Reply with QuoteReally this question better ask to manufacturer.
CO2 Laser with Leetro 6515 - Software problems
Software Dll does not match Firmware.
I posted this earlier and could be in the wrong place on this forum:
http://www.cnczone.com/forums/showthread.php?p=784346
So copy / paste here with some editing & corrections:
We purchased a CO2 100 watt 1.3m x 1.3m laser from Jinan Maohong Industry and Trade Co., Ltd., www.jxsycnc.com. This 1313 size is not shown on their website and they do seem to have many other sizes not listed as well. As with others in statements here, the machine hardware is okay. And again with others getting it set up in concerns of the software has NOT been easy.
It has: Leetro MPC6515 controller. Cooler is CW3000. Software LaserCut 5.3
After many loops we have been able to get the laser to test and then thus focus the lenses. Problem we have now is again with software and matching to the controller firmware. Using the file Mpc05Ver+M05.exe the report is:
Software dll version is: 4.1.2.2
Firmware version is: 4.2.1.0
Has anyone faced this problem & have answers to fix this Dll version problem?
I have tried searching up and down in Leetro and other sites but cannot find the correct dll file.
This site does have many files for Leetro and Laser software:
www.scottware.net
Makes it further a huge CSI being the name of files is not clear as to what version it is. The download files on the Leetro site is only in the Chinese site and are not on the English version site. I did use google to translate - but that only helps for the some of the pages and not for finding the correct files. The supplier does answer but replies do not get the problem solved.
Latest advice fix they sent shows to re-install LaserCut 5.3 and copy all the dll files - but this still does not work. BTW the email answer showing the LaserCut menu files are all labeled in Chinese. Ouch !!
Getting these lasers up and running in relation to the software - with what I read here - is a very widespread problem. And one of bit by bit getting it figured out as of bad manuals. I notice in other manuals (I downloaded many from other mfg's) that there are some parts that have further info but then as well not having info that is in others. So it seems a person has to look at many manuals and conglomerate info. Further it seems most problems are common across the many manufacturers. So it seems a generic well laid out but simple step by step manual would be of great help to many to overcome the lacking in all the currently badly written manuals. I would give it a shot but for sure would it would need a group force to ensure it hits and covers all the main points and kept as KISS as possible.
Anyway a fairly long post and hope somebody can answer the version problem. And onwards of how to get clarity for others with making a KISS manual.
What Scottware does is provides the PC with software already set up for the machine. I reckon this is the way to go. This whole bag of problems is (mostly) avoided being it is loaded and tested to function as a complete package. So - my suggestion to any newbies - - get the PC with the machine. Whatever extra money spent will be more than worth it.
Cheers, Dave Crocketman
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Really this question better ask to manufacturer.
I have as said already contacted the mfg but answers back are not giving me the correct info and with any explanation of dll files - and of course simply just sending me the correct dll file. LaserCut 5.3 has many dll files for the versions and I am guessing thus backwards compatible - but problem here is not backward - rather we need a newer dll as the firmware is new.
Anyhow - I notice as well:
LinkMotion and Leetro 6515 CO2 laser controller
http://www.solustan.com/linkmotion_and_leetro.php
Has anyone tried this ??
I would buy it being I know it really works well with the Leetro 6515, and no more banging a tamborine while dancing magic rings around the laser and hoping it works after dozens more emails with the mfg.
I have experience that you can get working combination of firmware and dll only from manufacturerMy suggestion is offer small amount of money for fast resolving of problem to service engineer, and you will be surprised how quickly everything will be done
Do some searching here for a contributor called "mononeuron" or something close to that. I seem to recall he had used the Link Motion or was waiting on the new version. That was at least a year back, maybe more so my memory is a bit hazy.Originally Posted by crocketman
Dave
Yup. I bought Linkmotion for my laser which uses the Leetro 6515. After many emails to and fro,finally got it working.
It installs as a print driver so you can 'print' from any application, e.g. Corel Draw.
There is at least one 'gotcha' - it will only do raster OR vector, so for some jobs you need to send two files to the laser to complete the job - unlike LaserCut which can do both in one file.
I was promised a free upgrade when this capability was (soon to be) added to Linkmotion - and heard nothing since (Jan '09)
These days, I hardly ever use it - it's just too much hassle having to go through hoops to complete a job.
Bob
Leetro and Linkmotion
Hi guys,
I apologize for the long reply in advance but I have a lot to talk about.
I bought my "Upgrade" last year about Nov-Dec and had some issues with the install and setting up the table.
The install is a bit different to the software only Linkmotion setup and you need to find the steps per "millimeter" for each axis and the size of each axis in pulses ( i.e 76,000 pulses to move 32 inches etc.) then type in the software the actual size of the table in inches. It's a very convoluted way to do things and it would be so much easier if they just wrote a small program to move the axis a certain amount and then measure the travel and input the correction. Just like the Mach3 software has. Dead simple.
