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Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Tue 22 Aug, 2017 6:44 pm
by Darren123
Hi all - just wondering if any Gunnar F1 had control box issues. This is the second control box to give problems - First one had to be replaced at a cost of £2,000 just out of warrantee a few months. Now no power to the motors but control box fan working.

Contacted Sarah but was told that there is no more support for the F1 so basically anybody that has a parallel connecting Gunnar now has an obsolete model with no spare support from gunnar. I think this is crazy as they cost the price of a car and to drop support on a machine that is marketed in our industry as a lifetime investment is beyond belief.

Feedback would be interesting.

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 23 Aug, 2017 9:48 am
by GUNNAR
Darren I think you are giving the Forum some very misleading information. We exchanged your controller in April 2008 which suggests that it is not just a few months outside of warranty and is now no longer repairable as the parts are not available. We do have updated USB controllers available for the F1 however
At no point did I mention that support for the F1 was no longer available - this is completely untrue.
Regards

Sarah/Gunnar

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 23 Aug, 2017 2:27 pm
by Darren123
Hi Sarah,

My point was not to mislead anybody but to inform the forum of my issue. First of all I will say I never had an issue with you as your customer care is second to none and your an asset to Gunnar I think everybody here will agree - Its with Gunnar's hardware support that has suddenly come to light.

As you informed me no spare parts are no longer available for this 2008 parallel-connected control box - non-USB?

If so the facts are if a certain model has no access to spare parts it is obsolete. Most companies hold 20 years spare parts for specialist expensive machinery - 10 at least. USB was rolled out in 1996 - so all control boxes in 2008 should have has USB either way.

Regardless I'm still left with a machine that doesn't work - out of production and loosing revenue for the second time and the current control box no matter how small the issue - could be a blown connection now needs a brand new control box at the price of £3,000 because Gunnar do not make parts for that model's control box any more - even though we have invested a considerable amount of money in your product and company reputation?

Surely Gunnar has some repair crew in the UK or has arranged some outside support for fixing these control boxes?

So just to get it clear in case I misunderstood - Gunnar are no longer holding spare parts for the control box on the 2008 F1 model or possibly any other model in your line up that is not USB? And they have not put in place any third party repair crew that can do minor electrical repairs?

Darren

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 23 Aug, 2017 5:00 pm
by Ed209
This company reconditions circuit boards and other components I use them for replacement circuit boards for boilers and they are rebuilt to a better standard than the original.
Although it says heating spares I'm sure they would consider other components on a exchange basis if there was a sufficient amount to warranted the research to replace the common faulty complainants https://ignite-heating-spares.myshopify.com/

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 23 Aug, 2017 6:50 pm
by Darren123
Thanks for the tip - though hoping Gunnar will suggest a company that can help - Lets wait and see!

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 23 Aug, 2017 9:15 pm
by Not your average framer
Hi Darren,

I'm a ex-electronic and mechanical design engineer and while I symphasise with your problem and in no way want to take sides, I think it might be relevent to mention that the earlier USB ports could not handle the same through put of data that the later USB series 2 ports can handle. Up until USB series 2 the old fashioned paralell ports were not only faster than the original USB ports, but the onboard bus controlers for the later computers have faster CPU access as well.

I very strongly suspect that switching to USB before USB series 2 may have been a major technical problem, leading to slower perforance than the paralell port. I would not have been surprised, if they needed to wait until USB series 2 was in general use and even then there would have been the necessary development time and long term testing of the prototypes before committing to production and launching to the market.

Unfortunately as the volume demand for older electronic components falls, eventually production of certain component will become no longer economic to produce and there is no longer any availability for those components at a viable price. Sorry, but this is the price of progress in this day and age.

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Thu 24 Aug, 2017 10:15 am
by GUNNAR
Darren, I did ask you to check a few things and come back to me which you have not done. Instead you have chosen to post this thread on the Forum.

Mark, thank you for your very informed response, I don’t feel I have anything to add to that

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Thu 24 Aug, 2017 1:34 pm
by Darren123
Mark thanks for your response. I have other CNC machines here still using a parallel connection but USB to our computers - its a simple conversion lead software driven.

But for a note USB-2 was rolled out in 2000 and USB-3 in 2008

Anyway thanks for your input

Re: Gunnar F1 issues - now an obsolete model

Posted: Wed 27 Sep, 2017 7:38 pm
by newframe
Hi Darren
I'm just reading your thread again and wondering how did you fair with the broken controller did you manage to get it repaired?
Regard's C