PXI-6515

[SteveWilliams]

I have a failure on Port 6 of my PXI-6515 caused, I believe, by pins 49 & 50 on the cable lead from my SBC-100 being out of line.  They therefore did not engage with the PXI card properly shorting themselves together and maybe connecting with one of the pins in the PXI card.  From my tests within MAX the other output ports, (4, 5 & 7), are okay but port 6 now looks like it is floating and not operating as an output.  Does any one know if we can repair the card?  Or is the card now a right off?  There appears to be two fuses which are okay.

From a hardware point of view can any one explain what has happened.

Any feedback appreciated.

Steve

[AudioVideoDisco]

Hi Steve,

Thanks for posting.

We offer a number of repair sevices depending on your choice, see the link below for more information.

NI Repair Services - http://www.ni.com/services/repair.htm

The first step in getting the product repaired is to contact your local NI branch where we will run through the RMA (Return Merchandise Authorization) process with you. After this you will receive a quote for repair from our customer services department.

Without having the card on front of me it's hard to say what's gone wrong with it. I can't imagine a short between pins 49 and 50 causing a problem unless there was some very high voltage running through them. Looking at the pin assignments for the card (manual - http://www.ni.com/pdf/manuals/372172b.pdf), these pins are a +5V supply and ground. Have you tried using the device with another cable? If a particular cable causes a short between these two lines I could imagine seeing the behaviour you are experiencing.

Best regards,

Paul

[SteveWilliams]

Hi Paul

Much appreciate your feedback

I did try running through some basic tests again using another cable to connect the PXI-6515 to the SCB100 and can confirm the failure still exists.

The output P6.0 is on but when trying to switch it low the output level does not drop to zero. Bye the way I'm using a 24V LED indicator as a testing load.  So the LED is still on but not as bright.

I think there is a failure so will look at sending it back, I suspect the output driver device on board, a ULN2803A, must have failed but how or why this has happened remains a mystery.

When trying to think through what I did when testing it out hasn't revealed anything suspicious, so I will perhaps not know any more until the next time.

Kind regards

Steve

[AudioVideoDisco · Accepted solution]

Hi Steve,

It does seem that a fault has occurred. If you are going to call in try and have the card details (or preferrably the card itself) to hand as we'll ask for some details including:

Part Number (Generally 7 alphanumeric values followed by a dash and 2 digits, for example 186343C-01)

Serial Number (Generally 6 alphanumeric values, for example CEDB0C)

and

Details of the computer (can the device be seen in Measurement and Automation Explorer and Windows device manager?)

If you can get your hands on another PXI-6515 to try the same tests this will provide further evidence of a fault.

Best regards,

Paul