PowerPro just quit ....

[jsburger]

If the failure rate is actually only one percent, I would say bravo.

Somehow I just doubt that but then I am a skeptic. I'll stick with "old reliable" thank you.

At least I can fix her if she ever breaks. I bought a bunch of spare parts several years ago when I thought parts may become scarce. Probably will never use them.

If you have never used one you will never know the difference. It is amazing. Go to a demo and see the difference. It truly is a different machine with the Power Pro head stock.

[ERLover]

If the failure rate is actually only one percent, I would say bravo.

Somehow I just doubt that but then I am a skeptic. I'll stick with "old reliable" thank you.

At least I can fix her if she ever breaks. I bought a bunch of spare parts several years ago when I thought parts may become scarce. Probably will never use them.

If you have never used one you will never know the difference. It is amazing. Go to a demo and see the difference. It truly is a different machine with the Power Pro head stock.

I agree John, went to a demo last spring/early summer in Atown with the good guy demoing, Mike ?, amazing machine, but not for me, still like my stand alones and ERS for the price
I put a whole shop together at moms for less and that was with a new CPMS for $400 and the rest of CL except for a SS Greenie jointer I had laying around, 10" Ryobi planer for $35, wood workers bench with 2 vices for $85, Delta TS 10" for $185 and a router cabinet with a Rockler top and fence and a big Bosh Router for about $225 that I sold off to put my table,fence on and a new Bosh Router under neath and a Grayling with BS for $200, and a ER for $220. I think that is just under $1200 and can sell it off when mom goes. Well not the ER or grayling or CPMS

[charlese]

Did you see any failure? Burned component, solder cold joint, blown capacitor? I hope you took pictures. Please post them!

A photo would do you (or me) no good. This is a sealed unit - opening voids warranty - all we would see is a black box with several electric cables coming out of it. If you want to see the guts - look at the PowerPro ads.

I think I was able to copy a picture from the add. You might have to enlarge it.

controller for PowerPro.jpg (18 KiB) Viewed 8201 times

[dusty]

A little bit different view but there is very little to see.

http://www.shopsmith.com/markvsite/imag ... ay_d_l.jpg

[Shug]

There appear to be a couple large electrolytic caps on that power supply PCB. If one of those popped, it'd fit the symptoms, and in-service failure of electrolytics isn't uncommon. Here is a link to info on failure modes:
http://machineryequipmentonline.com/ele ... apacitors/

[Ed in Tampa]

Did you see any failure? Burned component, solder cold joint, blown capacitor? I hope you took pictures. Please post them!

A photo would do you (or me) no good. This is a sealed unit - opening voids warranty - all we would see is a black box with several electric cables coming out of it. If you want to see the guts - look at the PowerPro ads.

I think I was able to copy a picture from the add. You might have to enlarge it.

controller for PowerPro.jpg

Sealed box I don't like sealed boxes. They concentrate heat and hint of magic inside that I just have got to see.

I agree there are some capacitors on the board and my guess one of them let go. Probably do to heat build up.

[charlese]

Sealed box I don't like sealed boxes. They concentrate heat and hint of magic inside that I just have got to see.

I fully agree with your paragraph followed by the "rolleyes". But that's the way it is. Since I can't fix anything inside that box, I've reluctantly accepted the warranty.

Can't say I'm sorry! The headstock is a great improvement over the one with movable sheaves. It has made woodworking more fun for me! And I can say - "I get more fun out of woodworking than machine maintenance."

It seems - Some guys get more fun from machine maintenance. If that is fact - more power to them.

[BuckeyeDennis]

Update!

PP running again! Took me an hour to change out the power unit. What a great design! I am more impressed with this machine than I was before I got to see her innards .....

Anyway got the PU yesterday afternoon FedEx and put it in this AM. Everything is running great so far.

Dick, are you running the PP on 110 or 220V?

[rjent]

Update!

PP running again! Took me an hour to change out the power unit. What a great design! I am more impressed with this machine than I was before I got to see her innards .....

Anyway got the PU yesterday afternoon FedEx and put it in this AM. Everything is running great so far.

Dick, are you running the PP on 110 or 220V?

110V. I honestly don't know why you would want to (or need to) run it on 220. The motor has so much power you slip the belts (I have done it on purpose just to see) before you stall the motor. I have never felt I needed more power ....

[BuckeyeDennis]

Update!

PP running again! Took me an hour to change out the power unit. What a great design! I am more impressed with this machine than I was before I got to see her innards .....

Anyway got the PU yesterday afternoon FedEx and put it in this AM. Everything is running great so far.

Dick, are you running the PP on 110 or 220V?

110V. I honestly don't know why you would want to (or need to) run it on 220. The motor has so much power you slip the belts (I have done it on purpose just to see) before you stall the motor. I have never felt I needed more power ....

I was just curious about the root cause of your failure. If running on 220, that would be different than most, and might be a clue.

Several years ago, I designed a 10 hp servomotor drive that could be jumpered to run on either 240V or 480V 3-phase. All went well in testing. But once fielded, we had a couple of failures, with symptoms similar to what you reported. After the initial panic, we got the failed boards back for post-mortem. The problem turned out to be that the PCB layout tech was thinking in only two dimensions, when he needed to be thinking in three. The track clearances on the board were as they should be. What he forgot was that the electrolytic bus capacitors mounted on the board had some exposed conductor extending radially outward from the pins. So he inadvertently ran some ground-potential track right underneath that exposed high-voltage conductor on the cap, with only a small air gap separating it from a rectified 650VDC. Or even up to almost 1000VDC, under regenerative braking conditions.

So what happened was that under some combination of peak voltage and perhaps high humidity, that small air gap broke down and arced. Which ionized the air, greatly increasing it's conductivity. And then the entire DC bus (with about the same stored energy as a defibrillator) discharged through that air gap, releasing a huge amount of energy in just milliseconds. The thermal shock from the discharge blew the offending capacitor right off the circuit board, and vaporized anything in its path. IIRC, I had reviewed the PCB layout, and missed the problem as well.

Once the problem was identified, the solution was simple. In the short term, we had some FR4 circuit-board material cut to shape as insulators, and mounted them between the caps and the PCB. And then the next time we revised the PCB, we simply moved the track out from underneath the overhanging conductor.

So you see, it's all just physics. No voodoo involved.