Trouble with new Install with Bladerunner and Mach 3

[edclayton1]

Hi,
Today I finally got my new homebuilt table wired up and installed Mach 3 on a Win 7 computer.
The install seemed to go fine, but when I run Mach 3 I get a message about multiple ESS (smooth steppers avail) and it doesn't seem to want to configure correctly. Then a second error message pops up wanting me to give mach 3 the IP address for the smooth stepper I am trying to connect with. I am confused by what to type in to make mach 3 happy. I do not have a parallel port on this computer and only one NIC card with no wireless. Control panel all looks happy with my NIC and my CNC hub?? Please help.

Thanks,
Ed

[edclayton1]

Update: well I got through this challenge and got my machine to start moving. It seems this software really works best with parallel ports than the Ethernet smooth stepper as far as I can tell. I noticed in the manual from CandCNC that it addresses the errors I was encountering. It suggests that my firewall might be turned on or that my NIC is not working correctly. I did verify that my firewall was off as described in the training video on YouTube that CandCNC produced. And I new the NIC was functioning because first of all I downloaded the Windows Updates on this machine using that port after I built the new computer and installed Win 7.
Also I verified that my USB 485 lights and activity lights on the Bladerunner box were alive and well.
Finally I put in the IP address of 10.9.9.9 into the pop up dialog box and it seemed to move forward and tell me I managed to build a new XML config file. Then it asked if I wanted to use the default settings. I said sure as I had no idea what I should choose to do from there. Other than a few weird messages about Estop the machine finally started to allow me to jog in all three axis. Then I noticed the machine does not seem to want to home and I promptly discovered that my home switches don't seem to be functioning at this point. So that will be my next question. Stay tuned...
Cheers

[acourtjester]

Mine homes fine but will not back away from the switches the distance I entered in Mach but enough so the switch was not tripped. Since I don't home but use Y & X zero dro when positioning to cut no big deal.

[WyoGreen]

Ed,

I run the same setup as you are setting up. It is very important to follow the CandCNC manuals. One of the steps is to set the IP address, and a test to ping the address to ensure things are talking. You have to jump around a little, and use a little gut instinct as to what to do and what to skip, but it's all in there. Once things are set up, the Ethernet setup works without a hitch. The only problems I've had with my Ethernet setup are of my own doing.

Good luck on the rest of your project, Steve

[edclayton1]

Ed,

I run the same setup as you are setting up. It is very important to follow the CandCNC manuals. One of the steps is to set the IP address, and a test to ping the address to ensure things are talking. You have to jump around a little, and use a little gut instinct as to what to do and what to skip, but it's all in there. Once things are set up, the Ethernet setup works without a hitch. The only problems I've had with my Ethernet setup are of my own doing.

Good luck on the rest of your project, Steve

Thanks Steve,
You are absolutely right on point. One of my problems is jumping around the internet too much reading about Mach 3 and then trying to apply it all to my bladerunner product I think. Luke was kind enough to straighten me out on some of the things I was doing wrong. I was running the program off the wrong icon on my desktop for one thing. That solved my whole IP issue immediately. Then after reading my blade runner manual again I realized that even with ethercut system you are not supposed to be running it on the WIN 7 64 bit. So I double checked my Windows and sure enough I was on Win64 not Win 7 32 bit. (It seemed to be working though). So an evening later I got that corrected. Then after that I installed the correct CandCNC products and nothing but the correct choices from the menu, (again thanks to Luke for CandCNC for enlightening me on the error of my ways).
After repeatedly reading the bladerunner manual over and over again and talking with people about all this I think more and more of it is starting to make some sense. I think I might be beginning to understand how the tables provided explain how the old parallel port numbers translate into ESS port numbers, if I ever even really need to know that info???
The good new is that I have 3 axis motion and I managed to adjust my Z axis settings last night and see the Z axis movement speed up and slow down as I made the tweeks. Hopefully tonight I can get a chance to get out the tape measure and get the X & Y Axis movements calibrated. I was kind of scared off of it at first but after reading the manual and looking at my spec.'s for my component's (Velox Z axis and CNCRouterparts.com's Pro grade rack and pinion drives and racks) I soon realized that the spec.'s pretty much match up to exactly the formula numbers given in the bladerunner manual examples so that really makes it much simpler. Math never really was my strong suit.
Cheers,
Ed

[edclayton1]

Mine homes fine but will not back away from the switches the distance I entered in Mach but enough so the switch was not tripped. Since I don't home but use Y & X zero dro when positioning to cut no big deal.

After thinking about this and that wiring diagram you showed me, do you suppose its because you didn't wire them separately like I did in the diagram I showed you. There supposed to be attached as separately wired units not in series according to the manual I have.
BTW, how do you make them back away to a distance you specify? I haven't discovered that option yet.

[acourtjester]

In Mach go to config tab scroll down to "homing and limits" then in home and limits there is a place for "home Off" put a value there for each axis to back off distance.

[vmax549]

I am NOT aware of any backoff setting in Mach3. There IS a home offset distance you can set BUT you also have to tell Mach3 to go to G30 it will NOT go there on its own.




(;-) TP

[edclayton1]

In Mach go to config tab scroll down to "homing and limits" then in home and limits there is a place for "home Off" put a value there for each axis to back off distance.

Acourtjester,
I see what you wrote about this topic and then a guy disagreed with you. Are you sure there is a "home off" value you can set? I would love to be able to set that if there is. My A axis (which is slaved with my Y axis) don't seem to always want to play nicely together. Sometimes when one of them try's to back off the switch like they should the other does not. I have tried to adjust this out of the machine by moving the micro switches back and forth but even if I get them to both make the switch at the precise time they don't seem to necessarily open back up at the exact same time or distance as the gantry attempts to back away from them slightly. Finally for now I just disabled the A axis for the time being in Mach 3 and disconnected it from the gear rack until I can figure out why its doing this. The Z and the X seem to make contact then back off a few thousands of an inch just as they should. Sometimes so does the Y, most of the time not.

[edclayton1]

I am NOT aware of any backoff setting in Mach3. There IS a home offset distance you can set BUT you also have to tell Mach3 to go to G30 it will NOT go there on its own.




(;-) TP

Any chance you could show me what that snippet of G-code would look like? Can I add it to the post processor file to automatically do it at the end of each file I process?

[acourtjester]

What I can tell you is in the past I used the home off column in homing and limits to enter a value for the axis to back away from the home switch. For some reason that I cannot figure out it does not work like that now. Right now when I hit ref X/Y it moves then to the home and backs off just enough to so the switch is not made (so no error) and it is ready to go. Another connected thing is the DROs do not zero out when the home is hit either which is should do

home.jpg

[edclayton1]

What I can tell you is in the past I used the home off column in homing and limits to enter a value for the axis to back away from the home switch. For some reason that I cannot figure out it does not work like that now. Right now when I hit ref X/Y it moves then to the home and backs off just enough to so the switch is not made (so no error) and it is ready to go. Another connected thing is the DROs do not zero out when the home is hit either which is should do

home.jpg

For the benefit of others here that may read this I tried making a few changes after you told me about this and it doesn't seem to do anything for my machine either. Maybe its a bug that needs repair? I will post those concerns on machsupport's forum and see what they say about those issues.