Ii have a mitutoyo electronic caliper that is now obsolete and the curcuit board seems to be shorted out. Anyone have experience with how to trouble shoot this problem. It used to power up but only read in metric now it just stopped working all together.. the rest of the caliper is perfect condition. Cant just discard it?
mitutoyo 6" caliper with bad curcuit board
Started by ●December 14, 2016
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
Unfortunately thing like that are like toasters. One IC, surface mount at least, maybe even using the board as a substrate with a glop of epoxy over it. If you can't get the board it is over. If it has the markings to read it as a regular old time caliper you can use it like that. Or you can use it as a transfer device. Also, if it has the 30 degree cut in the depth gauge it also makes a good tool to measure the diameter of a hole. What almost amazes me is that these things can tell the position even with the battery out. Mine has a zero button but that is almost not necessary. I cranked it out to like 3" and took the battery out and when I put it back in it remembered where it was. Is this by memory or some sort of measurement technique of which I am not aware ? They talk of capacitance but there is no way that could be accurate at 6". Mine is an elcheapo, but it does allow for measurement without the battery, and I think most do. And they are cheap so you can just buy another one. I hate to say that but when something is unfixable it is unfixable. You can either get the part or not. You can hound the company, and they might even agree to "fix" it for you but what will happen is they will replace the unit. I work for factory service (not there) and when something cannot be fixed we just offer a replacement at a discounted cost. I wish we had more control over what the actual manufacturers do but we only bought half the company, what's more all the stuff is made by Apex, this company is just a US front. No more detail on that. You might find a used one online with bent jaws or something and be able to use the board from that. But there is no ordering "IC 12", replacing it and having it work again. Nother thing to consider is what these things cost. Mitutoyo is a really good company and I have some of their micrometers and other things, but the fact is they are selling their name if you cannot get parts. So for, I think $16, Harbor Freight or one of them has one that is so similar in performance you'll never notice any difference. Or just read a real caliper that has the scale on the side that gives you thousandths and forget about this digital shit and you will never have this problem again. On this page the first picture shows a caliper that can read down to the thousandths : http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-read-a-vernier-caliper/step2/Course-reading-1/ Forget the text. The top of the picture shows a different scale which is made specifically to reveal the next decimal place. Whichever line lines up with a line on the main scale indicates the next decimal place. They achieve that by using nine lines in the exact space of ten. It does not matter which line lines up with the main scale, just count it up and it is the next decimal place. I know this is hard to understand for modern people, but give it a try. The battery died in my digital caliper about two years ago and I never bothered to replace it. Plus I got better calipers laying around anyway. They just aren't digital and you have to really look at them to read them, it is not all done for you. I also have a pretty full set of micrometers, none digital. These conveniences are nice but make us lazy.
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
On 14-Dec-16 1:27 PM, grbrown6@gmail.com wrote:> Ii have a mitutoyo electronic caliper that is now obsolete and the curcuit board seems to be shorted out. Anyone have experience with how to trouble shoot this problem. It used to power up but only read in metric now it just stopped working all together.. the rest of the caliper is perfect condition. Cant just discard it? >See if you can get it apart and give it a clean. If it has rubber carbon button and remove & clean up under the buttons. If the carbon has worn off some conductive paint might fix it. I found on one pair of calipers the air was not able to get back under the button after it was pressed causing it to stick down. A clean up and a slot cut in the rubber fixed it.
