Protrack I fixed

[snowygrouch]

Just some useful info which might help others.

Purchased known broken Protrack I from ebay, turned on by cycled on/off and never powered up fully.

Strip, inspect and test revealed following faults.

PSU

1) The large power resistor in the PSU was totally dead and had gone to about 50x rated resistance.
2) Capacitors were actually ok, but I replaced them all anyway for longevity, as its a switched mode PSU
these have to be top spec low ESR, and it was actually quite difficult finding replacements good enough,
I had to go Nippon-Chemicon to get good enough results.

All ancilliary boards:
1) Although they were ok I replaced all the tantalums, sadly thanks to the metals market
these now cost a fortune, but for longevity I replaced anyway.
2) I replaced all electrolyic caps, although the originals were not too bad.

Main Board:
1) The main failure was one of the two DC-DC converters for the obsolete CDI 215`s which are on the board back-to-back, one was totally dead with a burned plastic package. The other was ok but I replaced both.
At very embarrassing expense I located pin-compatible new parts, which I have several of spare
as I bought a small batch, as I didnt have time to design PCB adaptor boards to mount
new available cheap DC-DC converters which all have different pinouts.

2) Several of the small electrolyic capacitors near where the voltage regulators are
screwed onto the side casing were dead and leaky, luckily board corrosion was not serious.
I replaced all the electrolyic capacitors on the main board.

3) One of the voltage regulators behind the failed DC-DC converter gave slightly suspicious
results and so was replaced, although I do not think it had actually failed.

The machine now functions as expected and appears to be in perfect order.

The only actually failed parts were the big power resistor on the PSU,
the DC-DC converter on the main board, and the leaked electroyics on the main board.

QUESTION FOR THE FORUM:

I would like one day to add the scanner unit to compare chips, but this appears to need software,
a quick search suggests the license for this costs about 8x the entire price I paid for the Protrack,
is there surely not an obsolete version which I can download, or buy at a sensible cost ?

[CWSmith]

The ProTrack with Scanner does have a built-in compare feature that does not use software. I believe the Users manual describes that process.

[snowygrouch]

Hi,
Thanks thats useful to know, I do have the manual but must have just skimmed the part for the scanner and not seen  that.

[jvthorsley]

Hi
If you have a PC with Windows XP installed you could run Workstation 3.5 for free.
I think if its still there on this Forum from when Curtis did the Tech Support you can download it for free.
And it tells you what password to use.
When you get a Scanner run the diagnostics from Workstation 3.5 and it will tell you which Relays might need replacing.
I found because the pads on the Scanner PCB are small & fragile best to cut the the failed Relay legs and then carefully extract the legs from the PCB with soldering iron and tweezers.
And a quick look on Ebay looks like you can still buy the USB upgrade kit for your ProTrack for 95 US $.

[CWSmith]

Hi,
Thanks thats useful to know, I do have the manual but must have just skimmed the part for the scanner and not seen  that.

Sections 7 and 8 of the ProTrack users manual describes using the Scanner. Essentially press the MENU button then the Scanner button to set up number of pins, package, etc.