents of diagnostics 720-723? What LEDs are lit or not on the board? Did the tech meter out the thermo switch wiring to the affected motor? Put a scope on the voltage test pins to look at noise on the DC voltages?

Hopefully your tech is good and has gone through all these and other tests to verify the need for a new board. Too often "techs" are really nothing more than parts changers.

But that is the world that we are living in now-days.
Last TV repair place that I know of closed up shop prolly 20 yrs ago.
Electronics are more reliable AND cheaper to produce than back-in-the-day, so the skill set of chasing board issues has gotten a LOT smaller, and just not enough application to justify many (any?) younger techs to pick up the trade.

My tech guy is about 70 yrs old and picked it up in the service in the early 60's.

I wonder if there are any night classes that a tech could take to better himself in his field if he so chose to?
I bet not - w/o taking a full engineering class and finally get into the grit in year 3, after all the BS classes designed to make you a better person....
:toetap:

----------------------

Think Snow Eh!
Ox

ranchak · Dec 24, 2014

Give John a call, he is extremely knowledgeable, tell him what is happening with your machine. He will tell you what to check and based upon that he will tell you what is most likely wrong. He has helped me a few times on my 11M, been right the first time.

Chevy427z · Dec 24, 2014

Thank you for the additional info folks. I started my search last night with someone who’s done great work for me in the past (3E Services in Georgia). I found my board listed on his website at $518 for repair. Have to call for the new and refurbished prices. I’ve sent him an email about taking a look at mine. Waiting to hear back. Could be a while with the holidays upon us, but it’s no rush. Just a one man operation working out of my garage.

In the meantime, I knew I had to remove my board to ship it so I decided to do that this morning. With my limited knowledge of electronics, sometimes I get lucky and find a bad solder joint or something similar so I gave it a good looking over. I found a spot on the board, under a line of about 6 resistors that is very dark (burned looking but not quite). If I was a betting man, I’d guess that they may be thermistors gone bad, sending wrong information to the controller. These “resistors” are very dark in color, too, but no obvious outward signs of damage.

FWIW, I have every faith in the man who looked at the machine initially. The content of diagnostics 720-723 were 1’s in the last digit and if memory serves, the “OH” LED (#6 on the bottom) was lit.

Thanks again for your valuable time and information!

editted: my very first estimate (in the orginal post) was from FanucWorld.

amdinc · Dec 24, 2014

The first thing I would do is to swap boards with another axis drive and see where the problem goes. I think on that drive the fans have a rotation detector. I have problems with that circuit. The fan will run but the rotation detector circuit was bad giving you an overheat alarm.

John

Looking for reasonably priced Fanuc electronics repair (oxy-moron?)

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