Multiple Acorns run from same computer

[swissi]

What's going on Marty? Is it now your way or the highway on this forum?

We all appreciate your instructional videos and your help on this forum but you seem to forget that the Acorn board is targeted for the DIY home and hobby shops too, not just for the semi/professional market that you represent.

If this subject of using one computer to drive two separate Acorns comes up over and over again, why not give all the possible options so people can choose what method is right for them. You might get aggravated to spend 30 seconds to switch over a network cable and rename a folder every time you want to use another machine but for people who don't use their machines very often and never at the same time, this might be perfectly fine. Over time they might even save some time this way if they don't have to keep two PC's updated with Windows updates.

We all have the right to do things the way we think works for us and rather than forcing our opinion on others, we should keep it open and give people the options to choose from.

And this is just my opinion

-swissi

[martyscncgarage]

And this is just my opinion

-swissi

And you are entitled to it....

[David Buchhauser]

Hi Marty,

I am aware that you have many Youtube videos (I have not yet watched any of them), and I had assumed that you were somehow affiliated with Centroid.
I think that swissi is right on with his assessment. You seemed to somehow take offense at the notion that I was even considering running 2 Acorns from a single computer. The implication was that "it's only money, and used pcs are cheap, so why on earth would anyone even consider asking my original question - let alone even attempting to do it.

I am in the process of upgrading one of my Avid cnc routers from Mach3 to the Acorn controller. My experience with Mach3 is that it asks which configuration file the user wants to load at program startup. I am able to choose between my 4x2 table, 4x4 table, or any other machine I might wish to connect to. Very simple and easy to do. I do realize that Mach3 uses the pc as the controller, while the Acorn is a dedicated controller separate from the pc.

I also run 3 of the Plasmacam cnc machines - 4x4 plasma cutter, 4x4 engraver, and 4 ft. x 14" diameter rotary plasma cutter. These machines each have a dedicated controller separate form the pc, however I am able to run them all from the same pc (only one at a time - of course). The Plasmacam software make it very simple to load a configuration file for a particular target machine, and to select between planar or rotary coordinates.

I also run a Nakamura Tome Slant 1 cnc turning center (cnc lathe) and a Matsuura 510-V cnc machining center (cnc mill) from a single pc. Again both machines have dedicated internal controllers, but the interface program used to communicate between MasterCAM and these machines allows me to choose which target machine I wish to connect to in a very simple manner.

So naturally (and being new to cnc12) I assumed that there had to be a simple way to do the same with the Acorns. Two of the other members have offered their advise to me with several ways to accomplish this, although neither one is as simple as what I have become accustomed to with some of my other cnc machines. But at least I am now aware of these methods, even if I do not ultimately choose to implement one of them.

So I agree with swissi on this: "If this subject of using one computer to drive two separate Acorns comes up over and over again, why not give all the possible options so people can choose what method is right for them."

David
Desert Hybrids Precision
www.desert-hybrids.com

[martyscncgarage]

Offense? Not at all.
Users may do what they choose for sure.
Personally, given the cost of a PC, I think it's more trouble that it's worth trying to run multiple Acorns off of one PC.

At the end of the day, a user makes up their own mind as to what is best for them to do given the information provided. There are best practices and there are "short cuts" The user chooses what they want to live with.

In your case you were aware and wanted to test another Acorn. I glossed over that. I apologize to you as you seem now to take offense to that. I'm here (like many) to try and help others almost every day, 7 days a week when I have a few minutes, when they are stuck, in between my projects on my nickel, because I know what it's like to need help and it's not usually during normal business hours.

I'm not a paid employee of Centroid. Just a guy like you all. 15 years plus tinkering with CNC who realized when Centroid entered this market, with an integrated hardware and software CNC package at this price point with their history in CNC machine motion control, I wanted to be part of and have been since before Acorn was "born". I have been fortunate to go back to Centroid in PA to meet the people, it's a modest family run business, who really care about what they do and their customers. Keith wears many hats, he participates here, he reaches out to users, helps them out most times also outside of normal business hours in many cases. He maintains the website among many other tasks. These are people behind you, behind what they sell. There are countless users on this forum sharing their knowledge, Marc Leonard, Tom Blough, Gary Campbell, Swissi, to name a few, and many others willing to help each other out. That's what we are all trying to do.

Back to the point. Again I apologize to you David, for rushing through your post.

Marty

[David Buchhauser]

Thanks Marty. Perhaps I will check out some of your videos when I get a chance.
David

[swissi]

So for those who have the need, for whatever reason, to run two Acorn Boards from 1 PC, here's an example way how to do it. With this solution, all you need to do is switching the network cable to the machine you want to control before you start CNC12, the script will do the rest.

These are the steps you need to do:

• Connect your first Acorn board to the PC

• Install CNC12 and configure all settings

• When done with the configuration, exit CNC12

• Rename the folder C:\cncm to cncm-machine1 or what ever name you want

• Create an empty file in the cncm-machine1 folder with the exact same name as the folder name without any filename extension. In this example the name is cncm-machine1. Make it match your folder name if you choose a different name. This file is needed to verify which configuration is currently active

• Repeat the above steps for the second Acorn and use the name cncm-machine2 or what ever name you like.

