Denford Software & Machines

Hi All,
My Novaturn has been brilliant for many years but unfortunately today it's not communicating. 7 segment display cycles 0 then L with a flashing dot.

The varta 24v surface mount battery has spilled it's guts and left corrosion all over the board and around the rs232 connection. I've removed the battery (which was dead) and cleaned it up with contact cleaner but it's still not playing ball. I don't believe the battery is required as long as you don't mind downloading mint every time you fire it up. I'm wondering if some of the tracks have been damaged / dissolved. Many look like they are broken but I'd like a second opinion before I wade in...

Can anyone take a look at the picture of the PCB and advise if any of the damaged tracks are required for communication? I'm noting some of the chips aren't populated so some tracks may not be required.

I'm up for soldering wires to replace damaged tracks but I don't want to touch anything that isn't necessary.

I've also ordered an rs232 D9 null modem cable to check it's not the cables from the laptop to the denstep board.

Any thoughts would be great.

All the best
Barry M

Appreciate this is an old thread but my Micromill has had the same issue this weekend.

Worked well for years but was not used for a few months and then realised the battery had leaked on the DenStep motion controller.

Cleaned up the board and removed the battery and now the board at least lights up but now shows a L with a dot and the computer will not communicate with the mill.

Did you get the issue resolve and if so how?

Hi Peter, for me it was a combination of things, I ended up buying better quality cables and running the cable directly to the card from the laptop rather than using the box wiring loom. I also re-soldered the rs232 socket on the board and cleaned the white corrosion from around the connector.

I wouldn’t be surprised if it was just the wiring loom in the box, but I’d already done the maintenance on the board before I got to trying it.

Hope that helps.

All the best
Barry M