[Revshift]

I have a Bridgeport R2E3 boss 8 machine. It was running perfectly until last week when the starter on my phase converter engaged while the machine was running. It caused one of the 3 phase legs to see 480 volts and it blew one of the 7000uf capacitors in the back of the machine. I got a new capacitor today (the same exact one) and installed it. Now when I turn the machine on I get a crazy jumbled display instead of the standard "wait" and "enabled axis drives" prompt. I have a picture of what the display looks like. It changes every time I turn it on but its always just a bunch of nonsense. I don't know what to do and I desperately need as much help with this as possible.
Here is the display:

[machintek]

In spite of the display will the drives enable?
The damage may be limited to the EPSON display. Do not know where to get another. You could try EMI-INC.net.
But I would check the output of both logic power supplies and the drive power supplies to see if they are all within tolerance.
One logic power supply is in the wire way going to the front panel. The other is on the bottom right of the electrical cabinet.
All values are given in the trouble shooting section of the maintenance manual.

George

[Revshift]

The drives do not enable. Nothing on the controller works.
I will try to check the power supplies. This is my first cnc mill so I am learning as I go.
This is an extremely stressful situation for me because I have a small struggling business and I am counting on this machine to pick it up a bit. Any help is greatly appreciated.
If I can't figure the problem out who do I call to come out and diagnose it? And how badly will that hurt what little finances I have left?

[Revshift]

In spite of the display will the drives enable?
The damage may be limited to the EPSON display. Do not know where to get another. You could try EMI-INC.net.
But I would check the output of both logic power supplies and the drive power supplies to see if they are all within tolerance.
One logic power supply is in the wire way going to the front panel. The other is on the bottom right of the electrical cabinet.
All values are given in the trouble shooting section of the maintenance manual.

George

I tried to PM you but your inbox is full. This is what I wrote:

Do you have a wiring schematic for the r2e3? I desperately need to fix this machine, I am really struggling and my business is basically riding on this. If you could, please tell me anything you can think of to check. I have not checked the power supplies yet because I'm not sure if I am checking the right things. I'm waiting for my friend who is a little more familiar with electronics to come by and give me a hand tonight. I did check the 5 wires on the board behind the control panel and those all read correctly with 5v and 12v. I also checked every fuse that I could find and all of them are intact. I would appreciate any information and suggestions that you can provide. I have a feeling that I will be calling a technician to come out and diagnose the problem but I have absolutely no idea who to call that will be good with a 1985 r2e3.
thanks,
- John

[snovak240]

John,
Check to see if the transformer is still OK and putting out the proper voltage to the mache from the feed legs. There has to be a reason why the voltage changed and blew the part to begin with. I do have the wiring sch's if you need them. Let me know how you make out. My machine is very tempermental when it comes to any voltage change. I just looked on Ebay and one guy has a fromt pannel for 1000.00. I have a spare front panel for my machine, but dont know if I could get the display off of it for you without damaging it. You can email me @ [email protected] and I will try to help as much as I can. Stan

[Revshift]

Thanks Stan, I'll check the transformer too. You have a PM.

[Revshift]

Alright, a couple friends and I did some team work and went through the back panel with a multimeter. Everything checked out ok except for the ps2 board. It is not supplying voltage to the board with all the eproms and leds. So I need to find a replacement ps2 board. Any ideas where to look? If it is out of my price range I may attempt to fix the bad components on the board that I have. I'm 27 years old and trying my best to get my business off the ground, finances are very tight.

The number on the board is 1937268. It also says that it is an EHS board.

[machintek]

Well, you are making some progress.
My BOSS 8 trouble shooting and wiring PDFs total 10 megs. More than I can upload here so I need your email address. You will need a maintenance manual. Try machinemanuals.net for a manual on CDROM.
Get in touch with EMI-INC.net about a replacement power supply. Do not know how much they will want.
I have no affiliation with either.
Perhaps another member here knows of a good retired Bridgeport service engineer in your area.

George

[Revshift]

Well, you are making some progress.
My BOSS 8 trouble shooting and wiring PDFs total 10 megs. More than I can upload here so I need your email address. You will need a maintenance manual. Try machinemanuals.net for a manual on CDROM.
Get in touch with EMI-INC.net about a replacement power supply. Do not know how much they will want.
I have no affiliation with either.
Perhaps another member here knows of a good retired Bridgeport service engineer in your area.

