Burney 2.8 controller

[Brainfarth]

We have a Burney 2.8 controller unit running our plasma and it seems that the display controller card has gone south on us. The cost to upgrade to a new board(they don't support our version any more) is around 3700. What other options do we have around that same amount? Is there a cheaper route to go instead of buying the new upgrade?

-Mike

[Torchhead]

For less than that amount you can forklift replace the whole controller/THC interface with a PC and packaged stepper or Servo system. Depending on the type motors you currently have you may not even have to replace them.

See options at:

http://www.CandCNC.com/SolutionsMenu.htm

Tom CAUDLE
www.CandCNC.com

[porky118]

We have the same problem with our burny 2.8 controller. The display went dim and was barely able to use it. We had someone come in to look at it. They unplugged the led from the card and now it doesn't display at all. The led is burned out and I think we can be up and running if we can only find just the led that plugs into that controller. We were given a quote of around $3700 for a new controller but I believe that all we need is a new LED. Finding one seems to be difficult. They want to sell the whole controller instead of a replacement LED.

[Brainfarth]

I bet the led display is not one of a kind and can be replaced with a bunch of web surfing.
Oh yeah, we did end up replacing the board and another one went out.. That was replaced. Then the internal fan went out... Hopefully that is the end of our problems.

[Alan Bradford]

The display in a Burny 2.8 is a Vacume Florescent Display Tube.
The company that made the origional units for Burny went out of business many years ago.
The upgrade not only replaces the display, but the processor as well. The speeds are faster then the orig unit.

If you were to look for a replacement display, yopu wuold also need to replace the driver as well.
Im no going to say it cant be done, but most commercial operators or Tech Support people will not spend hundreds of hours engineering a $200 fix for a $4k part.

Anyway, as most of the 2.8's were used on plasma machines beware of the cheap PC/Stepper/Servo upgrades. Most of them will not work with High Frequency Plasma Machines.

Good Luck,

[Alan Bradford]

By the way a common problem with the B2.8 was the display going out or dim.
Sometimes a good swat to the side of the box would bring it back for a few hours or days. They had problems with the connectors on the VFD's

Gotta love Precussion Engineering

[porky118]

I removed the display and the controller card works fine but the the display itself is obviously burned out. It just plugs in, and I would think that if I had another display that it would plug in and work fine. I may be wrong since I'm not a tech, but until the old display was hit everything worked fine except the display was dim. We had a tech come out and look at it. That's when he unplugged the display and bumped it, now it doesn't light up at all. CMC doesn't offer replacement displays due to the newer version of controller card with the display card and display on it.

The main problem is that the company that I work for was thinking about upgrading the whole top end of the plasma, but due to lack of work last year things were put on hold. Currently we have plenty of work, but they are unsure how long this may last. I can understand why they are nervous about spending. Putting a bandage on it would be better because if we spend too much then they will continue to keep the old unit and not upgrade at all.

For now we are able to keep it running even though we have no display by downloading the programs from the PC going through the steps on the controller from memory. So far things are working.

It's not a fix!!!!!!!!! It is very frustrating!!!!!!!!1
Porky118

[Alan Bradford]

Where are you located?
I have an 2.8 front panel with the old style display.
Contact me if your interested.
alan.bradford@plasmatechnologies.com

We also have retrofits available for all brands cutting machines.

Thanks,