[Kev13]

Hi guys. New to the forum and the CNC machining world. Purchased a Partner 6 with a Cent 5 controller. Got the machine up and running and when the last set of checks on the screen you see the error message "BAD V" and then the normal screen appears for a second and then I get an error message. Says hit ESC or RESET to continue. Doing that does nothing.

Now I have played with the connection to the control pannel while holding down the reset key and I can at times get the machine to come up to the normal menu and get control of the machine. Lights for the buttons are no longer lit up but it works. Seems when the lights are lit on the pannel, no luck.

Anyone ever run into this? Know what a BAD V error is?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Kevin

[One of Many]

Just a thought, but check your 24-volt power supply or a short in a bulb pulling it low on startup. Hard telling but the logic might be seeing it before the 24volt supply comes up. It could be a bad capacitor, ground and a myriad of other issues with power. If the button lights do not function, check the keyboard encoder board inside the monitor housing. There are (2) +24volt lines and (2) DC grounds coming from the supply to this board. Not that they are independent supplies, just that the problem could follow one leg or the other. You should also find 5 and 12volts going to this keyboard encoding circuit on connector J2.

Where the V error is detected is a mystery. Nothing in my info that shows that particular error message. Is there a error number preceding that message?

Depending on the age of this machine, but if it has a simdrive for a hard drive, the on board lithium battery may be going/fading. Then there is the CMOS battery on the MB. Although, I'd expect a low bat error rather than bad V error.

DC

[Kev13]

Thank you for the reply. Yes we check the 24v and it appeared to be good. When the machine is coming up, it says initilizing acro loops, then it says initilizing front pannel and then the Bad V flashes just for a second after that. Menu comes up normal for a second then I get an A 450 ESTOP condition and it says to "reset drives or press ESC to clear message." Pressing ESC does nothnig and I have only had some sporadic luck with holding the reset button down and disconnecting the lead from the pc to the monitor housing.

This machine does have a sim drive and boots from it. I could not find a typical PC battery in the case, Im under the assumption that it must be soldered directly to the MB somewhere correct?

Thanks for the reply and help,

Kevin

[One of Many]

Since that is happening prior to the shell screen, more or less still in the boot mode, it may be associated with the video resolution setting in the parameters or CMOS. Typically 640x350.

The machine will boot up to the 450 estop error as a normal process because the drives have not been started yet. Pressing the reset energizes the servo drives via an estop holding relay, again part of the normal startup procedure. The same thing will show up if you hit the estop and the holding relay drops out the drives. I can guarantee you, escape will never take it out of an E-Stop condition.....Heheh!

If need be, you could swap one of the other rarely used switches with the reset switch to see if that takes care of the intermittent there.

Newark has these switches, lenses and lamps. Not that one of yours is bad, but eventually, you will need them. The failure rate on the cycle start key is around 2-4 years of daily use with ham handed operators. Much less with the reset key, but it may have already been swapped around previously compromised.

23F4332

The simdrive battery may be a square block lithium type or a lithium/nicad round type. Seems I have seen both soldered near bottom of the sim board. The nicad on the PC motherboard is about .5-.625 round and maybe .75 long. Lower left corner of the MB. Again these are going to fail eventually. It is not a matter of IF....so either backup data often or store it on another PC.

DC

[Ben Colby]

I agree with One of Many, I had a similar problem, checked voltages. power supply, e-stop swithces etc. and it turned out to be the cycle start button.
I would suppose it could be any of the buttons. Interesting that your machine
won't work when the buttons light up, mine was just the opposite.

Ben
COBRO Mfg.

[jpawelk]

A "BAD V" error upon boot up could be a few things. The parameter "serial keyboard" may be set to yes. Make sure it is set to no. This is a power parameter. Secondly, The keyboard encoder card is bad. Thirdly, you may be missing the 12VDC at the front panel. Many times replacing the keyboard encoder card solves the problem.

[Kev13]

He guys.... did a backup of the parameters and got a listing of files on the floppy.

Power.dat and Pfile.dat were two that I opened up in wordpad. I am assuming Pfile.dat is the parameters file? When I opened it, it did not have much that I could read in it. Was a bunch of squares and odd ascii characters.

The power.dat file is as follows. Could not see anything abt screen resolution or anything.

