As you probably know by now, printed circuit boards don’t last forever.  Not even the very expensive ones inside your industrial equipment.   But did you know that you can extend the life of your circuit boards? And, potentially put off the need for circuit board repairs a little longe

Are you getting over voltage faults from your VFD? Erratic operation? Hearing strange noises? VFD failure? Chances are you may need to change your use and maintenance routines for your VFD and probably other equipment too.  As a rule, VFDs are reliable as hell. But like most things, th

REAL LIFE REPAIR SOLUTIONS IN THE PLANT: Practice safe drive repairs! If you spent part of your already tight budget on drive repairs, or even for an expensive NEW drive, protect your investment! You can do this by troubleshooting your equipment that the drive came out of.  When troublesho

A direct lightning strike WILL damage your equipment, no doubt about it!  But what about those tiny, almost unnoticeable surges of static referred to as electrostatic discharge (ESD)?  Those little surges are trouble makers too! Here’s how to prevent electrostatic discharge from

What?  Hold on….a split-second power outage can damage your power supplies?   Why?  How? There are a few variations on why and how a power outage can wreck your power supplies.  It depends on the kind of interruption. If it is just a momentary loss of power, the load of the power

What 2015 manufacturing and industrial trends will affect your job?  Your business?  What will come on strong and what will end up in the industrial scrap heap?  Here’s our 2015 predictions compiled after combing through many national and international sources: Higher Production &

Shipping damage disasters can be avoided, even accounting for the occasional overly aggressive delivery service.  Look at the bent base brackets on the pictured Xantrex power supply.  This is a prime example of shipping damage and we see this a lot. Why the damage?  Do the delivery guy

Unplanned downtime is the enemy and you’re responsible for eliminating even the possibility of a downtime situation…preferably without overspending your already tight budget.  So you’ve  implemented a maintenance strategy.  Those maintenance efforts seem costly; but, it turns out that

23 lbs of trouble!  Each Kaiser LS402 high voltage power supply weighs 23 lbs and each one we have received for repairs has had different, nearly catastrophic failures…including components blown beyond recognition (see pics). The problems causing this damage have varied and include: &n

Buyer beware! Caveat emptor….you’ve heard it many times.  And when buying used industrial electronics (or anything for that matter) be hyper alert for problems.  This 1986 Vickers controller S40 was purchased second hand for use in a sheet metal fabricating shop. As it turned out, the

This corroded, water damaged circuit board was repairable! Has it rained near you in the past 48 hours?  Probably.  Nearly every state in the U.S. has experienced heavy rains and flooding this spring.  With the floods came the resulting water damaged industrial electronic equipment.  Seems

  Maybe your production came to an abrupt halt, or you are getting all kinds of beeping and error codes from your industrial electronics.  These are potentially expensive problems to have when it means production is affected. You want to get answers fast! Here are a few signs that

I am always interested in understanding where our customers are coming from. Despite some improvement in the economy, we still hear a lot of concern about needing to “produce more while spending less”. Today’s tips are for helping you “do more with less” a

Power supplies – they are ever present for most of us, both at work and at home.  They come in all sizes and levels of quality and for myriad purposes.   Even so, they have some things in common – their universal dislike of moisture, heat, and dirt – which I like to refer

Awhile back, in the best interests of your valuable servo motors, I wrote “Four Easy Ways to Keep Your Motor Up and Running”.   Hopefully, since that time your equipment has been humming along in perfect working order and you haven’t needed servo motor repairs. But maybe things h

A lightning strike lasts about 1-2 microseconds…not even time to blink an eye and yet long enough to cause destruction of life and property.  Storms this spring are already ferocious and violent in the U.S. Lightning bolts and electronics do not play well together.  Check out some shoc

You know that awful metal scraping on metal sound?  Or that burned electrical smell?  These are dreaded harbingers of damaged equipment…often expensive damage.  Do these situations bring out the DIY repairman in you?  How about doing your own industrial electronic repairs?  Maybe not s

Did you ever pull a spare part out of the store room only to discover that just when you needed it, it doesn’t work?  Pretty darn irritating!  Here’s a little advice for safe storage of your industrial electronics, long or short term storage. Prevent THIS from happening to your electro

Looking to save energy?  Trying to gain speed and torque control?  Wishing you could control your starting current?  Variable speed drives can do just that and more which means you will reap the rewards quickly. Unless you run your motors at full speed all the time, variable speed driv

Under the weird but true category, we do occasionally get rodent damaged electronics equipment in for repairs. And it’s not always just the gnawing that causes the damage, it’s also what happens AFTER they eat your wiring (yes, that!). If you think about it for a second, it’s not stran