• Create a Start.bat file preferably somewhere in your user directory with these command lines. If you used different folder names make sure you adjust the names in dir1 and dir2 in the Start.bat file

Code: Select all

@ECHO off

REM Adjjust dir1 and dir2 with the two folder names of your choosing
REM Make sure each folder contains an empty file with the exact same name and no filename extension
SET dir1="cncm-machine1"
SET dir2="cncm-machine2"

REM Making the drive with the Windows Installation the default and beeing at the root
%SystemDrive%
CD %SystemDrive%\

REM Select which machine is being used. Rename Machine1/2 to your choices
CLS
CHOICE /M "1 = Machine1, 2 = Machine2, 3 = Cancel" /C 123 
SET _e=%ERRORLEVEL%
IF %_e%==1 GOTO :m1
IF %_e%==2 GOTO :m2
IF %_e%==3 GOTO :done

REM Commands for Machine1
:m1
CHOICE /M "Machine1 connected?" /C YN
SET _e=%ERRORLEVEL%
IF %_e%==2 GOTO :done
REM Check if there's a cncm folder for Machine2 and if so, rename it
IF EXIST cncm\%dir2% ( REN cncm  %dir2% )
REM Check if there's a cncm folder for Machine1 already and if not create it
IF NOT EXIST cncm\%dir1% ( REN %dir1% cncm )
CD cncm
CMD /C START cncm.exe --adjustfortaskbar
goto :start_cncm

REM Commands for Machine2
:m2
CHOICE /M "Machine2 connected?" /C YN
SET _e=%ERRORLEVEL%
IF %_e%==2 GOTO :done
REM Check if there's a cncm folder for Machine1 and if so, rename it
IF EXIST cncm\%dir1% ( REN cncm  %dir1% )
REM Check if there's a cncm folder for Machine2 already and if not create it
IF NOT EXIST cncm\%dir2% ( REN %dir2% cncm )

REM Start CNC12
:start_cncm
CD cncm
CMD /C START cncm.exe --adjustfortaskbar

:done

• If you have the CNC12 Mill link icon on your desktop, you can right click that icon and select Properties. Change the Target field with the path and name of your new Start.bat file:

Start.bat

Now when you click the CNC12 Mill Icon, you have the option to select Machine 1 or Machine 2 and it will ask for the confirmation that the correct machine is connected. The correct folder will be made active and CNC12 will launch with the correct configuration.

Modify this to your liking and use it at your own risk

-swissi

[cncsnw]

In my limited experience with this subject (limited with regard to CNC11 and CNC12, at least) I don't think there is any requirement that the CNC12 software be in a directory named "c:\cncm" (or "c:\cnct" for lathes).

I have a bench test computer that I use for a wide variety of purposes. I have created on it directories such as "c:\cncm-316" and "c:\cnct-312" and "c:\cncm-414", etc.. I have separate Wndows Desktop shortcuts to the cncm.exe or cnct.exe within each one. Each Desktop shortcut is named with the relevant version number so I can tell one from another; each has the "Start in" directory set to its corresponding directory. If I were doing real day-to-day work with them, I would probably need to edit the "pathm.ini" or "pathl.ini" file in each one. Also, I generally needed to change the icon for each shortcut, to point to "mill.ico" or "lathe.ico" in the corresponding directory.

So, in short, you could probably just have desktop shortcuts to cncm.exe in your "c:\cncm-machine1" and "c:\cncm-machine2" directories, and not do the renaming at all.

I would, of course, disable the Startup shortcut to "start.bat" altogether, so nothing starts automatically when the PC boots. Just wait for the PC to finish booting, then launch the desktop shortcut for the machine you are connected to at the moment.

[swissi]

In my limited experience with this subject (limited with regard to CNC11 and CNC12, at least) I don't think there is any requirement that the CNC12 software be in a directory named "c:\cncm" (or "c:\cnct" for lathes).

I have a bench test computer that I use for a wide variety of purposes. I have created on it directories such as "c:\cncm-316" and "c:\cnct-312" and "c:\cncm-414", etc.. I have separate Wndows Desktop shortcuts to the cncm.exe or cnct.exe within each one. Each Desktop shortcut is named with the relevant version number so I can tell one from another; each has the "Start in" directory set to its corresponding directory. If I were doing real day-to-day work with them, I would probably need to edit the "pathm.ini" or "pathl.ini" file in each one. Also, I generally needed to change the icon for each shortcut, to point to "mill.ico" or "lathe.ico" in the corresponding directory.

So, in short, you could probably just have desktop shortcuts to cncm.exe in your "c:\cncm-machine1" and "c:\cncm-machine2" directories, and not do the renaming at all.

I would, of course, disable the Startup shortcut to "start.bat" altogether, so nothing starts automatically when the PC boots. Just wait for the PC to finish booting, then launch the desktop shortcut for the machine you are connected to at the moment.

I can confirm that this will not work with CNC12 for Acorn as it would not find supporting files in other directories anymore as they are hard coded. It begins with the VCP 2.0 looking for graphics file in subfolders of the C:\cncm folder and all the probing routines won't work as well.

-swissi