Ruida RDLC320-A dead?????

[Ivan Correa]

So I had to get back my laser cutter from storage. At first everything seemed normal as I left it 6 years ago when I last used it. Plugged it in, connected water pump, air compressor and turned Power On. Light was on, laser went home, fan was on, water was flowing, air was flowing...but my RDLC320 control panel was off. I plugged the USB to a laptop running Windows XP, fresh installed drivers and RdWorks v8 to see if I could bypass the need of using the control panel and operate the machine directly from my computer....then I got the Communication Error of death!!

Is my controller dead? Is it possible to diagnose the controller by itself? I checked continuity on the cable that goes from the controller to the control panel and everything seems fine. A red LED turns on on the panel board so power is getting there. I thought the screen was busted but the laser controls don´t work as well. I´ve been trying to find a way to diagnose the controller before declaring it dead. Stepper motors work (return to home when I turno on the machine), stop sensors work as well, so at least half of the controller is working.

Anyone has any experience with this that might be able to help?

Thanks in advance for your time and hope to find a solution.

Ivan