CNC Ethernet Controller Recommendations

[Johns tool room]

Are you hitting stop when the code is running or have you done a feedhold first?
Hood

Both. In the beginning I used to hit cycle stop in the middle of a program and that was an automatic out. When I hit first feedhold an then about 4 seconds later cycle stop it is a gamble. Eitrher which way, I think that is unacceptable. I hope that Hicon does not do that.

I mean, if you have to stop spindle and all right away, that is what you have to do, not concern yourself with if I hit that stop button will it go haywire? What would you do if you had to hit the brakes on your car and then the computer goes haywire and you have to restart everytime you had to stop?

[Hood]

I never hit the stop unless there is no motion at the time, so I can not say what would happen. If it is an emergency I hit my E-Stop, that is why I have an E-Stop.

I have no issues if I press Feedhold.

If I press feedhold then, after the axis motion has stopped, I press Stop to clear the buffer, I again have no issues at all.

Maybe there is a problem with the plugin you are using and it might be worth trying the first plugin like I suggested. Maybe there is an issue with your setup, seem to recall you have had issues from day 1 but cant remember if it was always with the ESS or with some other controller.

Hood

[Johns tool room]

You mean to say I should go back to a older plugin version. I have the latest in there right now. My other issues are encoders ( capacitive encoders) keeping poor count 5v single ended step and dir signals and a mis wired servo power supply putting out only 80 VAC. Now my main problem is getting a few orders done so I can just move on to better components. I just wanna know that Hicon won't be playing games lkike this with me. Now there is a possibility that I pressed feed hold and motion didn'nt stop so then I pressed cycle stop. So now I gotta ask, what is cycle stop for then?

[Hood]

I do not know whether the Hicon will work better for you or not, there are two reasons for me saying that.
1. I dont have the issues you speak of with USB SS or Ethernet SS
2. I have not tried the Hicon.

Now cycle stop, I know of Stop and that is probably what you are meaning. In Mach it will act in a similar manner to an E-Stop if you press whilst motion is progress but that is not its function. Its function, as far as I am aware, is to clear the buffer so you can start afresh. For example you hit feed hold, motion stops, you decide you dont want to continue but rather go back or forward then you press Stop and that clears the buffer. You can then use Run From Here to start from where you want or whatever you want it to do.

Hood

[Johns tool room]

Does anyone out there have the stop button Vbasic so configured that first it feed holds and then it stops? I don't see why mach didn't do that. Sometimes you just wanna stop in a non emergency manner without having the air dump and power cut off from all the components.
I used to work with complex packaging and assembly machines, when you hit e stop, prepare to have to home everything up and wait till everything gets pressured up and all is ready to go, but when you hit cycle stop, all you had to do afterwards was to hit start and all is up right away.

[phomann]

In Mach3 that's the functionality of the Feed Hold, so use that.

If you want a button labelled STOP to do a feed hold then, download screen designer and make your own screenset. The screenset contains the macro code foreach of the buttons.

Peter

[keebler303]

In Mach3 that's the functionality of the Feed Hold, so use that.

If you want a button labelled STOP to do a feed hold then, download screen designer and make your own screenset. The screenset contains the macro code foreach of the buttons.

Peter

Feedhold doesn't stop the spindle or coolant, as I'm sure you know, but you could probably do that with a bit of editing.

Matt

[ger21]

There is no macro for the standard Feedhold and Stop buttons, as they are internal Mach3 commands. It is possible, though, to create your own macro that calls those commands.

[Johns tool room]

Feedhold doesn't stop the spindle or coolant, as I'm sure you know, but you could probably do that with a bit of editing.

Matt

I take it that you just go into the V basic of teh feed hold button and add M5 and M9
I'd also like it to go to safe Z as per the safe Z setup config, but how do we command that?

[ger21]

I take it that you just go into the V basic of teh feed hold button and add M5 and M9
I'd also like it to go to safe Z as per the safe Z setup config, but how do we command that?

As my previous post said, there is no VB in the Feedhold button.

GoToSafeZ() will send the machine to SafeZ.

[Hood]

You can change the feedhold button to a VB button with a screen designer. When you open Mach you can then go to operator menu then select Edit Button Script. The Feedhold will be flashing, click it then enter your VB into the editor window.

Something like the following should work.

DoOemButton(1001)
While IsMoving()
Wend
GoToSafeZ()
While IsMoving()
Wend
Code("M5 M9")
DoOemButton(1003) 'this is if you want to actually clear the buffer, if not dont have this line

Hood


EDIT
Thinking about it you will have to stop after the feedhold or no code will execute, so try the following

DoOemButton(1001)
While IsMoving()
Wend
DoOemButton(1003)
GoToSafeZ()
While IsMoving()
Wend
Code("M5 M9")

[RCaffin]

Hood, you never had a problem hitting cycle stop in teh middle of a program on teh machine with the SS on it? I certainly do. after doing that, I have to shut everything down power it off wait a few secs and then power it back up.

