Dead Jet mini

[Grant Wilkinson]

My 8 month old Jet variable speed mini died today.

I've checked the electrics and the AC side is fine, all the way through the on-off switch. But, there is no DC coming out of the positive and negative DC posts on the circuit board.

The motor spins fine with a 12 volt lantern battery clipped on to it.

I've tried to reach Jet by phone, but no luck. I've sent an email, but I know that I won't hear until monday - earliest.

Has anyone here had this problem and found a quick work around? Does anyone know the voltage rating of the motor? The plate says something like 156 DC, but that seems a bit nuts.

Tks for any help.

:(

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Grant....Did you check both sides of the switch?

I had problems with my Jet VS Mini and the switch had gone bad. I ordered one from Jet and then found a local replacement and got it going before the Jet replacement got here.

Did you check to see that you had power into and out of the switch...ie both sides?


Good luck!

Ken

PS....if you are able to find a schematic for the board....contact me and I might be able to be further assistance.

[Steve Schlumpf]

Grant - did you smell anything inside the lathe that got real hot? Did you check for loose connections? Blown fuse?

As far as AC - does it actually make it to the board? Let us know and we'll see if we can figure something out for you.

[Patrick Taylor]

I'm pretty positive you have a broken switch. I have the non-VS model, and I'm on my third switch in 8 months. They get penetrated with dust and stop making contact. Call WMH for a replacement.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

I'm pretty positive you have a broken switch. I have the non-VS model, and I'm on my third switch in 8 months. They get penetrated with dust and stop making contact. Call WMH for a replacement.

Patrick...last fall in the middle of turning upteen-dozen Christmas presents that's what happened to mine. I was able to blow it out a time or two and it would work but eventually it went gunny!

[Grant Wilkinson]

To all who have offered help, this is what I've done and know so far.

I have AC to the switch and coming out of it. I can also verify that the switch is working by putting an audio continuity tester across the leads. When the switch is off, no sound; when on, it beeps like crazy.

The problem is that there is no DC coming out of the M1 and M2 leads.

It seems to me that the AC to DC converter is blown. There was no smoke. The motor was cold. I spun it up to start a pen, it spun up, then died immediately. No pop, no fizzle.

I can hook a 12 volt battery to the motor leads and the motor spins fine.

Tks guys.:o

[Grant Wilkinson]

Ken

I have a wiring diagram that is on the back of the manual. It is not a true schematic, and is not much use. As far as the AC to DC conversion, it shows nothing. It has the white from the plug going to terminal AC2 on the pcb, and the black going first to the switch, then to the reset, then out of the reset to terminal AC1 on the pcb.

Separately, it has the variable speed controller wires running from the potentiometer to the pcb.

Finally, it has a black and white running from terminals M- and M+ to the motor.

It is M- and M+ that are dead.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Grant........I'm at home now but I have to leave to work on an MR scanner at a local medical center. I have the Jet VS Mini manual and the lathe. When I get home, I'll locate my manual, look at it and open the contoller on my lathe and see if I can determine if I can be any further assistance. If we are lucky, I might be able to determine if there are any discrete components that we can test and pickup locally. If not....It's Jet on Monday. BTW....I've broken a couple of parts..locking handles on mine from overtighening. I, also ordered a spare belt for it. I've had pretty good luck working with Jet Service.

I check back early tomorrow morning.

[Patrick Taylor]

Patrick...last fall in the middle of turning upteen-dozen Christmas presents that's what happened to mine. I was able to blow it out a time or two and it would work but eventually it went gunny!

Yikes! I've cleaned them out and reassembled, but eventually they die. I think it's a design flaw with the position of the switch. Delta has theirs up high where there's less dust I think.


I have AC to the switch and coming out of it. I can also verify that the switch is working by putting an audio continuity tester across the leads. When the switch is off, no sound; when on, it beeps like crazy.


