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The RIFA chips receive information from the IO Buffer, and translate low current microprocessor signals into high power motor signals. These signals turn the power to the X,Y and Z stepper motors off and on. The most common failure symptom of RIFA’s is a high pitch, constant beep. The Y-axis, or front to back, is controlled by U103 & U104; the X-axis, or left to right, is controlled by U105 & U106; the Z-axis, or eccentric bar is controlled by U107 & U108.
RIFA Test Procedure
ANYTIME YOU REMOVE RIFA CHIPS FROM YOUR MACHINE, be sure and mark each one so that you know which slot they came from, and note the position of the notch on the RIFA - towards the back of the machine. I usually mark each chip with the motherboard location, U103 thru U108. For our example we will assume the we have a bad Y-axis. Swap the chips from U103 & U104 to U107 & U108, the eccentric bar chips. Turn on the machine, and engrave a plate. If the Y-axis RIFA’s were bad, the letters should now engrave okay, but start dragging between letters. If the results are still the same, you probably have a bad stepper motor, a loose coupling between the stepper motor and the leadscrew, or motherboard problem. If there was no change, you can leave the chips as they all appear to be good.
Generally, when an axis goes bad, you can replace only the two chips on that axis. However, I prefer to replace all of the chips anytime a single axis goes bad. I discard the two chips which were from the bad axis, and keep the other chips I took out for back-ups.
Axis symptoms include: Z-axis, or eccentric bar, dragging between letters or no eccentric bar movement; Y-axis, inconsitent baselines; X-axis, letters squeezed together.
If you get a high pitch beep, and the screen goes blank when you turn on the Wizzard, remove all of the RIFA chips and turn on your machine. If the screen reappears and the beep goes away, you have some bad RIFA chips. Follow the procedure above to determine the problem axis.
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