# Acu-rite DRO Control panel can not be reset??



## dbranco (Mar 4, 2014)

I am in the process of buying a bridgeport with a Acu-rite III DRO, when you turn on unit it will light up but can not zero out the displays.
It is only a 2 axis display but everytime you press the reset/zero button to the left it will show all zero's but when you release the button it goes back to blank and a little tick mark on the upper left hand corner?  What could be wrong with it?  Is it worth buying or not??


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## Senna (Mar 4, 2014)

I can't tell you what is wrong with the Acu-Rite but they are still in business and their tech support is very good and based in the US. Give them a call and they'll help you out.

Welcome to the forum.


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## dbranco (Mar 4, 2014)

Thanks Dan


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## churchjw (Mar 5, 2014)

Post what you find out on this.

Jeff


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## Senna (Mar 6, 2014)

churchjw said:


> Post what you find out on this.
> 
> Jeff



Yes, please do.


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## chuckorlando (Mar 6, 2014)

If it's lie the ones at school hit the "no ref" butto, then axis, then zero, then enter. When we first got them you could just hit axis zero zero. I aint sure what happened but now I do it as posted


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## kcoffield (Sep 11, 2021)

I know this is an old thread but I have an Acu-Rite II DRO that just lapsed into the same problem..........won't zero/reset. I downloaded the manual and tried the trouble shooting suggestions to no avail but suspect it is a circuit board level issue. It started as a sporadic problem cured by power down/up but now has become constant. 

The display appears to otherwise function fine as all illuminate when you hit the reset button but not when you release the button, and it displays the error tic mark (see attached picture). I did contact Acu-Rite but this is an early 70s vintage DRO and is no longer supported.  I also see more contemporary displays with cable adapters and compatible with my scales/reading heads are available for ~$300 but thought I'd throw this out there to see if it was a common fault with easy fix. Anyone?


Best,
Kelly


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## pontiac428 (Sep 11, 2021)

Do you need to toggle Absolute mode off?


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## kcoffield (Sep 11, 2021)

pontiac428 said:


> Do you need to toggle Absolute mode off?


Same in both absolute & incremental.

Best,
Kelly


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## kcoffield (Sep 12, 2021)

I may have caught a break today. After turning on the DRO I was messing with the cables and saw the display flicker. The cables are small flexible steel armored conduit and the strain relief at the 6-pin Mil-type connector on the x-axis was cracked. I couldn't get the display to reset again by fiddling with it but when I checked with my volt meter I noticed two of the pins were grounded and figured there should only be one. Turns out, the strain reliefs are cast in place and also serve as potting to keep wire separation and with the aged/cracking/damage, the ground wire may have been shorted to one of the sensing lines.

I removed the potted strain relief and resoldered the wires to the 6 pin connector and the display worked normally all day. I may have gotten lucky or it may recur because I'm pretty sure not only did I swap them, I also unplugged and tried each cable/scale individually so if the short to ground in one cable was taking out the display, I'd think it would have been fine without the potentially offending x-axis connected........we shall see with time but if it continues to work fine, I'll cast on another potted strain relief and soldier on!

Best,
Kelly


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