0000; Changes here take effect on Power-Up.
0064XInitial Units are ,G20 English,G21 Metric
0065bNumber of Axes
0704 Power-On FeedRate
0068bSpindle Axis
0070B100% Rapid in Run (No Override)
0071B100% Rapid in Dry-run (No Override)
0072BSpindle on in Dry-run
0073XTool Tables by,Radius,Diameter
0075BLoad TEXT Cycles
0076BDon't Load Canned Cycles
0000; ******** Tool Changer Info ********
0044XMachine is Partner,Other,PI,PII,PIII,PIV,PV,PVI,PVII,PVIII,PI X
0069XATC Type is,PVII,Manual/Avanti,P1 6/12,3?,4?,5?,6?,7?,PVIII/PIX
1504 ATC tool (pocket) count
1599 Spindle orient delay (ms)
0130TM6 (Tool Change) Macro
0084XPartner I ATC is,Plunger,Geneva Two-Step,Geneva One-Step
0200bPI/PVI ATC cw Coast
0201bPI/PVI ATC cw Brake
0202bPI/PVI ATC ccw Coast
0203bPI/PVI ATC ccw Brake
0000; *** For PVII Turret Only
1501 Turret pulses per pocket
1502 Turret home offset
1522 Turret backlash pulses
1506 Turret position velocity
1510 Turret home (0=inhibit)
1511 Turret vel toward home
1512 Turret vel away from home
1513 Turret vel toward marker
1515 Turret jog velocity
0000; *** Custom M and G code Tables ***
0110bCustom Gcode O9010
0111bCustom Gcode O9011
0112bCustom Gcode O9012
0113bCustom Gcode O9013
0114bCustom Gcode O9014
0115bCustom Gcode O9015
0116bCustom Gcode O9016
0117bCustom Gcode O9017
0118bCustom Gcode O9018
0119bCustom Gcode O9019
0120bCustom Mcode O9020
0121bCustom Mcode O9021
0122bCustom Mcode O9022
0123bCustom Mcode O9023
0124bCustom Mcode O9024
0125bCustom Mcode O9025
0126bCustom Mcode O9026
0127bCustom Mcode O9027
0128bCustom Mcode O9028
0129bCustom Mcode O9029
0000bParameter File Version
0058BUse Smaller Soft-Keys


Could my parameters be corrupt? How do I go about fixing?

Figured I should start here first before checking voltages and switches. Not sure if this is a problem but I would think I should be able to read all of these files.

Thanks for the help,

Kevin

[Kev13]

He guys.... did a backup of the parameters and got a listing of files on the floppy.

Power.dat and Pfile.dat were two that I opened up in wordpad. I am assuming Pfile.dat is the parameters file? When I opened it, it did not have much that I could read in it. Was a bunch of squares and odd ascii characters.

The power.dat file is as follows. Could not see anything abt screen resolution or anything.

0000; Changes here take effect on Power-Up.
0064XInitial Units are ,G20 English,G21 Metric
0065bNumber of Axes
0704 Power-On FeedRate
0068bSpindle Axis
0070B100% Rapid in Run (No Override)
0071B100% Rapid in Dry-run (No Override)
0072BSpindle on in Dry-run
0073XTool Tables by,Radius,Diameter
0075BLoad TEXT Cycles
0076BDon't Load Canned Cycles
0000; ******** Tool Changer Info ********
0044XMachine is Partner,Other,PI,PII,PIII,PIV,PV,PVI,PVII,PVIII,PI X
0069XATC Type is,PVII,Manual/Avanti,P1 6/12,3?,4?,5?,6?,7?,PVIII/PIX
1504 ATC tool (pocket) count
1599 Spindle orient delay (ms)
0130TM6 (Tool Change) Macro
0084XPartner I ATC is,Plunger,Geneva Two-Step,Geneva One-Step
0200bPI/PVI ATC cw Coast
0201bPI/PVI ATC cw Brake
0202bPI/PVI ATC ccw Coast
0203bPI/PVI ATC ccw Brake
0000; *** For PVII Turret Only
1501 Turret pulses per pocket
1502 Turret home offset
1522 Turret backlash pulses
1506 Turret position velocity
1510 Turret home (0=inhibit)
1511 Turret vel toward home
1512 Turret vel away from home
1513 Turret vel toward marker
1515 Turret jog velocity
0000; *** Custom M and G code Tables ***
0110bCustom Gcode O9010
0111bCustom Gcode O9011
0112bCustom Gcode O9012
0113bCustom Gcode O9013
0114bCustom Gcode O9014
0115bCustom Gcode O9015
0116bCustom Gcode O9016
0117bCustom Gcode O9017
0118bCustom Gcode O9018
0119bCustom Gcode O9019
0120bCustom Mcode O9020
0121bCustom Mcode O9021
0122bCustom Mcode O9022
0123bCustom Mcode O9023
0124bCustom Mcode O9024
0125bCustom Mcode O9025
0126bCustom Mcode O9026
0127bCustom Mcode O9027
0128bCustom Mcode O9028
0129bCustom Mcode O9029
0000bParameter File Version
0058BUse Smaller Soft-Keys


Could my parameters be corrupt? How do I go about fixing?

