Problem- Boss 8 Bridgeport problem

[snovak240]

I am new at this and have no training wheels on to help me out with this machine. This morning..... The machine thru a fault (2000). The book says that it is a communications error and says to reset, or go to field maintenance.??? I have the machine drives enabled and moved to the home position, but can go no further... The control will not change between any of the modes and I can not JOG, MOVE TO, or even start the program that I ran all day yesterday. I am afraid to shut it off because of the work load I have on the machine and fear not getting it back up and running at all. Is it possible that the battery behind the control is causing this? If so do any of you know the battery sizes I need?


On another note... The problems I am having seem to have started when I tried to use BobCad to talk to the machine. Could any of this caused an issue? I didnt get the laptop to talk to the control at all thru the port. Any BobCad people out there that use it to talk to the machine would be a great help. This line by line programming takes way too long.


Thanks in advance

Stan

[machintek]

It is possible that you have a corrupted file. The diagnostics are on the FMDC board K3 if I remember correctly. You need a dumb terminal and a cable to K3. There is a section on this in the maintenance manual. It is called the FIST event monitor.
If it is a corruted file, you have to go to LOAD,CLEAR,EDIT and clear out all programs and the tool table.
I would also look at the boards. The EAF has one green LED in the center. If it is blinking it is communicating to the system. The FMDC has 8 LED. The last two are green and should be blinking as a different rate from each other. That means all is well with that board. Otherwise the LED pattern indicates what is the problem.
There are 2 lithium batteries. One on the FMDC that bakes up the fault event log. The other on the EMC that bakes up the tool table and programs. You will not find a direct replacement. It is obsolete. You have to find a lithium battery and solder wires to the pins of the old battery. The EMC is a seven layer board so be careful. Also do not pinch any ribbon cables putting the keypad back on as it will become useless.
I use a shareware DOS version of PROCOMM to communicate to my R2E4. That was 21 years ago. The program must also be written correctly.

George

[snovak240]

George,

I still have the machine powered up and it will not allow anything to work.
Can you explane the dumb terminal and the cable you are talking about and a guess on where in the control pannel I will be putting it on. I will look at the manual to see if I can sort it out from in there, but these manuals seem to be very general and dont really tell you what to do if something works or dont work. I dont think the batteries are my problem. Nothing as far as locations has been lost from what I can see on the screen. When you say a corrupt file, wouldnt the program not have run yesterday? I am still new at this machine and do not want to do anything that will make it worse than what I have been dealing with. For an older machine it is OK except for the cnc side of it. Do you know if I can fire this off again if I do shut it off. Also, I did have an error last week that said DNC OFF. I dont know why that came up, but after hitting the reset button, it did clear. Could that error also have something to do with this new problem perhaps?

So, do you think it would be possible to use the BobCad to load/edit programs in this control? I believe the guy who had it before me used an older version of mastercam. Any suggestions on a system that is out there now that may work?

Thank you very much for the thoughts and help.

Stan

[cut more]

George,
I have a series2 boss8,
I use the ezcom to communicate with mine.

It sounds like your drives enable and you were able to home the machine then you can't do anything else, is that correct?
I have had a problem with a program getting corrupted when my battery died.
Have you hit the e-stop then reset the e-stop. You will have to re-home the machine if you are able to after but this might clear whatever is locking the control.
You aren't making any parts right now so what's it going to hurt killing the power and re-starting it?

good luck,
Cutmore

[MrBoss8]

After a few power up cycles, you will know if it is a problem. If a reset (side cabinet) has not worked, its the best you can do without cycling the power. You might check the 3 phase voltage levels at the rear power cabinet, one sagging voltage can cause the weirdest problems with the control.

[snovak240]

Thanks for all the advice. I was able to get the machine back up and running for the past week. Unforunatly, yesterday I loaded a fixture in my vices and while indicating it in, I hit my Xaxis limit switch, now I cant bring it back on line again. I dropped the switch and got it to start, now it is saying I have a 0C00 error and the control is saying the DNC is off. Whatever that means. It dont make sence that the machine was just running, now there is a problem again. I did get the machine to home out and moved to XY positions, but then the DNC OFF error came back on. Is this something I should just keep hitting the rest button and trying again. All the voltage looks ok. I am running a rotary converter, but am running the wild leg thru a voltage stabilizer. Im thinking the machine just dont like that. The previous owner used a rotary converter and said the machine ran well for him, but after listening to everyone, I am begining to wonder if he was just trying to get rid of his problems, now mine! Thanks again

[Newby2]

I haven't replied for a while but here are some of my opinions. I have a R2E3 Series 2 BOSS 8 running on a 7.5 HP RPC. I made sure not to have any of the control voltage supplies connected to the phantom leg. As for the batteries, I found replacements at Radio Shak, they are, I believe, a 3V lithium Photo battery.
Perhaps try disconnecting both batteries to allow the controls to dump any tool tables, programs, or other information stored in the memories. I say this as I have the new batteries but have not installeed them yet. When I power down the machine, any programs/tool info is dumped, a little inconvienent but it works for me.
One final comment. I recently had a servo controller go bad and found a repair facility here in Michigan that refurbishes them and gives a 1 year "bumper to bumper" warrenty on repairs for about $450. Cheap considering they are virtually impossible to find.
Steve