Dear All,
Recently I posted a question on Bruker amplifiers and their power supply
modules. Thanks to all who have replied! If you are interested in the
summary please see below. As some of you mentioned that the power
supply tends to fail when tuning off/on the power. I agree, that's how
it happened to us. I have learned that the amps must be cool before
power shut down--last couple of times the power supply failed after we
had to shut down the AC units for cleaning or fixing the water leak.
Next time when I have to shut the power off I should blow a fan at the
amps for a while before turning off power. Cooling down before shutting
down is especially important if someone just finished collecting data.
If possible avoid power down the amps. The newer power supply we
received does have a bigger fan compared to the old one to help cooling.
My original question to AMMRL:
Dear all,
I would like to know your opinions on repair/replace Bruker Blarh100 and
Blax300 type of amplifiers and the power supply modules for these
amplifiers. Do you get the amplifiers repaired at Bruker or other
reliable sources at less cost? Do you repair them by yourselves besides
replacing the fans? Do you get the power supply modules from Bruker or
other sources, or repair them yourselves? About how often these
amplifiers and their power supply modules have to be repaired or
replaced in your experience?
Replies:
1. We did have one problem with our BLAH60 type amp - shortly after the
warrenty expired (up and running since 2001). It ws consuming too much
current -overheating and shutting down. We recieved the proper
schematics and an explanation of how the currents SHOULD have been set,
from Bruker france. Our
electronician made the adjustments in-house.
2. Too bloody often, in my opinion. We have two four-channel avance
systems; these are essentially always running as three-channel systems
because we have swapped one of the power amps which has stopped working.
It is usually the power supplies, and usually the fans, which we replace
ourselves; have never attempted to repair them beyond fan replacement.
Only the Schomandl three-channel frequency synthesizer in our drx600 has
been more failure-prone.
Would be interested in anyone elses experiences with self-repair.
3. Can you share these information with me? Actually I am with the same
problem in my lab and if you get some interesting answer.
4. We have gotten swapper power supplies from Bruker....seems like it
was about $750 typically. In some cases it is the fastest mode of
service. IN some cases they have had to swap out the whole unit because
they were out of a particular power supply...and said they really had
had problems with that model!
I suppose you could ferret out the original manufacturer and find a
cheaper mode. If so and transaction can be done rapidly do publicize
it!
5. We do sometime successfully repair Bruker Blax power supplies. It is
difficult because power supply schematics are not available. However,
we have an exceptionally competent electronic support staff and they
have seen enough switching power supplies that they are sometimes
successful in fixing the problem. Otherwise we pay Bruker for the
module swap. We have not been able to obtain equivalent power supplies
from a third party.
6. They do fry at the drop of a hat don't they? Every time I have to do
a power cycle, I cringe. We've got 3 spectrometers with those
amplifiers, 12 total. I seem to replace at least one fan and one power
supply per year. We get them from Bruker and have not tried to repair
them. I do the replacement, not Bruker. I have noticed that the
replacements are a little different design than the old ones and I don't
think I have replaced a replacement.
7. over the years we have probably replaced the power supplies on both
of these amplifiers several times on at least 4 instruments. Bruker had
serious problem with these commercial power supplies and have gone to
what appears to be a newer design . We just get a power supply swap from
Bruker. we have only had one amp in the last five years have any
problems other than the power supply. The problem with getting these
supplies from other sources is the companies usually have a rather large
minimum order and the delivery times can be quite long.
While its seems to cost too much if your customers are like mine you
cannot afford the time.
8. I had 1 Blarh 100 repaired after about 8 years and a power supply on
the Blarx 300 exchanged after 12 years. Please let me know if you can
find a place that can fix quickly these power supply.
9. in our 6 year old DRX we replaced ALL power supplies of the BLARH and
3*BLAX (and one time, three supplies left us at once, may be a power
current glitch?).
To replace the power supply can done by you self (as well as the 3 fans
- you may order the originally by BRUKER); it takes 10 min.
10. We have a freelance electronics expert who repairs them for us. We
have had two failures of our BLARH100 and one failure of our BLAX300 in
the last year. The failures have all been the same: the amp refuses to
power up due to a fault in a capacitor in the power supply module.
11. The Elba power supplies do fail from time to time (after a few years
or if a fan goes). We just take out the power supply and send it to a
third party to repair (~$150 rather than the $1500 Bruker wants and the
shipping is a lot cheaper than sending a whole amplifier). The
connectors are easy to spot.
When I was in a department with a really capable electronics shop they
were able to fix a couple in house (we had an air conditioning problem
that our physical plant department didn't deal with one hot summer until
we had already lost two power supplies).
Of the 4 power supplies I've had experiences with (don't worry---I've
worked with about 18 of them all 5 or more years old so that's not a
very high percentage), 3 of them didn't have obvious failures (when I
took off the cover of the power supply and had a look just out of
curiousity) and one had well and truly blown a capacitor. The former 3
were quick repairs; the latter more involved. None expensive. This is
truly a situation where a third party is better equipped and cheaper for
repairs.
______________________
Wei
Wei Wycoff
610 S. College Ave.
125 Chemistry Building
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
USA
Phone: (573) 882-3291
Fax: (573) 882-2754
Email: WycoffW_at_missouri.edu
-----Original Message-----
> From: Wycoff, Wei G. [mailto:WycoffW_at_missouri.edu]
> Sent: Thursday, February 12, 2004 12:05 PM
> To: ammrl_at_chemnmr.colorado.edu
> Subject: question about Bruker amps and their power supply modules
Dear all,
I would like to know your opinions on repair/replace Bruker Blarh100 and
Blax300 type of amplifiers and the power supply modules for these
amplifiers. Do you get the amplifiers repaired at Bruker or other
reliable sources at less cost? Do you repair them by yourselves besides
replacing the fans? Do you get the power supply modules from Bruker or
other sources, or repair them yourselves? About how often these
amplifiers and their power supply modules have to be repaired or
replaced in your experience?
Thanks a lot in advance!
Wei
Wei Wycoff
610 S. College Ave.
125 Chemistry Building
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO 65211
USA
Phone: (573) 882-3291
Fax: (573) 882-2754
Email: WycoffW_at_missouri.edu
Received on Mon Feb 16 2004 - 17:09:28 MST