Problems with Bridgeport Interact series 1, screen flickers/jitters, freezes

Hi all, My first time posting. i have a bit of a story to tell. I Bought a BP Interact over year ago. It has a Heidenhain 151 controller. I saw it running before I purchased it(on 3 PH power). It had quite a bumpy 100 mile ride home. I finally got it hooked to my home made RPC, the machine works, but the screen flickers. Sometimes quite badly. I changed the backup batteries, no problems.

I hooked the machine straight to the Single phase w/o the RPC and it still flickers badly.

Fast forward a few weeks,I still have made no chips on this machine, I hooked it up to compressed air (I didn't have a regulator so I hooked it up to about 150psi) and next thing i know the controller is frozen . Restart the controller, and all parameters are lost. remove the air, and try to re-enter the parameters. Maybe 30 lines in, and the controller freezes. I don't know if this problem was brought on by the air t or if it was just a coincidence.

When I originally hooked the machine to power i checked the voltages per the maintenance manual and this is what I Measured:
-236 VAC in (Main) (about 255&259 VAC on the wild leg)
-116 VAC at the pendant
-36 VDC at unregulated supply
-25.5 VDC at the regulated supply

These are a little out of the range the manual specifies, but not too bad. Except for the unregulated supply which the manual says should be 24-28 VDC

Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated ! If needed I have a wiring schematic I can post. I really just don't know where to begin....

Running it from an RPC might/will be introducing some noise on the lines that the display/controller cannot handle. You could try an inline EMI noise filter between the outputs of the RPC and the machine. I recently bought a 80 amp, three phase filter on ebay for 40-50 bucks. I used it on the inputs of my VFD on my lathe.

It only requires about 85psi, it has its own regulator on back normally so shouldn’t be an issue. That said, the brake is electro-pneumatic so I wonder whether something has taken exception to the high air pressure. The wiring diagrams in the service / maintenance manual would shed light and they are available if you don’t have them.

The controller has its own power supply built in and it feeds the monitor. In the first instance I would check the connections on the back of the TNC145. If they are ok then I would suggest it’s the hedeinhain power supply and you’d need to remove controller and take it apart to check voltages, although it should be possible to check via the sockets on the back if you can find a pin out, something I need to look for myself.

Andrew


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thanks for your reply deleon, tried the emi filter, but no change.

Andi, It does have its own regulator, which is why i plugged in my air line. Could be it was set for full open or something. Im not really sure. what happened. I recently opened up the controller do see if there were any obvious electronic issues visually, but didn't find anything.

I was getting 116 VAC at the back of the control. i guess thats the input though and id need to check the dc voltage coming from the power supply? Or does the whole control run off 110VAC?? I'm more a mechanical guy than an electronics guy. Let me know I can post my schematic for the 151 that I have.

I tried re-entering the parameters before taking the controller apart and I got a strange screen. Ill post a picture

All guidance is welcome and appreciated!

Found the maintenance instructions for the control unit on the heidenhain website.
After inspecting all the boards visually, I didn’t see anything. Had a hunch it was the power supply for the control. Brought it to a friend who is an EE. And the psu is in fact bad. It hits the target voltage for some of the pin outs and then drops after about half a second.

Anyone have any experience repairing the psu?

I found a tnc 155Q for sale, just the controller. Would that be a drop in replacement? I would assume at the very least that the psu is the same.

Can anyone confirm? I will try to make another thread about this.

its probably bad caps on the board id change those first. i have a newer Bridgeport and those are known for having flickering screen issues if the caps go bad on the main board/psu. worst case scenario build a psu, antek sell unregulated supplies https://www.antekinc.com/ i have used them several times with great results. personally dont see a lot of point buying a used power supply that old unless its been refurbished as your be back in the same place in the not to distant future, you could probably build a better performing new psu for less money than a used one.

Thanks AshG for your reply. Yes, I am planning on replacing the caps. I've never soldered before so it should be a learning experience!

I wouldn't have any idea how to go about building a psu from scratch. Also, the PSU has several different voltage outputs. Would that be possible with one purchased psu? or would I need to combine several to get all the voltages needed?

id say replace the caps first, you should be able to read the markings on them and order suitable replacements on line, you have nothing to loose and its probably the cheapest option to fix it if its the caps at fault.

there are lots of ways to build power a power supply, first thing is to determine, is your current psu switch mode or transformer based unregulated? if its unregulated it will most likely have a big transformer and inside that transformer there will be multiple winding's that output different voltages, the output of that transformer will be ac, so if you need dc you will have to have a rectifier for each winding for each voltage to convert ac to dc, you will also need some smoothing caps in the line to deal with line noise/fluctuations etc. if its a switch mode it will most likely look like a sealed rectangular metal box with ac in and a bunch of screw terminals with few different dc outputs for various voltages. if you have a picture/schematic of the psu ont he machine then it will be easy to know what you have.

if you going to do some soldering i would highly recommend you buy a ts100 or a ts80p soldering iron, its cheap ish and the only soldering iron you will ever need for the rest of your life (make sure it has the p higher power) they are really good irons and if your new to soldering it will make the process of learning 100x easier, the last thing you want is a crappy soldering iron and to not know if the issue is you or the tool.

ts100 (older model but has a bit more power, uses a laptop psu) https://www.amazon.com/UY-CHAN-Progr...07&sr=8-5&th=1
ts80p (newer model little bit less power but can run from usb-c) https://www.amazon.com/UY-CHAN-Progr...07&sr=8-5&th=1

roll of solder https://www.amazon.com/MAIYUM-63-37-...s%2C148&sr=8-5
solder pump & wick to remove old solder https://www.amazon.com/Tabiger-Solde...4269776&sr=8-3

video how to de solder caps, its on a tv but its the same process. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mqpoZhKFRYs

Much thanks for all the good info. I have ordered replacement caps. Hopefully they will arrive this week and I can start working on it. For now I will borrow my friends soldering equipment, thanks for the recommendations, if it becomes something I do more regularly I’ll spend the money to get one like you showed.

The current psu is transformer based. I’ll attach a picture. I’m not sure if there’s a wiring diagram. I’ll take a look and post it a little later today if I find it.

I did end up purchasing a controller, just to have as a backup in he future. I don’t expect these to become easier to find. Either way I am going to do my best to repair the current psu.