General Procedures - Rastergraf Eclipse3 Series User Manual

Rastergraf

4.1 General Procedures

The Eclipse3 boards were designed with reliability and durability in mind.
Nevertheless, it may happen that a problem will occur. This section is
devoted to aiding the user in tracking down the problem efficiently and
quickly.
You may be able to locate minor problems without technical assistance. If
the problem can not be remedied, Rastergraf can then issue a Return
Material Authorization (RMA) so that the board can be returned to the
factory for quick repair.
It can happen that installing a new board will overload the computer's
power supply if the power supply margins are exceeded. The first step in
ascertaining if this is the problem is to calculate a power supply budget.
This involves adding up the power requirements of each board in the
system to see if you are within specification. Consult your computer's
technical manual for information on how to correctly determine this. A
typical Eclipse3 will draw a total of less than 1 amps at +5 and +3.3 Volts.
When attempting to verify that the power supply is working properly, it is
not unusual to unplug everything and measure the supply without a load.
While this practice is acceptable for linear supplies, switching supplies
(which are very commonly used in computers) require a certain load
before proper regulation is achieved. Typically, at least 5 Amps must be
drawn from the +5 Volt supply before the +12 volt supplies will give the
proper readings.
It can also happen that if you build your own cables and you short +5 to
ground on the Eclipse3 front panel connector you may trigger the auto-
resetting fuse which protect power supply pins when an overload occurs.
The fuse resets automatically when an overload is removed.
Note
If the board is not functioning, check that +3.3V is supplied on the host
side connectors. The Eclipse3 boards REQUIRE both +3.3V and +5V.
The PMC and PCI boards can be supplied with a local +3.3V regulator, so
if there is no way to supply +3.3V on the backplane, there is a way out.
Please contact Rastergraf if you need to do this.
4-2 Troubleshooting