Gerber system 48

[irving2008]

well the TIP transistors are only a few pence so its only time n effort to swap them out. however that's a pretty catastrophic failure so cant help wondering what else has died... law of diminishing returns applies...

[Swarfing]

$119 sounds a bit expensive to me, you should be able to just replace the coil on it's own if your lucky?

[great-dragon]

$119 sounds a bit expensive to me, you should be able to just replace the coil on it's own if your lucky?

I'm guess by that you mean a repair kit. I did see that as an option at one site.

[great-dragon]

well the TIP transistors are only a few pence so its only time n effort to swap them out. however that's a pretty catastrophic failure so cant help wondering what else has died... law of diminishing returns applies...

Point well taken. And well I was thinking the same thing thou I wish I would have seen that before I replaced the rectifier.
Short of removing the PCB and looking at the back for burn marks or incomplete paths, everything looked ok.
Just wondering if there's a chance it'll still run with that one cracked as bad as it is, or if it's a must replace to keep testing.
Or just recommend an electronics update. I've looked into gecko stuff and thou its more of a top end product (I'm assuming) I've looked at xories stuff and thou its cheaper I've read good reviews. But it may be just hit or miss. Don't think the software would be a prob cause he mentioned that before I had a chance too.

For what its worth I have a crappy net connection, tethering through a G network sux wouldn't be bad if it was 3G, so researching some things take forever. But reading forums ain't bad cause its mostly text. But when I can I go to a friends and use his net...

Anyways Thx any and all info is greatly appreciated.
Greg

[irving2008]

Point well taken. And well I was thinking the same thing thou I wish I would have seen that before I replaced the rectifier.
Short of removing the PCB and looking at the back for burn marks or incomplete paths, everything looked ok.
Just wondering if there's a chance it'll still run with that one cracked as bad as it is, or if it's a must replace to keep testing.
Or just recommend an electronics update. I've looked into gecko stuff and thou its more of a top end product (I'm assuming) I've looked at xories stuff and thou its cheaper I've read good reviews. But it may be just hit or miss. Don't think the software would be a prob cause he mentioned that before I had a chance too.

For what its worth I have a crappy net connection, tethering through a G network sux wouldn't be bad if it was 3G, so researching some things take forever. But reading forums ain't bad cause its mostly text. But when I can I go to a friends and use his net...

Anyways Thx any and all info is greatly appreciated.
Greg

Sadly cracks like that are a result of vapourised internals so will need replacing, no option I'm afraid...

[great-dragon]

Sadly cracks like that are a result of vapourised internals so will need replacing, no option I'm afraid...

Understood. Guess I'm heading back to the supply house. LOL I so need a fuel efficient vehicle.

[martin54]

Like Irving has said a failure like that could have caused all sorts of other damage, if your still thinking about a complete change out then why not sit down & work out the cost & put that to the owner as an option, you will need a BOB, 3 x drivers, power supply, software licence for mach3 that you already know of then a small safety type circuit, got the layout for mine from on the forum & didn't cost much to build, few relays an estop & some wiring basically. You could use the machines existing estop for this so that helps reduce the bill, I built my control box before I got the gerber for something else I had started before it came up & it was all built into an old computer case.
Original motors are superior electrics slo syn can't remember model but they are 1.8v, 4.7A 6 wire nema 34. If you intend to use the original mators then you need a 36v power supply & drivers to match. I will eventually fit nema 23 motors that will handle a higher voltage so the drivers I have fitted are wasted just now as they are capable of a lot more but until I can make some adapter plates for the motors I'm limited to 36v.
If your looking for info on step & direction then I would need to double check this & my notebook is at the unit but I think it goes
Green A
Blue A-
red B
Org B-

Black & white are centre taps, black for red, red/white & white for green, green/white

Like I say don't take that as written & go applying any external power but should be ok for testing.
will update that latter after I have been up at the unit. Might not be the best idea to buy the cheapest drivers you can find, remember this will be a production machine for a business if plans go well & could be doing a lot of hours running.

[Swarfing]

I'm guess by that you mean a repair kit

They may do a repair kit? The energiser coil is where you apply power to the contactor and it closes it, so that your mains power then runs through the unit. Most contactors allow this to be swapped out as it wears out quicker than the unit. A good one will work at a much lower voltage, you could try a 12v supply just to see if the contactor moves? no guarantees

[martin54]

I don't want to put a jinx on myself but things seem to be going pretty well just now, got the electronics all hooked up & the gantry moving about, was going to do a little video but wasn't sure how to put my camera into video mode lol.
Not quite sure what to do long term at the moment, I was going to put all the new electronics in the old control box with connections running out for things like power, parallel cable, usb cable etc but now I am thinking that the box is quite big so might be just as easy to fit a motherboard & hard drive in there as well so it is pretty much a self contained unit, Sure there would be somewhere it wouldn't be to difficult to fit a small flat screen monitor