The power supply, (technically, just a step down transformer) takes 125V input and steps it down to 5v and 12v. All of the driver boards and essentially the brains of the machine run on 12v. What was happening was that when the machine was turned on, the screen would turn on but not display anything. Nothing happened when I pushed the start button to jog the axis motors either. When I opened up the control panel, none of the lights where flashing on the control boards. So while searching on cnczone.com, apparently I was not the only one having issues with no power to the control boards. Several of the posts gave very detailed information regarding the process of diagnosing the power supply problem. Thanks cnczone!
I called up MEGA CNC in North Royalton, Ohio to inquire about a replacement. MEGA is the area FADAL certified replacment parts dealer. I have dealt with them before about a year ago. They are extremely helpful and usually have the parts in stock. According to their service tech, my machine is so old that they do not offer an exact replacement. They had power supplies out of newer style machines that would work, but they required an additional starter button to be wired in. This is the "green button" located by the main power disconnect. They offered to help anyway they can as well as provide the necassary wiring diagrams.
After talking to MEGA, I noticed a phone number on the front of the old power supply for Tri-Mag. So, I called. I talked to Lourie and explained my issue. She new exactly what I was talking about and had their factory build me the exact replacement. I got it yesterday and promptly installed. All said and done, it took me about 15 minutes to install and ended up being 1/3 the price of the "not so diret fit" option.
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| Old on the left, new on the right... |
