# Connect an MTConnect machine

> Find the MTConnect agents on the gateway's network, pick a machine, and choose its data items from the agent's own list.

Source: https://proxus.io/docs/connect/devices/mtconnect

At the end of this guide, a CNC machine or other equipment that has an MTConnect agent is a device in Proxus,
and its data items (execution state, spindle speed, part count and others) are read as tags.

Proxus reads the agent over HTTP: the machine's agent serves its data items, and the gateway asks it for new values
at each read. Nothing has to be installed on the machine.

## Before you start

You need:

- An **MTConnect agent** for the machine, running and reachable from the gateway over HTTP. Agents usually listen
  on port 5000. You may know its address, or let the gateway find it.
- A gateway on the agent's network. See [Add a device](https://proxus.io/docs/connect/devices/add-a-device) for the general steps of
  the wizard.

## Step 1: Choose MTConnect

In **Connect > Devices**, select **New**. Choose the gateway, type `mtconnect` in the protocol search box and
select the **MTConnect** card. Select **Next: Connection**.

## Step 2: Find the agent

*Screenshot: The Find agents panel with one agent found on port 5005 serving the machine Mill, selected*

1. Select **Find agents**. The gateway asks its network for MTConnect agents; with a subnet scan this can take up to
   30 seconds.
2. **Agent address** (optional): if you know the agent, enter it here, for example `192.168.1.20:5000`. A host name
   alone is tried on every usual agent port. You can enter several, separated by commas.
3. Each agent found is listed by its URL, with the machines it serves: name, maker and model, and the machine's
   ID. Select a machine. Its address and port are filled in under **Address**.

What the gateway searches:

- **Check this machine** (on by default): the gateway's own machine, and the container host, on the usual agent
  ports.
- **Scan the gateway's subnet** (off by default): every host in the gateway's /24 network. Slower on large networks.

If no agent answers, enter the agent's address under **Agent address**, or type the **IP address** and **Port** of
the agent directly under **Address**.

Select **Test the connection** to check that the gateway reaches the agent, then **Next: Tags**.

## Step 3: Choose the data items

*Screenshot: The From the device tab listing the data items of the Mill machine with four of them ticked and the Add 4 to the list button*

1. Select the **From the device** tab.
2. Select **Browse the device**. The gateway reads the agent's list of data items, with their current values. Use
   the filter box to find items by name or address.
3. Tick the data items to read. Items the agent itself publishes (named after the agent) are listed too; you
   usually only need the machine's own.
4. Select **Add … to the list**. The items become tags in the table.

Each tag's **Address** is the machine's name, the component path and the data item, separated by `/`, for example
`Mill/controller/exec` or `Mill/avail`. Units come from the agent. The data type is chosen from the kind of data
item: positions, speeds, temperatures and loads become numbers, counts become whole numbers, and states such as
execution or availability become text.

Continue with **Place and type** and **Save and verify** as for any device.

## How values are read

- At each read, the gateway asks the agent for the values since its last read, so short changes between two reads
  are not lost. If that fails, it reads the current values instead and tries again later.
- A data item that the agent reports as `UNAVAILABLE` has quality **Uncertain**. A condition in **Fault** has
  quality **Bad**; a condition in **Warning** has quality **Uncertain**.

## The agent ports the gateway tries

Discovery tries these ports on each host: 5000, 5001, 5005, 5006 and 7000. To change the list, set
`MtConnectDiscoveryPorts` in the `[Browse]` section of the gateway's configuration file:

```toml
[Browse]
MtConnectDiscoveryPorts = "5000, 5001, 5005, 5006, 7000"
```

As an environment variable, the same key is `Browse__MtConnectDiscoveryPorts`. The search runs on the gateway, so
set it on the gateway that searches.

## What's next

- [The device page](https://proxus.io/docs/connect/devices/device-page): check the machine's live values.
- [Troubleshoot devices](https://proxus.io/docs/troubleshoot/devices)