Running Centroid CNC In Virtual PC Environment

[mfry]

A pain in the a$$. CS Labs allow a DHCP offer to be made to allow a LAN. The only way I can therefore use this PC for Centroid control and internet access is either a 2nd NIC or wireless card. I mean, the idea of having the PC online to get gcode etc cant be that much of an edge case? I dont want to need to move USB sticks between the main PC and the machine PC everytime I need a file

I don't understand the objection. Yes of course you need a second network adapter to communicate with a LAN or internet. They're like $10 if your motherboard doesn't already have 2.

Fair enough, still dont understand why the IP cant be changed to suit however.

Because that NIC is connected to a machine, not a network. No dhcp server can see it. You're asking why can't you plug 2 plugs into one socket.

[Chaz]

I don't understand the objection. Yes of course you need a second network adapter to communicate with a LAN or internet. They're like $10 if your motherboard doesn't already have 2.

Fair enough, still dont understand why the IP cant be changed to suit however.

Because that NIC is connected to a machine, not a network. No dhcp server can see it. You're asking why can't you plug 2 plugs into one socket.

Actually, no. Surely the IP can be changed. Of course, there might be a technical reason why you would want to use an obscure subnet but it would be easier to have it changeable. Ignore DHCP, even a static change can be beneficial.

[mikes]

No, the IP address must be set to a static 10.168.41.1 in order to communicate with the motion control.

A pain in the a$$. CS Labs allow a DHCP offer to be made to allow a LAN. The only way I can therefore use this PC for Centroid control and internet access is either a 2nd NIC or wireless card. I mean, the idea of having the PC online to get gcode etc cant be that much of an edge case? I dont want to need to move USB sticks between the main PC and the machine PC everytime I need a file

I don't understand the objection. Yes of course you need a second network adapter to communicate with a LAN or internet. They're like $10 if your motherboard doesn't already have 2.

I propose the objection is over wasting hardware, time and money, due to inflexible software solutions. Having the ability to set the IP of a networked device is basic. I understand that it is a seldom needed feature in this application, but...

[cbb1962]

I would look at using a NAT (Network Address Translation) device to re-map the hardcoded address in the Acorn. NATs are normally used to map internal LAN IP addresses to something that is accessible on the Internet, a WAN address, but the basic concept is the same.

[mikes]

I would look at using a NAT (Network Address Translation) device to re-map the hardcoded address in the Acorn. NATs are normally used to map internal LAN IP addresses to something that is accessible on the Internet, a WAN address, but the basic concept is the same.

I could be wrong in my understanding, but I thought the OP was interested in having one PC communicate with multiple Acorns. If I am not mistaken, the only way that will be possible on a shared network is with the ability to change the IP of the Acorn. A NAT will not help.

[cbb1962]

https://serverfault.com/questions/73911 ... me-network Describes a datalogger manufacturer that needs to configure many fixed IP address dataloggers on the network at once - very similar to what the OP is trying to do.

This is the answer from the post

Note: this is not the answer you want, but it is the correct answer.

The concept of a device with a "default IP address" is fundamentally broken and will cause many issues beyond what you're describing here. In this question, you're trying to solve for the wrong problem. Instead of doing what you suggest, make your devices use DHCP. To learn what IP is given to each device, monitor your DHCP server logs.

If the above is not possible, then the remaining solution involves procuring a switch (or multiple switches) that support PVLAN, and then NATing traffic to/from each device using another non-conflicting IP addresses from another subnet.

It is possible, it will be painful, and costly, but possible.

[Centroid_Tech]

I am not exactly sure if everyone is overlooking the most important reply that was on this thread but the PC HAS to have a specific IP address in order to communicate with the Centroid hardware which is 10.168.41.1. The only way that I can see something like this working would be if every instance of the virtual environment had the same exact IP address which I do not think that will be possible.

[mikes]

I am not exactly sure if everyone is overlooking the most important reply that was on this thread but the PC HAS to have a specific IP address in order to communicate with the Centroid hardware which is 10.168.41.1. The only way that I can see something like this working would be if every instance of the virtual environment had the same exact IP address which I do not think that will be possible.

The only way a server setup like the one being proposed can work given the fixed IP, is to have a NIC card for each Acorn. Eight machines will need eight NICs in the server (wireless or wired). In other words each Acorn requires its own physical network. The virtualizer can then map the hardware to the virtual instance, effectively isolating them all. Fixed IP == Limitations.