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AXBB-E Controller
« on: February 25, 2020, 05:49:39 AM »
I have purchased an AXBB-E ethernet controller to use with Mach3 and I cant get it to connect.
Has anyone used one of these and could they provide some assistance.
I have tried to setup as per the manual but no luck.

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #1 on: February 25, 2020, 07:35:10 AM »
I doubt there are many here using the AXBB-E with Mach3 so asking the same question on the CNC Drive forum may produce results.  http://forum.cncdrive.com/viewforum.php?f=22
PEACE
Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #2 on: July 03, 2023, 02:14:33 AM »
I'm going to leave this here for anyone else who has this problem. I've just spent half a day getting my AXBB-E to talk to Mach3. I am using Windows10, and the "AXBB-E Network" never showed up in the network properties page. I wound up setting it up manually. I could break the process down into several stages:

1. Basic networking.

The first thing to do is to make sure that you have your PC and the AXBB-E on the same ethernet subnet. If they are not, the two simply will not be able to talk to each other. The AXBB-E uses the 10.10.10.x subnet by default, the default address for the AXBB-E is 10.10.10.11 and the suggested address for your PC is 10.10.10.10.

To set this up in Windows10, go to "start>network and internet>ethernet" and select "change adapter options". A "Network Connections" window should pop up, showing your ethernet port adapters. right click on the adapter that you are using to talk to the AXBB and select "properties". Now select Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and click "properties". Click "Use the following IP Address", then enter "10.10.10.10" in the "IP Address" field and "255.255.255.0" in the "Subnet mask" field. Now click "OK" and then "Close".

NOTE: This will also usually disconnect you from the internet. To change it back, select "Obtain an IP Address automatically" in the TCP/IPv4 properties window.

Note also that, because Microsoft keeps changing the menu structures, this approach will differ in different versions of Windows, and even between different flavours of Windows 10. The important bit is to find the NETWORK ADAPTER PROPERTIES requestor. If you navigate to "start>network and internet>ethernet" and click on "unidentified network"(could have a different name). You will get to a page with "metered connection" and an "IP Settings" button. THE IP SETTINGS ON THIS PAGE DO NOT WORK!!! Select "Change adapter options" from the "Ethernet" page.


To check that you have network access to the AXBB, open a command line interface (click in the search bar of the start menu and type "cmd" then select the "Command Prompt" app) and type "ping 10.10.10.11" (without the quotes) and press enter. If all went well, you will see something like the following:

Pinging 10.10.10.11 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 10.10.10.11: Bytes=32 Time<1ms TTL=100
Reply from 10.10.10.11: Bytes=32 Time<1ms TTL=100
Reply from 10.10.10.11: Bytes=32 Time<1ms TTL=100

Type ^C to exit, you will then see some ping statistics. If you don't see the replies, and instead see "user interface unavailable" or "destination host unreachable", check that the IP address is correct and that all the cables are plugged in properly.

2. install the AXBB-E plug-ins for MAch3

If you haven't done so already, get a copy of UCx00Setup.exe from the CNCDrive website. Now run the utility. This will install the plug-ins for Mach3. When the window opens, select the appropriate plugin set (Mach3 in this case, Obviously you would select Mach4 if you are using Mach4). In the next window, you might want to uncheck all the options except the one for the AXBB and AXBB-E, then click "Start Installation"

3. Use "UCxx Utility" to confirm that the AXBB-E is communicating
When you run UCx00Setup.exe, it will create the plugin for Mach3 as well as "UCxx_utility.exe" (NOTE THAT THE NAME of this file has THREE x's in it, not 2. The forum software blanks out three x's in a row 'cause it thinks I'm talking about smut!!!) in C:\Mach3\Plugins\CNCDrive_Util. Use the file browser to navigate to this directory and run "UC*********_Utility.exe" (See what I mean?). Click "Scan" to search the local network for CNC controllers. You should see something like "AXBB Serial: CA197D  IP:10.10.10.11". At this point, the AXBB is visible on the network. Click on "AXBB Serial ..." in the listing and click "Test Connection". If all goes well you should get a test result window saying that the settings and connection are OK. If you don't see the AXBB listed, wait about 30 seconds and click "Scan" again.

NOTE: You can use this utility to set the IP address of the AXBB-E to suit your network. Unless you know what you are doing, it's probably best to leave this alone. I don't at this point know whether the DHCP Enable option enables a DHCP client or a server. I suspect it's a client, which means that the AXBB will obtain its address automatically if it is connected to a router that acts as a DHCP server.

4. Connect to the AXBB-E with Mach3

This is the exciting bit (hopefully). If you have managed to get the other bits working, it should now be a simple matter of running Mach3 and configuring the AXBB. When Mach3 starts up, you should see a window titled "Motion Control Hardware Plugin sensed!!". Click "OK". You may also receive a notification that the firmware is out of date ("different") with an offer to update it. If you receive an error that the AXBB plugin is defective and Mach3 is "ignoreing" it, try deleting and re-installing the plugin.

To delete the plugins, use the file browser to navigate to  C:\Mach3\Plugins and delete the plugin files (e.g AXBB V1_000.DLL). Then run UCx00Setup again.

So, that's as far as I have got so far. I've also set the PC up with remote desktop so that I can access it remotely. this allows me to have the control PC running mach3 next to the machine and access it via a long ethernet cable from a more sensible location such as a desk with a chair. I hope this helps. If anyone has suggestions, I'm happy to hear (see?) them
« Last Edit: July 03, 2023, 02:18:25 AM by Mrwole »

Offline Tweakie.CNC

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Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #3 on: July 03, 2023, 02:20:40 AM »
Excellent write-up Mrwole, thank you for sharing this information.

Tweakie.
PEACE
Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #4 on: July 03, 2023, 02:39:17 AM »
Now I have to figure out how to set up the ports. I might report back here when I have it going.
Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #5 on: December 01, 2023, 02:51:39 PM »
I just purchased an AXBB-E to replace a dead controller. I have  followed Mrwole's instructions and everything seems to check out but every time I start Mach3, the plugin is disabled. I go to Config Plugins and enable it, but when I close and re-open Mach3, it is disabled again.

Anyone have any thoughts as to why it will not remain enabled?


Thanks in advance for any insight.
Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #6 on: December 01, 2023, 03:39:10 PM »
Actually, Mach3 never did the "Motion Control Hardware Plugin sensed" bit. The plugin shows up in the list disabled. I can click to enable it and the check mark stays there until I close and re-open Mach3, and it's disabled (red "x") again.

I'm guessing that means Mach3 is not recognizing the .dll for some reason??
Re: AXBB-E Controller
« Reply #7 on: December 01, 2023, 04:07:03 PM »
Disregard. I was clicking on the shortcut I had created to the profile I originally setup for Mach3 and not the Mach3 Loader.