Connection

Settings → Connection is everything about the machine Prime Motion drives and how it reaches it. The sections, top to bottom:

Connection

Live connection reads CONNECTED in green or DOWN in red, with what is connected: Physical machine over USB, Connecting…, or No controller connected. There is no Connect button; the link opens by itself when a controller is plugged in and Auto-Connect on Startup is on. See Connecting to a machine.

Machine Profile

The profile summary describes the saved machine. The Firmware row describes the controller that answered, with its source; a live controller can disagree with the saved profile. Open Settings → Firmware to inspect that disagreement before changing the profile.

Switching Active Profile closes the connection and loads that machine's own settings. It does not ask first.

Machines

Every machine profile you have made, with ACTIVE on the one in use. A row's ⋮ offers Rename and Delete. Delete asks first: This machine's machine positions, fixtures and datum history go with it. This cannot be undone. The last machine cannot be deleted (Last machine — add another before deleting).

Travel Limits

Max X Travel, Max Y Travel and Max Z Travel, read-only. The line under them says where they came from: Controller truth (live $130-132 read-back), or Read-only, derived from model and size before the controller has answered. See Soft limits and travel.

Tool Change

The toolsetter rows appear only when a toolsetter is fitted (see Accessories). They read BitSetter for Carbide 3D machines and Toolsetter for others.

Accessories

The controller handles BitRunner's router on/off through M3 and M5; there is no separate BitRunner switch in Settings.

Touch Plate

The touch plate belongs to the machine, so this section needs an active machine.

• Plate style — the plate you own: Standard Block, AutoZero, BitZero V2, BitZero V1, Auto Z & Corner Finding, Photoelectric Z probe, X-Carve Z disc, Generic corner block, Generic Z disc, Touch probe (no plate) or Custom. It chooses the probing sequence.
• For Custom: Shape family (External edge, Side of part, Parallel bore, Chamfered pocket, Flat contact) and Finds X and Y.
• Read-only facts about the chosen plate: Vendor, Sequence, Sensor, Probe input, Conductive stock and Finds.
• Probe input inverted ($6) — writes the controller's $6 setting to match the plate, and reads it back. It needs the machine connected and no job running; when it cannot be changed, its description says why.
• Plate Dimensions — the plate's measurements, such as Z stand-off, corner cycle and Z stand-off, Z-only cycle. A ✎ marks a value you changed; Reset restores the catalogue values. A blank shows not measured; cycles that need it refuse until you measure your plate.
• Plate Notes — the plate's cautions, and why a cycle is blocked, if one is.
• Probe tool number — the tool number your probe is set up as. While that tool is recorded as loaded, the spindle is refused.
• Probe tip diameter (mm) — used only by a single-face edge find with a touch probe.

See Probing.

Serial

Firmware Family is the starting point for a controller that does not announce itself; Prime Motion corrects it from the controller's answer.

Auto-Connection

Auto-Connect on Startup controls the first connection. Auto-Reconnect controls later connections. A commercial build reconnects only to a physical controller.

Remote Monitoring

Everything about remote access is in Remote access and the control seat.

Related

• Connecting to a machine
• Machine profiles and the setup wizard
• Probing