Gravograph IS6000 locking up!

Has ANYONE experienced this issue before?

I have a $10,000 job waiting on this IS6000. Today, when I went to start running the job, the engraver boots up fine and says "Ready to Receive" like normal.

However, as is typical, it wants to home to the origin before running any jobs. That's where the issue starts. It says "returning to origin" and then half way through the homing, it stops and locks up tighter than a bulls butt in fly time. I can't use any arrows to move the gantry or spindle. . . nothing. . . totally locked up.

I have rebooted the computer in hopes it would reinitialize something. . . no joy.
I shut down the controller and manually moved the spindle to the right an then booted up the controller. . . It said Ready to Receive and as soon as I hit the start button on the pendant, it said Back to Origin and got to the end of travel and locked up with the Back to Origin message on the readout.

I have looked for something that might be interfering with the travel and there is nothing.
I opened up both of the DB37 cable connectors to look for broken wires and nothing.

It worked great on Saturday and Sunday. I had the controller rebuilt by Gravograph for $675 about six years ago and it's been flawless up until today. (software sucks though, but always has.)
Gravograph typically doesn't want to help unless you have a maintenance contract, or are willing to pack up and ship everything back to Georgia.

I can't determine if I am having a controller issue or an engraver hardware issue. . . can't even tell if it's a limit switch issue because the machine documentation tells you ZERO about the components.
I put a cutter in and dropped it to the table to see where it was going for the Origin, and it's over traveled by .5 to .75 inch in the X direction. . . but then again, it never finishes the Homing function, so it's difficult to tell where it would have finally stopped.

Gravograph had an active LIVE HELP link that I clicked and got this message: "One of our representatives will be with you shortly. You are number 2 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 14 minute(s). Thank you for your patience." That was 50 minutes ago. . . no surprise there. I have threatened to torpedo their controller and software for years. . . because of poor support and outrageous prices for their proprietary crap. A replacement DB37 cable (which by the way only uses a 24 connector cable and leaves 13 pins empty. . . surprise!) costs $242.00 plus shipping!!! How they get and keep clients is beyond me.

The only remaining thing to do (other than calling Gravograph tomorrow) is to reinstall the software and dongle again. . . royal PITA to put it mildly!

Controller on it's way back to Gravograph in Georgia. Traced the pins on the DB37 cable and the all ohmed just fine. Did the same thing with the motor wires and the DB37 cable. Tech said it's most likely the motor controller on the motherboard.

So, it went out UPS 2nd day Air ($167.00) on Wednesday morning. . . scheduled to arrive this past Friday. . . Of course it didn't.

I have been following the controller package and see where UPS Portland returned the controller to the UPS Store claiming a Hazardous Materials Issue. The store claimed that I put a Hazmat Sticker on the box. . . which is a lie. We used a brand new virgin box with both addresses and several FRAGILE – HANDLE WITH CARE stickers. Then they changed their story and said “it had Lithium Ion Batteries in the box”. . . another lie. Then they said they shipped it right back out 2nd day air to be delivered on Tuesday. . . which contradicts their assertion it was labeled with Hazmat Stickers or had Lithium Ion Batteries!

I am in a shouting match with them at the moment, wanting to know how they could screw this shipment up so bad after shipping the identical controller 6-7 years earlier with no problems!!! I asked them to intercept the package and expedite the shipment to get there by Monday. . . My guess is they are still sitting on it and not shipping it until today or Monday. UPS doesn't show it in their system.

I just called the UPS Store and she said it went out on Friday. . . I asked why it isn't scanned into the UPS Tracking system as having been picked up. “I don’t know” was the answer. They said they would call the UPS Hub to locate the package, at which point I said “someone needs to bite the bullet and get that package to Georgia on Monday."

Still waiting to hear back on where the package is and what they are going to do. . . also waiting to hear back from the UPS Store franchise owner. It's been an hour and not a word.

You're having nothing but bad luck. Might be time to head to the coast for a week and get out of the heat. :D

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Jim Dawson

You're having nothing but bad luck. Might be time to head to the coast for a week and get out of the heat. :D

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Can't afford a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out of right now. . . which is the biggest reason we needed to get this controller to Georgia on Friday and back here on Wednesday, so we could invoice the $10K before end of next week. Now we will definitely miss the deadline and risk not only losing the job but eating all the materials. It's been 4 hours and no one has called saying they located the package. . . UPS still dopes not show it in their system, because it's NOT in their system!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dave's_Not_Here

Has ANYONE experienced this issue before?

