Hi Everyone

First post so apologies if I'm not right on with protocol. I couldn't find a previous post that was specific to my particular problem, so have created a new thread.

I have a Bremshey Treadline Trail treadmill which recently started playing up. It's probably 6-7 years old, but only has about 600 miles logged. One day whilst in use, the circuit breaker tripped and blew the internal fuse on the treadmill lower control board. After a bit of fiddling, I determined that the board was fried and rather than attempt to repair individual components, sourced a new board from China. The original board was badged Endex DCMD66 - pic attached below. You can't seem to get these anywhere any more, so I bought the recommended new and improved version. See second picture attached.

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When troubleshooting, I tested the motor with a car battery and it ran fine. All the other things on the treadmill like the console, incline, readout etc worked fine. but as soon as I started to run the motor the circuit would trip. The new board now installed seems to be working to a point, the treadmill will run happily until I step on it, then after 2-3 minutes it will stop and generate an E1 error. This error seems to relate to the speed sensor, but I've checked that out and it is fine. I expect the real issue is too much amp draw which is causing the treadmill to shut down and was likely the issue that caused the original board to fail. I don't know how to measure the amp draw correctly to determine if that is the problem. My next steps are more lubricant, which does appear OK, change running belt - it's not that worn, or change the motor drive belt, it appears a little worn.

One thing that did concern me, when I had finished tightening the motor bolts down, I was test running the machine, cover off with the motor operating. The socket I was using fell off the end of the wrench and made contact with the motor metal housing, which immediately caused sparks and a short. Why is the outer casing of the motor live? Is this normal? I checked out the wiring and I have put it back exactly as it was. I found this concerning and is the main reason why I am posting here. I am wondering whether I should continue trying to fix the machine or get rid.

Thanks for any replies.

Luke995

 

Never worked on that model, but definitely the motor case should be isolated from any power and should be at GND potential, usually by its own ground conductor.
This may not show up with a battery test.
Is the machine supplied from a socket that includes ground?
Where are you located?

 

Hi - thanks for your reply, this is a UK based installation.

There are 3 wires coming from the motor (180v DC). Red to positive, white to negative, green to ground on the chassis. Testing resistance with multi-meter, I get infinity on white and red and it wavers around a bit on ground then goes to zero. All the sockets have ground. Picture of the motor attached.

 

180v DC motor.
You should have a resistance reading across the two supply leads, they should also indicate a generated DC voltage when the motor is spun.
The motor frame should be at earth ground potential. Also insulated from either power lead.
Check the above.

 

OK, I checked the resistance across the leads and is 02.7 on the lowest resistance setting of the meter. The motor frame seems OK. I did an amp draw test with no weight which showed anything from 5-11 amps, it wavered around all over the place which suggests an issue? I think it is supposed be between 3-5. When I got on it, it jumped from 11 - 18 to out of range, but again didn't stay static on any one reading. Could this be an issue or is over tension on the drive motor belt or running belt causing the motor to stress?

 

I would expect it to vary somewhat as the motor load is going to fluctuate some.
Although It does sound like something binding or causing a high than normal motor load.

 

Ok thanks. I did slacken off the motor drive belt a little and that brought the amps down to between 2-3 without load and anything from 7-14 with me walking on it. That doesn't seem overly high, but the treadmill still shut down after about 4 minutes. I'm now wondering if the new controller board is shutting things down prematurely. The treadmill shows E1 error which I've only ever seen since this board was installed.