Tormach ECM1 V1.5 Control Board Repair
While Browsing the forums I frequent I Seen Someone Post that they Burnt up their Tormach ECM1 V1.5 Milling Machine Control Board and Post was 8 Months Old.
The person posting hooked up the +24V Reverse Polarity Oops! Yep, He let the magic smoke out! Sadly with modern electronics Tormach would only sell him a new ECM V1.5 a $625 board and not repair it. Usual them with manufactures these days.
Since I have Repaired a half dozen or so Older Machine Control Boards PN:31045 / 301262 and more then a few dozen Tormach Leadshine Stepper Drives PN: 32000 etc. this is a perfect patient Board to explore.
I immediately messaged the poster and they responded a day or so later that they had already replaced it with another Tormcah ECM V1.5 board.
I asked if he still had his broken Tormach ECM1 V1.5 he said he did so I struck up a negotiations for the broken one. We Came to an agreement and I sent him a USPS Label. With out delay he packaged it up and the board arrived a few days later.
People like me love saving tech form the land fill or scrap processor extending its useful life or putting it to use again elsewhere.
Tormach ECM V1.5 Board How it Arrived.
Immediately Under the Microscope it Goes. First check for physical damage!
First a Physical Inspection, Physical Damage Noted:
Missing a Relay (Not Reported), D22, D23 (1N4148WS-7-F SOD323) Blown Off Board (As Reported)
Second, Hook up Power 24V DC to the Siglent SPD-3303X PSU Not Even 1mA draw.
Third, Do Some Probing Around the Power Supply Circuit And Find U3 a RT8279 step-down regulator to Be Shorted.
So, I was Feeling Lucky and I Checked the Capacitors in the power supply circuit but the Short Remained.
After the Capacitor check, I Removed U3 and the Short is Gone. We have a Winner!
A Little Voltage Injection and we have Some Signs of Life So Not a Lost Cause Yet!!
Repair Updates for the Tormach ECM1 V1.5 Control Board will be a bit slow due to no one in the USA having stock of the RT8279? I have ordered the chip it From China ETA October 03! If I am able to collect a donor board or two for parts I will update any progress.
Some Parts Arrived..
Price breakdown of parts is under $1.00 so far.
RT8279 at $0.73ea + ship or 0.85ea in 20 lots shipped On Aliexpress (Middle Range Vendors) If Digikey/Mouser had US stock about $2.20ea.
1N4148WS-7-F Diodes On Aliexpress about $0.04ea shipped If Digikey/Mouser US stock .09ea in lots of 100 or $0.19ea
D22 & D23 Installed.
Replaced U3 with New RT8279 Signs of life once again!
When Hooked to PC and Ethernet Cable I Can Ping it and get a response. Now need to figure out the required wiring for path pilot to initialize the board.
09/28 Tried a few different setups was not able to get it to talk to path pilot yet. When I get the free time I will to go thru the machine wiring schematic and make a test harness.
10/13 Tormach Released a Statement on YouTube about Them Supporting the Right to Repair.
From my inspection of the ECM1V1.5 and ECM1V1.4 Control boards it seem to use all off the shelf parts which is a good thing.
I am a Tormach PCNC 1100 Owner and I Have sent an Official E-mail Request for the Control Board Schematics.
Regardless what Tormach says Publicly In My Opinion Tormach Does Not Support The Right to Repair Audio Of Our Conversation.
Louis Rossmann Reacts.
I have been in communications with Tormahch’s CEO Rogge. My opinion has changed Tormach is now supporting the Right to Repair. Tormach Just did a Repair Document Data Dump https://github.com/tormach/Repair-Information Wow!! What I was told will take them a few days or so to get it all uploaded.
#righttorepair
Seems Tormach Went Silent and Have not Completed the Right to Repair Document Dump appreciate what they have given.
Update:11/09
This board is fully working was not a FPGA issue but a faulty 93C46 blocking Ethernet coms.
12/2022
I have repaired about two dozen of these since the schematics were released it Seems U3 is a Common Failure in these ECM1 Boards and a Few other Small items and people bricking them having to remove and reprogram the flash at U12.
Last Updated on April 8, 2023 by Steven Rhine