Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX knocked out by power outages

[D-Money]

Before our power-outages last week, we had a working Bridgeport EZ-Trak DX (8MB flash-card variety). After the power-outages, we've got a very oddly behaving machine.

Once powered up, the machine homes the Y-Axis with no problem, and then it sends the X-Axis home. Unfortunately, even though the X-Axis trips the limit switch (Balluff BNS 519-FD-60-101), the X-Axis does not stop. Once the X-Axis hits the physical end-of-travel, the motor (SEM MT30H4-44) keeps running, and won't shut-off until the Emergency Stop button is pressed.

While all of this is going on, there is no signal to the monitor from the computer.

Opening the control box shows a lit red LED on each of the X-Y controller cards. The motherboard's CPU fan is spinning, but the power-supply fan is too gunked up to spin. The computer won't POST (power-on self test). I tried a similar "vintage" power-supply, but it appeared to die after about 5 seconds.

I'm assuming the motherboard is dead and is zapping power-supplies. Just to be sure, I ordered a NEW power-supply for $25, so I'll give that a shot. If the m/b zaps that one too, then I'll know for sure where this particular problem lies.

Additionally, there seems to be a blown relay on the 230V line. It appears to be a LR2-D13 type Thermal Overload Relay, positioned right next to the MF and MR relays, but I can't seem to find it on the "System Wiring Diagram (94-3390)" for the TRAK Series. I'm assuming the Relay is blown because the blue "reset" button won't stay depressed, but my background is computers, not electronics.

Is there anywhere, outside of China, where I can get a NEW replacement relay? Plccenter.com only had used relays.

It'll be interesting to see how this plays out.

[dreammstr6]

not sure on your power supply problem but the overload is normal. if the blue button stays out it is set for manual reset. to set for auto reset push in with a screwdriver and turn to lock in. in auto reset if the motor trips out it will kick itself back in when it cools. hope this helps i change alot of those at work.

[D-Money]

Ahh, I see. I assumed it was like a regular circuit breaker, where it locks-in until it trips and pops out.

I can't find any sort of on-line documentation (in English) for those things.

Thanks for the info!

[dreammstr6]

your very welcome. those re obsolete now. we still have a bunch where i work the new ones re just a red and blue momentary push button. maybe the new power supply will fix your machine right up. my poor machine doesn't look good lol $1300 for a bmdc card. and i'm still not sure it's it

[D-Money]

Replaced the power-supply today and the computer boots up normally.

We also found a cracked and mostly broken wire on the X-axis limit switch, so that was replaced too. Just a few strands were holding it together, heh.

Now, unfortunately, we're getting the following alarm "Commanded X-Axis Move Too Far Positive" while X is at any position, even on the limit switch. Trying to jog X in the negative direction gives a limit alarm, regardless of the current position of X.

We also get the "Commanded X-Axis Move Too Far Positive" alarm when jogging the Y-axis.

Time to get into the parameter menus, I guess. ;P The 11235 password does not work, but the 51443 password does.

[dreammstr6]

could this wire that was cracked shorted against the frame? if so might have killed a section of the bmdc and that's why it acting funny. hve you verified the x home switch is working with a meter? i don't know much about ez track machines but seems like this wire might be what caused all your problems.

[D-Money]

Yep, the X limit switch does work. With the replaced wiring the machine can now home the X and actually stop. It just doesn't want to move it after that, heh. Instead of moving away from home, it'll just say "Commanded X-Axis Move Too Far Positive," even if we manually jog it back to any point on X and Y.

[dreammstr6]

then maybe you will have to use the tuner program pfm or something to reset the limits. maybe it thinks it's at the encoder limit in software.

[D-Money]

That's what I was assuming, but the X limit was already at 30, and the Y limit was already at 12.

[D-Money]

And the strangeness continues:

Using the jog-wheel works fine on Y+ and Y-.
Using the jog-wheel works fine on X-
Using the jog-wheel works for about an inch on X+ then it stops moving. If you spin it more after it stops, you'll have to spin it the same amount in the opposite direction before it starts moving again in X-.

Using the twisty-switch for jog for Y+, Y-, X- causes the "commanded X Axis Move too far positive" alarm. Using the twisty-switch for jog X+ causes an "exceed limit" alarm (and this is with the tabled centered under the spindle).

After the "bounds fault would exceed limits" alarm, X will move on it's own slowly in the X+ direction for about an inch. Then, it'll suddenly jump about 2 additional inches in the X+ direction and finally alarm with "Servo: X DAC Overflow"

Fun, huh? :P

Also, within the tuner program, it brings up the error message "failed to find c:\bmdcprms.sys" file and of-course the back-up floppy disk from 1997 (EZ-Trak v3.06) is showing as not only blank, but not even formatted.

[D-Money]

And the latest news:

The machine won't wheel-jog past a soft-X0 (i.e G54) in the -x direction. That is, after homing, if you set x0 when the table is centered, it won't go beyond that zero in the -x direction, even though the "machine coordinate" is something like x15.0.

I'm assuming that the missing BMDCPRMS.SYS file might have something to do with it, but I don't think there's a backup copy anywhere for this Series 1 machine.

Update:

Success! While the tuner was looking for the BMDCPRMS.SYS file, everything I needed was contained within SYS.BEZ

Not sure what all of the values are but the file on the machine had 0 x travel and 845 inches of y travel!! :P

The backup file was
1 30.0 12.0 0.0000 0.0000 0.0005 0.0011 -.0023 0.0003 1

The wonky file was
1 0.0 845.5 75833125.0 22737500.0 0.0000 0.0000 0.0020 0.0021 1

[machintek]

The sys.bez file is the one that is accessed with the 11235.
at the main screen press the * key.
a box should appear in the top left corner asking for the code.
The code is 11235 followed by ENTER twice.

George