Wont't go home

Ken, you might start by opening up the panel which holds the screen and control buttons by removing the 4 screws and unplug each connection and plug back in to ensure that there is a good connection at each point. If your machine powers up at all that might solve the problem. Next I would try to trip manually all of the limit switches to make sure they are free to operate, could be some dust or small scrap keeping one from functioning properly.

As far as support, the folks at ICONIC should be able to offer some advice, even though they have a new version of cnc machines to sell they have extensive experience in dealing with the Intellicarve machines which they were previously involved with at General CNC which sold the same model of 1013 branded as a "General 40-913" . If you call or email them I think they could help you out as they have been very helpful when I have contacted them.

Spare parts, I think are still available to some extent thru ICONIC. The machine is fairly well built, mine is now 5 yrs old and the weakest points in my opinion are the spindle motor and the USB Connection on the side of the machine. I would recommend that you only use the medium (which is what I use) or slow settings for carving speed, the fast speed puts a lot of stress on the spindle. Carving depth is a max of 1/4" or 6mm and I find that most carves look good at the depth of 4-5 mm, if you try to run deeper than the max depth it will cause problems. When I got my machine I tried doing some carves using 2 passes and I do not recommend that you use the 2 pass method because there is a problem with the accuracy of the second pass. That has been confirmed by most users of the machine. Even if the re-position accuracy is off by say just .02 mm you would get unwanted lines in your carve. The USB connection on the side you must be careful with when inserting and removing the USB stick since there have been problems with the internal plastic piece in side of the connection breaking off.

Ken, a new motherboard WOW that is a crappy way to have to start out with the machine. I am not sure what date they actually shut down production of the 1013 as opposed to their announcement that it was discontinued but I suspect that the few remaining machines and or parts Oliver had were cobbled together from returned ones to clear out their inventory altogether.

My reasoning:
Last year I had to replace my spindle motor after it failed so I ordered a new one and at just under 1 year that motor failed, so Oliver agreed to send me a replacement if I would pay just the postage costs. I get the motor and open the package and the first thing I see on it is the very fine dust that accumulates from being used. I cleaned it up and installed it in the machine, turned it on and the thing sounded like a rattling box of rocks. My assumption is, instead of getting a new motor like I thought what I received was a used one from a returned machine. I have managed to put together from 2 previous motors, 1 that is working for the time being and I have an alternative plan for when it fails using a different motor.

There is no way of knowing for sure whether or not my assumption is correct but it seems logical being as at least 1 other person who purchased one after the discontinued notice also had problems from the start. I can tell you that when I received my machine there was a piece of MDF with the name "Oliver" carved into it packaged with the machine, which suggested to me that they had at least tested the machine at some time or another. My machine would not work right out of the box either (error messages) , I had to contact Oliver and a firmware update was needed and once that was done everything worked fine.

The quirks with machine, spindle motor failure and motherboard problems are what led to the end of manufacturing of the 1013 and 1015. The guys at ICONIC had their machine redesigned to address those issues and it seems to be a better machine. I know for certain that their spindle motor is at least 2 times as big as the ones on our machines. I think ours were somewhat under powered (like right at the edge of being sufficient) and that is what has caused them to fail.

Iconic has been good to work with, at least from my point of view. I've had to replace two motherboards in the 3 years I've been using mine, but neither would I consider a machine design problem as much as a user flaw. I broke two USB ports, seems strange but there is a little plastic piece inside the usb port to keep the flash drive secure, and that piece broke off both times. Somewhat of a cheap design, but I've come to the conclusion that certain brands of flash drives are "tighter" when installed, and that in/out may have caused the plastic to break off. I believe the brand I had problems with was PNY, I only use SanDisk now, and I put an 8" USB extender cord on and duct taped it to the top of the machine - now I don't worry about breaking the USB motherboard port.

Twice I've had problems on weekends, and emailed Iconic on a Sunday expecting not to hear back until midweek like most companies. Instead they responded by Sunday evening, and on the one motherboard replacement had it shipped the next day on Monday. I had the same MDF board as Bob mentioned above with my machine, but mine worked straight out of the box. I use mine less than Bob, but even so I've replaced two motherboards and one spindle motor in three years. It comes with buying a first generation machine, the engineers thought they had it designed right but the end result was a little underpowered. Which is why the 2nd generation machines are coming out. I'm waiting to see what the second generation of the 1013 looks like when it comes out, then maybe I'll go in that direction rather than trying to keep this one running.

I don't recall a red light on the motherboard, but it's been months since I replaced it. Oliver basically got out of this business, and my understanding is that they act as a shipping point for Iconic. Iconic is the same team that ran the cnc portion for General Machinery, the guys are pretty good. Also, I understand that Iconic now honors the warranty for any machines that Oliver sold, so they are probably your best bet for customer service. If I get a chance this weekend I'll take my back cover off and see if I can spot the red light you are talking about.

Still dead - iconic said its the hmi said they will send a new one. Didn't here from them in 3 days now, no communication at all - I don't know if the part was sent or not. I am thinging about piecing this thing out and buy a machine that has tech support and parts available.