hurco bmc-40 alot of issues.

[TWPguy]

I've just recently been thrown into a maintence position here at our shop. Our late 80's hurco bmc-40 has been out of commission for a little over 3 yrs. Our boss didn't want the machine fixed at the time due to money issues, but business is booming again and she'd like to have the machine back up and going. Unfortunately I have no idea why it was shut down to begin with. Operator believes it had a problem with x-axis. However, now that we want to work on the machine another problem(like always in life). I turn power on the machine and get nothing at the operators console. No buttons light up, nothing on the screens, just flat out nothing. Any help would be greatly appreciated. The manuals I have only deal with setting up machine like its new from factory and have no troubleshooting what so ever, so i'm pretty much up a creek without a paddle.

[fasto]

I just saw your post.

You'll want to start at the beginning.
1) Machine getting power? All 3 phases? Are the fuses good?
2) Does anything happen? Some of the fans run on 120VAC, others on 24VDC. Do any fans run? If the 120V fans run and the 24V ones don't, see #3. 120V wires are red & white twisted together. 24V are blue & grey.
3) If you have power to the machine and nothing runs at all, sounds like the main DC supply. This is a gold box about 6"x3"x12" inside one of the cabinets. Do a search for Hurco DC power supply and you'll find some threads on how to check it, and how to replace it with a PC power supply and an extra 24V power supply (if it's no good).

[TWPguy]

I have all three phases coming in good, all fuses check out ok, and all the cabinet fans and the work light are coming on. I just have nothing at my operator console screens.

[fasto]

See This Thread about how to check the power supply.
Once you find out if the supply is working you can check for power inside the console. I bet the +5V output of the power supply isn't working.

Set your meter to DC Volts and measure the output like the other thread shows. It should be at least 5.05V and better yet 5.1V.
Then set your meter for AC volts and measure the 5V again, the AC reading should be really low, like less than 0.1V.

Oh, I'm assuming an Ultimax control - is that what you have? Regardless I think the power supply is the same in both.

[TWPguy]

just checked and all my voltages are reading the same as what that post showed. while i was at it i did go and lift the keypad by the monitors to see if I saw anything noticeable wrong and there is a green light on a board under the keypad but still nothing lights up on any buttons nor do i get anything on my monitors. And yes i believe the machine is running on Ultimax 2.

[fasto]

If you're not familiar with how the machine is supposed to act when it's power up, it takes a long time - like 1 minute or more - for anything to happen on the console. On my machine with V8.60 the left screen shows "Executing Power Up diagnostics" for this minute. Since we don't know what version, or what control your machine has it could be different.
After about 1 minute all the green LED's on the console light up for about 10 seconds. Does this happen? I think this is independent of the main computer inside the electronics cabinet.

On the "L" shaped board in the bottom of the console (once the console is open) there a connector with a bunch of 16 GA wires pushed into it labeled TB52. This is the power for the console. Check for voltages here, too. The color code is the same as last time.
When you check, pick one grey wire. Check all the other colors to that. After, pick one yellow wire and check all the grey wires you didn't check the first time to that one.

It would really help if I knew which control you've got. If you open the electronics cabinet (the one that doesn't have the main disconnect switch - the one with the disconnect switch is called the servo cabinet) the control is inside there. What's it look like? Is is about 6 big circuit boards in an open rack? Is it a smaller, enclosed metal box? Are any LED's lit up when the power is on? Which ones?

A couple notes - even if the main computer in the electronics cabinet is not working the left CRT should show a blinking cursor after it's warmed up. The right CRT won't show anything unless the main computer is running.

If there are chips inside the console vacuum or brush them out. Open the back, too, and vacuum there.

If you open the swing-down panel on the back/top of the console you can see the back of the two CRT's. If you turn on the power you should see the filaments glowing inside the CRT tubes (they run off of 12VDC only). Be extra careful not to touch the high voltage wire as it's got like 20,000V on it - some other wires like the focus and contrast wires have up to 1000V on them. If you don't see the filaments glowing there's a problem with either the CRT driver board or the 12V power supply. The CRT driver boards blow up pretty frequently it seems.

There's a keyboard test mode you can run, which checks the text CRT and the keyboard control board. I believe that you get to this by flipping switch #8 on the keyboard control board (my notes are at home). Do a search on Hurco Keyboard Test and it will probably show up. The keyboard control board is the one in the back, lower area of the console. As I recall, you change the setting of DIP switch #8, then power on the machine. Pressing the keys should show various characters on the left CRT. Change the switch back when you're done. I don't know what the other 7 switches do so leave them alone.

