Unknown Breakout Board is searching for a new driver for 4th axis use?

Hello everyone,

recently i bought a machine with an unknown breakout board. Since i had no drivers i started my search. There are a few infos on the board itself: MKX-V08-1.PCB and the website ??????????? . Not long and i tried a few drivers (plugins for to get it to work on Mach 3) beginning with the newest MKX-V and MKX-V II without any success. Mach 3 freezes every time. After that I tried the MKX-IV driver and it worked!
I configured Mach 3 and used 3 of the 4 axis. Now i started to try the 4th one but i couldnt get it to work and untill now i think i might lacking the right driver/plugin (.dll) ? I checked the cables and switched the A-axis with the Z-axis and A started working.
Since i am sure now its not a problem of the cables I changed to the B-Axis (I am able to connect 6 axis) but still no chance to get it to work. I did a lot of research again tried a lot of drivers and found my exact board on a milestone schedule of the company.
There it is marked as MKX-C . Since i don´t know what to do next i am asking for your help and experience. Do i have the right driver ? If yes what should i check to might get it to work ? If no what might be the right driver ?
I am greatfull for any help ! Thanks in advance.

Greetings and a happy Easter

Hi,
Chinese motion controller manufacturers, in this case XHC, have a bad reputation for supporting their products.

In many cases, and I suspect applies to this board, is that the company had at one time a talented engineer or group of them whom developed both the hardware
and the plugins. Since then that individual or individuals have departed the scene and now the company manufactures the boards but really have no idea how they
work, and hence their inability to support their products.

I would suggest email the company and get the correct plugin (.dll file). If they can't or won't then throw the board away and never purchase an XHC product ever again.

US and European manufacturers make products that work as advertised and support them. I'd recommend the Ethernet SmoothStepper by Warp9TD, the PoKeys 57CNC
or any of the UC100, UC300 or UC400 by CNCDrive.

Craig

Hi,
by the way, if he UC100 appeals then don't buy one of the Chinese rip-offs on Amazon or Ebay, they are not a patch on the real thing. If someone is trying to peddle a UC100
for less than say $120USD its probably fake. You can sometimes still smell the chop suey on them.

Craig

Hey Craig,

tanks for your reply at first. My problem is that i did not bought the board by myself. It was installed in the machine i bought but they do not have the laptop with the software anymore. You might be right with your assumption that the knowledge is gone now but since xhc is still supporting a lot of their cards there might be still some good engineers at the company. I emailed them month ago but got no reply. Do you have an idea to solve my problem without replacing the board ? or can you give me an exact recommendation for a good 4 or better 5 axis breakout board ? I dont want to replace everything. If its just the board it might be ok. A solution would still be better.

Greetings Jens

Hi,

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I emailed them month ago but got no reply.

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That is par for the course for XHC...they've got your money...what matter to them if it does not work?

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Do you have an idea to solve my problem without replacing the board ?

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No, I do not. If XHC can't help you why would you think that I or anyone else can?

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or can you give me an exact recommendation for a good 4 or better 5 axis breakout board ?

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I have given you some recommendations to research. I personally use an Ethernet SmoothStepper (ESS). Note that the ESS (and UC100, UC300 and UC400 come to that) require a breakout board in addition
to the motion board.

You are confusing a motion board and a breakout board. A motion board converts Machs numeric trajectory data into accurately timed pulse streams. This requires dedicated hardware, in some case a microcontroller
or an FPGA. The XHC board you have has an FPGA. A breakout board takes those pulse streams, usually amplifies them a bit and presents them to the outside world usually in the form of screw terminations.
The breakout board does not have any logic per se, but protects the more expensive and sensitive microcontroller or FPGA from damage because you hooked up the wires wrong. The XHC board you have
bundles both motion controller and breakout board into one.

Other motion controllers like the ESS have separate motion and breakout boards.

Quote:

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If its just the board it might be ok. A solution would still be better.

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Good luck. If the manufacturer won't help you then you'll need some luck.

Craig

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TheDarkNight

Hey Craig,

tanks for your reply at first. My problem is that i did not bought the board by myself. It was installed in the machine i bought but they do not have the laptop with the software anymore. You might be right with your assumption that the knowledge is gone now but since xhc is still supporting a lot of their cards there might be still some good engineers at the company. I emailed them month ago but got no reply. Do you have an idea to solve my problem without replacing the board ? or can you give me an exact recommendation for a good 4 or better 5 axis breakout board ? I dont want to replace everything. If its just the board it might be ok. A solution would still be better.

Greetings Jens

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If you can't get the correct plugin to work there are a few options, do you have the original software, this install can be where your problem is, the machine looks quite good does it have a center Ballscrew and 1 motor on the Y axis or 2 Ballscrew one on each side with 2 motors

Hey,

one day later and a few things have changed a bit. I mixed up the plugin of the MKX-IV and a configuration file for the MKX-V and now i can reference the 4th axis! Still if i try to move it with jogging the axis it does not respond. So 3 axis work and the 4th is spinning in reference mode. In fact i might need someone who knows how correct the jogging in the configuration or in the plugin. Since i am new to this i am not sure where to begin but it does not seem a big of a deal if i know where to search or correct.

