Tweakie.

Thank you Greg! The SS and ESS were great with Mach3. Just can't wait to see how the ESS does with Mach4!

Dan

This is great news to stumble over.

Can anyone confirm that the beta plugin works with Windows XP (pro 32 bit) and also Win7 (pro 64 bit)

Also, can ESS run thru an Ethernet switch i.e. on a live network either with Mach3 or Mach4?

There was an incompatibility mentioned where using the Mach4 plug-in prevented subsequent use with Mach3. Has this been fixed?



 

Mach 4 will work on XP on up. You could run an ESS through a switch but that would NOT be a good idea, you want a connection directly from PC to ESS. Having it on a general network opens you up to a lot of other possible problems which is not what you want with motion control. There is no Mach3/Mach4 incompatibility with the ESS you will want to power cycle the board before switching Mach versions so it will load the correct bits from the correct plug-in.

Also wjem switching from MAch4 back to Mach3, make sure that the process has not hung up while quitting. If it does, you will receive an odd error message about the boot loader having a wrong checksum. Once you force the hung process to quit, then it's back to loading correctly. there are still input pins not working as expected. I would not call thus plugin an beta. more like an alpha.

Interesting comments. I will throw a bit more detail in here in case anyone else is or has headed down the same path and may have some tips or ideas to share.

Two or more devices on Ethernet is essentially a network. The ESS is (I am presuming) a popular motion controller for MACH, so the port of my 4th axis motor controller to Ethernet must be compatible. That makes three Ethernet devices in the 'network', hence a switch.

Modern computers can bridge internally so all you need is a second NIC to avoid the switch, and that is the only configuration where I would consider having any other Ethernet traffic for the PC to process. However, I am hoping the ESS address is configurable. My controller is somewhat similar to ESS in that it communicates with MACH thru a software interface to exchange data, but the step/dir signals are generated in dedicated on-board hardware. Fortunately, my controller does not have to deal with positioning, so there is no buffer, and in MACH4 the scan thru Ethernet Modbus is pretty quick . .  to say the least.

In the sandbox will go the Motion controller's buffer, GB Ethernet speed, my controller hitting the Ethernet Modbus at less than 100hz with tiny packets. It won't take long to know if these kids are going to play nice together. Pappabear has the bit packing figured out, if I recall correctly, (I am not following this stuff closely) and as usual, has generously shared that information, so I can study that if needed and significantly reduce the volume of data passed to the controller.  

The last snafu on my end was that the controller's processor stores params in non volatile memory and the new DUE board has none, but I have that problem solved so all of the puzzle pieces are in place. I have purchased MACH4 and I want the ESS and hopefully also the PDMX (426, I think it is) both in house before I start porting over to MACH4. The PDMX thread has gone quiet and Kflop does not seem to have any priority assigned to MACH4 so I may start with just the ESS when my schedule allows.

Jeff, thanks for the quick response and answers.

I will be purchasing from you and I recommend you as the preferred ESS source. Price is not an issue as your expertise and willingness to share it is beyond any reasonable expectation for a product at this price point . . . . .  in my opinion. It is also encouraging that the developer is participating in the forum as well.





  

Also wjem switching from MAch4 back to Mach3, make sure that the process has not hung up while quitting. If it does, you will receive an odd error message about the boot loader having a wrong checksum. Once you force the hung process to quit, then it's back to loading correctly. there are still input pins not working as expected. I would not call thus plugin an beta. more like an alpha.

Thanks! This may be the issue I was remembering reading about.

How do you kill a process on the ESS?

For now, I am not concerned about the condition of the plug-in, so long as the Ethernet part is working so that I can test compatibility. I may use the board under MACH3 to control the Z axis of a surface grinder, just to get some 'face time' with the product, but that would be the only practical use at this point. 

ESS has enjoyed good reviews from its inception from people who's opinions I trust, so I have no hesitation to assign it to a task under Mach3, except that if the surface grinder has work to do when I get time to work on the development on Mach4, I would then need another ESS to plug into my development machine.

It's mach4 that get's stuck for some reason if the ESS config is not correct. Just a matter of starting up task mgr and killing the running wxmach I think it was that was still running in the background.

You can configure the IP address of the ESS, there is a special 'configurator' program for that. Having a small, isolated network that the ESS and a few other devices is on is OK. What I don't like to see is someone trying to stick it on their home/business network as that just opens the door for a lot problems.

HI,
Mach4 is crashing on me while I am trying to configure the ESS. I am doing as greg wrote on the downloads page on his website.

Im running windows XP with decent hardware. No firewalls/antivirus active. No internet connection.

0. Assigned a static IP address at 10.9.9.1 and Subnet mask 255.255.255.0
1. Placed the 2 plugin files on the plugin folder
2. Upon starting up mach4 I dont get the dialog box asking about the ESS.. So, I conclude that mach didn't see the ESS board.  Vague instructions... should the ess board be powered up and cat5 cable connected? Id assume so.
3. There are no dialogs poping up asking me about the ESS.
4. I go into the Configure menu>Select Motion Device>uncheck simulation and check ESS and OK out of it.
5. I go into Configure>Plugins set the given static IP, and hit ok and m4 crashes.

I will keep trying, just want to bring the attention to people that the interface is not polished and that there are hicups, definitely not fool proof.. Also I get M4 doing other weird stuff, but I suppose it is being worked on and should be much
better in a year or two..

regards,c