My fault, sorry. I'm no help with the VS model. Good luck! I've had success with WMH service but their shipping takes 5 days. :(

[Grant Wilkinson]

Patrick

No worries. I appreciate you taking the time to try to help.

Ken

Tks much. One of my concerns is the cross border issue. Jet is not available in Canada any more, so to buy this one, I had it shipped by Woodcraft to the UPS store in Ogdensburg NY. It is legal for an individual to import them.

I am hoping that Jet will ship any replacement parts directly to me.

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Grant......I worked at home and at work today. I did look at the wiring diagram and it's not too much help. I opened up the control box on mine and frankly, it's complex enough we could waste a lot of time and not fix it without real schematics. You state it is 8 months old? I think the warrantee on it is 2 years. I wouldn't mess with it. I'd let Jet work the warrantee side of it. Let us know how it comes out.

[richard grantham]

I know this is no use- but the only thing I've had go wrong is starting capacitor, clue to it is motor will run if hand spun.
Richard Grantham

[Grant Wilkinson]

Tks Ken. I took the box apart and checked the pcb. There are no burn marks or any other sign of anything wrong. I agree with you that there is nothing more to do, but I really do appreciate your time and help with this. I'll let you know how Jet replies on Monday. I'm concerned about the cross border thing.

[Grant Wilkinson]

thanks, Richard. I don't think that's my problem, since I have no DC coming out of the pcb terminals.
The motor is fine. I can run it on batteries.

Tks again.

[David Epperson]

At the very least this is going to require a decent multimeter to trouble shoot. Got AC through the switch - good. Next check both the input and output sides of the stepdown transformer, then the input and output of the rectifier/diodes, next would be the 3 legs of the VS potentiometer. I would think that one leg would be at "ground" one at max voltage and the wiper will vary with position - check for dead spots. And don't rule out an onboard fuse - I've seen some that actually look like resistors soldered onto the PCB. (None of this is specific to this particular model -just a DC drive controller in general)

But I would also agree that with it being no older than it is, a phone call to the manufacturer would not be out of line.

[Paul Heely]

Hopefully not to state the obvious but have you checked the little circuit breaker on the front of the VS box?

[Grant Wilkinson]

tks, Paul. I've checked it, and it is ok

[Grant Wilkinson]

Dave

I have the multimeter. That's what I have been using to trace the AC side. The problem with your next instruction is that I can't seem to find a step down transformer as one unit. Any AC to DC unit that I've seen so far ends up with DC in the 9 - 28 V range. Find the transformer in these units is easy.

However, according only to the motor, this one sends up with over 160V DC. Since I cannot measure any DC coming out of the terminals, I can't know what the spec of the board is. Jet doesn't say in the manual.

I've run the motor with 48 V DC, and can certainly confirm that, while it runs fine, it is nowhere near as fast as with the output from the controllers. So, I'm assuming the max input of the motor is pretty close to the max output of the controller.

As to the potentiometer, it is not getting any input. So, I know that fault is before that, but where? I have the pcb out of the case, and it looks pristine.

I'll see what Jet says tomorrow. If there is a cross border problem, I'll look up a used AC motor and simply put it on. I'll lose the VS, but I'll still be up and running.

Tks to all for your advice.

[William Bachtel]

sounds to me Jet should put a better switch in it to start with.

[Grant Wilkinson]

I called VMH this morning, and they are great.

They are sending me a new controller board and a new speed pot.

The only down side is that they will take 2 - 3 weeks to get here!

Thanks to all of you for your advice. I really appreciate it.

g

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Grant....it's good to hear that WMH is taking care of you! They've always been very good to me. I ordered a spare drive belt, a spare set of motor brushes and new handles that I overtightened.

[Hank Walczak]

A point of interest... A continuity tester for a switch isn't always an accurate method of checking its operation. A lot of switches will test good but can't handle a power load. Even light switches can fool you. DAMHIKT. The best method is to put a load across the switch.

Good luck

Hank