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Problems with HeidenHain TNCRemo and Windows 7

swarf_rat

Titanium
Joined
Feb 24, 2004
Location
Napa, CA
I've run this on XP for years with no problems. I am forced to use Windows 7 now as OneCNC no longer runs on XP. I cannot get TNCRemo to work on Windows 7. I've tried both 3 and 3.3 revisions with similar results. It installs with no errors, everything looks good but it will not transfer files to the control. If the online converter is enabled and I try to transfer to the control, I get and error (can't download the DLL) from 3.0, and a different error (install error, can't activate the DLL) from 3.3 - these may be the same thing I suppose. I can transfer from the control, and it appears to be fast whether or not the online converter is active.

If I try to transfer to the control with the online converter not active, it appears to attempt to transfer very slowly, makes very little progress, and then fails and looses the connection. The file on the control is created but will show zero bytes. In fact there are some lines transferred, then a bunch of error lines, then it ends. This file cannot be deleted from the control ("Access denied") until the control is restarted.

I can go back to exactly the same version of TNCRemo on XP and it still works fine.

Any ideas?
 
I discovered a couple of things. One is that there are some write permissions that Win7 has that prevent the app from writing into the TNCRemo folder, this is why it could not download the DLL and create the machine specific online transfer folder. It will not let me change the permissions (or perhaps I don't know how), but installing the program at the C;/ level allows it to write the file and folder. That eliminated the DLL error. Now the behavior is normal, says it is transferring the file with bogus progress indication (that is normal), it completes in about the right amount of time, but then goes off the rails, loses the connection. The file written to the control is again locked, showing 0 bytes. It cannot be accessed without rebooting the control, when that is done the file exists but is empty.
 
My memory is a bit foggy on TNCRemo but I didn't have any luck with it and Windows 7.

TNCServer works just fine though. I use it all the time.
 
@swarf_rat: I'm too far away to see what is really going on, but I ran tncremote on win7 from 2007 until 2018 or so, when I was finally forced to win10 (where it also runs just fine.)
If I remember I'll look at the version on the shop machine tomorrow - if memory serves you can download it from the heidenhain web site.
 
OK I did fix it this weekend. New OS, not a new computer, Enet.

2 separate problems: First, TNCRemo must be run in supervisor mode. It installs by default in Programs x86 directory, which is write protected by the OS even from a program installed there apparently. TNCRemo reads the DLLs necessary for the binary translation from the control and writes them to the TNCRemo folder in that directory - except it can't as it is write protected. The error messages from both 3.0 and 3.3 TNCRemo are bogus in this regard, the OS gives no error, just doesn't allow it. You can install it outside of the Programs directory or change the compatibility settings of the program to run in supervisor mode and that problem is eliminated. WindowsXP didn't have these protections. I believe this may be particular to the 426/430 control, later controls do not require this file and earlier ones did not have this feature.

Second, TNCRemo comm will not tolerate NAT in the outgoing network. This was particularly hard to chase, since files transferred TNC -> EXT worked fine, and files would start the other direction but then go off the rails between a few and a few hundred lines in, corrupting the data and eventually quitting while leaving the file open and undeletable. This was true with or without the binary translation. You must set up your network and firewalls such that NAT (and perhaps other firewall protections) are turned off. The default install of Win7 on this machine had NAT on.

I also had problems with TNCServer communicating to the other Deckel, but that was a matter of finding the correct driver for the USB/serial converter. The one provided by the manufacturer for Win7 does not work on Win7, but allowing the Microsoft search for a driver eventually found one that did work.

You'd have to beat me with a stick to make me run Windows10 (though I have to in some limited circumstances). The last stable release of Windows was XP3, sadly some apps these days are no longer running on it.
 
Speaking of old things that don't run on Windows 10, I'm one of them :-). Fortunately I run all of these in VM, so I've got XP3, 7, and 10 all isolated by VM on the same machine.
 








 
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