O\T Survey. Leave DRO on or off?

[JAMMAN]

Does your shop turn the DRO's off at night or leave them on? I was told in the past that turning them off nightly was worse than leaving them on... something about thermal expansion and contraction on the circuit board.

[Keith Graydon]

It doesnt matter. Back when I used to crank handles on a regular basis. I would leave them on. still do i guess. We had a group leader back then who INSISTED that you turn them off at night before you go home. He didnt have a REASON, He just was anal. I used to leave 'em on just to tick him off. He finnally retired and shop moral increased tremendously

[Rekd™]

You're right. Thermal expansion can be worse than leaving it on. Same with TVs, computers, radios etc. Heating them and cooling them once or more times a day is hard on the components.

 

'Rekd

[chris m]

Ours have been on for YEARS; no noticeable probs

 

C

[Tony]

Everyday all day.

It was the Tube ones that had to be shut off

Because there life span sucked...

[crazy^millman]

Depends on the Dro if it is a Newall I just click the slep button on the fronts of the ones that have them if it others I just trun the dials to 0 and leave it as that and turn it off unless it is not a last postion type in that case I leave it one better to be off a couple tenths than off .01 or soemthing. I would also do spot checks on the DRO if new to it I have found soem over the years that drift I my Starret 3" dial and run it back and forth at both ends of the travel as well as the middle and check for devation if it doesnt keep .0002 I would check all my scales and check for loose bolts and bent scales if glass good luck it is pretty much screwed if not taking care of.

 

 

Crazy Millman

[Müřlıń®]

Leave it on.........

 

My DRO has been on for 15 years ever since I put it on my mill.

 

Not one light diode has burn't out......

 

I got this information right from the Bridgeport repair guy that came to replace the burnt out diodes in our DRO's back in 86 at the factory I used to work in.

 

Get this....the shop forman at that factory used to wrap up all the brains with a plastic garbage bag every nite........shall we say ......dumb de dumb dumb....

 

The repair guy was out at least once a month fixing one of the 30 DRO's in that place.

 

 

Murlin

[Brendan P]

I'd leave them on.

I was told before by a Fanuc repairman that it is bad for boards to be turned off and on especially with climate change.

[JAMMAN]

Thanks guys, I'm cutting and pasting this and passing it out to a few people at work....

 

[ 10-27-2003, 11:13 PM: Message edited by: JAMMAN ]

[MetalMarvels]

Wearing my Chief Engineer's hat, leave them on! While most board and chip problems will sort themselves out in the first month (infant mortality), thermal changes can cause ICs to "creep" out of their sockets, causing all manner of problems. Marginal solder joints, which are found with some frequency in import products, will also fatigue fail after many on-off cycles - resulting in intermittent connections. In addition, the power needed for most of the newer products is less than that required for a standard light bulb.

 

Having said that, it is also important to have components like DROs on their own surge protector. Both lightning and starting/stopping large motors on the same circuit can kill electronics...... I visited one shop that was consistently killing their DROs. It turns out that they had an AC welder sharing the same circuit - very nasty electrical noise!!!!!