Bridgeport Boss 4 Stops

[tcalef]

Hello All,

I'm finally breaking into CNC. I got my hands on a Bridgeport Series 1 with the BOSS 4 controls. Everything works perfect, except that when jogging any of the axis with the controller, after about 2 minutes, motion stops. If i shut the machine down and turn it back on, I can jog everything again, but then shuts down even sooner. It seems to me that something is overheating and shutting down the estop circuit. Has anyone seen anything like this?

My second question, is that I was planning on retrofitting this to the Mach3 setup. Any chance that something like this would go away when I do that because I wouldn't be using their controller, just the drives?

Thanks,
Tom

[machintek]

Since the issue is common to all 3 axis, I would suspect a thermal issue with the logic boards. Is the fan beneath them working? And the two behind the tape reader panel?

George

[Sparky_NY]

I am pretty sure the original drives could not be used with a Mach3 retrofit due to various compatibility problems. I retrofitted a Boss8 to mach and the original drives were not possible for reuse. Some of the drive functions come from the control head and other boards as well as not being step/direction type drives.

If you decide to retrofit, new drives are not a huge cost. Getting new modern electronics is a plus.

[scottly]

Tapburrbit had a similar problem with a couple of Boss 5 machines. On 10-30-11, he reported that he had fixed both machines by simply removing and re-seating the FSP card in the regulated power supply. The FSP card has the adjustments for the 5 and 12V regulators on it, so you may want to check the voltage at the test points to see if they are out of spec. I don't recall for sure, off the top of my head, but I think the 12 volt regulated outputs should be 11.8-12.2, and the 5 volt 4.9-5.1.