ez-trac problems

[Dan D]

I have a 1997 ez-trac. it will not home. it gives me a alarm and says the drives are not on. cannot get the machine to do anything. need help. i don't have any manuals and have never run a ez-trac before this is all new to me. Dan

[trubleshtr]

is there power to the drives? check fuses and voltages. This also may sound dumb, but, un-plug everyhing (universal reset) and try to power everything up again.
do you know what form the communication is between the drives and the control software? there could also be a problem with comm.

good luck, let us know how you are making out, post pictures of your set up too , sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words.......

[Dan D]

I have checked fuses. I have checked voltages but i am not sure what the votages are suppose to be.Not sure what the communication is.

[trubleshtr]

Are there any part numbers on the drives to source out on the net? you may find voltage requirements that way.
what voltage did you measure (out of curiosity?) and what was it?

can the comm cable be easily removed form both ends? you could ring out the cable ans see if you have continuity from one end to the other?

[Dan D]

the control relay had 120v. the auxbob had 12v. not sure what cable is the comm cable

[trubleshtr]

Dan, can I assume the 120 v. is for the coil which is driving the 12volts to the driver board?
if you have power to the drive board, then it could be that the drive is bad, communication has stopped (due to a bad cable ) or there is no ready signal coming from the software to tell the drives to initialize. It could even be something as simple as an e-stop button that is faulty, or you exceeded the software or harware limits and the control does not want the machine to move for fear of crashing.
Any more information you can provide would be good, ie was the machine running when this happened
I'll try to help you out the best I can.
there's nothing like an "arm chair mechanic"

[machintek]

I can send you a PDF of the wiring diagram. Drives not on can be a few things. Usually it is one of the fuses in the top left corner of the electrical cabinet. BUT it could also be software, a bad BMDC board, etc.
There is a green and red LED on each drive board. Are both lit? the green indicates power, the red indicates a fault or the drives "OFF". I believe these are motion science Inc drive boards. Is this a two or three axis? is it a series 1 or 2? There is a green connector on the AUXBOB board it supplies 12VDC to the axis boards to turn them off. If you pull this connector out, the red LEDs on the boards should go out. If you had the emergency stop button pushed in, then the control should say it is in an emergency stop condition. Try it. When the machine is booting up it counts down. This is when the software is being loaded into the BMDC. Does it count down all the way to zero? If so the BMDC is not loading. It must have a hard drive or a flash card. Do you have the back up floppy? Are you PC or DOS literate?

George W.

[cnctools]

I have a eztrac milling machine.It has several os/2 plug ports behind the display panel. How do you enable an os/2 keyboard from these ports? I need to edit the machine programs with text at the machine. For offline editing do you have to use a text editing program from the rs232 port with another computer? Are there any Free text editing programs available to do this? how do you activate the DNC feature? This machine only has the Main key pad with only a numeric key pad available for machine programing and editing.
I have an interest in becoming more familure with this machines controls and its features from the management of its programs and how to interfqce it with another pc or laptop computer.

Thanks
cnctools

[machintek]

I believe you miss the reason that Bridgeport made this machine. The intent was for a NON CNC literate machinist to become a lot more productive. It can machine a slot to size at an angle without getting out a sine bar and twisting the vise. It can machine a circular perimeter or pocket without getting a hernia putting a rotary table on the machine. It can do scaling, rotation, and mirror imaging.
All the above in a conversational mode, just filling in the blanks, with the available keyboard. It will allow you to edit these same conversational programs with the same small keyboard. You can transfer one or all your programs to a floppy or use the RS232 ability it has.
Now to answer your questions. First get some books (www.machinemanuals.net).
You can edit a G & M code program on the machine if you go to DOS and edit. Now, this requires that you be DOS literate and not break any DOS rules while editing.
You can attach a full size AT type keyboard to one of those two DIN plugs in the corner of the CRT. Move the existing cable to either above or below your external keyboard. Those plugs are nothing more than a jumper to allow you to use a full size keyboard.
DNC was only available on the 3 axis machine. Bridgeport figured that if you had 3 axis, you may want to make molds.


George