I just finished rebuilding the machine and when I go to power it on the Blackbox has no power to it. I’ve tested the wiring to the box it’s got power, also it zapped me one time while testing ⚡️only thing I can think of is there a limit as to how long the cord from the power to the Blackbox can be? I had to run a fairly long cord due to mounting issues. Any trouble shooting help would be greatly appreciated. thanks in advance Jerry
Also I’ve noticed when I power it on the little green LED on the power supply comes on, and when I plug it into the BB it goes off.
Update. Ive found what looks like a bad power supply end. (SEE PICS) Ive contacted Openbuild about it Its still under warranty but just only Nov 21 2023 I bought it Not sure if it will be covered or not. Power plug will not connect anymore, and looks like it might have melted just a smig or even broke. I doubled checked the wiring it was all correct so IDK what happened
that’s just it nothing has changed sense I re-wired the motors, non of the settings were touched it wasn’t a bad shock just one of those O well alrighty moments
You can't feel 24v with dry skin, so check the output with a meter, the psu might be passing high voltage. Gary
The melted pin tip on the connector, the symptoms etc points at likely a reverse polarity wiring (or upstream short) - quite possible a mistake while making up the new power cable. The zap sound/burn mark suggests the reverse polarity cable / or some upstream shorts was plugged in while PSU was on as well Sorry to hear about this. Apply reverse polarity likely took out the BlackBox
I don’t get why it happened though. I even tried the original cable and the black box still wouldn’t turn on. This was before the short when the plug would still insert into the black box. The short happed after I reinstalled the new cable. I was trying to see if the shorter power cable would power on the Blackbox. But it didnt. So something was going on before the short happened. I can’t afford to have this happen again if they can even fix it. It’s not like they’re cheap if I end up having to purchase a new one just to have it short out also. I guess I run a whole new power cable. Can you put an inline fuse to hopefully catch an issue like this if it happens again. Thanks felling really bummed right now. I’m sure this mistake is gonna be costly
Post pics of both ends of the new cable, lets help check polarity? If its not that happy to check any other wiring/mounting pics for you too so we can help see what the root cause was. Fuses are not fast enough - checking polarity and wiring before powering on is more important. Feels all the more like new cable was wired incorrectly - damage already done, thats why old cable doesn't make a difference
ok I’ll post some pics tomorrow of the cable I’m gonna replace it anyway. So no fuse huh? Dame feeling gun shy right about now. ok thanks Peter.
So this is how I have it set up for the power wire. As you can see black box is off the machine but I’ve showed where it’s located, the psu mounting location the power wire runs under the machine up the front through the drag chain
Ok so I tested the DCV setting as requested with both the old cord and the new cord. Both were hooked to the PSU and tested at the open end that would hook into the Blackbox, neither went (-negative) OLD POWER CORD FROM PSU TO BB.MOV (Old power cored test) NEW POWER CORD FROM PSU TO BB.mov. (New power cord test)
Incorrect polarity wouldn't necessarily "go negative" as long as you hold the probes right (PSU side wiring correct, probes correct, measurement all good) But if the GND was wired to V+ and V+ to GND (can no longer check it because free end of cable already removed from how it was) it would 100% match the symptoms Just from the symptoms I have almost no doubt that is the history. Just lines up: was rewiring, easy to make that mistake in a moment of distraction. Afterwards symptoms match exactly what we see from folks where confirmed to be the case (wiring pics still will mistake in situ, etc)
I guess its possible I did that, to tell the truth I must have taken it apart a dozen time looking, checking on the power side of the box. Do you think its fixable?
Sadly not. In a soft start, it survives, but that sparking marks are indicative that power was on at the time of connection, blew up crowbar diode and usually makes its way deeper in burning stepper drivers, stepdown converter, spindle control etc all the sections on the 24v rail. Often jumps the burnt stepdown too and pumps reverse polarity 24v into the low voltage rails taking out microcontroller etc too. Labour on microsoldering is expensive, and with the amount of power involved burnt pcb traces almost certain too. So will probably cost 2-3x the cost of a new one to get it repaired
DAME that sucks Ok well IMHOP I think Openbuild should find a way to build in a protector into the system,I mean it would make sense to protect a valuable pice of equipment. But thats just my thoughts. SOooooo is OB going to want this thing back or should I just order a new one Just looking of a answer I mean I know they can't fix it so I have to order a new one I get that Very frustrated right now that theres no built in protection for this very expensive item
There is, but connecting to a PSU while the PSU is powered on means instead of a nice soft start from the PSU (sees reverse blocking diode, PSU goes into protection mode as engineered), it got hit with the full charge of the already on PSU (causing the burn marks on the connectors) - two mistakes (working with power on and reverse polarity at the same time) took its toll here. I am sorry it happened to you, but please always work with everything powered OFF and always double check wiring before powering on.
Thanks for the help. I know it was powered off before I connected the BB plug because I have a on off switch at the PSU. I cant rule out that I accidentally wired the + to the - I can tell you I spent all morning running new wires to every thing and by the time I got to the power it was 109* out side probably a little less in my garage, and like you said distracted HOT didn't help But either way Ive ordered a new BB should be here shortly and tired didn't help Thanks again
Say Peter. I’ve got the new black box hooked up and running but now I can’t hook it to the computer. Interface works but I’m guessing sense it’s a windows 7 pro it will no longer recognize it (thought I heard somewhere) any way how to I load my back up settings into the black box with out the computer I have it on a usb but unsure how to load it from the interface or if it’s even possible thanks again Jerry
Newer versions of CONTROL needs Windows 10 yes But in terms of "recognising" as in USB Enumaration, make sure you have the drivers docs:blackbox-x32:install-drivers [OpenBuilds Documentation] - newer BlackBoxes has a different USB chip (Silicon labs, no longer FTDI)
Setting are in everything looks good tested the Openbuilds limit switches all working Home the machine. Everything is looking great. Going to go over it with a good eye before starting on a price had on hold for 3 weeks. thank you all for your input Thanks Peter again for getting me up and running
