Need Help Gerber Sabre 408 Spindle Motor Issue

[David Donaldson]

We have a sabre 408 with spindle motor. The spindle motor is not turning on, either when a job is sent or when selecting motor warm up.

When I open the motor control cabinet the inverter display says CALL, when I select motor warmup on the keypad the display on the inverter changes to 333.3 I would therefore assume that the inverter is getting a signal from the electrical cabinet – the spindle motor does not operate but the dust extractor does.

However when I switch the inverter to “local” control and hit run – the spindle motor does indeed run

Could anyone advise what the issue may be?

 

[chadorama]

What happens when you send a job? Do you get the spindle error beep or does it think that the spindle is running and try to cut? Sounds like you might have a problem inside the main control box, not the spindle controller.

 

[Mike]

Is the serial cable plugged in to the back of the cabinet

 

[StarSign]

Have you tried hitting the emergency stop and then resetting the machine? Sounds crazy but this has worked in the past when we get an error we can't figure out.

 

[David Donaldson]

What happens when you send a job? Do you get the spindle error beep or does it think that the spindle is running and try to cut? Sounds like you might have a problem inside the main control box, not the spindle controller.

When I send a job the router behaves exactly as if the spindle is running - no errors.
In fact once I start the job the display changes on the inverter and if someone hits the local/remote button on the inverter and the hits run the spindle will run and the job will complete as normal - except that the spindle keeps running after the job ends

 

[David Donaldson]

Is the serial cable plugged in to the back of the cabinet

Hi Mike - yes the lead is connected - I have disconnected it at both ends and reconnected it .

 

[David Donaldson]

Have you tried hitting the emergency stop and then resetting the machine? Sounds crazy but this has worked in the past when we get an error we can't figure out.

StarSign - yes I've hit the emergency stop but unfortunately it did not cure the issue .... I've went on to "hit" every other part too, but that's from pure frustration rather than technical prowess

 

[chadorama]

When I send a job the router behaves exactly as if the spindle is running - no errors.
In fact once I start the job the display changes on the inverter and if someone hits the local/remote button on the inverter and the hits run the spindle will run and the job will complete as normal - except that the spindle keeps running after the job ends

Your problem is not in the spindle cabinet, it's in the black control box for the machine. Seems to me the signal between the spindle controller and motor is just fine but the control box is not telling the spindle controller when to turn on and off. The control cabinet is still recognizing the spindle as functioning. It's a bad card or connection in the big black box or the connection between black box and spindle box. When you turn on the black box, does it give you the same "beep... beep... bee-da-beep" as usual or is it different? Take the lid off of the black box and look at the led's. green led is good, red typically shows a malfunction. I have the full blown service manual if you need it.

 

[David Donaldson]

Your problem is not in the spindle cabinet, it's in the black control box for the machine. Seems to me the signal between the spindle controller and motor is just fine but the control box is not telling the spindle controller when to turn on and off. The control cabinet is still recognizing the spindle as functioning. It's a bad card or connection in the big black box or the connection between black box and spindle box. When you turn on the black box, does it give you the same "beep... beep... bee-da-beep" as usual or is it different? Take the lid off of the black box and look at the led's. green led is good, red typically shows a malfunction. I have the full blown service manual if you need it.

Thanks Chadorama - All is locked up here for the night now, but I'll check out the LED's and the beeps in the morning - to be honest I never noticed if the beeps were different or not. I'll could meter the serial lead but don't have a diagram for it - do you know if its just straight thru wiring? I'll update on LED's and beeps tomorrow . Thanks again

 

[David Donaldson]

Your problem is not in the spindle cabinet, it's in the black control box for the machine. Seems to me the signal between the spindle controller and motor is just fine but the control box is not telling the spindle controller when to turn on and off. The control cabinet is still recognizing the spindle as functioning. It's a bad card or connection in the big black box or the connection between black box and spindle box. When you turn on the black box, does it give you the same "beep... beep... bee-da-beep" as usual or is it different? Take the lid off of the black box and look at the led's. green led is good, red typically shows a malfunction. I have the full blown service manual if you need it.

So I've just checked out the LED's +24V, +15V, -15V and +5v are all lit green. The green LED's for SPIN#1 and SPIN#2 do not light at all. The two red ones (Amp Fault and Emgcy Sw Fault) are both off although the Red Amp Fault one lights for a second or two during start up. Start up beeping was different when I tried a few startups but seems mostly to be Beeeeeep ... beeep...beeep..........beep.beep.beep. Not sure what any of this means