Bad breakout board on Scorpion 5 x 10 Wood Router?

I have posted on this issue last month in another thread and after a lot of diagnosing I came to the conclusion that my problem is the breakout board. I bought the machine in 2010 and EzRouter has said that the "Red" breakout board is no longer available. They wanted to sell an upgrade but I just don't have the extra $1400.00 to spend.
The back story is, I have checked parallel port power at the pc, male to male db-25 cable and ribbon cable that is inside the control box that plugs into the breakout board. Pins 10,11,12,13 and 15 show 4.38 DCV. Pins 1,14,16,17 show 64.3 DCV. I have checked the proximity sensors where the cables connect at the board and the cable connection at were the sensors are mounted on the machine and show 23.85 DCV. When I covered the sensors with metal at X,Y, or Z one at a time and the light at the sensor goes off and on the diagnostics screen the Home and Limits lighted up. But on the A Home, there was no change. Light still on on screen. ( During the testing, I set the pin for the Estop to "0" so it would not interfere with the diagnosis phase.)
On the Mach3 Diagnostic screen I have the Emergency light flashing red and the A Home light is yellow. During the testing I changed the low active box in inputs screen from "x" to "a check mark" for the estop on pin 10 and A Home on pin 15. They both turned off but still not able to home machine. (When I did try to home the machine the Z axis on the main screen started moving, but no movement at the machine.)As another test I changed the low active box in inputs for X-- Limit and X Home to a "check mark" and the yellow lights next to each on the diagnostics screen lighted up, at sensor, light went out. Did this also with Y and Z axis. Same result.
So, as I stated above. I believe that the board is bad. My question is: Will the board shown in the link below work with my machine?

Cnc Breakout Board, CM-201

In conclusion, if anybody knows what I might can try other than changing out the board or if you might feel there might be some other solution, please advise.
Thanks

P.S. EzRouter used "no brand" drives marked "SD 1000 and the motors "SM 1000". The main power coming into the control box is 240 ACV and there is a 240ACV/24DCV transformer inside the control box that powers the breakout board and the drive for the spindle.

photos of all the EzRouter electronic hardware would be usefull (showing the BOB , power supplies and stepper drivers )

any voltage on the 25pin printer port connector should be between 0V and +5V

to test Pins 1,14,16,17 and measure 64.3 DCV could indicate a regulator powering the output side of the breakout board has failed
it is not a good sign and you may have a damaged printer port

a photo of the "red" BOB will help to decide if the regulator is on the BOB or its a separate power supply thats failed

assuming the stepperdrivers have opto-isolated inputs then
I would expect the BOB will have 5 optoisolators connected to the printerport inputs
may use a 74LS14 to buffer the BOB inputs

the 12 printerport outputs are very often buffered by two 74HCT245 octal buffers

all the IC's will be powered by a 5V supply with the negative terminal connected to the printerport ground

John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by john-100

photos of all the EzRouter electronic hardware would be usefull (showing the BOB , power supplies and stepper drivers )

any voltage on the 25pin printer port connector should be between 0V and +5V

to test Pins 1,14,16,17 and measure 64.3 DCV could indicate a regulator powering the output side of the breakout board has failed
it is not a good sign and you may have a damaged printer port

a photo of the "red" BOB will help to decide if the regulator is on the BOB or its a separate power supply thats failed

assuming the stepperdrivers have opto-isolated inputs then
I would expect the BOB will have 5 optoisolators connected to the printerport inputs
may use a 74LS14 to buffer the BOB inputs

the 12 printerport outputs are very often buffered by two 74HCT245 octal buffers

all the IC's will be powered by a 5V supply with the negative terminal connected to the printerport ground

John

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John,
Attached are pics of the BOB , power supplies and stepper drivers. Sorry for the "fuzzy" look of the pics! My router is placed very close to a wall and it's difficult to get quality pictures. As a heads up, when I took the readings of the pins 1,14,16 and 17 I had Mach3 running. When I have just the pc powered up pins 1,14 and 16 read 3.41DCV. Please forgive my lack of experience. Just getting into the practice of diagnosing and trying to learn as I go along.
Any thought you might have would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks

your "red" breakout board looks like a version of the boards from Sound Logic

sound logic breakout board with a built in linear power supply
Attachment 350104

I expect your breakout board has two 78xx series regulators

the IC pinout - note on the 78xx regulators the metal tab is also GND
Attachment 350108
Attachment 350112

data sheet
Attachment 350110


using a single printer port you will have 5 inputs and 12 outputs

8 outputs will be used as step & direction signals for 4 stepper drivers

the remaining outputs can either control the 4 relays or
2 relays plus the charge pump circuit & VFD analogue control circuit
depending on the jump settings

you should be able to replace the red board with the CM 201 breakout board and a 24V power supply

you will need to check how the printer port pins are assigned in mach 3 ports and pins and compare the requirements for the new breakout board


it looks like you have 3 other power supplies

1) a linear power supply for the stepper drivers using the large transformer in photo 5

2) two switch mode power supplies possibly for the spindle motor and the other for the controls ??


John

PS
if the transformer has a 45 V AC output ( label not very clear ) this when rectified and smoothed could be the 63V you measured at the printer port pins if you connected your multimeter to the wrong "ground"

I would not expect the power supply on the red board to produce more than 24 to 30 V if the regulator failed short circuit

I also had a failed red breakout board on my EZ Router. EZRouter was out of stock on the $1400 upgrade board option so I thought I was out of luck at any price. After trying to contact several people around the internet, I found the right person: Steve Stallings from PMDX.com. He was amazing to work with, called me back every time he said he would, and walked me through the retrofit every step of the way. Awesome service. Up and running again with his PMDX-126 multi-mode breakout board and PMDX-107 Isolated Speed Control for the spindle. He even made custom XML files for me to keep the wiring as similar as possible when switching from the old red board to the PMDX board.

that kind of service is worth paying for

why waist your time and money on a low cost board with no useful instructions or after sales service

being able to speak to some one with detailed technical knowledge of the products is key

full marks to Steve Stallings from PMDX.com

John

I also have an Ez-Router (EZ4X4PORTER). I have the same breakout board you do. I can't find any information on the control board. I want to install a spindle and VFD. Can you please take a picture of the wires in your VFD. I know there are two circuts On/Off & 1-10 volts control.

Sorry for not seeing your request sooner! I have to admit that I'm not sure what the "VDF" is and where it is located. Get me a clue and I will send any info I can.
Have a great day!!

going by the size of the router the VFD is likely to look something like this :-

Attachment 374498

and could be hidden inside the machines control box
photos of the controls and the inside of the control box will help identify the control electronics used

assuming the machine is controlled by a PC running Mach 3 or 4

you may have built into the breakout board a circuit to convert a 50Hz Pulse Width Modulation signal to a 0 to 10V DC control voltage

Variable Frequency Drive motor drive as in the photo above
converts the AC single or 3 phase mains supply into a variable frequency 3 phase to drive the 3 phase induction spindle motor

depending on the model , they can be either controlled by a 0 to 10V DC voltage from the breakout board or an ethernet connection

the control panel on the VFD can be removed from the VFD and installed in the front of the control box

John

Quote:

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Originally Posted by rfeist11

Sorry for not seeing your request sooner! I have to admit that I'm not sure what the "VDF" is and where it is located. Get me a clue and I will send any info I can.
Have a great day!!

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I sent an email to ez-router. They were able to send me a pin layout for my board. Thanks


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