Newbie with Dynapath 20 Controller

[lavrgs]

I just got a Tree 325 with an "electrical" problem and wanted to isolate what it may be. I want to try to hook power up to the Dynapath but before I do I am searching for the groups wisdom before I blow it up. I don't have any manual or wiring diagrams and want to know if I could power it directly from household power (120V) and if so where do I connect in. I see what looks like a power supply on the right side of the unit with several wires attached. Will the power come from a step down transformer? There is one just above it...

Thanks in advance for your help...I'm off to buzz it out and see what I can find.

[elnerdo]

That's how I do it. Neutral and ground to the left side of the terminal and hot to the right.

The fans for the servo amps should come on at this point.

Next step is to power the controller. Close the doors on both cabinets to complete the safety circuit and then flip the swich on the right side of the machine interface. You should get the display to come up after it boots displaying the fault screen. Hit the reset key at this point.

If you don't get anything on the display, look at the two little lights on the first card in the controller (after bypassing the doors) and verify that only the green light remains illuminated on the controller. The red light should have gone off if everythign is behaving normally.

[lavrgs]

Well I plugged in and all I get is 2 chinese characters on the top left of the screen and some occasional flashes of similar characters to the right and below which eventually stop.

I don't know if holding the door switch closed bypasses it or not but the two red lights stay on and I don't see another led that looks green.

I expected to get some kind of error code but its like I said...how do I change it to english 8-)

[elnerdo]

it sounds like the controller is failing to boot up. one of those two lights turns off once gets through its self checks.

i would pull a couple of the boards and see if there isn't anything obviously burned and just make sure they are seated. the "chinese" characters show up regardless.

Parts and Smarts is who I've used to send the controller to for repairs.

[lavrgs]

I pulled the boards cleaned the edge connectors and looked to see if anything obvious was burned out...nothing. I started up the computer again and got no further than before.

Is there a particular Dynapath manual that will help to troubleshoot this? I know I need something just not sure what's available. I'll try the Parts and Smarts folks on Monday to get their advice

[elnerdo]

pretty much no. i have all three of the manuals made for the control and none of them address troubleshooting problems at this level. you may want to check the powersupply terminal voltages since that is one of the more common problems with the control. this is from notes so take it with a grain of salt....

pin 1-2=5V
pin 3-4-5=gnd
pin 6 =24v
pin 7=+15V (i might have 7&8 voltages reversed)
pin 8=-15V
pin 9&10=AC

if you don't have 24V at the powersupply, the control jas failed to boot...the 24v is turned on by the aux board (the board with the two lights)

[lavrgs]

elnerdo,
I checked the voltages and they're as you said except for 24V which was at 26V.


Do any of these units have a disk drive or a floppy? Mine doesn't and I'm not sure if one can be added, I don't see a recognized connector

[elnerdo]

i don't think the floppy drive showed up until the Delta 30. program loading or drip feed for the Delta 20 is done through the port up by the on-off switch for the controller.

[elnerdo]

I would suggest the following before sending the controller into Parts and Smarts:

1. Check your build sheet for the controller (if you have it) and see if the serial numbers for whats installed in your control match what's actually there. This will give you an indication of what boards may have been swapped. The previous owner may have put know bad boards into your control to take good ones as spares.
2. Reseat the ram on the processor board.
3. You might try pulling the PIC card out of the rack and see if the control will boot up without it. The PIC was an option for the control that contains PLC logic specific to the Tree. The machine will not run without this but you might get something on the display??
4. Send off to Parts and Smarts or Dynapath for eval.

[lavrgs]

I don't have a build sheet but I talked with Parts and Smarts on Monday and they informed me that each board has a particular slot that it needs to be in. According to their config my boards are in the proper slot. They said to check my processor to see if it warms up and it does. My last ditch effort before I send it off to them is to clean all the connections.
My display shows 2 chinese character up in the top left corner
Is the operating system stored in RAM or ?

[elnerdo]

Yes, the boards need to be in there respective slots. The front cover that goes over the control (which you may not have) indicates the positions.

I don't know where the operating system is stored specifically?

You might want to try using some cold air spray (available from home depot or radio shack) to cool the processor just to see if you can get the machine to boot before sending it.

[lavrgs]

The system is clearly missing "something" but after cleaning contacts, checking for obvious damage the system still seems incapable of booting up. The chinese characters on the top left of my screen are still there and they're yelling "chuck the system"