[iandh]

I just ran my new X3 for the first time, Plugged into the wall, turned power switch on, switched motor switch to run forward, and turned knob to half speed. Nothing.

Turned knob to 3/4 speed. Spindle starts to turn like 100rpm. Turn knob to max. Spindle starts to turn 200rpm (this is in high gear, fyi should be 2000rpm).

Turn spindle switch from forward to off. Leave speed knob at max. Turn spindle switch to forward. Spindle turns at 2000rpm. Turn spindle knob off, turn back on, fault light. Rinse, repeat.



There is something seriously screwed in the electronics. The spindle is not stuck, that is not the cause of the fault light. On the random time it actually goes 2000rpm, the speed control doesn't work... it's stuck at that speed. When the speed control does work, it only goes 200rpm max. Sad.



Grizzly support not open on weekends (of course, the time when hobbyists would be most likely to need them).



Any suggestions?

[Crevice Reamer]

Hi iandh. Welcome to the zone!

SOP for Chinese mills is to tug test all wiring terminals for bad crimps. I suspect this is your problem. First check for loose or badly crimped wiring at both ends of wires P1, P2 AND P3. Make sure the speed control potentiometer is wired correctly as per page 27, figure 33 of the manual:

http://cdn1.grizzly.com/manuals/g0463_m.pdf

http://crevicereamer.com/Page_26.html

CR.

[iandh]

Hi,

Thanks for your reply and help.


I also suspect the potentiometer. I'm somewhat familiar with DC motor speed controls as I've already done a DC conversion on my drill press, and use them at work somewhat often for automation. Unfortunately, this isn't the standard Minarik I'm comfortable with.

I went in last night before I posted and did a tug test on all of the wiring... I did notice that the pot felt "funny", and from my guitar building days, I know how often these pots come bad out of the box.

My problem is that I don't have a default value for the pot, so I don't want to go just sticking random resistances on the board and kill something.




The worst thing is that I bought this mill second hand new in box, but the guy had bought it a year ago so it may be out of warranty. I got a killer deal on it and I don't think the guy was trying to screw with me as it was obvious it had never been run, but I'm still not looking forward to the prospect of coming out of pocket to fix a brand new machine that should have been tested before shipment.

I know I should have tested it before purchase, but when a machine is still in the crate with packing oil, and Grizzly has this awesome "quality control", you'd think they'd at least do a spin-up on the machines before shipping them.

[iandh]

SUCCESS!


It wasn't what I thought, either. I did suspect the board originally, but because I was getting funny readings off the pot my suspicions pointed towards that... turned out it was my new el-cheapo multimeter (can't find the fluke, bought this until it turns up).

Anyways, it did turn out to be the board. There was a bad cap on the trim pot for max speed. I found it by tapping around on the board, and whenever I hit the cap, it would turn on the fault light. Turns out the cap was semi-shorted inside and was pulling down the signal for speed... that's why I had to crank the pot to get anything to happen on the spindle.

Anyways, it was a 22uF 50v, so I dug two 10uF 50v out of an old broken walmart radio I had in the spare parts box, wired them in parralel, and used them to replace the cap. After that, it runs perfect. Better than perfect.

I'm thrilled. Anyways, thought I'd return and let everyone know what it was, perhaps it may help someone in the future.

[Crevice Reamer]

Excellent troubleshooting! Good work! Well done.

Thanks for sharing.

CR.

[Teyber12]

wow nice troubleshooting!

[iandh]

Yeah I'm pretty proud of myself. I'm not an expert, but I do have electronics experience. I just couldn't sleep well, having a $1000 paperweight on my bench, so I kept tinkering and tinkering until I got it. I was prepared to start spending on replacement parts, but I MUCH prefer using capacitors out of a busted radio.

[WaveDude]

Hmmmm, in the age of hi-tech electronics, stuff still gets fixed (or at least debugged) by banging on it.