Treadmill Maintenance: Control Board Replacement
A couple years ago, I wrote my first blog post in this treadmill maintenance series on how to replace the rear roller of my Smooth Fitness 5.25, which blew out a day before what was literally the end of my three-year warranty. It so happens that on Christmas Eve a couple months ago, my treadmill stopped working. After turning on the treadmill, everything seemed to power up normally, but the roller would not start turning.
The folks at Smooth Fitness told me that the symptoms pointed to the need for the control board to be replaced. I searched for other potential remedies to no avail, because at the cost of $280, roughly a quarter the original cost of the treadmill, this was a significant expenditure. But I also did not want to purchase a new treadmill unless absolutely necessary, so I made the order.
During the order taking process, it was mentioned that control boards were on back order until the end of January, partially due to a recent company reorganization that apparently involved new owners. Of course, I had no choice in the matter in terms of supplier, although running outdoors during Winter season in Chicago was not immediately appealing.
My inquiry as to whether a guide to replace the control board would be included with the shipment resulted in a response that it will only involve four screws, and if needed I could make a call to Smooth Fitness for assistance. I assure you that there are more than four screws just to remove the cover of the treadmill, and that there are actually three screws to hold the control board in place, so I do not know where the number of four originated.
Removing the cover will reveal the control board, situated in the right corner when facing the treadmill at its head. If you were on the treadmill belt in a position to run, the location would be in the upper left corner, but all the photos here were taken with maintenance in mind. After five years of usage, the inside of the treadmill was fairly clean, although it gathered some dust after waiting an additional month for the order to arrive.
The shipment included the actual control board with three screws and two connectors, and it was very heavy for such a small part, so I was not looking forward to ever needing to return it due to the probable high cost of shipping it back. As the folks at Smooth Fitness had communicated, no instructions came with the shipment, but after comparing the old control board attached to the treadmill with the new control board, it appeared as though the most critical task would be to keep track of cables connecting the treadmill and control board.
In a matter of minutes, the swap between the old and new control boards was completed, but after powering up the treadmill, it was apparent that something was wrong. The digital display did not populate correctly, and the treadmill belt ran without abandon, running at apparently the highest speed the treadmill is capable and not permitting speed adjustment via the treadmill dashboard.
I have joked in the past that engineering may have been my original undergraduate field of choice, but I had never been interested in mechanical engineering. Chemical engineering was the specialization I had chosen, and I later moved to software engineering as occupation, so moving parts was never my strong suit and I realized that it was probable I had done the work here incorrectly, but after a couple attempts with the same result, I shelved the effort for a couple weeks and endured an increasingly colder Winter season.
After finally having some time to repackage the control board for shipment back to Smooth Fitness, I thought I would try one more time. I might not be mechanical, but I am also a German who does not give up at anything very easily. One aspect about the new control board that bothered me was the two connectors that came with the shipment. First, there were two, and the control board only seemingly needed one, and second, why were these needed when I could just use the old one?
In comparing the control boards, I noticed that the original control board in the above photo was apparently missing a pin for where the single connector was to be put in place. At first, I had thought that I broke off a pin because original release of the connector was rather difficult and I had needed to apply some force to remove it. But this did not end up seeming likely.
In taking a second look at the new connectors, and comparing the original and new control boards, I quickly realized that the number of pins had decreased from six to five. After replacing the original control board connector and powering up, everything immediately started working correctly. The start up sounds that I had heard hundreds of times were all restored, the dashboard display populated correctly, and speed adjustment and inclining and declining all worked correctly.
The remainder of this post shows the location of the other connectors with which you need to keep track while swapping control boards, because some of the connection points on the control board are simply not used. The first photo below shows the placement of the main connector that has been discussed, which has a black cable, followed by photos which show single red and black cables side by side, and blue and white connectors that are separated by an unused connection point.
To make this process easier, especially because your control board might be different, I recommend first making note of all cables that connect the control board with the rest of the treadmill. Looking at the overhead photo of the control board above, this assessment is not very difficult to perform, because most of the cables that protrude from the treadmill in general are cables involved with disassembly and reassembly. A couple treadmill cables awkwardly extend over the control board, but are not directly connected to the control board itself.
Before you replace the treadmill cover again, you will probably want to screw on the new controll board to the treadmill, all of this work of course taking place while the treadmill is unplugged from an electrical outlet. While extensively testing to make sure everything was working, I noticed that the control board did not budge at all due to the tight quarters in which it is located, but fastening it back is probably a good idea. Just make sure you do so as one would do during any assembly involving screws or nuts and bolts. Partially tighten all of the three screws to make sure placement is correct before fully tightening all of them. Again, these are very tight quarters and the tolerance level is very low.
This post concludes in very much the same way as the first in this series. The end result of my control board replacement is that the entry level Smooth Fitness 5.25 that I purchased five years ago is operational and fully functional once again. One very positive aspect of the break down, back order wait, and trial and error process is that my fears of running during the heart of Winter season in Chicago have been alleviated for the first time in many years.
And remember, what is often true for car warranties is apparently true for treadmill warranties: issues tend to arise as soon as accompanying warranties end. And as was the case with my control board, which was no longer under warranty, break downs appear to take place like clockwork. The rear roller needed replacement two days before the end of my three-year warranty, and my control board needed replacement almost exactly five years after original purchase. As always, would love to hear about similar experiences from other treadmill owners.