But no, they don't do that, so you need to count how many pulses for 1 complete turn of the motor and measure how far it travels then divide that by the number of pulses etc, etc. very inelegant.
You need to set up the "INI" file to your specific machine and it is covered relatively well in the documentation then click on "initialize" in the Laser tab of the software. This is probably the most important part of the set up.
Some of the terminology is a bit confusing too as it may say "laser on" in the docs but it really means "laser diode (red pointer) on". I misread this to be the 30 watt laser on connector and it took me a while to find out it wasn't.
I haven't had any problems with the Vector cutting at all and it runs pretty sweet.....but that wasn't why I bought the upgrade as vector cutting was always good with Linkmotion.
I bought it for the increased speed for Bitmap/Raster engraving and I must say the improvements are really outstanding. If I run it at the fastest speed I am game to run it at (12 ips ) I shake the table to pieces. I limit it to 8 ips for the tables sake :-)
I wasn't able to process a file over 9" in size and after NUMEROUS emails to tech support I found out that I have to create a transparent background for the file as Linkmotion doesn't do "white" very well. I have asked them heaps of times how to do this but they still haven't told me how. Must be a trade secret and, also, it isn't in any of the CorelDraw X4 help files either.
I have 4 Gig of RAM so memory isn't a problem but I still get a VB script error if I go over 9" in size.
Solustan sent me a converted bitmap file (one of mine) and I was able to process it up to 16" and after that the program would crash again.
Email from Solustan was non existent over the Xmas period when I really needed help from them due to a back log of jobs for Xmas presents and I ended up canceling all jobs for the laser....about $1500 worth at that time.
My emails continued for the next few months with no reply until in around April they finally mailed me and said they weren't helping me because I hadn't set up my INI file properly and couldn't help until I had that sorted out. Previously I hadn't been able to get the red pointer to work or the air assist and they said they were in contact with the Leetro tech support and would get back to me. I have those working now and I had them wired incorrectly. Stupid me or poorly written manual. (Probably the former)
I went back to the laser and painstakingly set up all the settings again. A couple were out but it wasn't by much and was only on the size of the table. Something like 76000 instead of 69942. This really doesn't make much difference unless you use all of the available space on the table for 1 job.
Last month they sent me an upgrade with "Many" improvements but none that would make me give up my right hand for.
At this stage I still can't produce an engraving over 9" unless I find out how to erase the background to transparency . Any one know how to do this????
Please let me know.
Last time I used my rotary attachment I processed a raster file and sent it to the Leetro (printed). Then I pressed start and the laser head wobbled about 2mm wide and finished the 2.75 inch wide job in about 1/4 inch (squashed up together) I moved to another spot on the job and pressed start again and it engraved about 2.5 inches wide. Close to the 2.75 I had drawn. I moved yet again to another spot and pressed print again and it engraved about 3 inches wide. All this without reprocessing the job again. There is a fault in there somewhere that I have not been able to track down and Solustan say it is My INI problem. I have sent this INI to them numerous times with no feedback on what is wrong.
If I set my engraving speed to under 3 ips the laser head oscillates about 1/16" wide all the way to the bottom of the job then returns to the home (0,0) position. Anything over 3 ips is ok. I need to engrave mirrors at 2.8 ips for them to turn out good so I have to set my engrave speed to 6 ips and set the Leetro controller to 50% speed for it to work. Inelegant solution but it does work.
There is no readout of the location of where the laser head is unlike the software only solution and I find this very annoying. If I engrave something and then want to place a name or something 1.2 inches away I have to set it with a rule. A minor bugbear but one I really liked with the old system.
My setup is nothing fancy and I only have a computer connected to the Leetro and then to the Gecko drives.
Am I happy with the system. Simple, NO!
Am I happy with the support. No! They used to be REALLY good but alas, now this isn't so for me. I think I have become a pain to them.
A few weeks ago I bought the Leetro system from Lightobject.com with the Chinese software that will do vector and raster in the same job file. This will be a tremendous benefit for what I do.
I had it all wired up and almost finished when I received a reply from Solustan with their upgrade so I put the Linkmotion controller back in for testing. At this time I haven't reinstalled the Lightobject controller but I will in the next few weeks when time permits.
I hope I have shed some light on what really should be a very good system.
rich.
I am not completely useless.......I can always serve as a BAD example.
Leetro and Linkmotion.
Thanks for posting all the information Rich.
I have heard a similar story so many times now that I get the feeling that many of the Chinese based companies (or companies relying on Chinese origin parts) refuse to accept that their software may have bugs and refuse to take a structured approach to rectifying any problems that may arise. It seems that if they don't know the answer they just ignore the problem (and the customer).
