Ethernet Smoothstepper Setup Guide

Please install Mach 3 first before attempting the instructions in this guide.

You will also want to follow the instructions to download and install the XML file from our site that matches your electronics as this file will be modified during the ESS installation. Install it before installing the ESS to avoid duplicating some of the software steps outlined below.

The ESS requires 5V power to operate, and can receive it by one of two different methods (but not both!):



If you are using the ESS with PMDX-126 card (as sold in some of our Nema 34 kits), you can supply power to it via the 26 pin cables supplied with your kit – these are equipped to carry 5V power on pin 26 of these connectors. Please see our Ethernet Smoothstepper Installation Guide for Nema 34 Guide for details on setting the jumpers properly on both the ESS and the PMDX-126 card.
For PMDX-126 configuration, the Pin 26 5V Jumpers should be ON for Ports 1, 2, and 3, and nothing should be plugged into the External 5V Input.

For installations with other breakout boards (or with the G540), an external 5V power source needs to be connected to the green power terminals on the ESS. For G540 or other breakout board configurations, the Pin 26 5V Jumpers should be OFF for Ports 1, 2, and 3, and 5V should be supplied to the External 5V Input. There are multiple ways you can power the 5V on the board -- a 5V wall supply, a small regulated power supply, or DIN Rail power supply. A USB cable can also be used to power the system from your PC. Typically, the red wire from a USB cable is 5V, while the black wire is V-, but cheap cables sometimes do not follow proper color coding, so it is worth verifying with a multimeter before plugging in. It is very important not to wire 5V power backwards, as this can damage the board. You can disregard the data wires. If you have questions on this, please Contact Us.
For all configurations, the Config Jumper should be OFF. This jumper is only used for troubleshooting, and sets the board to BOOTP communication mode for communication with a utility program called the configurator when ON. In this mode, Mach3 is not able to communicate with the ESS. For all normal operations, this jumper should be OFF.

This plugin can be downloaded from Warp9’s website. You will need to unzip the file.
You should then be able to double click on it, which runs the installer. When the installer has executed successfully, you should see a message that it has installed:
This simply renames the file extension from “.m3p” to “.dll” and copies it to your C:\Mach3\Plugins folder. To verify success, you can check to see if the file is present in this folder:

Your Ethernet cable should now be plugged in to both your PC and the Ethernet Smoothstepper.

The ESS communicates with your PC over the Ethernet port, so your PC needs to be set up to talk with it. Please note that the ESS should be connected directly to the PC port (not through a router or switch). This will disable wired LAN/internet connectivity on this port, so if you also require this connectivity, you will need a wireless adapter or another wired Ethernet card.

First, go to Control Panels from the Start or Windows menu:
Select “Network and Internet”:
Select “Network and Sharing Center”:
From the pane on the left side of the page, select “Change adapter settings”:
At this point, you may find you have multiple network adapters. Make sure to select the one that you have plugged into the ESS, and make sure that the adapter is enabled (does not have a red X next to it). Right click the icon and select “Properties”.
You will then select “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4”) from the list of options, and click the “Properties” button.
Select the “Use the following IP address” button, and then configure the settings as shown below. IP Address should be 10.9.9.1, subnet mask should be 255.255.255.0:
Exit back to the Control Panel main screen.

Once back to the Control Panel main screen, click on “System and Security”
At the next page, under “Windows Firewall”, click on the “Allow a program through Windows Firewall”:
You will then need to click on the “Change Settings” button in order to allow programs through the firewall:
After you select this, scroll down in the list until you find either “Mach3 CNC Application” or “Mach3 Loader” (depends on version of Mach and plugin). For either of these, check the box to the left of the program, then make sure there is a check in the boxes for both Home/Work (Private) and Public. The ESS sometimes makes use of either type of network, so needs to be allowed through on both:

Launch Mach 3 by double clicking the Mach 3 Loader icon on your desktop. This will allow you to select the pre-configured XML profile that you installed in step 1.
Select the profile you installed earlier for your machine (the one shown in the example below is for a G540 based system):

Once Mach opens, you will be given the chance to select what interface to use. Select the ESS interface. We recommend leaving the “Don’t ask me this again” checkbox unchecked until you have everything confirmed and working.
You will then likely be greeted with the following error message:
Click “No” to config, which will bring up the following screen with 0.0.0.0 set for the SmoothStepper Board IP Address. Change this IP Address to 10.9.9.9 (the default IP address of the ESS):
If everything is configured correctly, you should see the following page:
Select “Yes” – some of these values can be edited later if necessary, but in general the default values work quite well. You should then see the following menu:
Hit OK to dismiss this message.

To save settings, simply select “Save Settings” from the “Config” menu. You can then exit Mach by selecting “Exit” from the “File” menu. This will complete your installation. The ESS settings are now saved in your XML profile, so the next time you launch Mach through the loader, it should connect automatically.