Microtech Xpress XL Loader Help

[ghibliss]

The batch ripper "Results from Batch" are being displayed as a single column rather than in the correct row format. What needs to be done to change this?

[ghibliss]

I have everything working correctly again. Thanks for your reply!
Wishing everyone a Happy Holiday Season!

[Spoon]

Check the command line if added anything, try to simplify the unload command line as a test, and replace it by something which just popups up a msg when run.

[ghibliss]

Spoon,

After completing my project on the Microtech machine yesterday and getting everything working ie all 12 drives load/unload rip and run continuously in Batch Ripper an issue cropped up mysteriously which I do not know how to fix. I went to do some additional testing and now batch ripper will load the CD's however it does not appear to be receiving the unload command at this time on any of the drives. I tried testing using the batch ripper configuration utility and using the test function can load only. Trying to use the unload test returns only the spinning blue windows ball which goes forever without providing a debug list to check. I also tested using a protocol analyzer which verifies that there appears to be a communication error of some sort as dbpoweramp is not sending the unload command.

I have checked all of the Windows folders and decided to update/replace the unload.exe with a new one just to see if it could have become corrupted which it was not. I have also replaced the unload command line code in the configuration folder to see if that was corrupted and it was not.

I checked in Task Manager and looked in the open processes and the unload.exe is not open or anything else related to dbpoweramp. I have reinstalled dbpoweramp and batch ripper and the issue is still present. Is there anything that you can point me to check in the dbpoweramp files that might cause an error like this?

I can confirm that these same functions presently work testing with the Microtech Test Utility which allows me to open/close drive drawers, load/unload discs from any spindle to any drive.

Please give me your thoughts on what I should check to get the unload function repaired.

Regards,

[ghibliss]

I am happy to report that after spending a great deal of time on developing the loader for the Microtech Xpress XL duplicator we have finally been able to get it to work running with all 12 drives smoothly with no handling errors at all. I will be performing a full test to rip 650 discs (the Microtech Xpress XL's capacity) with the machine soon. The expected throughput using 12 drives should be between 130 and 150 discs per hour. The estimate is based on getting 65-75 discs per hour ripped using my MF Digital machine which has 6 drives. The loading and unloading times are comparable between the two machines and the ripping itself varies only based on the individual discs being ripped.

As I occasionally get very large cd libraries to rip that are a few thousand cd's or more this should make my work much more efficient being able to potentially rip 1,000 CDs in 6.5-7.5 hours!

[ghibliss]

The omission of the \ keeps the command from being executed by the machine.

[ghibliss]

Spoon,

After having spent what seems like an eternity on figuring out what could be preventing me from communicating with the Microtech machine we have finally figured it out! When trying command line prompts we decided to send just ULCLI.exe and it returned the documentation for the loader which is posted at http://hyperdiscs.pbworks.com . There is one massive difference in the version which we have when reading the documentation from a command line prompt. Under Global Settings on the hyperdiscs page the instructions to send a carriage return are as follows: * --enterstring= (default is M, change if you need to send this substring) whereas as it is correctly found from testing with the command line prompt it is: * --enterstring= (default is \M, change if you need to send this substring). The omission of the "" keeps the command from being executed by the machine.

Now that this hurdle has been cleared the rest of building out the commands required for each folder should hopefully be much simpler to complete.

The documentation provided on the hyperdiscs site should be replaced with the more current (validated) version which can be output by running the executable from a command line prompt so that others will not have to go through what took me several weeks to figure out with the help of my brilliant friend who happens to be a programming phenom!

[Spoon]

Do not know, sorry. The guy who wrote that loader has long gone.

[ghibliss]

Spoon,

Here is part of the UCLI instructions on how to create a loader:

"Commands" prefixed with a * below are pre-scanned and treated as global settings.
All others are executed in order as discovered, i.e. some settings can be adjusted
during processing. Commands with multiple parameters use a colon as a delimiter
optional parameters are shown using square brackets.

Global Settings
* --spacestring= (default is _, change if you need to use this char)
* --enterstring= (default is M, change if you need to send this substring)
* --colonstring= (default is `, change if you need to send this substring)
* --separatorstring= (default is :, change if you need to send this substring)
* --logfile= (redirect output to a log file as specified use quotes around path)

I am using RS-232 port monitoring software to log what is taking place when I run the dbpoweramp configuration test functions. I am successfully seeing the commands in the monitoring software however the carriage return following sending the commands to the Microtech arm is not being sen! The correct command for a carriage return according to the documentation is "M" which is not being sent by the configuration test. This indicates an issue with the UCLI and not the Microtech machine. The UCLI is not decoding the "M" as a carriage return.

What do you suggest I do to correct this issue?

[ghibliss]

It is newer than the MF Digital machines that I use with batchripper, the Microtech I own was built in August of 2014 which was the 2nd year that it was offered for sale. The Microtech Xpress XP is still being built with the only change being the version of Windows used and the drives. Mine is using Windows 10 professional 64 bit and has been upgraded using Samsung NVME 1tb drive for the OS and a Samsung 1tb SSD drive for storage which is what the brand new units use.

The configuration utility does display that it is communicating with the serial commands being sent as I can see what is happening in the de-bugging screen. Trying to get the serial protocols entered so that the arm responds to the commands has been the issue. All of the commands have been tested and verified using "putty" so I know what works. The Microtech loader commands are typically GI entered as "G I" which automatically retrieves a CD from the current spindle and PO "P O" which places the CD into the current drive. Trying any of the various commands in the configuration utility ends up with the CDROM drive opening/closing as it is receiving the SATA commands.

[Spoon]

I am not sure, that loader is very old, XP old.

[ghibliss]

Windows 10 Pro 64 bit

[Spoon]

Which windows version?

[ghibliss]

Thank you for your input! I just re-tested the COM port by trying ports 1-10 in device management and changing to the corresponding COM port value in the configuration panel doing this in Administrator mode. No changes in testing were found. When testing in configuration panel I am able to communicate with the CDROM drives (they Open and Close) however this shows that SATA communication is present and that it is getting the instructions from the UCLI loader application.

What else should I test?

[Spoon]

Try right click on Batch Ripper config >> run as administrator

It might be blocked