Gerber Sabre orientation problem

[Barry Jenicek]

Hi There!

I am having a problem with my 408 router and was wondering if you have come across this problem before.

Any direction in helping to solve this would be greatly appreciated. Here are the particulars…


1. I turn on the router at the large black box that has all of the cables attached to it.
a. I hear the traditional “Double Beep” followed by a “Single Beep”.


2. At the black Control Unit, in the Display Window it has the following

ORIENTATION
A. Orientate System

3. Using the “Forward, Back, Left, Right buttons, I move the gantry close to the 0,0 mark

4. I then depress the “A” button and the gantry begins to automatically orientate itself to the 0,0 mark. The Display shows

STATUS
System: Orientating…


5. This message continues to display and does not go away. It seems to be waiting for the gantry to say to the Control Unit, “Okay, I’m at the 0,0 mark, now continue on”. I have let this message display for more than 30 minutes thinking that it might “catch up” with itself and will finally receive the signal to continue on, but no luck.


I can depress the RESET button and the display goes back to the first message…

ORIENTATION
A. Orientate System

At this point, I am able to depress the Right Button and the gantry will move approximately 1 inch…the same with the Back button, but that is far as it will move. The Left and Forward buttons do not do anything.

I then depress the “A” button and the gantry again automatically orientates itself to the 0,0 area but the message still shows

STATUS
System: Orientating…

I cleaned the X & Y Lead Screws because they showed some accumulation of grease at the Teflon sleeves but that did not help.

This is a Hardware problem and not a Software problem. Any Ideas???

One Other Thing. Is there any way I can manually move the Spindle along the X Axis? The Spindle is stuck at the 0,0 and does not leave me any room to work with.

Thanks
Bj

 

[packratsigns]

The Sabre 408 has limit switches.
You just have to jog the head over to the left and back towards home.
It will detect the home switch positions and automatically orient itself.
Maybe it's still looking for the limit switch ?


You can move the X axis by removing the cover on the right side.
See photo.
Or reach underneath and rotate grab the lead screw and turn it by hand.

 

[Barry Jenicek]

The Sabre 408 has limit switches.
You just have to jog the head over to the left and back towards home.
It will detect the home switch positions and automatically orient itself.
Maybe it's still looking for the limit switch ?


You can move the X axis by removing the cover on the right side.
See photo.
Or reach underneath and rotate grab the lead screw and turn it by hand.

View attachment 132354

Thanks PackRatSigns
I tried "Bumping" both the X & Y thinking the same thing, that it was still looking for a limit switch, but that did not work.

Thanks for the Heads-Up on how to manually move the x & y manually, that helped me try some other test. No solution yet but I'll keep ever one informed on my progress.

Anyone else have any ideas?

 

[Barry Jenicek]

Gerber Sabre orientation problem --RESOLVED--​

Well, this one if for the books!

But before I begin, here is something you might like to know.

Rather than grabbing the Lead Screw and turning by hand really does not work because the Screw is too slippery to grasp. You can simply push the Gantry (Y Axis) and physically move it backward…the same for the Spindle Housing (X Axis).

During many of my test, I tried to physically move each axis but, I did not push aggressively enough. I was afraid I would mess up something if I pushed too hard. I found out that one must be “Man-Mountain-Dean” to move the Gantry or the Spindle Housing. What I am saying is, you can push each of the axis using a lot of muscle and you will not hurt anything…and, they will move.

If pushing really hard is a problem for you, PackRatSigns told us about removing the cover on the right side of the gantry to gain access to the step motor and rotate it by hand. (That was the least strenuous way to do it) Same for the Y Axis Lead Screw but you have to crawl under the table and do it there.

So, after speaking with the Gerber Rep, here is what I found out.

Nothing was physically wrong with the Router itself, it was a problem of sequencing! There are limit switches on each of the 3 axes. When you begin the Orientation Process, the software MUST detect the Z axis limit FIRST before the X & Y limits are found. Try finding that in the Gerber Manual

Here is what I had done wrong. During my last shut-down, I had left the X & Y position near the 0,0 mark WITH the Z axis halfway down to its bottom of travel. When I powered-up the next day, I pressed the “A” button to begin the automatic orientation process. The software detected either the X or Y axis Limit BEFORE it detected the Z limit! That was the problem.

The software MUST detect the Z axis limit BEFORE detecting the X or Y Limits.​

So fellow routers, be sure to “Z UP” your spindle BEFORE SHUTTING DOWN!!!

Thanks go to PackRatSigns for their input and for taking the time to remove the plate and taking a picture of the step motor for all to see, and a special thanks goes to the Gerber Tech Rep who helped me get around my problem. She knew right away that it was a Z Axis problem and then had me perform a few test to narrow down the problem.

Cheers
Barry

 

[fastsigns306]

Hello all...I know that this is an old 2018 posting...BUT...I've got an error when Orienting the system and its a Z-axis error just as Barry describes. I am not sure of the position at shut-down as it was one of my guys that shut down the system, so not sure if the shut down was the causes. However, this is a completely repeatable error. The question I have for Barry is...HOW did you fix the issue once it was out of sync? Help would be very much appreciated...thx! **gsl

 

[Barry Jenicek]

Hello all...I know that this is an old 2018 posting...BUT...I've got an error when Orienting the system and its a Z-axis error just as Barry describes. I am not sure of the position at shut-down as it was one of my guys that shut down the system, so not sure if the shut down was the causes. However, this is a completely repeatable error. The question I have for Barry is...HOW did you fix the issue once it was out of sync? Help would be very much appreciated...thx! **gsl

Hi FastSigns...

As I remember it, my Spindle (X & Y) was right near the 0,0 mark and the Z axes was about half way down its length of travel. (up and down)

Since the software expects to find the Z axis limit switch first, I needed to move the spindle to its top of travel. All I needed to do is remove the square reddish cover just above the spindle (You'll need a small "Star" bit to do so) and then physically rotate the gears. Doing this, brought the z axis all the way to the top of its travel and the software was able to find it first.

Hope this helps.

REMEMBER: ALWAYS "Z Up" before shitting down.

Barry

 

[fastsigns306]

Thx Barry, I appreciate your response! I will try your instructions and see if it solves our issue. best rgrds, **gsl