George

Thank you. My email address is [email protected]
I have the maintenance manual but its pretty vague as far as the wiring goes. I will check with EMI-INC tomorrow and try to get some pricing. I might just try to pinpoint the bad components on the board and replace them myself. Who knows, I might get lucky for once.

[Seb]

Hi Revshift, I may be able to help.

I recently removed the fully functional Boss8 control from an R2E3 in order to retrofit the machine with emc2. I still have all the boards I pulled off, and I'd be happy to sell them to you. When I get home tonight I'll email you a list of the boards I have.

[Revshift]

Hi Revshift, I may be able to help.

I recently removed the fully functional Boss8 control from an R2E3 in order to retrofit the machine with emc2. I still have all the boards I pulled off, and I'd be happy to sell them to you. When I get home tonight I'll email you a list of the boards I have.

Awesome, I would appreciate that. Let me know what you want for the PS2/EHS board. Thanks.

[machintek]

I tried sending you stuff this morning but it faulted out.
A Boss 8 is a very old machine. Most of the parts on those 7 layer boards are obsolete. All those solder joints are getting tired of expanding and contracting and the probability of a failure increases every time you turn it on or off. A phase converter with a floating artificial leg only adds to the burden. New boards are not made any more. This is why people convert them to other controls. The iron is very good. Just a reality check because your business venture is riding on 25 year old parts and technology. I still wish you success.
So let me try and resend some of this stuff one at a time.

George

[Revshift]

There is no way I can convert the machine. I have heard that it will cost between $5,000 and $10,000 to do a good retrofit. At the cost of that and with what I spent on the machine itself I might as well find a nice mid to late 90's Haas vmc. That's just my thoughts though.
I probably shouldn't have said my business is riding on the r2e3. I'm basically hoping this machine will help lift it off the ground a bit but I am not solely relying on it.
I'm sure the parts are out there somewhere. Maybe not the exact same ones but there have to be ways to make these things work. I will build a whole new board myself if I have to.

[Seb]

I dont have any board identified as PS2/EHC...

Here's what I have:

• EPU (1-93-5790)
• BCI (1-93-6969)
• ELI aka EDLI (1-93-6188)
• LCD Screen with cable (1-93-5234)
• EFP (1-93-4119)
• Power supply, "Power General 7092"
• EAF (1-93-4724)
• FMDC (1-93-7236)
• unknown board (1-93-6313)
• fiberglass panels
• T2 transformer

Let me know if you're interested in any of these.

[Seb]

Here's the pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/seb.kuzminsky/R2E3#

[Seb]

I have received written permission from Hardinge to redistribute scans of the manuals for the Bridgeport R2E3.

http://emc2-buildbot.colorado.edu/~seb/r2e3

[Revshift]

Good news! And some frustrating news along with more help needed.
I replaced the PS2 logic power supply with an updated replacement from EMI-INC. The FMDC board and EAC board power on and everything seems fine. I can enable the axis drives and the machine homes itself as normal. When I do that the leds on the FMDC board read as the machine is running properly and the drives are enabled. It's all good up to that point. Now when I try to move the axis I get nothing. I can not jog with the +/- buttons or with the knob.
I feel like I am so dang close to getting this thing back up and running but I just cant quite get there.
So can anyone inform me of what is happening? Why cant I move my X,Y, or Z axis from the control panel? All axis move normally when I enable the drives.

[snovak240]

Great news to hear. Can you share the information on the place you found the board at?

Just asking but check and make sure your feedrate over ride button is not turned down to zero by chance.

[Revshift]

I got the board from http://www.emi-inc.net
I called them and they set me up with a logic power supply that works.
Where is this feedrate override button located?

[Revshift]

I tried operating the machine again and this time I noticed when I get prompted to enable axis drives there is "axis limit" under the enable axis drives prompt. When I was trying to figure out the previous problem I am pretty sure I move the two knobs on the ELI board to the left of the PS2 power supply. How do I get the machine to stop the "axis limit" thing?
I can enable the spindle, I just cant move the axis. HELP!!!
Thanks for the help so far. I know I am close to getting this thing going again.