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Like new treadmill has dead console. Was working until I unhooked it for transport

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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I need some help with basic troubleshooting to figure out why my treadmill console is dead. When I apply power, I can see the red power LED come on on the lower control board, there is also an "Info" led that comes on briefly then goes off.

However, the control panel at the top is dead and has no visible signs of life.

I think my first task is to check to see if I'm getting power at the PCB of the upper console, correct?

I have a multimeter but I need a basic introduction of how to proceed to figure this out.

Thanks in advance for your help. Pics are below:

Here's a shot of what the panel SHOULD look like when turned on:

91rSSzfAFoL._SL1500_.jpg

Here's what the pins looked like after the connectors were accidentally pulled off:
38404666_1918457568217092_3255760668371976192_n.jpg

And here's a look at the board after the pins were straightened and the connectors put back into place. I oriented them so that the snap side was on the side where the stencil shows an open gate. Note, J12 is the fan and I've just removed that for now. J14 was open and those pins got bent by J12 when the connectors were snatched by the weight of the control panel flipping over during transport.

40065110_1958786794184169_4434440629451227136_n.jpg

And FINALLY, here's a shot of my brand new multimeter that I need help using to diagnose the problem with this control panel:

multimeter.jpg

History of the failure:

I bought the treadmill for $20 from a guy who just wanted it gone. He said that the "Start" button did not work but everything else worked, including the display. We had to disconnect the main panel to get it into the back of my SUV for transport, only to find it would't fit. So I had a buddy with a pickup truck pick it up a few days later from this guy's garage.

Apparently when they loaded it, the panel pulled away from the main wiring harness and bent several of the board pins. I was able to straighten the pins out and put the connectors back onto the board, but I'm not certain they are on correctly. The entire connector pieces (both of them) came off the board for all affected wires, so there was no way to tell other than the stencil, which way to put them back onto the board.
 
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vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Treadmill is a Nautilus T614. Here's a wider shot of the console board:

40029797_1959007100828805_1177744783490154496_n.jpg
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Is there anything connected to J14?

Is the flat ribbon cable (bottom left corner in lower pic) seated straight? Looks a bit skew-iff to me.
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Is there anything connected to J14?
No. Nothing is connected to J14 There are no connectors coming from the harness or board that fit it. The main harness is connected to J4 and it only has a single row 5 pins. J14 is double row 5 pins. I have no schematic to follow but that's my best guess.

Is the flat ribbon cable (bottom left corner in lower pic) seated straight? Looks a bit skew-iff to me.
Its just the pic I think, here's another angle:

40187747_1959057954157053_650909732592156672_n.jpg



FWIW, here is a model T616 board showing a very similar configuration (I took this pic from an ebay listing). J14 appears to be connected on this model to a ribbon cable, so I believe T614 did not have this option:

s-l1600.jpg
 
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vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Is there anything I can test with a multimeter on this board to figure out where the breakdown is occuring?
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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After a bit more research on how to test/troubleshoot basic AC to DC power voltages from the power supply, I have the following results:

The input power, switch and reset. Note: the reset button does not click at all, it just depresses with no resistance and does not appear to have any affect on the control board. The steady red LED remains unchanged when depressing the reset button.

40035422_1959143087481873_1945711139610427392_n.jpg


Here's a shot of the power supply feed to the main board:

40112764_1959143104148538_162072072678277120_n.jpg


Here's a closeup shot of the power connector, the glue obscures the labels, but it appears to be:

GRD, ?XD, ?XD, +12V, SW

40030562_1959143094148539_5217444263075250176_n.jpg


And finally, heres a shot of the power harness connection at the console where I'm attempting to check the DC voltages of the pins. I've got my black probe on the left pin (GND) and the measurements are:

GRN, ?XD = >100, ?XD => 11, +12v = > 12, SW => .49

40055281_1959143100815205_3215007643550613504_n.jpg
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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?XD will be TXD and RXD (Transmit Data and Receive Data) respectively - meaning the board 'talks' to some other part of the device.

The 'none tactile' reset switch is normal. It would 'click' if it had tripped out and you pressed it to reset it.

1. Check all fuses
2. Measure all supplies

If all the fuses are good and all the relevant supplies are present then the fault is 'further along' in the system i.e the controller or motor board. Note that some faults may cause the power supply to automatically shut down making you 'think' the power supply is faulty when it really isn't.

What you then need to do is disconnect the outputs from the power supply and connect them to a resistive load to see if the power supply can deliver the required current and prove that it is ok in itself.

BUT.... some power supplies talk to the rest of the circuitry and might just shut down if the other part doesn't talk back - which it may not do if you remove the power supply to it.....

By now you should be getting the idea that fixing these things isn't quite as easy or straightforward as you might imagine.

As per the other thread, you would be better off swapping out boards to isolate the section that's dodgy and purchasing a working spare board. Quite often this makes the repair more costly that the equipment is actually worth i.e. Beyond Economic Repair (BER) and you have to make commercial decisions based on those results.

You could spend time and money learning the requisite skills to fix them yourself but that could take (literally) years. Or you could employ someone with those skills and cost it in.

Sadly, and inevitably, some goods are just not worth fixing for the majority of people and people with the skills to fix them cost money. Catch 22.
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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This reset switch does not appear to have any resistance or click like I'd expect. Do these go bad often?