Figured I should start here first before checking voltages and switches. Not sure if this is a problem but I would think I should be able to read all of these files.

Thanks for the help,

Kevin

[jpawelk]

Corrupt parameters has nothing to do with the Bad V error upon boot up. Please refer to an earlier thread that I have posted as to what the problem may be.

[bborb]

If it IS the keyboard encoder board:
There is a 5 volt regulator on a LARGE heatsink on the keyboard encoder board that is almost always the failure.
The cards are several hundred dollars so I'd find somebody with a soldering iron and replace the $1.50 part first.
www.nteinc.com can cross-reference the number if DigiKey doesn't have the actual part.

[Kev13]

jpawelk

You referenced a serial keyboard setting in the parameters

A "BAD V" error upon boot up could be a few things. The parameter "serial keyboard" may be set to yes. Make sure it is set to no. This is a power parameter."

That statement led me to look at the parameters. Where (what file name) would I find the serial keyboard setting you referenced? I do not see it in the file I cut and pasted here.

I have the pannel out of the machine now. Starting to inspect things closer.

Thanks for the replys so far

Kevin

[bborb]

Kev13,
The control uses several files to compile the parameter screen you see when you are in access level three. What you posted was ONE of the templates used in this compiling and the hex codes at the beginning of each line are the addresses in another file that contain the values for that particular parameter. You can't really decipher or change anything (and you SHOULDN'T) in any of these files unless you do it through the control.
This is why you should ALREADY have backed up your parameters when your machine was running good.
If you have the backed up parameters, there's a way to get to the DOS screen in the control and copy them back in, if your machine doesn't have an electronic problem.
Matter of fact, a good diagnostic procedure to see if the encoder board is working would be to boot to DOS before the CNC software starts (press any key during the countdown), this would tell you if the control is even "seeing" the keyboard.

[One of Many]

If I recall......JPawelk is an insider....following his direction will lead you to the offending condition.


To access the parameters section you need to go into UTIL-PARMS-SETUP. This will bring up the VALIDATION CODE: Type in PROTO3 then at ACCESS LEVEL: type in 3. This will allow you to look at and alter the parameters in different sections via the control. Attempting to edit any of this in DOS will hose up the works for sure.

The machines are usually shipped with a print out of the parameters and a backup disk. Without that, you are at the mercy of the info you have on hand in the manuals and the generous minded people here to offer assistance. If need be, I can email some of that next week.

There are also some user parameters in UTIL-PARMS-CTRL that do not need a validation code to view, but may be required for changes.

Write down the existing values and menu locations before you make any changes to them.

If the parameters were corrupt, I doubt the machine would even make it to the main menu. It would crash before that point during boot.

DC

[varga]

I think I bought this guys cnc, its a partner 4(iv) with centurion 5(V) having the same problems still. any ideas?? ive got the book coming from milltronis this week. please let me know!

[One of Many]

I think I bought this guys cnc, its a partner 4(iv) with centurion 5(V) having the same problems still. any ideas?? ive got the book coming from milltronis this week. please let me know!

If you must resort to board level repairs and have little knowledge, it would best serve you to spend the money and have Milltronics confirm the keyboard encoder is in fact bad or further issues with the acroloop controller. A local tech could still save you headaches and/or further complications with too many hands "trying" to correct the problems.

Once you have the books, you may be able to check basic connections to the supply lines and switch contact continuity, but you will not get board level circuitry schematics. Troubleshooting past the wiring takes knowledge of the inner workings or spare parts to swap out.

I've seen where Milltronics does not put wire numbers on everything, so that makes it tougher, but troubleshooting competency is essential in unfamiliar territory. Know when to give in and let a qualified tech handle it in short order. Milltronics Technical Support is pretty good, assuming you have a technical apptitude and follow their lead, ask the right questions and convey reliable information requested to the conditions at hand.

I've seen the results of good intentions gone bad. Never pretty at that point.

DC