Hi Peter,
I forgot to mention that the "locating pins" are on the front conveyor rail, and have conical points that poke partially into the holes in the pcb locking it into position. Also as part of the "locating" arrangement are two more slim pneumatic cylinders on the rear conveyor rail. These have pins that rise up and clamp the rear edge of the pcb against small metal clips on the rail. They just press the board up from underneath.
The "edge clamp" method uses two very small cylinders mounted horizontally on the rear conveyor. These push against the rear edge of the pcb, pushing it forward against the front conveyor rail. Also, there is a "pushup" system that works with the edge clamps. This is a large flat steel plate under the conveyor that rises or falls pneumatically. There are (or should be) some pins with magnetic bases. These are placed on the pushup plate so that the pcb is supported by them when the plate is in the up position. You arrange the pins as needed to support the pcb being processed. The "pushup" can also be used in combination with the "locating" pins to provide additional support to large boards to prevent bowing.
In summary, you have three methods: Locating pins only Locating pins with pushup Edge clamp with pushup
On the limit problem, all the machine settings and pcb programs are held in battery-backed ram. If the battery is dead, everything would be lost when the machine is turned off. The previous user may also have screwed everything, or some things, up. These can all be put back manually, or through the serial port. The basic machine settings are in the "mch" file, and descriptions of the various configuration settings are in the rear of the book. If you like, I can send you a copy of my mch file, which might help by giving you some numbers which should be in the ballpark. There is also another smt.net user, "andras" who has kindly made available the service manual for these machines. He might make it available for you to download, and it has procedures for setting these machines up from scratch.
Tom
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