HobbyCNC Pro Board went "South"!

[jhowelb]

New HobbyCNC Pro Board. Built the board, followed directions and setup appeared to be going well.
While trying to tune motors in Mach 3, the voltage on the board dropped to 6/10 volt and motors quit running.
Power supply still cranking out 40 vdc as per design.
No smoke, no smell, no popping components, no blown fuses....just no work!
suggestions, anyone?

[kreutz]

Re-solder all the connections on the board, check the power cables, check continuity to all motor coils. Check the connection from the +40 Volt to the common leads on the motor. Check the ground connections. Check connection from your PC to the board (cable from printer port to your board), are you using a laptop?

I don't have schematics for that board, if all of the above is OK, you will have to troubleshoot the board. Good luck!

[HobbyCNC]

Turn it off and then on again. The chips MAY have gone into "protect" mode. A copy/paste from the instructions:

"If the driver does enter fault protect mode, then cycling the power off and on again will reset the chip. Wait a full minute before turning back on. Find the fault and correct it."

[jhowelb]

All solder joints are "text book" perfect, cleaned and trimed. All plugs and power and ground connections are a-ok. Unit shut down and turned back on repeatedly (even overnight) and still the voltage at the "test pads" is almost non-existant while the power input block shows 40 vdc. The fan block shows 24 volts, the 5 volt pad shows .6 volts! GGGRRRRR!!!
Ready to throw baby and bath water out!

[kreutz]

Do you have schematics for your board?
P.M. me a copy, I need it in order to help you troubleshoot the board.

[HobbyCNC]

Originally Posted by jhowelb All solder joints are "text book" perfect, cleaned and trimed. All plugs and power and ground connections are a-ok. Unit shut down and turned back on repeatedly (even overnight) and still the voltage at the "test pads" is almost non-existant while the power input block shows 40 vdc. The fan block shows 24 volts, the 5 volt pad shows .6 volts! GGGRRRRR!!! Ready to throw baby and bath water out!

U5 the LM317 controls the +5VDC. Maybe you have a solder bridge that overloaded it. Or maybe simply a component failure.
Private mail us your address and we'll send a free replacement.
Copy/paste from instructions:

With a voltmeter verify that +5.0VDC to 5.2VDC is present at the pad labeled +5VDC. The black test lead touches the “-“ on TB6. If not, review all the above steps and correct them. Failure to insure that +5.0VDC-+5.2VDC is present will BLOW the driver chips! (U5, R13, and R16 control the +5VDC voltage.)

[jhowelb]

If there are schematics on this driver, I've never seen them, in any case HobbyCNC considers the paperwork that came with their drive to be their intelectual property. As an irrigation system designer I can certainly understand the value attached to a set of plans and therefore will respect their "rights".
Thanks for the offer to help but I will take Dave up on his offer. I had been zeroing in on those three power transistors and figuring a way to test them.

[kreutz]

It is OK. I also respect their right to keep it as "intellectual property". I can see they have a very good (and quick) Customer Support to backup the lack of technical documentation on the user's hands. So their decision to keep the schematics secret won't affect their users.

[jhowelb]

Frankly. with PCB's one does not need a schematic. These days few, if any, of the folks using this kind of stuff would really understand a schematic. I have a close friend who is an electronics engineer for Gortec in their automated manufacturing machinery dept. and have watched him sweat over and swear at schematic drawings by the hour.
In any case, Dave has come to the rescue like the Lone Ranger with very generous replacement parts and I can see light at the end of the tunnel.
There is one more item that has jumped up, the 200 oz-in motor just won't have enough "poop" to pull the long axis of my Grizzly 9X20 lathe.
Can anyone give me guidance on whether this motor http://www.xylotex.com/497ozin.htm is compatable with this board?

[kreutz]

Did you replace the original lead-screw on the 9x20? Xilotex recommends a 10 TPI or less for these motors.

[jhowelb]

I have a variety of ball screws available, however the utility of using the machine in it's original mode is of value to me. At this point I'm looking for a motor compatable with this board with enough power to turn the screw. I can't tell by looking at the ads if these motors are unipolar, bipolar or schizophrenic!! Nor have I found adaquate (AND simple) definition for comparison.

[kreutz]

You can always use a timing-belt driven reducer so you multiply torque try a 2:1 ratio. Then you will have 400 oz/in driving the lead-screw without changing the motor or driver. It will rotate at half the motor rpms. Did you motorized the other axis already?