TMEX-C1501 3D6 - battery voltage looks ok...

Submitted by banner001 on Sun, 08/30/2020 - 11:12
Forums: 
Embroidery and Digitizing

Hello everyone, i have just been given a TMEX-C1501 for free that has an issue.

When i power the machine up i get a code 3D6 which everyone says is either the CPU battery or the software. So i got a multimeter and tested the 2 batterys on the boards. One tested at 3.1V and the one on the CPU card (that is underneath the USB drive) tested at 2.77V.

I have purchased 2 new batterys, but given these voltages on the board i assume that these are not the cause of the 3D6 issue? And the machine is currently in the corner of a cluttered garage and i dont really have space to be removing the electrical boards inside unless i really, really have to.

Secondly, the machine has been converted from Floppy to USB at some point, i have the original Floppy drive, but when i hook this up i get the code C01 which means "floppy disk drive faulty", if i now hookup the USB drive i get a different message which is B04 which im guessing is because i dont have a USB "installation disk"/program plugged into the USB port?

So firstly, does anyone know if a voltage of 2.77V for the CPU card battery is ok (i.e. are they normally completely dead), and secondly im guessing i need a USB installer program (i see on here people mentioning ex.sys) and i can get this from Tajima UK?

Many thanks everyone!

Location: 
United States

banner001

Sun, 08/30/2020 - 12:26

Im just thinking out loud here...

I am guessing that the machines embroidery software is loaded into RAM/some other volatile memory, so when the battery gets lower than some critical voltage it "wipes" the memory...aka why i am getting this 3D6 error.

I just left the machine plugged in for a bit longer and am getting 2.81V at the battery, and if i then turn it on am getting 3.05V so its charging the rechargeable battery...so im thinking its just lost its software install.

Sound logical??

dgeorge

Mon, 08/31/2020 - 08:23

First is not battery,is rechargeable one,3V/50mA
Try to install again using FDD,the machine software
If don t work change anyway the CPU card rechargeable battery,and install again the software

banner001

Mon, 08/31/2020 - 14:38

Hi there, I dont see what replacing the battery will do though as I am now seeing 3V in both original rechargeable batteries.

I can't see any hard drive etc, so I have to assume that the program was stored in volatile memory on the cpu card, so I need to do a reinstall.

My issue is that the machine is not recognising the original FDD, and depending on where I set the floppy disks "erase tab" I either get a disk drive error, or a "no disk inserted" error. With the USB emulator I only ever get a "no disk inserted" error which is correct as I don't have the original software on USB.

Does anyone have this ex.sys file that people have previously mentioned, or do I need to image the floppy disk I have and generate the ex.sys file from that?

dgeorge

Mon, 08/31/2020 - 16:09

If you use FDD or USB,You need the Tajima ex.sys file for this machine.
ex.sys file copy to an 720K disk formatted Tajima and install !
On disk only ex.sys file !
If you have an Richpeace USB,is necessary to create an image from disk,and the img.copy to USB stick and install

banner001

Tue, 09/01/2020 - 09:39

Ah OK, I will have to get a floppy to usb drive, or see if I can find a very old pc anywhere that still has a floppy drive so I can get hold of the file.

I suppose any root folder structure will remain the same, and the USB has to be fat32 I assume?

dgeorge

Tue, 09/01/2020 - 11:43

Sure you need an old computer to format an 720K disk.
You can format DOS 720K disk,or using an embroidery software,Tajima 720K disk.
If you don t have an 720K disk,use an 1.44M one,but put adhesive tape to the hole from the right side,and format like 720K disk
To be sure will work,use the machine old floppy drive !