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
On 2016-12-14, grbrown6@gmail.com <grbrown6@gmail.com> wrote:> Ii have a mitutoyo electronic caliper that is now obsolete and the > curcuit board seems to be shorted out. Anyone have experience with how > to trouble shoot this problem. It used to power up but only read in > metric now it just stopped working all together.. the rest of the > caliper is perfect condition. Cant just discard it?I'm guessing you've tried replacing the battery. one like this? https://nz.element14.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=15001&CMP=KNC-GNZ-GEN-DSA-e14&langId=64&storeId=10189&krypto=znplrV6MUWkqja1mn1vBhlqa6RfzXOzMlb1ezU69xT4fR5WC1ODS3f9Ds1D8Vf157NGn8D22Ts2kPy9C8pD0xMXuNkRUmGseOFg%2BBmKbjvTkl4IHYh7n4i15KAmUH7UMGCDBCM8dft7TZU7OPv%2BSK1NjJIWADCD7qgiWukDXwteRRA9sZze3TMN%2BoWQygF%2BSovG5e5s%2F3xqn90gu2x%2Fhf9RbdWCfh36zBcoK5zc81G0qs37EhLNxrh5hFDT3TnFu98%2BmClJcF7V6lK0vTUApxjdUHrjT918SKV9akU9yfZlD%2BgB7sC4CIK89tsbKoIge&ddkey=http%3Aen-NZ%2FElement14_New_Zealand%2Fmitutoyo%2F500-172-20%2Fdigital-caliper-8-200mm%2Fdp%2F7155633 Several hundered dollars. for that price I'd expect a lifetime guarantee, contact the vendor, or the maker. OTOH, I paid $12 for a no-brand 0.01mm precisionstainless steel electronic caliper on aliexpress, and $5 for a carbon fibre plastic 0.1mm precision electronic caliper. -- This email has not been checked by half-arsed antivirus software
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
On Wed, 14 Dec 2016 08:40:41 +0000, Jasen Betts wrote:> > OTOH, I paid $12 for a no-brand 0.01mm precisionstainless steel > electronic caliper on aliexpress, and $5 for a carbon fibre plastic > 0.1mm precision electronic caliper.All very well until they drift out of calibration and you have to throw away a work-in-progress-piece with a couple of thousand dollars worth of machining having gone into it. I'll stick with my flawless and totally reliable Mitutoyo dial calipers, thanks very much!
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
I even tried removing a coroded resistor from the board just to lean the board surface underneath it as it looked suspicious but that didnt work, same problem aftr it wss resoldered.
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 21:27:17 -0800 (PST), grbrown6@gmail.com wrote:>Ii have a mitutoyo electronic caliper that is now obsolete and the curcuit board seems to be shorted out. Anyone have experience with how to trouble shoot this problem. It used to power up but only read in metric now it just stopped working all together.. the rest of the caliper is perfect condition. Cant just discard it?Mitutoyo calipers are worth fixing. I don't know what's wrong, but from your description, it kinda sounds like low battery voltage. This is a common problem that I've seen on my cheap throw-away calipers. The alkaline batteries (LR44) drop in voltage to the point where the electronics doesn't work. This is because the calipers never really turn off, draw current even when the display is off, and quickly discharge the alkaline batteries. The silver oxide batteries (SR44 and 357) are much better. The batteries still discharge when off, but the much "flatter" discharge curve of the silver oxide battery means that it will last longer. However, it to will eventually discharge. On my calipers, alkaline lasts about 3-6 months and silver oxide about 9 to 12 months. <http://www.truetex.com/buttons.htm> <http://davehylands.com/Machinist/Caliper-Batteries/> -- Jeff Liebermann jeffl@cruzio.com 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558
Reply by ●December 14, 20162016-12-14
On Wed, 14 Dec 2016 07:50:06 -0800, Jeff Liebermann <jeffl@cruzio.com> wrote:>On Tue, 13 Dec 2016 21:27:17 -0800 (PST), grbrown6@gmail.com wrote: > >>Ii have a mitutoyo electronic caliper that is now obsolete and the curcuit board seems to be shorted out. Anyone have experience with how to trouble shoot this problem. It used to power up but only read in metric now it just stopped working all together.. the rest of the caliper is perfect condition. Cant just discard it? > >Mitutoyo calipers are worth fixing. I don't know what's wrong, but >from your description, it kinda sounds like low battery voltage. This >is a common problem that I've seen on my cheap throw-away calipers. >The alkaline batteries (LR44) drop in voltage to the point where the >electronics doesn't work. This is because the calipers never really >turn off, draw current even when the display is off, and quickly >discharge the alkaline batteries.Exactly. I remove the battery between uses... often months between uses.>The silver oxide batteries (SR44 >and 357) are much better. The batteries still discharge when off, but >the much "flatter" discharge curve of the silver oxide battery means >that it will last longer. However, it to will eventually discharge. >On my calipers, alkaline lasts about 3-6 months and silver oxide about >9 to 12 months. > ><http://www.truetex.com/buttons.htm> ><http://davehylands.com/Machinist/Caliper-Batteries/>...Jim Thompson -- | James E.Thompson | mens | | Analog Innovations | et | | Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus | | STV, Queen Creek, AZ 85142 Skype: skypeanalog | | | Voice:(480)460-2350 Fax: Available upon request | Brass Rat | | E-mail Icon at http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |
