Anyone here fix an Anilam DRO?

does it do it when you first turn it on or does it take a few minutes. is it both scales or the whole unit

One technique used in the electronics repair business is freeze spray. It is a can of freon that you can spray on a suspect part. If the part is marginal it will either start working or stop working immediately when hit with the spray. It will often find bad chips and/or bad connections. Just work your way around the board until hitting one part makes a difference. Most electronics supply houses will have the stuff.

Pete.

It does it immediatly..sometimes and other times in a few moments. Just long enough usually for me to get the edge finder in the collet..sigh

Just the display unit. The scales both work fine, when the display is working

Gunner

" ..The world has gone crazy. Guess I'm showing my age... I think it dates from when we started looking at virtues as funny. It's embarrassing to speak of honor, integrity, bravery, patriotism, 'doing the right thing', charity, fairness. You have Seinfeld making cowardice an acceptable choice; our politicians changing positions of honor with every poll; we laugh at servicemen and patriotic fervor; we accept corruption in our police and bias in our judges; we kill our children, and wonder why they have no respect for Life. We deny children their childhood and innocence- and then we denigrate being a Man, as opposed to a 'person'. We *assume* that anyone with a weapon will use it against his fellowman- if only he has the chance. Nah; in our agitation to keep the State out of the church business, we've destroyed our value system and replaced it with *nothing*. Turns my stomach- " Chas , rec.knives

enough usually for me to get the edge finder in the collet..sigh

Try replacing the main filter capacitor in the power supply section. I had the same problem with my unit and replacing the cap solved the problem, the cap in my anilam is big computer grade electrolytic with screw terminals on top.

Hope this helps

Best Regards Tom.

i would check the power supply. if it is immediate

You've reflowed the connections, what about the traces themselves? Often there will be a microscopic crack in one of the traces. Slapping the case or flexing the board will often make it work or fail for a while.

Try going around the board with a (non-conductive) stick, applying gentle pressure to various parts of the board. When you find an area where the pressure causes it to change its behavior, run your soldering iron along each of the traces in that area. That'll reflow solder to bridge the crack.

The other mechanical intermittant possibility is inside a component, ie a bond wire is broken or a chip substrate is cracked. Freeze mist is a good tool for finding this sort of problem. Just spray each part and see if circuit behavior changes. If so, replace that part.

Gary

Since the unit reacts to the slap test, it would appear to be a mechanical connection, possibly soldered or an internal connector.

One possibility could be the screws that secure the voltage regulators to the outside of the rear panel. The screws are a part of the power supply circuit. The case of the voltage regulators is actually one of the terminals, so if the contact between the screws and the case is loose, the power supply will become intermittent.

These screws should be installed firm or snug, but not tight. If they're overtightened, the case tabs will pierce the insulator.

If that's not the problem, then the unit might need a very close inspection of all the internal connections. A magnifier lamp works best for this type of examination. The previous suggestion of probing the boards with a non-conductive "stick" is a good way to get a better idea of where the intermittent connection is.

With the power off, pull connectors apart to examine the pins/contacts for oxidation or corrosion from contamination or shit 'n corruption.

Circuit board visual inspections can reveal cold solder connections where insufficient heat was used, and the parts (usually the larger components) are merely "cast" in place. Over time, oxidation forms between the solder and the component lead (leed not led). Some carefully applied pressure or wiggle will usually reveal this type of fault.. there again, sometimes not easy to see without good light and magnification.

Anything that's related to the DRO unit that's subject to movement and/or vibration should be checked. The internal fasteners, which could include ground connections, and the power transformer solder connections. Swap the AC power cord to make sure it's not a broken connection inside the cord. With the unit unplugged, check that the fuse is held securely, and it's possible that the fuse element is loose on one end (kinda rare though).

WB .................