I have finally gotten around to experimenting with a digitizing probe. I have it set up on my machine as I type this. I thought I'd start with the digitizing wizard. Pulled that up and put in some rather small numbers,just to see what I'd get in code. I must say I am a little shaky about how this works but this is what I'm assuming: if I put in a higher 'travel height' and a zero height for 'probe depth' I figure I should be pretty safe from crashing the tip of the probe, or at least that's the way I see it (height would be the highest it goes and depth would be at zero). So anyway, I put in a very small height of .5 as I did on the x and y area (.5 as well) and a larger stepover for x and y (.01).
So when I look at the code, I'm getting numbers like Z-6.**. Any suggestions. I'm not turning it on for real until I'm pretty sure I have this so I don't kill the probe. Thanks,Keith

X& Y widths are based on starting at 0,0

Zaxis travel height is the height above Z0 that you want to move at

Z axis probe depth is the distance below Z0 that you want as a MAX probed depth. IF mach reaches this point and has not tripped it stops.

X &Y stepover is the resolution of the scan. Basically how fine you want the grid to be.


I suggest you test it in air first tripping the probe with your finger.

Then move on to a test subject(;-)

Hope that helps, (;-) TP

How good / solid is the wizard? I never really tried it.  I have a $300 probe collecting dust, but don't want it to end up in the garbage can.

RICH

WELL (;-)  The wizard works just fine it does create the proper Gcode file to do exactly what you programed it to do.

BUT, sometimes there is a problem with the way Mach/VB/Gcode get along when running together.

I can say that mach/vb/gcode is better behaved than it used to be, (;-)  BUT???  You pay your nickel and you take your chance, I use the probing function about every day with about 95%success and no major problems.

But I won't do a 3d type probe again(;-) until I see a better VB/Mach relationship.

(;-) TP

Okay. All is good and working. Thanks for all your help. I notice that the wizard does not 'save' the parameters once you exit. Each time I go back to the page, there is a group of 'default'(numbers, in the boxes. I also evry once in a while get an error where the script page comes up and the error is always the last line: 'Call load teach file ( )'.
I am now going to try the 'probe plug-in'. I will start another thread for this since the plug-in loads, but I understand you need to enable it and in config, I have no line for 'enable plug-ins' which I see in the manual. -Keith

Hi Keith - In your OP you mentioned you were getting G31 Z numbers like -6.**. I know this was to save you typing but just for fun here's the actual number I get: -6.2774385622042e+066. Which in inches (or mm for that matter) equates to about a gazillion miles - straight down :-) That's some probe depth and I don't blame you for being concerned, though of course even with this number if the probe trips it'll stop well before it bores its way through to China.

As far as I can tell the reason this happens is that if you don't actually type anything into the wizard DROs and just accept the defaults then GetUserDRO returns these magical numbers!!! Just make sure you type a number - even if its the same as the default and hit return. Then the wizard will produce what you'd expect. I agree absolutely with Terry - Mach and the current VB offering don't play at all well together. BUT - once the wizard has produced your gcode - there's no further involvement btween Mach and the VB so if the gcode makes sense (allways check it) then Mach should do what it's told just fine - well as Terry says again - most of the time...

Ian

Keith,
I am getting into the probe thing, but have learned that the plugin is really a only good for older releases of Mach like R 2.63.
What plugin did you use and what release of Mach did you use?
Thanks.
Rick

Rick, I went back to '1.84.001' , I think because the newer version didn't have the 'convert DXF' which I tend to use sometimes.-Keith

Thanks. It seems so far that anyone who has a probe working is running an older version of Mach3.

Where do I get a probe?