Hi Y'all,
This New Hermes Vanguard II that I have up for sale on eBay at the moment is giving me problems. Actually yesterday every printer/engraver in my shop went haywire! As well as equipment in other shops around town.

Anyway, I turned the machine on to engrave a brass plate and the spindle won't rotate or move across the table. Have I perhaps hit a wrong button somewhere? I need to figure it out quick so I can take my eBay listing down if the motor has gone out.

Thanks,
Mary A. Maddon
Ozark Engraving
Bull Shoals, AR

Uncle Steve,

Thanks for the help. Uh, this is a really dumb question but how do I check the power level?

Mary

If you have a voltmeter, stick its probes into an outlet set on something like 200 volts, (and AC volts, may look like tilde).

Most equipment will run down to 100V with occasional problems, some require at least 115 volts.

You may have gotten power spikes if other places are having problems also. This can do nasty things including corrupting printer drivers and making computer related equipment into doorstops.

Try turning off everything else possible including air conditioning and read the voltage. If it goes up to at least 110 volts, test the machine again on a clean boot of everything. If it works you know what the problem is. Then for gosh sakes turn on the air conditioner and the lights immediately.

There are power line conditioners, really resonant transformers that will give you 120 volts out with an input of anything from 90-130 in. A 1000 watt unit will run about $1,000. Careful of your fingers, they run very hot. The less load the hotter, counter intuitive. I have two somewhere, they are also very heavy.

Philadelphia, PA (Really Bensalem)

When you finally understand it completely... it changes.

Thanks Guys,

I think my husband may have one somewhere. Where is that electrician son of mine when I need him--Oklahoma!

I'll try out all your suggestions.

Guess I better go take my eBay listing for this machine down before it is too late.

Mary
Ozark Engraving
Bull Shoals, AR

the rotation of the spindle is powered by the plug in power cord and the on/off button on the front of the machine.

All other motion is powered from the controller through the larger data cable(looks like a printer cable) and connects to the engraver.

When the controller is turned on, it will move all three axises toggling their limit switches just to make sure they work.
I don't think you can get to the layout screen until that happens.

If you can enter size and text, make sure you have the proper font cartridge in the unit and that it works. Maybe try a different font and check graphics key(will show an outline around the text).

Hi Bruce,

Thank you, I will try those things this morning. I will put some different cartridges in. I was thinking that might help. I have someone coming to look at it this evening. He works on small motors and has worked on engravers.

I'll let you know.

Mary

Thank you all for your help. Found the problem and it is engraving beautifully again. The problem was when I moved it to get the serial number off the back the parallel type cable came loose and when I pushed it back on one of the pins bent. As soon as we straightened the pin and plugged it back in everything was fine. One of the first things I had done was check the connections but apparently wasn't paying real close attention.

Sure glad I didn't take the listing off eBay last night. I just extended it for 3 more days to give me time to check things out. I did discover that the spindle light is burnt out but spindle still rotates.

Bruce your message is what made me go back and look at the connections again.

Thanks again for all your help.

Don't know what I would do without you all!

Mary
Ozark Engraving
Bull Shoals, AR 72619