PCB no longer available: how we keep a fleet of machines running

The supplier no longer exists. The machine still does.

Six months ago a customer called about a fleet of machines in which a part of the control board could no longer be bought. The machines themselves are perhaps twenty years old and run fine. Without that board it would have been the end of the line, and the customer would have faced a large investment to rebuild everything.

We prevented that. All of their systems now run on the new board, and we will supply those boards to them for years to come.

Why a board suddenly becomes unavailable

It is almost always one component. A microcontroller, a driver or a display that the manufacturer stops making. Sometimes the supplier of the whole board has stopped or been taken over, and nobody knows where the drawings are. As long as there are spare boards on the shelf, nobody notices. Only when the last one is used does it become a problem. Then a machine stands still that has nothing else wrong with it.

How we remake a board

We start with one sample and whatever documentation is left. With that we redesign the board. Step by step:

1. Finding out what the board does. We recover the schematic from the board itself and measure on a working sample: which signals come in, what it drives, which voltages and currents.
2. Replacing obsolete parts. We choose components that will remain available for years, preferably from more than one manufacturer. If there is software on a chip that can no longer be bought, we rewrite the firmware based on what the board has to do.
3. Same size, same connections. The new board gets the same dimensions, mounting holes and connectors in the same place. The service engineer can swap it one for one, without changing the wiring or the cabinet.
4. Testing against the original. We give the old and the new board the same inputs and compare what comes out. After that, the new board runs on trial in a machine at the customer’s site.
5. Series and resupply. We keep the design, bill of materials and test procedure. That way we supply the same board years later, under the same part number.

What you send us

The more we know, the faster it goes. What helps:

• A sample of the board. A working one is best, a faulty one is also useful.
• Photos of the board in the machine, with the connections visible.
• Whatever documentation is left: schematic, bill of materials, manual or an old quotation.
• What the machine does and the environment it is in (temperature, vibration, moisture).
• How many machines are running and how many boards you need per year.

A photo via WhatsApp is enough to start. In a thirty-minute Quickscan we check whether remaking the board is feasible and roughly what it costs.

Remake it or design a new one?

Remaking pays off when the machines are otherwise in good shape and several of the same type are running. The mechanics, the wiring and the way the service engineers work all stay the same. You invest in one board instead of a new machine. We supply in series from 10 pieces, for maintenance and for machines you are still building.

A new design makes more sense if the machine is being renewed anyway or if you are missing functions. That can also be done in one go: the same connections as the old board, with for example a measurement or a link to an online dashboard added. We would rather discuss that up front than add it afterwards.

It is not the most exciting work we do. But it is the work that brings the most relief. Read more about this service under remaking an old board.

A shorter version of this article appeared on LinkedIn on 6 October 2026. Follow ProCircuits on LinkedIn