40054315_1959184277477754_115570444584615936_n.jpg
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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Use your meter on it's continuity setting (the 'beeper') and measure across the two terminals. If it 'beeps' then the switch is 'set' and is working fine.
 

dave9

Mar 5, 2017
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That type of reset breaker/switch often doesn't seem to do anything unless you have a current overload that trips it. As kellys_eye mentioned it should have continuity between the two pins.

Considering the amount of force that was needed to pull latching connectors off and bent the pins, I would take a magnifying glass and strong light to example the board for broken solder joints and circuit trace cracks. If your meter probes have thin enough tips you can also probe for continuity between solder pads and the respective component lead that should be soldered to it, and between each two points in series on the power path, especially closer to the connectors, or power it up and measure for where the power stops IF (in case) it is a break in the power path.
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Use your meter on it's continuity setting (the 'beeper') and measure across the two terminals. If it 'beeps' then the switch is 'set' and is working fine.

The switch does have continuity. I guess I'll test the voltage pins at the harness connection next.

40078943_1959248094138039_446075286182690816_n.jpg
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Problem solved. I'm a dumbass! After taking a closer look at the lower board's harness connector that feeds up to the console, I realized that it connected the exact opposite orientation as they way I have it connected at the display panel.

After turning it around at the display panel, voila, the damn thing works!

Sorry for the wasted time guys. I did learn a bit about using a multimeter and troubleshooting a console power issue. Every failure is a learning experience.
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Rats, now I'm back to the original problem the previous owner had. Everything works except the start button won't activate the treadmill.
 

davenn

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Sep 5, 2009
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Great for getting back part of the way

But I would like to clarify a contradiction your made

Is there anything connected to J14?

you replied......

No. Nothing is connected to J14 There are no connectors coming from the harness or board that fit it.

But you said ……..

Here's what the pins looked like after the connectors were accidentally pulled off:

so you bent the pins of J14 as you were taking the connector off it ??

so did you take a connector of J14 or not and if you didn't, how did the pins of connectors J10, J12 and J14 get bent ??


Dave
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Great for getting back part of the way

But I would like to clarify a contradiction your made



you replied......



But you said ……..



so you bent the pins of J14 as you were taking the connector off it ??

so did you take a connector of J14 or not and if you didn't, how did the pins of connectors J10, J12 and J14 get bent ??


Dave

Dave, that's an extremely keen observation you made. I thought the same thing when I first looked at the board to mate up the connectors to their spots. First though, let me clarify. All the pins were bent when I received the machine from the guy I hired to deliver it to me. All the connectors came off the board due to the screen being loose and flipping over during transport (or at some time during the delivery)

Here's what I think happened:

My first observation was that all of the pins on all impacted connectors on the board, were bent in the same direction, towards the bottom of the board - you can see that pretty clearly in pic 2 of my opening post. So that led me to believe the board flipped over in the opposite direction and caused the disconnect.

It appears that when the board flipped over forward, tensioning the wires to max and pulling the connectors fully off the board, the connector adjacent to J14, which is J12 - the fan connector - impacted J14's lead pins bending them. It also makes sense because the only pins on J14 that got bent were the ones closest to J12.
 
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vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Now, I have the major problem out of the way, I'm back to the reason the original owner of this treadmill sold it to me, the start button no longer works.

I suppose I need to either begin troubleshooting at that point on the board, or troubleshoot at the motor and work back from there. I only say the latter because start should switch on the treadmill motor.
 
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vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Now that I have the console lit again, I'm able to get into the setup menu and I can see that the machine only has 23 hours on it. I also found, while setting the date/time that the down arrow button is also non functioning. So, the start button and the down button (unless that is non operational during setup)

40073975_1959992697396912_6413531743785058304_n.jpg
 

kellys_eye

Jun 25, 2010
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The keypad is a sticky-backed printed keypad with the button matrix connected via that clear, flat, green ribbon that I thought was off-centre.

If there is more than one key that isn't working it could be that there is a break in one of the tracks of that ribbon.

Have a good close-up look and see if you can see anything untoward - flex the ribbon slightly and look for breaks.
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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The keypad is a sticky-backed printed keypad with the button matrix connected via that clear, flat, green ribbon that I thought was off-centre.

If there is more than one key that isn't working it could be that there is a break in one of the tracks of that ribbon.

Have a good close-up look and see if you can see anything untoward - flex the ribbon slightly and look for breaks.

OK, here's that pic again. I'll pull the panel and give it another look. Should I pull the ribbon connector off to check it? If so, I haven't pulled one of these before. I'll need to google the procedure to make sure I don't break the thing.

40187747_1959057954157053_650909732592156672_n.jpg
 

vestaviascott

Jul 28, 2013
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Also, on the main controller board, I have a solid red power LED and a blinking steady "Info" LED.

Are blink patterns vendor specific? I found a video that indicates that "for most treadmills", a blinking LED on the controller board is indicative of the board receiving a speed signal from the console. It goes on to say,

"If you're walking belt is not moving, check the wiring from the controller board to the console."

However, I get this blinking LED as soon as the power is supplied and I haven't even tried to start the treadmill

 
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