S2 System Error

The reason you can't clear the "S2" diagnostic is because it is telling you that there has been an EPROM #2 failure on the control board and there is literally nothing you can do about that short of replacing the defective memory chip.  So if you have another centrifuge that has known good components then I recommend that you swap out the memory chips on the boards assuming that they are the same version boards and chips.  It would probably be best if you reinitialized the centrifuge if that actually clears your problem.

Don

Thanks for the info Don!  You have helped me many times before. Do you know if the EPROMs are on the boards behind the digital display, or are they on the smaller board on the lower swing out panel? I guess I really don't know which is the control board.  I may just switch out the entire board if I can narrow it down on which one is the likely culprit.  Thanks again!

The memory chips are on the control board in the console.  The SR (Switched Reluctance) board is the small board on the swing out chassis that also has memory chips.  Actually you are the first instance of anyone getting an S2 diagnostic that I am aware of and I worked on Avanti J's for 17 years before I retired in 2012.  Swapping out the entire control board will definitely require a complete reinitialization of the centrifuge so unless you are prepared to do that then only replaced the EPROM's.

Don

Thanks again Don for getting back so quickly!  I replace the small SR board this morning, but that did not fix the issue. This evening I opened up the display to access that board and there were 2 removable square chips. One was partially unseated, so pushed back in. That also did not fix the issue. At this point I completely swapped out the entire digital interface console from thre other centrifuge and the S2 error went away!  So do you think it was one of those removable chips or just a random other issue on the board?  I have one of those eprom read/writers. Is it possible to read and save what are on these chips for a future use or are they encrypted in some way?

thanks again!

Clsy

I also forgot to ask, is the reinitialization of the centrifuge the automatic windage and inertia calibration that you have had me do in the past?

I also forgot to ask, is the reinitialization of the centrifuge the automatic windage and inertia calibration that you have had me do in the past?

I also forgot to ask, is the reinitialization of the centrifuge the automatic windage and inertia calibration that you have had me do in the past?

Yes, that's what you need to do.

Don

Great. I will complete the initialization. I also compared the chips between the two boards using an eprom reader. The U18 and U19 chips were identical between the two boards, indicating that they had not been corrupted. So there must be some other defect in another soldered chip, which I will not try and solve. Thanks again Don!  You once again helped me solve a problem with a J-25. 
clay

One thing I forgot to mention, a partially unseated chip could have fried the chip depending on which connections were still active on the chip.  Quite frankly, I NEVER had a situation like what you described with a chip popping part of the way out.  Beckman actually provided us with the correct type of chip puller for removing them when firmware upgrades were required.  The other way that I found to get them out was to take the pointy end of an Xacto knife blade and carefully insert it into the little opening of the socket and slowly pry the chip out of the socket.  It should be noted that doing it this way sometimes resulted in slightly misaligned pins on the chip so that needed to be fixed before reinserting them.  Soldering on ANY of the Avanti J circuit boards is problematic at best as they are multilayer boards so getting the proper connections between the different layers was something we just didn't worry about in the field so board replacement was our normal way of fixing things.  Not how I wanted to do things but if they don't provide you with the proper tools or training to make a repair then you just go with what works.

Don