Hi ya'll!
I am the CNC operator on a Gerber Sabre 408 for a sign shop in Central New York. We are in our busiest season, with our main corporate client ordering about 8-10 die cut sintra signs a day. Unfortunately, we had a power failure last week that resulted in the logic board on the gerber controller getting fried. We've looked everywhere for replacements, and the soonest we can get one is two weeks away. So I have been charged with looking for solutions, and thats when I stumbled upon Mach 3, and this forum.
Using Mach 3 as a controller for this machine is about five different work arounds, I am aware. Several months ago, we began using Artspool from Artcam, to translate g-code for the Gerber, so that is one issue (sorta) solved, but I know there's many others I'm unaware of, so I was hoping some members of the community could help me out.
Now, I'm unfortunately not a big enough tech junkie (especially not with 1998 tech) to figure out some things, so here are the specs I know, thus far. Please let me know if i need to provide more information. Currently our Gerber is receiving files via a Windows XP desktop, via 9-pin serial port, but the station does have a DB25 in. The serial cable is coming out of the Sabre's db25 out, and has an adapter switching it to serial. I'm not entirely sure why they did this instead of just going db25 to db25. The db25 connector coming out of the Sabre's electrical tower itself, only has 3 pins in it, the 12, 11, and 7 pins, which I'm assuming are translating the data for the X, Y, and Z axis. (The Controller itself uses serial, and has five pins, which im guessing the other two are for E-stop and...?)
So here's my laundry list of questions, and I apologize if I'm coming off as a bit manic here:
Can the mach 3 be run on the Gerber Sabre, as is, without any new hardware installations?
Without having any breakout drives, what is the safest way to connect the Db25's?
Do I have to manually remove any pins on the db25's, or can I just 'tell' Mach 3 to ignore them?
How do I find out which pins I need, so that I can remove the others/Tell Mach 3 which pins go to what?
If i do get this system all up and running, does Mach 3 have table initialization capabilities?
Attached are the technical specs on my Gerber tower and wiring. Hopefully one of you amazing Samaritans can help me out here, in a time crunch. I have ordered a 25 ft db25 to db25 cord, in hopes that this may all work out.
Thank you folks!