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Author Topic: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......  (Read 1131 times)

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am ready to pull my hair out...(If I had any) I am totally inexperienced and need anyone to help me get out if the gate. Bought a 6040Z 4 axis machine that was supposedly USB and not parallel port.  Came with an adapter (apparently not a UC100) and drivers for the software (pirated Mach3, I'm sure). I installed everything and got it to actually work with that but decided to get a legit UC100 and legit software from Artsoft. Spoke to support and they advised what I needed , so I purchased everything suggested. Installed the hobby version (will be buying the license as soon as I can get this going) along with the UC100 adapter. At first the UC100 software would not load correctly, but I think finally did. Used the cryptic online instructions for setup, but don't think I am doing something correctly. Can't get anything to move and in some setup screens can't change anything. If there is a benevolent soul out there that would be willing to handhold me to get this running, I would be very grateful. I know I need to learn a lot.
Thanks for reading this.
Tim
Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #1 on: December 29, 2020, 03:04:39 AM »
Hi,
this post is best on the Mach4 General Discussion board, I have no doubt that Tweakie will shift it there in due course.

In order for the UC100 to run Mach4 you must use the CNCDrive supplied Mach4 plugin. Is that what you have used? It will
be in the form of two files, one ended .m4pw and the other ended .sig. Have you installed them in Mach4Hobby/Plugins folder?

You then need to open Machs Control Plugin and enable the newly installed UC100 plugin. Restart Mach.

Now you need to set the UC100 as the active motion control device. Restart Mach.

You should now be in a position to open the UC100 plugin and start populating it. As I use an Ethernet SmoothStepper my
experience will differ from yours.

One last question: Are you 100% sure that the UC100 that you have is a genuine CNCDrive UC100? There are dozens
of cheaper Chinese knock-offs on Ebay and Amazon and they won't work with Mach4, in fact they're not that good with
Mach3 either.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #2 on: December 29, 2020, 11:11:32 AM »
Thanks for the response Craig. I purchased this UC100 from CNC4PC directly, so it is authentic. I did get an error message when installing the software blocking it, but thought I had resolved it. To be sure, I turned my firewall off and re-installed the program from them. I now have the following:
a. Both lights are on in the motion controller adapter. (did not have that until I re-installed this morning)
b. The UC100 shows up in all the drop downs.
c. The drop downs all recognize the UC100 now.
d. The drop downs say the controller is working properly.
e. the UC100 is identified as the controller

In the UC100 diagnostic "Pin States" drop down, I cannot change anything. It shows #13 in red, which in the set up shows blank. I cannot change anything in this screen. All the others I was able to make changes per instructions.

I am trying to get the machine to respond to jogs, but nothing works. When I turn on VPD the spindle rotates, but nothing else moves. (the water is also turned on)

I can't figure out what I am not doing. The big problem is I don't know what I don't know, if that makes sense to you.

Do you think I should clean out the download and start over, or is there a fix I need to know.
I really appreciate any help you can give me.
Thanks,
Tim

Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #3 on: December 29, 2020, 01:23:14 PM »
Hi,
As I posted earlier I'm not able to help with the UC100 set-up as I have an Ethernet SmoothStepper.

I would guess that the #13 that is red is an Estop.......and the Estop precludes you from doing anything else.
Can you identify from the manual the significance of #13?

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #4 on: December 29, 2020, 03:56:58 PM »
Craig,
I wish there was a manual. No paperwork, instruction, or manuals provided. Trying the best I can to piece together youtube videos and internet searches to get me started. Guess that will teach me to buy USA, but in the meantime, I have $1k invested in this machine plus software and accessories. I realize thats not much for the seasoned professional but I am a hobbyist and woodworker with limited funds. Going into this pretty blind, so lots of dumb questions. Would like to insure that the machine will work with the MACH4 program, but frustration levels are getting higher with each minute it doesn't.
I did uninstall the software for Mach 4 and the UC100 and reinstalled it. Same result.
Would it be possible to ask someone to provide me with their set-up information so I can try to duplicate a proven set up?
Going to keep searching for answers and hopefully run across a manual for the 6040z being set up with a UC100  controller.
Thanks for the response.
Tim
Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #5 on: December 30, 2020, 01:09:30 AM »
Hi,
try the CNCDrive website.

How much assistance you'll get is debatable. CNCDrive are the manufacturers of UCCNC software, almost a direct competitor to Mach4.
It is highly likely that you'll get little assistance, specially if they have UCCNC customers to attend.

I'm sure that if you posted on the Mach4 General Discussion board you will find users that have had success with the UC100 and Mach4.

I personally use an Ethernet SmoothStepper, and is much preferred over a UC100. Firstly the manufacturer (Warp9TD) is committed to Mach4,
it has three parallel port equivalents of IO (51 IO's) vs the UC100 one port equivalent (17 IO's), is Ethernet connected for less latency and
greater noise immunity, and the Mach4 plugin is very much more complete, things like realtime THC, single point lathe threading, backlash comp
all of which the UC100 misses out on.

The UC100 is well regarded and widely used for Mach3. It maybe you could sell it to a Mach3 user and then get something a bit more useful for Mach4.
It might be unpalatable but is still probably the least fuss way to maximize the investment you've already committed to.

Craig
'I enjoy sex at 73.....I live at 71 so its not too far to walk.'
Re: Just installed Mach4 V2 in conjunction with a UC100 controller and......
« Reply #6 on: December 30, 2020, 08:37:11 PM »
Craig, Just a note to say everything is now working correctly and the machine is completely set up. I paid for the help from Machsupport and it was worth every penny. It took a while and Rob made numerous changes and now everything is working fine. I would have never recognized or had the ability to see what needed changed to enable this. Apparently not all machines like I purchased are identical and some have different programming which makes it difficult if not impossible for a novice to figure out.
Thank you for your input and responses. I'll be playing with this for a while, so I'm sure I'll be posting more dumb questions.
Thanks again,
Tim