1. I can not speak for the company XHC itself but normally if you are giving a littlebit of support your recommendation goes up and you are getting more sales which matters most of the time

2. Nobody said that XHC can´t help me, they just do not reply. In fact we don´t know if they might be able to or not.

3. Thanks for your recommendations and yes i am confusing the both because i thought it was a synonym. Now i know the difference. If i am not able to fix the plugin or the configuration data i will think about getting one of this ESS.

4. Hopefully the luck is on my side. Since i had some success with the referencing of the 4th axis it should be possible to fix it but i need to learn more about mach 3 configuration to get the jog and control to work again since the driver seem to do its job.

Its a pitty that there is such a bad product documentation and with it even wrong lables on the controler of an original board. The driver of the MKX-IV is working for an MKX-V board and the MKX-V driver leads to a crash of mach 3. The configuration data of the MKX-IV doesnt work but the one of the MKX-V does. Strange but good to know.

Websites i used to get the XHC drivers and configuration data are linked:
https://www.cdxhctech.com/html/edownloads/ --- Old webside of the manufacturer. You will find unorganised drivers and manuals for the cards but no configuration data
https://www.nvcnc.net/xhc-cnc-controller --- Best and well organised website for the XHC controlers, you will find configuration data, drivers and wire diagrams here. Watch out if you controler says MKX-V it still might be a MKX-IV or works with the corresponding drivers ! Look at the wire diagramm and esp. the motor connection pins. Even if your card looks totally different.
https://www.wixhc.cn/de/ --- New manufacturer website with a list of products. Not very helpfull nor does it provide any downloads for the boards or configuration data

Thanks for anyone replying and helping! I will try to keep this updated and add tags so anotherone with similar problems might find this after i solved mine or got help.

Greetings from Germany
Jens

Hello mactec,

in fact the machine itself works very well after i cleaned and regreased it. It has tbi 1605 ballscrew on z and one center 2510 on x and y. The 4th axis is a harmonic drive (without play) with a unknown reduction which i am going to investigate closly in the future.
Even without an axis alignment (i had to disassamble it) and because of sloppy measurements i get a precision around 0.01 to 0.02mm on ungrinded surface which is quite remarkable i think.

Softwarewise i started at 0. I have no original software or usb-stick just a bad documentation on around 40 pieces of paper which is mostly about basic mach3 configuration and troubleshooting. I will contact the guy i bought this from again. Maybe his company has something left somewhere but the last time i asked him he wasnt able to tell me and now maybe forgot my case. There is also no sign of any manufacturer on the machine and the documentation even tells me how to install a cracked version of mach3 and just copy the plugins from the cd ^^ Of cause i don´t have the cd.

I think that the plugin is working since i can reference the A axis now ( it spins) and jog the other 3. I just cant control the A with jogging or G00 command. So it might be a problem of the configuration file ?
First i thought about a problem i found in another thread. The guy had a 6 axis card and was able to control 3 axis but not the fourth. He puts the 4th as a slave to anotherone and it started working but he was not be able to run it on its own.
Since i am able to reference every axis on its own this is not my case and the fact the machine was build with the intention to control 4 axis simultaniously makes it even more unlikely. I am of the opinion that the board got 3 pins for every axis (X,Y,Z,A) it can run on its own (not 4 like the MKX-V). The axis B and C seems to be supposed to be slave axis because they have just two pins and the 5V pin is missing. The question now is what i have to do. Is it really the plugin having problems or is it the configuration file i have to rework or edit and how do i do this ?

If there are any uncertainties because of my language just ask me and i will try to make it clear since i am not a native english speaker.

Best regards
Jens

Hi,
I suspect the newest website and the products contained therein are the current company, and you will find information and support for those, but products
not listed there were manufactured by a previous iteration of the company and are essentially unsupported.

Craig

Hi Craig,

yeah that might be the case. I will write another mail to them but since the mail is quite suspicious i am even not sure that the adress is right. Since the 3 axis are running i assume that there is something with the plugin and will need help to modify it.

Jens

Hi,
good luck, I don't think XHC can help, my guess is that the current day XHC did not make your board. There is no such thing as a user being able to 'fix' a plugin.
Plugins are proprietary and zealously guarded, aside from anything else how is you Verilog or VHDL skills?

The pic you posted of the machine suggests that it is a capable machine and probably quite valuable.

Roll up your sleeve, replace the POS controller and get your CNC journey under way.

I use Mach4 ($200) and an ESS ($195) and a breakout board (approx $200). Others would recommend a UC300 and breakout board with UCCNC as software approx $500, others
will recommend LinuxCNC (free) and a Mesa board (approx $300) and yet others will recommend Centroid Acorn approx $450,and there are even more solutions than that, these are just
the common ones.

Any of these solutions will work well and as advertised and are supported by their respective manufacturers.

How much is the machine worth to you? Is it not worth investing $400-$600 to actually get it to work?

Craig

I have not seem this MKX-C card from XHC. where did you get it?

This card was build into my HQtech SM60/60 CNC. I know from another user of this exact machine that he has a build in leafboy77 4-axis motion controler. In my case its this card and the usbmove.dll doesnt work. 3 axis work with the newest MKX-IV driver from XHC.