I can't help feeling that the problem you describe is peculiar to YOUR machine only. I have never heard of anyone else with that problem, and certainly I do not experience it myself. I suggest that blaming the ESS may not be either accurate or useful.

Moving on...
You want an immediate stop without an Emergency Stop, similar to what you get on some automatic machines. But there are huge differences between PLC-driven automata and a CNC. For a start, the eStop system on a CNC is an EMERGENCY stop system. It does not and CANNOT do what you want.

Mach (and any other CNC system) is not a simple bunch of 'logic gates', like a PLC. The SW has several threads. One calculates what steps the system needs to take to meet the g-code orders. In the case of a stepper system, 'steps' is literal. This stream of micro-insructions is passed on to the output queue, which may include an external motion controller such as the ESS. The ESS gives orders to the servo drivers. (And that hides a huge swath of critical detail anyhow.) In the case of a non-stepper system, the servo drivers and motors will not be immediately consistent with the incoming microsteps: there will be a tiny delay. It's called 'follower error'. Some of this is due to inertia in the motors and carriages. Real world physics.

So when you hit feedHold, that instruction has to go through a fairly complex chain before it is done. At the least, the motors must be decelerated to a stop without the system losing track of where they are. You can restart a CNC after a feedhold and have it continue cutting accurately (sometimes). Doing that is HARD. On the other hand, a PLC system does not have any of those worries.

A CNC is a tool. It does certain things (very well). But you need to understand what it does before you can use it to best advantage.

Cheers

[Hood]

I can't help feeling that the problem you describe is peculiar to YOUR machine only. I have never heard of anyone else with that problem, and certainly I do not experience it myself. I suggest that blaming the ESS may not be either accurate or useful.

That is exactly my thoughts as well and is the reason I said

I do not know whether the Hicon will work better for you or not, there are two reasons for me saying that.
1. I dont have the issues you speak of with USB SS or Ethernet SS
2. I have not tried the Hicon.

Moving on...
You want an immediate stop without an Emergency Stop, similar to what you get on some automatic machines. But there are huge differences between PLC-driven automata and a CNC. For a start, the eStop system on a CNC is an EMERGENCY stop system. It does not and CANNOT do what you want.

Mach (and any other CNC system) is not a simple bunch of 'logic gates', like a PLC. The SW has several threads. One calculates what steps the system needs to take to meet the g-code orders. In the case of a stepper system, 'steps' is literal. This stream of micro-insructions is passed on to the output queue, which may include an external motion controller such as the ESS. The ESS gives orders to the servo drivers. (And that hides a huge swath of critical detail anyhow.) In the case of a non-stepper system, the servo drivers and motors will not be immediately consistent with the incoming microsteps: there will be a tiny delay. It's called 'follower error'. Some of this is due to inertia in the motors and carriages. Real world physics.

So when you hit feedHold, that instruction has to go through a fairly complex chain before it is done. At the least, the motors must be decelerated to a stop without the system losing track of where they are. You can restart a CNC after a feedhold and have it continue cutting accurately (sometimes). Doing that is HARD. On the other hand, a PLC system does not have any of those worries.

A CNC is a tool. It does certain things (very well). But you need to understand what it does before you can use it to best advantage.

Cheers

There is something else to take into consideration here, if using a controller that can update Mach as to the actual position then E-Stopping or hitting a limit will not have loss of position. Controllers such as the CSMIO/IP-A and probably the DSPMC and Hicon etc will be capable of keeping track of position at all times, even when drives are disabled and motors rotated manually and they will update Mach from the encoder positions so Mach always knows where it is.
That however does not mean it is a good thing to just press Stop or whack the E-Stop every time you want to halt, reason being the extra stresses that it will put on all components of your machine. Feedhold is still the best option and with Mach4 it is as instant as your motors decelleration, so really looking forward to it being released

But as previously mentioned I cant help thinking even if the OP chooses another controller there may still be issues as it seems more a system issue rather than a ESS issue, time will tell I suppose and I hope it gets resolved
Hood

[my-cnc]

There are Ethernet CNC controllers with CNC control software (for Linux,Embedded Linux(Raspberry Pi), Windows,Mac)-
ET1
ET3
ET5

[mrpackethead]

I have the ESS running very nicely. I even have it plugged into my workshops network, ( not dedicated network ) and it works flawlessly. Love something that works this well.

[huangmin]

hi

Hi,

I'm new to the forum, and am planning a couple of cnc projects - Does anyone have any recommendations for CNC Ethernet controllers ?

I'm prepared to consider other controllers, however would prefer not to have to rely on a dedicated pc and parralell port.

Cheers,
Brad.

[huangmin]

XHC company mach3 usb port card
add skype:huangmin120@hotmail.com

[RCaffin]

Concensus these days is that the USB connection can be far too noisy (for solid techie reasons).
Cheers
Roger

[asuratman]

I have the ESS running very nicely. I even have it plugged into my workshops network, ( not dedicated network ) and it works flawlessly. Love something that works this well.

What mach3 release do you use with your ESS? I have ESS running with mach3 R.066, it did not stable.

[ger21]

Try .062. That's the recommended version.