Centroid Community CNC Support Forum

I converted a Grizzly G0704 mill to CNC about 10 years ago using Mach 3. Well the old PC that runs Mach 3(bought over 20 years ago) is failing so I had to make a decision, try and run Mach 3 on a new PC or switch to another CNC controller. From what I understand getting Mach 3 to run on a new PC can be a struggle. And after some research I decided to convert over to CNC 12 with Acorn.

Here's a rundown of the hardware I'm using.
-Ball screw kit from Automation Technologies Inc
-KL-5056D Stepper Motor Drivers on the X & Y axis
-KL23H2100-50-4B Stepper Motors on the X & Y axis
-KL-8070D Stepper Motor Driver on the Z axis
-KL34H295-43-8B Stepper Motor on the Z Axis
-Meanwell SE-600-48 Power Supply
-Beelink 13th Gen Mini S PC
-Acorn CNC Control Board



So for I haven't hooked up any of the Acorn CNC hardware up to the Mill yet. I've been playing with it in the bench to familiarize myself with the software before I take the plunge.

It will be a learning curve, but a good one. Reverence the install manual a lot. Get a breakout board for the db25 if you don't already have one. Those will need 5v to the drivers pulse and dir + and the puls and dir - go to the db25 board.

One step at a time it's easy. Keep your power wires and signal wires separated as much as you can.

Ok so I just ran the communication stress test and it failed.

I get a 452 Ethernet Communication Error.



Anyone have any ideas on the cause of this?

Tech support bulletin 270 has a lot of great information.
https://centroidcnc.com/centroid_diy/te ... browse.php

Ken Rychlik wrote: ↑Thu Jul 31, 2025 5:13 pm It will be a learning curve, but a good one. Reverence the install manual a lot. Get a breakout board for the db25 if you don't already have one. Those will need 5v to the drivers pulse and dir + and the puls and dir - go to the db25 board.

One step at a time it's easy. Keep your power wires and signal wires separated as much as you can.

That's the old board for Mach 3, the board in the pic will be replaced by the Acorn board. I haven't replaced it yet as I'm still wrapping my head around CNC 12 and will may need to use the mill.

You don't understand.... You need a db25 breakout board for the acorn step and direction signals. This has nothing to do with what is on your old machine.

For your com issue, run the pc tuner if you have not done that already as a first step.

Ken Rychlik wrote: ↑Thu Jul 31, 2025 6:37 pm You don't understand.... You need a db25 breakout board for the acorn step and direction signals. This has nothing to do with what is on your old machine.

For your com issue, run the pc tuner if you have not done that already as a first step.

Sorry I misunderstood your last reply. Yes I already have the breakout board to connect the motor drivers to the Acorn Board.

I ran the PC tuner when I installed CNC 12. I also went through the process manually to make sure all the setting are correct.

Some great info in this thread for comm errors: viewtopic.php?t=1451

Ok so this is weird. I was failing the com stress test, so I went through the tech bulletins multiple times and everything appeared fine but I would still fail the com stress test. Well I decided to try plugging in the relay board and rerun the test. Well after doing this it passed the com stress test. So I figured i would disconnect the relay board and run the test again. And now it's passing the test without the relay board. I don't know what I did to make it work but it's working now, lol.

I had to change one recently to half duplex to get it to work well. It would hook up and work, but if I left it idle for a few hrs it would drop out. Each pc can create it's own challenge I guess.