Driver testing failure

***SEE LATER POST*** I'm leaving this as posted but lined out. The reference to pin 2 should be pin 8 of the D socket.

OK, there's the problem. D2 is wired to kreg on the A side, which goes to the trimmer R4, then to the 4990 ohm resistor R3 and finally to the -reg on the board, and then is wired to ground. Somewhere along this path a connection must not be made. I still suspect R3 to be the problem.
 
Paul,
Tonight I pulled off all the parts that make up this chain on the A side of the board and reinstalled them all. I felt really good about the connections. Reattached the board and rechecked voltages. Despite all that I still get the same 130V at 46U. What else can I try?
 
***SEE LATER POST*** I'm leaving this as posted but lined out. The reference to pin 2 should be pin 8 of the D socket.

Sorry, I was a little short on explanation there.

"D2 is wired to kreg on the A side," - so attach one lead of your ohmmeter to D2, and probe the resistance from there to kreg - should be near zero, if not then the wire between them is faulty or badly soldered or connected to the wrong place....

" which goes to the trimmer R4," Hard to get at the trimmer leads, so move on to:

" then to the 4990 ohm resistor R3" Leaving the first lead attached to D2 and probe resistor R3 (4990 ohms) - both leads. One of them should show the trimmer setting (between zero and 10K depending on the trimmer setting). The other should be close to 4990 ohms greater than the first resistor lead. Too complicated to do here, if this is the problem post results and we can dive onto it.

" and finally to the -reg on the board," so move the probe to -reg (keeping the reference at D2). Should be the larger of the above two measurements. If not, the solder at one end of R3 is bad.

" and then is wired to ground"  Move the probe to a nearby ground terminal. If it's not the same, then the wire from -reg to ground is at fault, or badly soldered.
 
Thanks Paul. Your initial instructions were probably 100% clear for the majority of builders on here but I'm pretty green at this. I'll remeasure those resistances today and will report back.
Thanks,
Jamus
 
Ok, here's what I measured...

D2 to Kreg on B side = 0.5 ohms
D2 to -reg = 423k ohms
D2 to ground = 423k ohms
D2 to R3 on A side (both ends of resistor) = out of limits

i also measured from both ends of R3 to ground and got 427k ohms and 433k ohms respectively
 
***SEE LATER POST*** I'm leaving this as posted but lined out. The reference to pin 2 should be pin 8 of the D socket.

You are right about the B side - I went by the circuit diagram, which seems to be different from the construction manual. Applies to the D2 to R3 - should be R3 on the B side. My apologies for the confusion.

If I am reading it correctly, it seems the 4.99K resistor R3 is actually nearly 100 times too large. You can probably measure the resistor directly. (The other R3 on the A side should be 2.49K ohms - might as well check them both while you are at it.)
 
Jamus said:
Ok, here's what I measured...

D2 to Kreg on B side = 0.5 ohms
D2 to -reg = 423k ohms
D2 to ground = 423k ohms
D2 to R3 on A side (both ends of resistor) = out of limits

i also measured from both ends of R3 to ground and got 427k ohms and 433k ohms respectively

why do I get resistance readings from R3 to ground but not R3 to D2? Does that help with isolating the issue? Since the difference across R3 to ground is about 5k ohms (433-427) does that mean that R3 is placed correctly?
 
My apologies again; I finally figured out that the A and D sockets are wired differently. (I was not present when the manual was written, and I don't have a Kaiju in my lab.) The circuit diagram shows 5670 pin numbers for the A socket, not the D socket. The relevant socket terminal is D8 (not D2). I feel really bad about this.

Here is my earlier post, edited to say what I intended to say:

"D8 is wired to kreg on the A side," - so attach one lead of your ohmmeter to D8, and probe the resistance from there to kreg (A) - should be near zero, if not then the wire between them is faulty or badly soldered or connected to the wrong place....

" which goes to the trimmer R4," Hard to get at the trimmer leads, so move on to:

" then to the 4990 ohm resistor R3" Leaving the first lead attached to D8 and probe resistor R3 (4990 ohms) on the A side - both leads. One of them should show the trimmer setting (between zero and 10K depending on the trimmer setting). The other should be close to 4990 ohms greater than the first resistor lead. Too complicated to do here, if this is the problem post results and we can dive onto it.

" and finally to the -reg on the board," so move the probe to -reg (A) (keeping the reference at D8). Should be the larger of the above two measurements. If not, the solder at one end of R3 (A) is bad.

" and then is wired to ground"  Move the probe to a nearby ground terminal. If it's not the same, then the wire from -reg to ground is at fault, or badly soldered.
 
Paul, no worries on the mixup I'm just grateful for the help!
Kreg A = 0
R3 = 250 and 5250 ohms
-reg = 8800 ohms and slowly rising
Ground and -reg are the same
I resoldered both ends of R3 multiple times, and get the same reading at -reg. Could then be an issue with the board/terminal preventing the connection? I must have touched up R3 a dozen times since it was first suggested as the likely source of the problem.
Thanks again for helping out.
Jamus
 
Those look better - presumably the trimpot is set to250 ohms, very close to one end of its range. The only anomaly is that one end of R3 should be connected to -reg.

On the back side of the PC board you can see the trace that connects the end of R3 closest to the 431 chip to one terminal of the Cc capacitor and from there to -reg. From your measurements, it seems clear that something is wrong with that connection. The total length of that trace is barely 1/2 inch - I'd say we have narrowed it down pretty close ...  :^)

If you can't find it from that, can you post a photo of the back side of the board? Maybe getting more eyes on it will help.
 
Okay, I think I see the problem. It really helped knowing where to look so thanks Paul for helping narrow it down within 1/2 inch!

It appears to me that the trace between R3 and Cc is not complete (bottom of the image). If you zoom in on this picture you can see a small notch in the trace. The metal around the Cc terminal is also incomplete.

Am I seeing that right?
 

Attachments

Yup looks like it is open right there. Easiest solution is to make up a wire jumper that reconnects the disconnect.
 
You can carefully scrape the green solder mask from the trace and tack solder the end of the jumper to it. The soldering also needs to be done with some care so the trace doesn't lift off the board.
 
I installed the jumper tonight and sure enough that did the trick! Now getting the same resistance at R3 and -reg, powered up and voltages are in spec, trip pot is trimming, all is good in the world.

This was a long strange detour and I couldn't have navigated it without the help of PJ, Josh, PB, and Doc B. Many thanks for sticking this one out!

Best,
Jamus
 
Awesome! We will be sending out a replacement for the defective board tomorrow.
 
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