Repairing Xylotex

[monte55]

In the past I thought I had read where someone has sent their board in for repair. I did ask how much on this forum but never received a reply. I E- Mailed Xylotex and just received a response from Jeff.


Hi,
A 1 year old board would be out of the warranty period.
I do not repair the drive boards. I replace drive boards that are
still under warranty.

I always have both 3 and 4 axis drive boards in stock.

I usually ship the business day after the Paypal payment has been
received.

[ger21]

He used to repair them a few years ago, but I guess not anymore.

[D.L]

Oh, hello gecko.

[monte55]

Oh, hello gecko.

I don't get it

[jemmyell]

Buy a G540, your machine will run MUCH better and they actually service and support what they sell.

-James

[D.L]

I don't get it

It was a sarcastic tilt at xylotex for not offering support, tongue in cheek.

[monte55]

So was my statement. I have a 60" x 60" table with a 2.25 hp router that runs about 70-80 ipm using a 4 drive Xylotex board that I made in fall of 2006. I have had no problems. The instructions that came with the board specified exactly what to do and what not to do. All the info was there. I have been on this forum since Aug 2006 and have read so many posts about
the drive going bad and it turned out the wiring was done incorrectly, they decided to fuse the output to the motors or install an on/off control there, disconnect steppers with board powered up and many other things to screw up a board which has nothing to do with support from Jeff. When I built my CNC router, I was new and wanted to ask questions every minute and was sure the info was not before me........but it was. All I had to do was follow instructions. Also the site has good info on it. Jeff sells driver boards and if they fail within warranty he takes care of it. It's not up to him to diagnose
the other problems people have with their machines.
my $.02

[ger21]

I'll second that Xylotex offers excellent support. Unfortunately, they can't afford to replace fried drives, of which the majority are caused by user error.

[TommieK]

OK, I get he won't repair or replace a burnt out board. I can't find any place on their site where I can buy just a new box. I see no reason to pay the shipping on a return if whatever went wrong won't be fixed.

[vlmarshall]

I bought my 4-axis Xylotex in '06 and have had no trouble with it. Seeing that they won't service the older cards, I'll replace it with another brand that can handle a higher voltage when this one goes.

[monte55]

I built my cnc in the fall of 2006 using the four axis Xylotex V 4.00. I have had no problems. I'm sure there is a later version of this board. If my board goes bad, will the newer board be a direct replacement and will I have to change anything? Any info on this will be appreciated. I've looked on their site
but I can't seem to find the info I need. The site seems to be old with some of the info. Are they still in the loop as far as supplying up to date materials?
Nick

[CarveOne]

This is not intended to be a rant, just an explanation, of why you get a different board back from a supplier.

It is a fairly common practice in electronics "warranty return centers" to replace a warranty repair board with a repaired replacement board. The bad board eventually goes to a repair facility (possibly in another part of the world) that has the equipment and expertise to replace parts that can't be reliably replaced elsewhere. Much of this stuff has parts that require very specialized machinery to even remove and replace certain fine lead pitch ICs (like stepper driver chips) which would be nearly impossible to do by hand. It will become a replacement board or will be scrapped at the discretion of the repair facility. Some parts can be recycled if they have enough value. Much before this happens you will be back in operation with a different board anyway.

Like the idea or not, that is the way things work in todays world. You don't really own the board, in this case, once you mail it back to the supplier. Simply put, you give it up for a replacement board. Hopefully, the replacement may even be a better equivalent.

The Xylotex boards have no protection from shorts and opens on the motor leads. The documentation that came with my 3 axis board and that I found on the Xylotex site clearly states that multiple times. If you snag a wire while under warranty it does not put the responsibility on the vendor to replace or repair it free of charge.

The best you can hope to do is to get a replacement board at a discount if the supplier "feels your pain", buy a new board, or buy some other board that has protections built in. Maybe Xylotex and other vendors will eventually release new boards that have protections just to keep from losing money and customers. Gecko has proven that protections can be done, and it's up to the other vendors to catch up with them. We all gain by that.

CarveOne