Tweakie.
CNC is only limited by our imagination.
Leetro and LinkMotion
Hi guys. I am in the same boat as crocketman and would appreciate your advice if anyone has found a solution.
I have a Shenhui SH-G460 laser which I am trying to retro-fit with a Leetro MPC6515 card specifically so I can run the laser using Solustan LinkMotion as a printer driver.
I get the message "DLL VERSION DOES NOT MATCH F/W VERSION" on the Leetro MPC6515 control pad when I try to start the SETUP file sent from LinkMotion after pressing the INITIALISE button on the LinkMotion Laser Control tab. I understand this setup file contains the configuration settings from the LinkMotion INI file.
The MPC6515 has v4123 firmware. The DLLs mpc05ls.dll and CommM05.dll that came with LinkMotion are v4.2.1.0.
My attempts to fix the problem have of course centered on trying to find a versions of firmware and DLLs that will work together.
Andy Liu at Leetro kindly sent me v4120 and v4220 DLLs. I copied these in turn over the top of the original DLLs supplied with LinkMotion but neither of these versions will establish comms or send the set up file to the Leetro board. Unfortunately I have not been able to manage to get Andy to send me other versions of firmware also and I still only have v4123 firmware. The Leetro Chinese website also has only v4123 firmware available for download.
By the way Andy Liu is adamant that the MPC6515 should only be used with LaserCut5.3 and has tried to discourage me from trying to use it with LinkMotion.
Regarding LinkMotion, I have contacted Solustan support and also Dhiren Shah directly requesting assistance but no help has been received. I also have asked for a licence key for LinkMotion but have not received this either. The only reponse I have received was from Dhiren indicating he was in transit at the airport and would get back to me but this hasn't happened. Needless to say I am extremely unimpressed with Solustan's support at this point.
If anyone can send me other versions of MPC6515 firmware (apart from v4123 which I have) I would be very keen to try them.
Thanks, Andrew.
Have you run the 'Mpc05Ver+M05' file (or whatever the latest version is) yet?
It should be in the same folder as your LaserCut files. Have the laser on and reset before running the program and it will check the dll versions on both the computer and the laser (and in doing so, check the connection betwixt the two as well)
That doesn't surprise me either - I spent a lot of time (and dollars!) getting Linkmotion to work, many emails back and forth... once it was printing out usable files to the laser Solustan didn't want to know me anymore.
Dhiren also promised me a free upgrade when they produced a version that would do raster and vector in the same file (something the Chinese LaserCut has had from day one). This promise was made in January of 09 - I'm still waiting....
Bob
G'day Bob. In my LaserCut53 folder I have the following executables:
Lasercut53.exe
MPC6535 check.exe
IOCheck.exe
Mpc05Ver+M05.exe
I can run "MPC6535 check.exe" but get error messages when I try to run "Mpc05ver_M05.exe" or "IOCheck.exe". I suspect these last two are actually meant to be called by "MPC6535 check.exe" rather than be run directly.
Anyway, running "MPC6535 check.exe" shows me the DLL version and firmware versions - both show v4.1.2.3.
Funny thing is that when I look at version numbers of all DLLs in the LaserCut53 folder using Windows properties, none of the DLLs has a version number of 4.1.2.3.
In fact Windows reports that mpc05ls.dll is v4.1.2.2 and CommM05.dll is v4.1.2.0 (these DLLs are the ones that are also meant to go in the LinkMotion Leetro folder).
So I'm stuffed if I can work out how "MPC6535 check.exe" is coming up with 4.1.2.3 when Windows properties does not give that version number on any DLL in the LaserCut53 folder. I guess Leetro use a different mechanism to store the DLL version number than that used by Windows.
I have tried copying the so-called v4.1.2.3 DLLs into my LinkMotion's Leetro folder but with this version I completely lose the ability to transfer the SETUP file which I can at least do with the original v4.2.1.0 DLLs that came with my copy of LinkMotion.
Regards
Andrew
Dll versions
I'll probably have to bail out at this point I'm afraid, as I am using version 5.0 not 5.3.
I've never managed to get IOCheck to work either! Maybe it's for the older MPC3 (or whatever it was)
Bob
Andrew- I am having the same issue- DLL is 4.2.1.5 and Firmware is 4.1.2.3 though I have not had any luck getting anyone to respond back. Is there any way you might send over those other DLL's so I could try them out with my setup. I am running the MPC6515 with LaserCut5.3 I get an "open motion card" error when opening LaserCut 5.3 and so far as I can tell there is no connection between the laser and my control computer.
When I purchased the laser it was working, and there is a test file loaded in the laser(from this demonstration). I have everything setup, but when I run the file I have no beam. The laser will trace the job but the lack of beam is a bit concerning as well since I saw the laser work before I purchased and now nothing.
