Mini Mill Woes

[RayW]

My Clarke CMD10 (same as a Sieg X1) mini mill decided to die the other day. Assuming it was the motor that had died (2nd one), I shelled out £115 for a new one, only to discover that the fault appears to be with the speed controller PCB and that the old motor appears to be OK after all. Unfortunately, Arceurotrade from whom I bought the motor, does not accept returns of electrical items.
The fault is as follows. When you switch on the forward/reverse switch, you get a normal green power light on the control panel, but as soon as you switch on the speed controller switch (potentiometer) you get an amber fault light.
According to Arceurotrades's website, the circuit board for my machine is now discontinued. They list a later one, but will not give any advice as to whether it is compatible with my machine.
The motor is 230volt DC. In case the fault lies with the potentiometer itself, I have ordered a new one just to try it and see.
Has anyone had a similar experience with one of these mills and replaced the circuit board with the later version? The current one is type FC150BJ and the new one is XMT2315.
If I cannot get one, I will probably end up buying another identical mill so that I can transfer the various adaptions that I have made (longer table, belt drive conversion, separate control box) from the old one to the new one.
Alternatively, does anyone know of anybody in the UK who might be able to test and repair my current board?

[Firebird]

Hi Ray

Send a PM to my mate Barneydog, he may be able to offer some advise

Cheers

Rich

[tghs]

most of these mini mills use cheap spade connectors between the power cord and mill,, if you have not done this already remove them and replace with a more robust connectors..

[RayW]

Thanks Rich. Will contact Barneydog to see if he can help.

Thanks for the suggestion tghs. The connection from the power cord to the mill is fine as there is power to the control panel.

[tghs]

mine showed the same symptoms, according to Little Machine Shop its one of "do this first"

[Allen Smithee]

most of these mini mills use cheap spade connectors between the power cord and mill,, if you have not done this already remove them and replace with a more robust connectors..

There isn't actually anything especially wrong with spade connectors provided they are used within their specified current range and are fitted using the correct crimp tool and the correct size wire. In any application where there is vibration I would rate a correctly crimped and specified spade connector as a better solution than pretty well any soldered connector, and it's not like you'd expect to see Mil-std-38999 or Pattern 605 connectors in a machine tool.

AS

[Alyn Foundry]

Here's a photo of Ray's motor control circuit board.

[RayW]

Thanks for posting that Graham.The two bottom connections on the connector block on the right are marked "220 volt DC out". With the mains power on, and the green light showing in the control panel, I have tried touching the two motor wires on those terminals but there is nothing, so it appears there is no DC output. I have also now checked with a volt meter but zero reading.

I will try the new potentiometer when it arrives, but failing that, there appears to be a company in Luxembourg that may still stock the correct control board for about 85 Euros.

[RayW]

On studying the Arceurotrade photo again, I can see that my board differs slightly, but has the same part number, FC150BJ. The only possible defect I can see with mine is that the middle of the three small orange components at the top of the board may have overheated as the orange part should have a cross head slot like the other two, but looks as if it has melted. I have no idea what these are or if they are replaceable.
The attached photo shows my board. Usefully, all the cables that connect the circuit board to the control panel components are numbered to correspond with which terminal on the connector block they go to, so installing a new board would be quite straightforward.

[jadge]

............the middle of the three small orange components at the top of the board may have overheated as the orange part should have a cross head slot like the other two, but looks as if it has melted. I have no idea what these are or if they are replaceable.

Good grief, must have got hot to do that. The orange components are single turn preset potentiometers, probably surface mount. Do they have three legs? Should be possible to find a replacement. Of course one needs to know the value, which could be printed on the side. Even if a direct physical replacement can't be found another one can be wired in. In the UK I'd look at Farnell/CPC/RS for replacements.

Andrew

[Admiral_dk]

I frankly can't decide from the photo if the Trimmer (Pro speak) is melted or as it appears to me - has a dot of glue on top to prevent it being adjusted again - This is not an uncommon way of preventing unauthorised personnel from "fixing stuff / Improving it" ....

Looking at the one slightly closer to the lens - you see between 2 and 4 characters - 1-3 digits followed by either the letter R, K or M (the later not quite likely here) - I'm not sure they are SMD, but they might be.

Another way of writing the value is like the two blue Multiturn Trimmers to the right of the Singleturn ones :
503 => 50 * 10^3 = 50000 or 50K - Ohm is implied, without writing it.

[Don1966]

You can check the speed pot across the two outer terminals it should have 5 or 10vdc across it . This is your reference voltage used to control the board if it’s not there the board won’t work. If the small trim pot is burnt which I can’t see from your photo it could be a minimum or max speed adjust. This burnt pot could be caused by a shorted wire going to your speed pot if this is the case. If you have reference voltage and the board doesn’t work it needs replacement. Hope this helps....

Don

[Jasonb]

Common advice on ME is to put a household light bulb in place of the motor and if that changes brightness as the speed is adjusted then board OK.

[Zephyrin]

I have replaced simply the died rectifier bridge on my Sieg X2, as no signal was detected at its output, with a new one and added a small alum. plate bolted on as it had a hole in the middle, and it works faultless since about 14 years now.

[mikemill]

Ray

Have a look at this one https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Input-AC-220V-Output-DC-0-220V-Speed-PWM-Regulator-Controller-Motor-HHD6-G-1200W/372638753963?_trkparms=ispr%3D1&hash=item56c30024ab:g:AJwAAOSw

There are lot of others on ebay

Mike