[ny_racer_xxx]

I am trying to set up a CNC using one of these NOVUSUN Ethernet controllers. I can't seem to figure out how to get it to work with MACH3. Everythign is attached to home network same range of IP. I confirmed the NOVUSUN is on the network by logging into my router and checking its IP. I select the NOVUSUN profile when starting MACH3 but it still doesn't seem to work. Any help, or ideas?

TNX Jim

I haven't set up a usb controller yet, but is there a plugin that Mach3 needs so it knows to send the commands there and not the parallel port?

[w7owc]

yep, I have that plugin installed. Do I need to provide 5 volts to the enable pins of the stepper drivers? It does not show this the NVEM wiring.

[RODCNC1147]

Hi mate
email me on [email protected] , I will send you the rar file for nvem if you want it

[miky4u2]

Hi mate
email me on [email protected] , I will send you the rar file for nvem if you want it

Towoomba ? i'm on the GC :-) You have a running CNC with the NVEM board ?

Miky

[thehose]

Towoomba ? i'm on the GC :-) You have a running CNC with the NVEM board ?

Miky

Towoomba is right... (must be an Aussie thing? :-)))) this new dll does put out the correct status message, still though it does not put the message every time I start Mach3, but not too worried about that.

While I still don't have a CNC running on Mach3/NVEM, I hope to be there by next weekend. At least now I know the board communicates with Mach3 and that the e-stop switch works; Not much but it's something. I still have a bit of a learning curve on Mach3.

I really appreciate you guys helping me get this thing off the ground; I will be monitoring this thread, posting back as soon as I get the motors moving and the system somewhat tuned up.

Miky I would love to stay in touch with you (and Rod) on this subject and compare notes as we move along.

[miky4u2]

A follow up ...

After fiddling more with Mach3/NVEM , below are the following issues that i have , most probably Driver related.

- Soft limits unusable, they attach themselves to work coordinates instead of machine ones. Although I have seen them work correctly once but the problem appeared after restarting Mach3 (Probably driver related)
- Hitting Soft Limits cause the Axis to stop working completely, Mach3 to crash on exit, most of the time requiring power cycling the NVEM. (probably Driver related)
- Slow Zone not working (probably driver)
- 'Limits Overide" not working (probably driver)
- Cant use a switch as both home and Limit , directly related to the above as it requires the limits override. Homing is still possible by setting the switches as "Home" only ,
- Z-Moves un-usable (probably driver related)

So far that's it for now might be more later. Apart from the above, it seems usable.
Still interested to know if other NVEM users are having the same issues or others .. and if you found some fixes or work arounds.

Cheers

Miky

[thehose]

A follow up ...

After fiddling more with Mach3/NVEM , below are the following issues that i have , most probably Driver related.

- Soft limits unusable, they attach themselves to work coordinates instead of machine ones. Although I have seen them work correctly once but the problem appeared after restarting Mach3 (Probably driver related)
- Hitting Soft Limits cause the Axis to stop working completely, Mach3 to crash on exit, most of the time requiring power cycling the NVEM. (probably Driver related)
- Slow Zone not working (probably driver)
- 'Limits Overide" not working (probably driver)
- Cant use a switch as both home and Limit , directly related to the above as it requires the limits override. Homing is still possible by setting the switches as "Home" only ,
- Z-Moves un-usable (probably driver related)

So far that's it for now might be more later. Apart from the above, it seems usable.
Still interested to know if other NVEM users are having the same issues or others .. and if you found some fixes or work arounds.

Cheers

Miky

Still waiting for my motor controllers, so other than the e-stop test I'm going on faith.But after seeing all the issues you are having with this device and the complete lack of mfg support (typical for China) now I'm thinking of returning this BoB. Still have a couple of weeks to decide.

[thehose]

A follow up ...
- Hitting Soft Limits cause the Axis to stop working completely, Mach3 to crash on exit, most of the time requiring power cycling the NVEM. (probably Driver related)

Miky, I remember (while looking at Mach3 videos on Youtube) something relating to Soft Limits exceeded making Mach3 crash (blue screen of death) unless you (????) within a certain (short) period of time. I wish I could remember what the ???? was that you are supposed to do. So this may not be attributable to the driver. If I come across that again, I'll post it here.

PS: Just got my motor drivers in the mail.

[miky4u2]

I'd better followup on my earlier post. I eventually received the CNC6040 , added 6 limit/home switches, rewired the steppers with shielded cables, made sure everything was properly grounded, and replaced the parallel breakout board with the NVEM . Totally new to mach3 and CNC in general so i lost some hair in the process :-)
- The card arrived without documentation or driver but the seller sent a link to download . Documentation is in Chinglish but overall not too bad.
- Unless you use a router you need to assign a static IP (given in documentation) to the computer local network interface (i use Win7 64bit). While i was there i removed all useless protocols on the interface and only left TCP/IP 4.
- Allow mach3 and public network in firewall ( better to just disable firewall completely to start , it saves debugging time)
- Set computer power saving settings to never go to sleep , otherwise it seems to fail reconnecting to the NVEM on wake up .
- Drop the NVEM.dll pluggin in mach3's plugin folder
- start cnc controller first, the NVEM first tries to get an IP via DHCP so if it is connected directly to the computer it takes 15 seconds or so to fall back to 'direct connection' , then start mach3.

After starting mach3 and selecting the "Novusun NVEM" plugin, there should be a message next to the "reset" button that says "connected to NVEM.... " if there is no message , don't go further, recheck IP & firewall .

I followed the documentation to enable the axis, inputs, outputs , scratched my head a bit with setting the limit/home switches and the step motor parameters cause i never done that before. Getting the PWD working correctly for the spindle took me for ever but eventually got that going too.


I'm not ready to use a real cutting tool yet but i loaded some Gcode examples and run them , i haven't encountered any "weird things" , axis motions are fast and smooth and i dont think there is any missed steps.

I'm a newby so I don't have anything to compare this card to anything else , but so far it seems to work as expected. The issues i'm having so far are because of my lack of knowledge with Mach3 and other equipment , not with the card itself .


One issue left, when i set a switch to be a limit, it works as expected , when i set it as a home for the axis instead , it works fine too... but when i set it to be both, i can Ref home the axis because mach3 tells me that i hit the limit. I read in other posts that mach3 ignores the limit when homing , but it does not seem to do it for me :-) hopefully i'll work that one out too.

Hope this helps somehow.

Miky