Unable to get Tormach controller to recognize USB WIFI

[RogerC58]

Pathpilot has been upgraded to 1.9.7. I have it properly set up in ADMIN NETWORK. I have tried all the USB ports. Nothing happens--no blinking lights, no network connection. To confirm the WIFI itself was fine I tried it in my Windows PC and it works just fine.

And yes, it is the USB wifi from Tormach.

Suggestions anyone?

Thx!
Roger

This is on a Series 3 PCNC 1100

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[scott216]

I have the USB WiFi from Tormach and it worked for me, but not consistently, so I just hard wired the ethernet connection. I've seen instances with other things where the wifi router would make a difference. Do you have another wifi router you can try as a test? How about making your phone a wifi hotspot? Those may not be permanent solutions, but if it works, it points to an issue between the WiFi USB and router.

[RogerC58]

Thanks for the response! I have tried two WIFI routers with the same results. I get a message in Pathpilot when I plug or unplug the WIFI USB, but the LEDs on it do not seem to blink. It's like the OS knows it's been plugged in, but doesn't seem to care!

I understand Tormach's need to "lock" things down. I am a programmer and my worst enemy is a user ;-) (but it would be hard to make a living without them). They will ALWAYS find a way to mess things up! On the other hand, it would be nice to be able to look at a "device manager" or SOMETHING to see what's going on when I plug it in.

[RogerC58]

I have determined that the USB WIFI device is an RTL8188EU. I determined this information by plugging it into my Windows PC and checking the device manager. When I plug it into the Tormach controller, it recognizes it was plugged in, but it never completes whatever it needs to do. From the terminal, I can type iwconfig and there will be no wifi devices configured. It also appears that the Tormach controller is running UBUNTU 10.4 LTS. If anyone has any suggestions on what I can try next, I would really appreciate it.

[jeffrey001]

I have the USB WiFi from Tormach and it worked for me, but not consistently, so I just hard wired the ethernet connection. I've seen instances with other things where the wifi router would make a difference. Do you have another wifi router you can try as a test? How about making your phone a wifi hotspot? Those may not be permanent solutions, but if it works, it points to an issue between the WiFi USB and router.

That' what I did, use an old router and plug each computer to the router.

Work great.

Jeff

[CountrySmith]

The motherboard ethernet hardware in my Tormach controller failed some time ago so I added an ethernet card. When I upgraded to PathPilot, I had to give up the ethernet card. I purchased an Edimax USB WiFi adapter and installed it directly from Gnome rather than going through PathPilot with no problems.

R J

[mjoconr]

Generally most wifi devices under USB require firmware, so how to work out what file you need.
After placing the devices in the type 'dmesg' and it should give out a filename from there you wlll need to find it. Post the file name and I might be able to help.

Mike

[RogerC58]

Thank you for all the responses!

I have been working with Tormach on this and they have concluded that *some* of their wifi adapters do not play nice with OS. They have found some that work and some that don't. They are sending me a replacement that has been tested and worked.

mjoconr--I will try your suggestion and post the results.

Roger

[RogerC58]

[mjoconr]

After plugging in the wifi adapter and entering dmesg in a terminal window, the lines pertaining to the adapter are:

usb 2-1.1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 1
usb 2-1.1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice

That's it. iwconfig shows no wireless devices. ifconfig shows the wired LAN. The replacement adapter is supposed to be here tomorrow.

[RogerC58]

The replacement USB WIFI adapter from Tormach worked immediately upon installation.

[mjoconr]

So the unit was detected but Linux could not identify it as a wifi radio, sounds like it was faulty.

[Fenichel]

I just installed a 34705 USB Networking Adapter, and I am having a problem that may be the same as the one discussed a few months ago in this thread.
The Adapter blinks when it is plugged in to the Tormach controller, and it similarly blinks when it is plugged into either of my Windows machines. On the Windows machines, it is identified properly in the Device Manager.
The Tormach Controller BIOS has its network stack enabled. The mill is not especially far from my wireless router, and (for what it's worth) a 9-year-old laptop next to the mill has no trouble connecting to the LAN.
My home LAN is unsecured, so all I entered into the PP Network Connections page was the LAN's SSID. I left the Mode at "infrastructure" and the MTU at "Automatic". I left "Available to all users" unchecked. PP didn't complain when I clicked Apply.
Notwithstanding all of that, the PP folders are not visible in Windows, and the Map Network Drive protocol fails.
The Networking Adapter came with a DVD of drivers. Tormach doesn't mention this DVD, but is it in fact important to load something from the DVD into the controller before expecting networking of the mill to work?