Mach4 and AXBB-E ethernet

[group4man]

Hi folks,
I have my Semco mill running on the AXBB-E driving x y and z, I am generating the Gcode from Mach4. All works well apart from .... I get occasions when the machine stops responding and mach4 keeps counting through the lines of Gcode, but the link between my laptop and the AXBB-E is active (blue light on). I then have to stop the code running on mach4 and reset, the machine then starts running again.
Today after 3 successful times running reasonably large Gcode files we had a random stop. This stop can be immediate or can be after some time. When the stop occurs we seem to have a little step (very small step) away from zero. I am lost !!


Any thoughts and help would be appreciated !!

Nige

[group4man]

Running windows 10 on a dell xps 15 laptop ...

[Robertspark]

how are you powering the axbbe?

do you have two separate / individual power supplies, one at 5v and one at 24v?

what is the amperage of the 5v power supply?

is it a direct ethernet connection or via a router?

I have gigabit Ethernet ports on my fanless pc (and router) and set their baud to a static baud of 100mb/s because if I leave them on auto I have had connection issues, could it be something such as this?

[Robertspark]

Running windows 10 on a dell xps 15 laptop ...

.... it may be your laptop....

I just did a search and I guess there are a lot of XPS 15 dell models but the ethernet is listed as via a usb dell adapter....

I think you need a dedicated ethernet port as usb normally has power saving and bus sharing functions that can possibly drop the ethernet connection.... this doesn't matter much with a data connection viewing pages of info or transferring files but with CNC you need a stable connection so the buffer can send data from the pc to motion controller regularly without loss of data

[group4man]

how are you powering the axbbe?

do you have two separate / individual power supplies, one at 5v and one at 24v?

what is the amperage of the 5v power supply?

is it a direct ethernet connection or via a router?

I have gigabit Ethernet ports on my fanless pc (and router) and set their baud to a static baud of 100mb/s because if I leave them on auto I have had connection issues, could it be something such as this?

I have two power supplies 5v and 24v
5v 2amp

its a direct connection but through a usbc to ethernet connection. I have tried a usb3 to ethernet with similar results. I do wonder if this is part of the problem ! but the connection does no drop. Windows 10 I find to be a nightmare, i will try and find the baud rate settings.

[group4man]

Running windows 10 on a dell xps 15 laptop ...

.... it may be your laptop....

I just did a search and I guess there are a lot of XPS 15 dell models but the ethernet is listed as via a usb dell adapter....

I think you need a dedicated ethernet port as usb normally has power saving and bus sharing functions that can possibly drop the ethernet connection.... this doesn't matter much with a data connection viewing pages of info or transferring files but with CNC you need a stable connection so the buffer can send data from the pc to motion controller regularly without loss of data

I did wonder about the lack of dedicated ethernet ! But was hoping to bury my head in the fact that It wouldnt be a problem. Do you think it would drop the connection if this was the case ?
I have tried the usb3 to ethrnet and a usbc to ethernet I did wonder if it was another program interrupting but if i turn everything off and run in airplane mode i still get the stops, although a little less frequently

Thoughts

[Robertspark]

sorry cannot help.

I have read that it is not recommended to use a usb > ethernet adapter.

I always recommend that the CNC machine should be a dedicated pc with just the basic OS, and the CNC application and some simple apps to change things locally if required.

I use a fanless pc with ssds without antivirus, offline and periodically connect it to the web to update software such as uccnc, sheetcam, estlcam, inkscape and gimp, windows etc.

the CNC pc does not have to be that powerful as all the important work is done in the motion controller.... so something second hand would be fine from an office clearout etc.

I have other laptops and surface pro tablets in the house for design and net surfing.

I also periodically take a backup of the SSD (it has two in the fanless case) incase I did have an issue I could reclone the drive and be back up and running with a known working setup in minutes no drama should a drive fail or have a virus issue.

[group4man]

sorry cannot help.

I have read that it is not recommended to use a usb > ethernet adapter.

I always recommend that the CNC machine should be a dedicated pc with just the basic OS, and the CNC application and some simple apps to change things locally if required.

I use a fanless pc with ssds without antivirus, offline and periodically connect it to the web to update software such as uccnc, sheetcam, estlcam, inkscape and gimp, windows etc.

the CNC pc does not have to be that powerful as all the important work is done in the motion controller.... so something second hand would be fine from an office clearout etc.

I have other laptops and surface pro tablets in the house for design and net surfing.

I also periodically take a backup of the SSD (it has two in the fanless case) incase I did have an issue I could reclone the drive and be back up and running with a known working setup in minutes no drama should a drive fail or have a virus issue.

Just dusted off my old lenovo laptop formatted and installed software ! no connection to the net and dedicated to the mill !! Fingers crossed ............. just have to get a licence for it from newfangled ......

[group4man]

Gents

many many thanks for your input ! We seem to have cured the stops so far with the dedicated computer !! Only thing is ....
Mach 4 wont remember pin settings for the emergency stop, motion inhibit etc...
Must be a version issue with something ... Any ideas ?

Cheers in advance

[Robertspark]

I may be that you need to run Mach4 with Administrator privilages so that it can save the profile settings (it may work).... then again it may not....

via start / windows icon go down to mach4 and right mouse button click on Mach4GUI and select "other" and run as administrator and it should hopefully sort its self out.