Still troubleshooting...........
Update~! Spent much time this morning working with my laser and voila Got the laser to cut the test program today. Ecstatic that I was able to get it going/make sure its working.
Now if I can just sort out this DLL problem so I can upload the files I want to cut....
hi look in the right above corner of the program lasercut 5.3
change it eg to engrave and try/save on usb again
in my version it was set to very low power
Curious- I dont believe that is the issue as I have gotten the laser to "cut" properly. I think the root of my issues are now related to DLL/firmware issues.
Andrew- Any way you could email the 4.1.2.3 DLL file your using over this way? I have that version of the firmware and would be much obliged.
As for updates...I found (unsubstantiated) evidence that the Lasercut5.1 program is supposed to work with the Leetra6515 controller and that the higher (Lasercut5.3) versions of the program are intended for use with other (Leetra6535) control cards. This flys directly in a post in this specific thread about using version 5.3 exclusively with the 6515 controller. Can anyone verify working with Lasercut5.3 with an older 6515 control card?
I downgraded from the 5.3 software to the 5.1 software and got rid of my "open motion card" error. Seemingly positive I was also able to hit the datum button in my lasercut5.1 program and have the laser respond. I was also able to delete the test file I had on the laser and input another test file from the computer. Overjoyed I hit the "test" button to see if the laser would trace the file and no dice. I got a "Dll version does not match firmware version" message on the laser display this time.So close but so very far away........
Does everyone run their laser from a computer that has a "softdog" in it? I believe that the softdog is the thumb drive that is used to transfer files to the control card? Right now I am running with the thumb drive in the computer but if I remove the thumb drive I get an error message. Funny thing is that I can not access the thumb drive on my computer and it does not show as a drive in explorer. Any thoughts on this anomaly?
So now back to my endless hunt for somewhere I can download, or someone who has working and compatible DLL and firmware versions.
I use LaserCut 5.3 with a Leetro 6515. The machine came configured that way and it works just fine. I had to put the application into XP compatibility mode to make it run on Windows7.
Softdog is a dongle. It has no other use but to protect you from copying the software. The Softdog will only work with the version of LaserCut that it came with. Softdog for 5.3 LaserCut will likely not work with LaserCut 5.1!
You have two ways of getting your machine to cut. Either you get LaserCut to connect to you machine and transfer the MOL files that it generates, or you copy the MOL file onto a memory stick (not the Softdog!) and plug that into your machine. The controller should then download the MOL form the stick.
However, everything needs to be the same version: firmware, dll's, Softdog, and LaserCut. It will not work otherwise.
So that makes some sense- the thumb drive is the dongle for the software?
Doesn't really explain why I got the 5.1 software to work (to some extent) with the the machine and could not get the 5.3 software to work at all. I was able to hit "datum" in the 5.1 version and have the laser move, as well as delete the file that was on the machine and import a new file.
I do understand that the versions of the DLL and firmware need to be the same, which is my main problem. Is there anyone (company or otherwise) that supplies the files needed to make them all the same? IE is there someone out there who I can purchase the Firmware, DLL, Softdog, and Lasercut5.3 as a bundle?
I know that you can run the MPC program in the Lasercut folder to determine the DLL and Firmware versions- how about a program that determines what the version of the Softdog is?
It's not a thumb drive. It's a dongle. It may be shaped like a drive, but it's not.
The manufacturer changes the protocol between versions without worrying about back compatibility. So maybe the Home function was not changed, but some other vital functions were. There is also a huge difference between the USB protocol that controls left, right, home, etc., and the MOL files that do the actual engraving. Those are likely to be incompatible between versions.
The company that sold you the Leetro controller should be able to provide you with the software. Or you can contact the people who sell the software in China. I received my software with the machine, knowing very well that I may never be able to upgrade... .
I don't know. Usually the Dongle would come in the same box with the software CD.
Ok, so is the dongle what you would use if you did not have a USB cable running directly to the control card to transfer cutting files? Or is that a different thumb drive and a separate thing all together?
I was reading that you can transfer files onto a USB thumb drive (updated DLLs or files to be cut) then take that thumb drive and put it in the USB port on the control card, at which time the indicator light blinks, yada yada we've all read the PDF manual. All they stated was that the USB card be formatted to a specific format(FAT16? cant remember) but that you could download files this way if your computer was not connected directly to the cutter. Any experience with this- and or with updating your firmware/dll's in this manner?
This makes sense.
Problem with that is I am the second owner and am trying to set up my own control computer because the guy that had it before me would not sell the control computer with the laser. So now I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. I have no direct connection with a company in China to resolve, and cant get much from the person I purchased from.
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