I have a $10,000 job waiting on this IS6000. Today, when I went to start running the job, the engraver boots up fine and says "Ready to Receive" like normal.

However, as is typical, it wants to home to the origin before running any jobs. That's where the issue starts. It says "returning to origin" and then half way through the homing, it stops and locks up tighter than a bulls butt in fly time. I can't use any arrows to move the gantry or spindle. . . nothing. . . totally locked up.

I have rebooted the computer in hopes it would reinitialize something. . . no joy.
I shut down the controller and manually moved the spindle to the right an then booted up the controller. . . It said Ready to Receive and as soon as I hit the start button on the pendant, it said Back to Origin and got to the end of travel and locked up with the Back to Origin message on the readout.

I have looked for something that might be interfering with the travel and there is nothing.
I opened up both of the DB37 cable connectors to look for broken wires and nothing.

It worked great on Saturday and Sunday. I had the controller rebuilt by Gravograph for $675 about six years ago and it's been flawless up until today. (software sucks though, but always has.)
Gravograph typically doesn't want to help unless you have a maintenance contract, or are willing to pack up and ship everything back to Georgia.

I can't determine if I am having a controller issue or an engraver hardware issue. . . can't even tell if it's a limit switch issue because the machine documentation tells you ZERO about the components.
I put a cutter in and dropped it to the table to see where it was going for the Origin, and it's over traveled by .5 to .75 inch in the X direction. . . but then again, it never finishes the Homing function, so it's difficult to tell where it would have finally stopped.

Gravograph had an active LIVE HELP link that I clicked and got this message: "One of our representatives will be with you shortly. You are number 2 in the queue. Your wait time will be approximately 14 minute(s). Thank you for your patience." That was 50 minutes ago. . . no surprise there. I have threatened to torpedo their controller and software for years. . . because of poor support and outrageous prices for their proprietary crap. A replacement DB37 cable (which by the way only uses a 24 connector cable and leaves 13 pins empty. . . surprise!) costs $242.00 plus shipping!!! How they get and keep clients is beyond me.

The only remaining thing to do (other than calling Gravograph tomorrow) is to reinstall the software and dongle again. . . royal PITA to put it mildly!

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We're having what sounds like the exact same problem. I finally got through to Gravograph tech support and they "think" it sounds like the Z limit switch is the problem. So I could either pay $950 for them to come install it, or spend $15 to order it myself & try to figure out where to install it - guess which I chose LOL? Can anyone tell me anything about where the limit switches are located - specifically the Z switch if they're in different places? I didn't think it would be too difficult but I can't seem to find a starting point and there is NO documentation anywhere online, let alone on Gravograph's website or in their user manuals. And when I asked him the tech just laughed and said "we're not going to give you instructions, how could we make money that way?" !!

Thanks for any help!

P.S. Please post the results of replacing your controller when it finally arrives if it hasn't already. I hope UPS has straightened things out for you by now!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by lwclow

We're having what sounds like the exact same problem. I finally got through to Gravograph tech support and they "think" it sounds like the Z limit switch is the problem. So I could either pay $950 for them to come install it, or spend $15 to order it myself & try to figure out where to install it - guess which I chose LOL? Can anyone tell me anything about where the limit switches are located - specifically the Z switch if they're in different places? I didn't think it would be too difficult but I can't seem to find a starting point and there is NO documentation anywhere online, let alone on Gravograph's website or in their user manuals. And when I asked him the tech just laughed and said "we're not going to give you instructions, how could we make money that way?" !!

Thanks for any help!

P.S. Please post the results of replacing your controller when it finally arrives if it hasn't already. I hope UPS has straightened things out for you by now!

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UPDATE: Just in case anyone else has this issue - I was able to find & replace the Z Limit switch as instructed by tech support, but it made no difference. The machine still gets stuck in "Back to Origin" as soon as I hit an arrow button on the controller or try to send a job from the PC. Have you heard any news about your controller yet?

I got tech support on the phine. The Bro said it was a bad X Axis limit switch, so I ordered one 2 Day Air. Two days later, no limit switch. Called tech support again, and I got a different tech support guy, Tim Clark. Nice and knowledgeable.

He put me on hold and came back and said it didn't ship because of a card authorization issue. . . but it was deducted from my bank account! I am still waiting for Gravograph to put the money back where they found it!

