Probing and touch plates - your MSM experience?

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
Sounds perhaps as if the probe is already triggered when the  2nd G31 is issued to mach.
What value do you have XY Clearance set to?

I'm wondering if the XY clearance is set so small that the probe back off far enough to become un-triggered before doing the 2nd probe.

Dave

Hi Dave,

I am having some wierd issues with probing.
It doesn't matter which direction that I probe in.

It starts the probe, touches, and then pauses for a second, and then starts stepping the opposite direction forever until I hit estop.

Here is the error log:
Tue - 21:38:43 ---
Tue - 21:38:44 ---Calling PLC to Probe toward X- ...
Tue - 21:38:48 ---Probe Ignore, activated at call for probe.
Tue - 21:38:57 ---EStop Button Pressed.

I am running:
Mach 3: Version R3.043.016
MSM: 0.3.2
PP

Thanks,

Denzil

Forgot to add that this only happens when I have a "Probe Slow FR" set to something other than 0.

Thanks

[dwessels]

Ok... too wierd.  I restarted Mach3 and tried it again today, and it is now working...
I had the XY clearance set to .4

I only have 1 wierdness left, If I understand how edge probing is supposed to work:

If I do a corner probe starting with the probe right over one of the corners.
It does the following:
-- Z- and zero
-- goes to z clearance, moves X+ to XY clearance I believe
-- goes beyond Z zero (not sure how far, I am guessing the probe diameter?)
-- Probes X- and zero
-- Moves X+ to clearance
-- Moves Y- only XY clearance and never makes it to the Y edge
-- Probes Y+ and misses.  It also seems to only probe XY clearance distance rather than the max XY distance.

I have the following settings:
XY Distance: 2.000
Z Distance: 2.000
Step off width 0.26
XY Clearance: 0.4
Z Clearance: 0.2
Edge width, tried: 0, 0.2, 0.4, etc

Thanks,

Denzil

[DaveCVI]

Hi,
please see inserts below -

I'll see if I can't beef up the explanations in the manual for the next release.
(Sorry, after writing the movement code it was real obvious to me....    )

Please also see the update I just made to the "how to get started with MSM probing" post for some pics that are crude but I hope will help.

Dave

Ok... too wierd.  I restarted Mach3 and tried it again today, and it is now working...
I had the XY clearance set to .4

I only have 1 wierdness left, If I understand how edge probing is supposed to work:

If I do a corner probe starting with the probe right over one of the corners.
It does the following:
-- Z- and zero
-- goes to z clearance, moves X+ to XY clearance I believe
[Dave]: please see section 7.1.5.2 b) of the manual - the amount it moves over is "step off width"

-- goes beyond Z zero (not sure how far, I am guessing the probe diameter?)
[Dave]: please see section 7.1.5.3 of the manual for a nice picture of this

-- Probes X- and zero
-- Moves X+ to clearance
-- Moves Y- only XY clearance and never makes it to the Y edge
[Dave]: nope, The issue is that you have step off width < clearance. These two params interact... during the corner probe operations.
Make step of width large just to show what is going on - make it 0.75.
the try again from about the same inset from the corner as before -
I think things will then be come clearer.

-- Probes Y+ and misses.  It also seems to only probe XY clearance distance rather than the max XY distance.

I have the following settings:
XY Distance: 2.000
Z Distance: 2.000
Step off width 0.26
XY Clearance: 0.4
Z Clearance: 0.2
Edge width, tried: 0, 0.2, 0.4, etc

Thanks,

Denzil

[dwessels]

Hi,
please see inserts below -

I'll see if I can't beef up the explanations in the manual for the next release.
(Sorry, after writing the movement code it was real obvious to me....    )

Please also see the update I just made to the "how to get started with MSM probing" post for some pics that are crude but I hope will help.

Dave

Thanks Dave!

That was it. 
The insert you added "Step off value and corders.pdf" refers to step off value.  I am guessing that that is the same as step off width in the console and the how the get started with probing post. 

Looking forward to the release, as I can now ditch my custom probing screenset that took me ages to cobble together.

Thanks,

Denzil

[DaveCVI]

Yep, same value. I just forgot to change the diagram terminology to match the manual.
Dave

[dwessels]

Hey Dave,

I haven been playing with TLO and probing, and had a basic question.  Could be an idiotic question, but I will ask anyway. (I did read the manual.. )

OK, let's see if I can make any sense. I have a gage block that is also a TP.  I am trying to set Z0 for the top of the part.  I can probe for Z on the probing screen, however it does not take into account the thickness of my gage block (1".)  It will just set the top of the gage block as Z0.  Is there a way to probe to the top of a gage block like that and take into account the thickness of it?

Thanks,

Denzil

[DaveCVI]

Hi Denzil,
MSM should be doing what you want - alas, when I checked, I found that this case had gotten broken in the probing lib & I'm fixing it.

I'm also goiing to add a table to the manual to give what action should be expected for combinatons of
1) G-BLk is TP On/Off, and
2) Probe tool mounted or not.

Dave

Hey Dave,

I haven been playing with TLO and probing, and had a basic question.  Could be an idiotic question, but I will ask anyway. (I did read the manual.. )

OK, let's see if I can make any sense. I have a gage block that is also a TP.  I am trying to set Z0 for the top of the part.  I can probe for Z on the probing screen, however it does not take into account the thickness of my gage block (1".)  It will just set the top of the gage block as Z0.  Is there a way to probe to the top of a gage block like that and take into account the thickness of it?

Thanks,

Denzil

[DaveCVI]

I've sent MSM beta 9 to Scott for posting.
When it is up, please DL it - it should fix the problem of the G-Blk/TP height not being used probing to a Touch Plate.
Also see section 7.4.1.2 in the update manual for the new text.

Dave

[dwessels]

Thanks Dave...

Things seem to be working better now. 

Denzil

I've sent MSM beta 9 to Scott for posting.
When it is up, please DL it - it should fix the problem of the G-Blk/TP height not being used probing to a Touch Plate.
Also see section 7.4.1.2 in the update manual for the new text.

Dave