Need Help Gerber Sabre 408 Keypad Comm Issue?

[Hueyville]

Have missed most of past 18 months dealing with both broken spine and second bought of cancer. Only been taking the odd job when my health allows and client is patient. Have another such job so came in and plugged up the Spindle Controller, Electrical Cabinet and Vacuum Motor on my Gerber Sabre 408. Al are on plugs so when machine is not being used, electrical storms, etc can disconnect from the grid to protect it from impulses. It is connected to a proper three phase electrical panel and has run two decades with only one issue about 15 years ago when a control board went out. Everything powered up as normal.

Once turned on Electrical Panel got my normal "Orientation, A: Orient System" so pressed "A" and the carriage did as normal and went to home position. Normally I will have "Status, Sabre: Idle, Job: Not Ready" waiting for me to send job from computer using ArtPath and then start the job. Instead this time I have "Gerber Sabre Keypad, Revision Level E.6a, Copyright 1995" on first three lines and "All rights reserved Gerber Scientific...." scrolling across bottom line. Have repeated startup (even unplugged and let sit overnight) enough without getting anything but the "Sabre Keypad, Revision E.6a" (abbreviated) that I got when tried to first start the machine for this job.

Seems like the controller and cabinet may not be communicating as cant get the keypad to change, Reset does nothing, A, B and C buttons do nothing and I cant move the carriage using the keypad. The emergency stop keys shut the machine down as supposed to but thats it. If remember correctly when turned on the Electrical panel in past or either began the orientation would get two beeps but no matter what I do don't seem to get any beeps. Have read the manual and some other information and have conflicting information on where to go from here. One suggestion is reload the firmware but am leery of messing with the firmware of a machine (using a ten year old Windows XP Pro computer and same Gerber 3.0 software that has worked flawlessly for over ten years. Any ideas? Need to get this job done as go back in the hospital in two weeks and will be down till New Years.

 

[johnnysigns]

Have you checked the wiring to the keypad? We had something similar many years back and a pin had popped out for the connector between the keypad and the cable. We just bypassed the plug on ours and wired it direct although it doesn't sound like that's something you want to do.

 

[Hueyville]

Yes. I seem to remember bumping into the keypad about a year ago and knocking it loose. Plugged it back up and had zero issues but have checked it. The plug is held to the control panel with two screws so when it takes a whack instead of coming unplugged the AMP connector (name brand) on serial cable came loose. Pushed it all back and it wasn't an issue so I have looked at it Friday and again today but maybe I need to look at it closer. I can crack it open and hard wire if something appears to be broken with closer inspection. I am FCC certified to install repair and operate marine, aircraft and weather radars, radios along with certifications for telecom industry, land mobile radios, ham radio and more. Biggest issue is the "brain fog" I have from all the cancer medications and such so sometimes my thought process needs jarring.

Currently runing three Gerber potters, two Edge printers, Maxx printer and the 408. Started with a Gerber IVb then Gerber Scanner 1, Scanner 2. Gerber Sprint and Super Sprint. We were a Beta test center for Gerber back in the 1990s till first bout with cancer in 2007, actually helped with trade shows and regional software training and when called them for help from them for help first time ever after helping then fifteen years they wanted $350 just to get a call from a tech. Said $350 was just the entry fee if took more than one call. Have purchased eight Gerber plotters, three printers, own four licensed copies of Omega Composer plus four software packages no longer supported, the Sabre 408 router, helped at trade shows and they want $350 to answer the phone. If I decide to start back full time plan is to upgrade everything and will likely remember how helpful they were today.

 

[Hueyville]

Plug and all connections in serial plug seem good. Unless have a bad wire in the cable have ruled the plug out. They have some really big ferrite beads on the wires in the control panel so before I dig too deep into removing the cable and checking ohms on the wires (my luck if bad wire will have continuity while I have it apart...) going to add some ferrite beads to cable at the plug and mid point to see if I have some RF issue which is common around here as I am always running ham radios, public service radios and testing marine radars I buy busted, repair and resell. Honestly the cable just seems to be chasing my tail but can do withut paying Gerber $350 to answer the phone to tell me need a cable...

 

[netsol]

i just want to point out that since this is a gerber product, we need to start out by blowing all the dust out, examining the circuit boards, resoldering all the LARGE HIGH CURRENT SOLDER POINTS. reseat all the cables, perhaps scrub the boards down with 100% isopropyl. this generally works for the edges, the plotters etc

it would have to be a good starting point