[TWPguy]

First I just want to thank you for taking this time to help me out, you are greatly appreciated. This morning I went and double checked myself from yesterday and started checking everything else you mentioned. In my haste yesterday I missed that I'm not really getting anything off the +12v brown wire. I have a digital meter and noticed it jumped and didn't pay close enough attention it only shows 95mV, guess thats how i missed that. Every other wire is reading as it should. I waited 5 mins. and got nothing from the lights on the keypad or on the screens. Voltage at TB52 is all correct with the exception of the brown wire. Looking into the electronics cabinet I have the open rack with cards. Starting from left to right, 1st card has no lights that I can see. 2nd card has 1 red light. 3rd card has four small lights stacked top 3 are red and the last is green. 4th card has 1 green light at the top. 5th has 2 green towards the bottom, and 6th is the same as 5th.

Also I have no clue what the DIP switches are and was not able to check that out.

[fasto]

You won't be able to get anything working until the +12V supply gets fixed.

You've got a few choices for that, depending on your skill level with electronics:
1) Easiest and most expensive: Several places can probably fix the Deltron power supply. There's a place called AMTS Hurco CNC & Autobend Parts, Service, Sales and Repair . that works on older Hurco equipment.
2) These machines are parted out on ebay pretty frequently. I never see the Deltron power supply listed, so you'd need to get in touch with the ebay seller. I take that back, look here: Hurco Power Supply. If you buy a replacement don't toss the old one, get in touch with me.
3) More difficult, still fairly easy: The Deltron power supply can be replaced with a PC power supply (computer power supply) and a second, +24V power supply. Somehow the PC power supply will need to be "fooled" into turning on.
4) Most difficult: I think the Deltron supply is pretty easy to repair. In your case it sounds like blown diodes or voltage regulator, as you say all the other voltages are working. (Keep in mind my "easy to fix" might be different from your "easy to fix" as I'm an electrical engineer with 20-odd years doing this.)

[TWPguy]

Fasto, thanks again for all the help thus far. I apollogize for taking so long to get back. Our entire shop is running off old machines and had other break downs take priority. I ordered and installed the DC power supply off ebay. And had the exact same problem, no +12 volt. Curiousity got to me and I left all wires disconnected except for the 110 that powers it. Tested, and all voltages are there. Called Hurco and finally reached someone, can't for the life of me remember his name, but he told me to reseat all boards and check for noticeably shorted wires. Tried and still had no +12volt when all wires connected. I started to pull each card out of the rack individually and found that when I pull out the personality board, +12volts come back. I tried moving the card to other slots and it still takes away my +12 volts. The person I spoke with at hurco said it sounds like its the personality card, but also said he's never heard one do that in his 20+ years working there. So does this sound right? And also is there anything obvious that you can think for me to check on the board if this is the case?

[fasto]

That's an odd one to be sure.
First, the 3 plugs on the personality board that are on its outer edge. Did you have them connected when there's no +12V? If so check again with these plugs disconnected.
After that, there's 2 possibilities depending on what you've found.
#1 - With all 3 plugs to the personality board disconnected the +12V doesn't work:
I'd look very carefully over the personality board for any obviously blown up components. The +12V supply can make a lot of current, and something will be obviously burnt if it's been shorted out.

#2 (more likely) With all 3 plugs disconnected from the personality board the +12V works.
In this case the fault isn't on the personality board. It's in either the wiring or the system on the other end of the wiring. Check with each plug connected in turn. When you find the plug that kills the +12V supply you can troubleshoot more.

Let me know what you find out.

[TWPguy]

I just reinstalled the card to be sure and it does it without any of the plugs connected. I don't really notice anything burnt or out of the ordinary. I did notice 4 pieces that I can tell have been replaced before because of the soldier. I don't know what they are though. Its four cylindrical parts in a row behind the J3 plug and they are marked R101, R102, R103, And R104 on the board.

[TWPguy]

Bought a replacement board off ebay and was able to get the machine to turn on. Now I get this message "Machine configuration defaults have been loaded and must be verified or reset before continuing." I just went through the list and accepted all figures that were there just to see what would come up next. Once I accept all figures it does nothing. Won't go in to manual mode to move or anything I just get stuck at this first screen and can't find a way to get out.