Anyway, Tim wanted to know more about my problem. I broght him up to speed and he said, I don't think it's the limit switch. So we ohmed the DB37 cable and the x axis motor cable. All the wire connections were fine. He had me push the gantry when off and under power. He said it shouldn't move when pushed and under power, so it was determined to be the motor controller on the main control board. I sent it in and they repaired it in one day and sent it back. Everything is running fine. . . for now, but the Origin is off .25" in the X Axis and I can't seem to get the dang thing to accept the new settings when I follow Gravographs convoluted,asinine, instructions. So, I just set the left margin to 0.0 and get by with that for the time being.

Tim said they have been repairing blown X,Y,Z axis motor controllers for decades. I asked the repair tech for a detailed explanation of what exactly had to be repaired, and how, so I could try to prevent continued failures. He refuses to give me any specifics on what they fixed and how; essentially, holding me and my business hostage. They clearly know what the issues are and rather than make a one-time permanent repair, they get $325 every time we have to send them in. . . decade, after decade.

I have a friend who can build me a non-proprietary control box, turnkey, running LinuxCNC or MACH3. . . for under $300 with full USB COMM and better electronics. The biggest problem for me is finding a seamless way to run my Braille program that came with the proprietary Gravostyle 98 software. When running thousands of dollars of ADA Signs, having to translate the text in a standalone translator, then "cut and paste" into a second program to create the G-Code, then copy the G-Code into Linux or MACH3. . . one sign at a time. . . is unacceptable.

Our engravers run off of a printer driver, and our lasers do the same thing using CorelDraw. Duxbury has a translator that is integrated into most commercial engravers. The the engraver manufacturers do their black-box print-driver translation behind the scenes and we "print" to the engraver through the control box. I have yet to find a non-proprietary program that will let me enter text, translate to Grade II Braille and then print directly to the engraver. . . or just create the G-Code. . . either way would work. Even Duxbury said I would have to "cut and paste" using their $695 translator. So what we currently have in all commercial brand name engravers, is all the "cutting and pasting" is happening in the background with the engraver manufacturers proprietary software! Got you by the short and curlys and pulling hard!

If I can get my hands on that kind of solution, I will dump Gravotech like a bad habit and never look back. The first person who comes up with a generic, non-proprietary seamless integration of the Duxbury Translator into a print file using CorelDraw (or your program of choice - we cut all our parts in CorelDraw with the lasers, so moving the engraver over, puts ALL our equipment under one umbrella) . . . will make a small fortune and force the engraver manufacturers to take a serious look at their proprietary approach of charging people thousands of dollars just to "unlock" and "activate" their damn Braille Black Box. Because, if they continue down that path, anyone with a brand name engraver, can ditch the proprietary controller and software and go generic and LinuxCNC or MACH3. We just need a generic Black Box of our own. . .

Here I am two years later. . . and the Gravograph IS6000 Controller is on the fritz again.

It refused to boot up saying the Dongle wasn't present!
The lifetime Dongle warranty was voided because they conveniently no longer support that Dongle.
The replacement Dongle and Software runs another $1,700!

Replaced the Dongle and upgraded the software.
It randomly chooses to accept a file transfer or throw an error code.
It randomly resets the Port to one of its own choosing.
It randomly changes the "handshake" from Xon-Xoff to RTS/CTS.
It has a fan that is screaming from a bad bearing.

Gravograph Tech Support has zero idea what's wrong. The old guy on the phone, has a dog barking in the background and is completely helpless!

Suggestions:
Change the Parallel Cable to a USB with an adapter. NOPE! Won't even recognize the cable!
Change the DB9 Cable to USB with an Adapter. NOPE! Still a random works-doesn't work issue.
Send the Controller back again for another $350 repair that they refuse to document!
Replace the Controller main board for $2,500!
Replace the entire Controller for $3,500!

Replacement parts come from FRANCE! It's a minimum of a week for them to get the parts and another week before I see the parts.

The 2" fan is $42! It was supposed to ship on the 12th. It's now the 17th and they can't even show a tracing number.

I know that CADlink's Engrave Lab software has a Braille package. It runs $1,750. It also has to run through the Gravograph/New Hermes Control box! If I can somehow replace the Control Box and run the CADlink Engrave Lab, I'm home free!

Vision Engravers has an engraver built in America with a much better reputation but it's $15,000! If I could find an affordable engraver, I would convert the IS6000 to a 16x24 CNC Router.

I will be looking for a used engraver, a solution to the Gravograph Control Box or biting the bullet and replacing the current Controller with a new one.

Anyone with ideas that make sense, suggestions for a replacement Controller that will run Engrave Lab, or a line on a used engraver, is encouraged to respond!!

I have the same error, the problem is the cable that goes from the Machine to the control, one of the limit switch's cables was broken.