Brown & Sharpe PFX FBPC Controller Power Supply

Had a problem with my Brown & Sharpe PFX 454 Coordinate Measuring Machine or CMM with a FBPC controller today.  When I powered it up I could hear the fan blowing but no power to the joystick nor the AB Angle PHD box. I tried bypassing the relay (little black box) and powered right directly to the probe head controller (bigger black box) and it powered on as well as the PHD that showed the angles of the probe.

Still the joystick did not power right up as it usually does.

I checked the air pressure (55# at the machine) and the other usual things. Then I tried connecting to the controller with my XP laptop via hyperterminal. Once connected I held the ctrl key and typed e c b expecting the READY reply from the controller.. instead I had a happy face and some weird symbol.

I opened the cover of the controller and there were no lights on the main board (not the motherboard).  There are usually two lights on the main board one that is steady and one that blinks like a heart beat.

It turned out that the problem was the power supply. When I tore it down the power supply was very odd in its form factor and its connectors. There appeared to be two straight 6 pin molex type connectors. Very strange. I could not find a replacement power supply anywhere. the Bytech Model:APC080CE 80 watt

5v/8.0A
5v/.25A
+12V/3A
-12V/.25A

There was also a sticker on it that said POWER SUPPLY with a number 180-406-789. I checked online everywhere and could not find one. The one place I did. I called and they no longer had it in stock.

I finally was able to track another controller down from a buddy. In doing so the first thing I did was to check out the voltages from the power supply.


From the power supply side of the motherboard away the following colored wires were present with their respective voltages

For the first 6 pin connector
red +5V
red +5V
red +5V
wht -5V
blk 0V -- Assume Ground
blk 0V -- Assume Ground

For the second 6 pin connector
blk 0V -- Assume Ground
blk 0V -- Assume Ground
cyan 12.5V -- (probably should be 12V according to specs above for the PS)
yel 12.5V
red +5v
orange +5V

If anyone can find a power supply like this or connectors like this please let me know!

Gmail to keep a senders email from going to SPAM

With newer algorithms and processes with email servers using technologies such as SPF records etc sometimes out-race the capability on legacy email servers. So you might need to setup your gmail to allow or whitelist some of your contacts that send you email.

This is how its done:

1. Login to your gmail account and got to settings by selecting the gear icon at the top left corner of the main gmail panel.

2. Select Filters from the menu at the top of the gmail panel.

3. Select Create New Filter at the bottom of the filters panel.

4. A dialog window will popup, in the "From: textbox start typing the email of the contacts address you want to whitelist

5. Select "Create a filter with this search"

6. The next page of the dialog will show. Now select the checkbox for  Never send this to spam.

Viola you have now whitelisted your contacts emails. Repeat as necessary to add more contacts to whitelist.

Thanks,
HHI Computer Guys
www.hhicomputerguys.com

Gmail: "Your action was unsuccessful. Please try again." When trying to send an Email? - Fixed

Hello everyone, this issue was quite perplexing as the problem existed on a single computer while other computers had no problem. I had tried many things before finding something to resolve the problem from uninstalling Internet Explorer 9 to resetting the security settings, add-ins etc..

Finally after all else failed, this is what worked: I did a reset of Internet Explorer by going to Tools (gear cog at top right corner of IE window) | Internet Options | then select the Reset button on the bottom of the page.

Close and Reopen IE 9 and try again.. it should work!

Windows Live Mail not responding when forwarding replying

Windows live mail not responding when replying, or forwarding emails.

I worked awhile on this first trying to repair windows live essentials with the add/remove programs to no avail.

what worked: Uninstall and Re-install Windows Live Essentials reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938275

Thanks,
HHI Computer Guys
www.hhicomputerguys.com

Windows live mail not responding when replying, or forwarding emails.

I worked awhile on this first trying to repair windows live essentials with the add/remove programs to no avail.

what worked: Uninstall and Re-install Windows Live Essentials reference: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/938275

Thanks,
HHI Computer Guys
www.hhicomputerguys.com

Windows XP SP3 System Repair CD Rom Drive Not Recognized GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386 not found

When attempting an Repair Install of Windows XP SP3 the CDROM is not longer available or recognized on the first reboot of the setup installation. A message window is displayed with the path GLOBALROOT\DEVICE\CDROM0\I386 which does not exist. 


The method that worked for me was to copy the i386 folder from the cd to the C: drive on the targeted computer. Then when the installer prompts for the directory path above instead add in C:\i386 instead. You may need to do this many times so use the copy/paste key combinations (ctrl+c, ctrl+p) to make it easier. Then click on OK each time you are prompted.


This worked for me hope it helps you.


Thanks,
HHI Computer Guys


www.hhicomputerguys.com

Program shortcut that requires UAC permission

Hi,
I had a customer that just updated to Windows 7. He had shortcut on his desktop that launched an application on a mapped network drive. Everytime he launched the program the UAC window came up and prompted him to indicate whether it was ok or not to run the program on the mapped drive. Very annoying.. So I found this interesting article on how to create a shortcut with an elevated prompt using task scheduler. Nifty. It helped me hopefully it helps you as well.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11949-elevated-program-shortcut-without-uac-prompt-create.html 

Thanks,
HHI Computer Guy
www.hhicomputerguys.com