Industrial Electronic Repair

Sweet!  The smell of economic improvement is in the air!  AP reports today that industrial production rose in December 2010 by the largest amount in five months which is a great surge of momentum to start 2011.

Activity at factories, mines and utilities increased 0.8 percent last month reports the Federal Reserve.  Overall industrial activity has risen 11 percent since bottoming out in June 2009.

The biggest indicator of industrial output is factory production which rose 0.4 percent, the sixth straight monthly increase.
 

Although auto production dipped, computers, electronic productions, clothing, leather, chemicals and other products all made substantial gains.

One secret our customers know well is that getting their industrial electronics repaired versus always buying new is the way to go.  Electronic repairs are a good way to keep production equipment expenses down so profits can keep growing.
  

Need drive repairs, power supply repairs, motor repairs?  Let us help you keep the money where it belongs - at the bottom line!

Gadget guys rejoice!  I have it on good authority that the electronic gadgets revealed this year at the annual International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas had more hits than misses.  More cool toys for you and I to play with in 2011!

This is the largest trade show in the Americas folks.  That’s a lot of gadgets and a lot of people.  The good news for the economy in general is that more people attended this year’s convention than in the two previous years.
 

The 2011 mega-hit gadget developments included:

• Tablets    These are the touch-screen tablet computers designed to compete with Apple’s iPad and there were lots of competitors.  To stand out from the iPad, there were hardware offerings that included front-and rear facing cameras for video chatting, high def videos, and 4G.

• Verizon’s 4 G devices   Verizon Wireless unleashed its 4G network in December with amazing data speeds.  For now, only plug-in laptop modems can take advantage of this service.

• Windows running on cell phone chips    What this means simply is that laptops and tablet computers will have longer battery  lives and give Windows a better chance to become dominant in the world of tablet computers.

• Intel & AMD with new chip designs   These chips have major design changes which will help hold off the advancing tablets and smart phones.  Traditional computers using their new chips will be more competitive with mobile devices.  The computers will be better at graphics-intensive tasks and playing videos.  With the added efficiencies, there will be longer battery life as well.

• 3-D TV’s with cinema glasses    Though 3-D TV’s were out last year, they required large, battery powered glasses to view.  This year’s versions boasted light, inexpensive glasses.  LG, Vizio and Samsung are big on this new gadget.  (Personally, I don’t want a TV that I have to wear special glasses to watch!  It’s hard enough just to track down the remote!)

• Free TV for mobile devices   TV broadcasters have added signals that are designed to be picked up by laptops and cell phones.  Though similar offerings have failed in the past, makers Audiovox and LG are believers and are providing several “Mobile DTV” gadgets this year.

• High Speed color inkjet printing   Startup Memjet has come up with a major development in inkjet printing that allows desktop printers to cheaply print one page per second in color.  The head is stationary and spans the whole page.  The cost of the printer will be about $600.

Live long and prosper!

2010 Flashback:  Remember the massive Toyota recall that kept getting shockingly worse, the inspiring Chilean miner rescue, BP’s devastating Gulf Oil Spill, the Tea Party, Mark Zuckerberg (who knew the name Mark Zuckerberg (besides his mom) before 2010?  Now it’s everywhere! ), Facebook, Wikileaks, Twitter, Android phones, the Apple iPad, oh, and remember the ash cloud from the Iceland volcano and all the trouble that caused?  That seems like forever ago but it really was 2010. 

News and new things came at us faster than ever in 2010.  We hardly had time to appreciate the new marvel before the next one was in our face.   Maybe a fast-paced, electronic, information-based world energizes and amazes you, or maybe it makes you just want to check out.  Me?  Some days it’s all cool, some days I just turn off all the gadgets and go for a hike in the woods and watch the blue jays take on the red tailed hawks.

Either way, it seems like a few minutes of calm reflection at the end of each day helps keep things in perspective.  2011 is a new year and tomorrow will be a new day with new solutions for each new challenge.  The National Circuit tech team is ready to take on your electronic repairs challenges in 2011!

“Shocking” Info Bites: 

• Almost 500 people die each year from electrical accidents, mostly in the workplace, putting it among the top 10 causes of accidental death in the U.S.
• Approximately 80% of all injuries and fatalities caused by electrical accidents are not caused by the electric shock itself, but by the intensive heat, light and pressure blast caused by electrical faults. 
• The blast made by vaporizing metallic components can break bones and damage internal organs.

Scary?  Don’t be one of these statistics. One important factor in plant safety is proper grounding techniques.   There is no faking it here, so make sure you are working with a licensed master electrician.   Here are just a few important things to remember about grounding to protect both people and equipment:

• The ground wire must be sized the same size as the supply wires or one size smaller as a minimum.  The three-phase power brought into a plant must also have a ground wire.
• Do not mix wires of different voltages in conduit.
• Never run any wires through an electronic control panel that do not relate to the function of the panel; electronic control panels should never be used as a junction box.
• Never allow field wiring to come in close proximity with the controller boards.
• Never add relays, starters, timers, transformers, etc. inside an electronic control panel without first contacting the manufacturer for specific instructions.
• Never run refrigerant tubing inside an electronic control panel (ammonia will destroy your electronics).
• If the electronic control panel has a starter built into the same panel, be sure to run the higher voltage wires as indicated by the manufacturer since EMI from the wires can interfere with the electronics if run too close to the circuitry.
• Never daisy-chain or parallel-connect power or ground wires to electronic control panels.
• Sensitive electronics require special grounding; ground impedance of one ohm or less may protect people from electric shock but may not be enough protection for electronic equipment.  IEEE recommends a ground impedance to be less than 0.25 ohms for proper protection.
• Check all devices immediately after installation to verify proper wiring; receptacles should be checked to avoid common wiring errors such as reversed polarity or an open neutral.
• Check the manufacturer’s requirements, codes, and always hire a licensed master electrician for electrical work.  It may save a life and it will almost certainly save your electronic equipment.

The bottom line is, we CAN protect ourselves from electrical accidents AND prevent costly equipment damage by using certified devices, testing equipment from reputable manufacturers, and keeping up to date on electrical codes. For specific code compliance information see http://www.neccodebooks.com or get the latest electrical codes from http://www.nfpa.org/catalog/.

If your electronic equipment does get fried, we will be delighted to provide power supply repairs, servo drive repairs, or virtually any other type of industrial electronic repairs you need.  National Circuit's tech team is here to help you.

A Lambda Power Supply, Model ZUP 36-6, was sent to our shop with the problem description:  “No Output Voltage.”  Initial troubleshooting involved powering up the unit and enabling the outputs.  The unit immediately presented an Alarm LED and the OVP (Over Voltage Protection) LED.  An attempt to clear the alarms by resetting the OVP to high and the UVP (Under Voltage Protection) to 0.0 failed to clear either alarm.  Circuit level troubleshooting revealed that the current feedback circuit was open.  Component level troubleshooting revealed an open resistor.  The resistor was replaced and the unit resumed normal operations.

Many multiple output power supplies require the primary output (high current output) be connected to a load before the secondary outputs are turned on. Understandable if the primary supply output doesn't feedback return voltage, the main circuits shuts down all outputs as a safety pre-caution until electronic repair services can be done.