X-ray Network Adaptors

[[DW...]]

This is kind of a long shot, but here goes -

 

I have a GOM Metrotom 6 Scout (225kv). Currently running Zeiss X-ray Professional 2023 (with license). Everything was going smoothly, until recently. I installed a software to use for an industrial camera inside the machine, and was not successful in getting it operable, so I uninstalled the software. Now, our Gigabit CT adapter (for the GOM) and the Ethernet server adapter I350-T2 show "Unknown network, not connected." I can still turn on the x-ray source with the X-COM utility, but cannot initialize the source from within the X-ray Pro software (Error CT-0007 presumably because the software can't see the network cards). No amount of resetting the network cards from either the "Configure System" after "System Analysis" within the X-ray Pro software or even externally from Windows is yielding any result. I believe something with PVI Manager got messed up, as the X-COM utility did throw an error relating to the PVI software, but still functions. 

Can someone at Zeiss, or elsewhere, explain all of the supporting software for these machines (B&R Automation + licensing, PVI Manager + licensing, etc). 

There just isn't a lot of documentation on how it all works together, which makes troubleshooting this a nightmare. 

Thanks for any help.

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 and

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 for visibility at Zeiss if you can point me in the right direction.
 

Edited December 23, 2025

[[TI...]]

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 where did you end up with this?  Did your cameras stop working or did you not have them in the metrotom?  We have cameras in ours, but they don't work anymore.  I never opened them anyway.

[[DW...]]

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 I spent about a week troubleshooting this very specific issue and in that time learned quite a bit about how all of the utilities and software work together. The Metrotom camera Python script is launched from within the Python environment inside the Inspect software. It is designed to run on Python 3.9, which is embedded with the program files like this - 

C:\Program Files\Zeiss\INSPECT\YOURVERSIONYEAR\python

This ensures the camera script always functions correctly, even if you update Python versions on your computer. 

When I installed what I believed to be the camera manufacturer utility to view the camera OUTSIDE the Inspect software, it caused the Inspect software to error out on the initialization of the sensor.

Initially, I thought the network adapters had a misconfiguration, but that was not the case. Zeiss does offer some help in the knowledge portal related to which IP addresses should be present, and also when you use "Configure System" under the help menu, it clears the network adapters and sets the correct IP addresses.

Ultimately the culprit was that some of the required services that run in the background were no longer running. 

If you look in the location C:\Program Files\Zeiss\INSPECT\YOURVERSIONYEAR\bin\, you will see some very important executable files like

cbloxcheck.exe (looks at the Common Vision Blox from Stellar Imaging)

CTXrayRegistration.exe

and very importantly - TomCTServer.exe

Other important executable files are located at C:\Program Files\Zeiss\INSPECT\YOURVERSIONYEAR\bin\xray_services, like

XrayJobDistributer.exe

X-rayReconstructionWorker.exe

XrayScheduler.exe

X-rayVolumeMergeWorker.exe

I am hoping

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 chimes in here about what happens when you double click TomCTServer.exe, but in my limited knowledge it appears to add some services to the Windows startup, which in turn lets the Inspect software communicate with the CT. 

Our software is back up and running, I did some acquisitions and everything appears to be normal. 

Zeiss needs to inform their CT service technicians about these background services, and perhaps create a maintenance script that fires them all. When this issue arose for a different reason over a year ago for us, Zeiss had no resolution other than to go back to a zero day CT Windows image. This was even with the overseas help in Germany. 

Hopefully some heavy hitters at Zeiss with great intimate knowledge of the processes chime in to add some clarity.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 05:39 PM

[[TI...]]

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 Good info, thank.

 

Our camera don't work, but only my co-worker really like using it. We just leave it as is now. It was nice when we were learning the motion of the table, but don't see the need anymore.

I may back up those files you mentioned in case it proves useful. Where are you at with cathode hrs now. We have one CT with 40k hrs, and one with 30K. We have been in a steady decline with the hrs. We are seeing cathode breaks on one CT at 80 and the other beast that used to go past 220 is at 130ish now. I don't know how are CTs are not melting at this point with how much we run them.

[[DW...]]

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 We don't use our CT as hard as you guys, and it is humming right along. Warms up to full 225kv no problem. 

 

The hours on your cathodes will get less and less.. Please use the contact info I gave you to get them out there to service those tubes. It will literally pay for itself in a few cathodes. We went from 80hrs to 405 hours after the visit. You will be the hero at your workplace! 

Edited Wednesday at 04:36 PM

[[TI...]]

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 I'll push my manager on that again...if you are ever in my area on vacation, hit me up, would love to show you our setup and have dinner.