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Author Topic: What is a good probe to use with Mach?  (Read 12136 times)

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Offline RICH

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #10 on: January 20, 2010, 08:54:53 PM »
Ray,
Picture is worth a thousand words!  ;D
RICH
Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #11 on: January 20, 2010, 10:52:57 PM »
Ray,
Picture is worth a thousand words!  ;D
RICH

Exactly why my next one will capable of simply moving out of the way, then returning to its original position.  Even re-making tips is a PITA, and very time-consuming, when you want the end-result to be on-center to within a few tenths.

Regards,
Ray L.
Regards,
Ray L.

Offline simpson36

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #12 on: January 21, 2010, 05:46:37 AM »
OK, but if you come up with something that works, you gotta share!  :-)

My idea involves an operation that carries some serious potential hazards if it is done incorrectly, so I am reluctant to post it on a public forum, but no problemo on the sharing it it works.

BTW, everything I come up with works . . .it's only a question of how many redesigns are needed to get there . . LOL!!

However, my special talent is taking something that works fine and 'improving' it to the point where it no longer works at all . . .  :D

Offline RICH

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #13 on: January 21, 2010, 09:10:22 AM »
Ray & Simpson36.
I have a nice probe just sitting in a box for a long time but have been reluctant to use it.
The COPYCAT center or edge finding worked quite well. I bent that probe when i used the wrong routine since one is ment for video and one is meant for a probe. Don't remember how accurately the probe found the center but was better than using video or a conventional edge finder. Say better than the runout of the tool end. The probe is rather easy to replace since the probe holder is placed in a collet chuck, piece of ground round is inserted,  and only the end need be trued. This way you can have  different end sizes or shapes if desired.
I never tried profiling something for 3d stuff, one of these days, just another learning curve to go through one of these days. So off to the side to learn something.
RICH 

Offline simpson36

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #14 on: January 21, 2010, 10:28:16 AM »
Ray has my wheels turning now and I don't know about a few tenths, but less than .001 is probably doable and would satisfy my needs.

I can do a proof of concept really easily and then make a working prototype if the machining is successful. I don't have the high speed pullleys made for my new mill yet, so this project will have to wait.  :(


The time eater is probably going to be learning the probe macros and how to use them.

Offline Hood

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #15 on: January 21, 2010, 11:02:54 AM »
I made one but only used it for edge finding, had it dialed in to less than  0.01mm  runout and it was very repeatable. Offices upstairs had a flood and it came down on my collet rack and flooded the probe and have not repaired it yet and miss it as I just use one ofthe sprung ball ones at the moment.
 I will probably make another one but the adjustment I will do differently this time as it was rather finicky the way I had it before.

Hood

Offline Mattw

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Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #16 on: January 21, 2010, 11:12:36 AM »
How about something along the lines of a magnet that keeps the probe in positon, but breaks away when the force gets too high?  I haven't really worked it out in my head yet... just blurting out ideas.

Himmay?  do you really have that much squirrelleyness with Mach?  I haven't done more than jog my machine around and run some sample programs, but it seems to do what I tell it to do (right or wrong, that is.)  If you have posted examples of this going chaotic, please guide me to them.
Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #17 on: January 21, 2010, 11:18:48 AM »
Memory again...But didn't someone already make-up a macro for a probe for centering a circle or square/rectangular piece of stock? A couple of years ago... ???
Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #18 on: January 21, 2010, 11:38:34 AM »
How about something along the lines of a magnet that keeps the probe in positon, but breaks away when the force gets too high?  I haven't really worked it out in my head yet... just blurting out ideas.

Himmay?  do you really have that much squirrelleyness with Mach?  I haven't done more than jog my machine around and run some sample programs, but it seems to do what I tell it to do (right or wrong, that is.)  If you have posted examples of this going chaotic, please guide me to them.

Matt,

Yes, Mach3 really IS that squirrelly.  It will work perfectly for days, or weeks, at a time, then do something stupid.  I've had it do such things as:

1) Spontaneously simply stop executing a g-code program right in the middle.  No E-Stop, no Stop, no FeedHold.  It simply stops doing anything.
2) Spontaneously turn off the spindle or coolant in the middle of running a program
3) Decide, as it has recently, that G4 delays will ALWAYS be in seconds, rather than milliseconds, regardless of the configuation setting
4) Decide to ignore jog commands.  For example, right now, my Z and A axes will not jog after an E-Stop, until I've jogged X or Y.
5) Decide to ignore spindle or coolant on/off commands
6) CV still does NOT work correctly on 3-axis helical moves unless acceleration/velocity settings on all three axes are virtually identical.
7) So many other things, I can't even remember right now....

Probing is, and always has been, particularly flaky.  Most of the time it works fine, but every once in a while, it decides to move the wrong axis, or move it in the wrong direction, or move multiple axes, or simply ignore the probe input entirely, or do the probe operation correctly, then move the wrong direction on the retract.  Pretty much all of these stand a very high chance of breaking a rigid probe, as they have done to me countless times.  Just last week I had yet another tool ruined, along with two touchplates, when Mach3 decided to ignore the probe input, and it simply drove the tool right through the touchplate and into the workpiece with several hundred pounds of force, stalling the quill servo.

Virtually all of the bugs I've witnessed over the years have, eventually, been proven to be actual bugs in either Mach3, or the SmoothStepper, or the communications, or lack thereof, between the two.  And, most have been fixed, or at least reduced in frequency of occurrence.  But, I'm still running on almost a one year old version of Mach3 and SS plug-in, as I've seen problems in the later releases.  At least the version I use are a known quantity.  Hopefully, Mach3 v4, once it's out and de-bugged, will become a more stable platform, but right now it's got a long ways to go before it can be considered robust.

If you search here and the Yahoo Mach3 forum, you will find dozens, if not hundreds, of posts I've made over the years reporting the problems I've seen.  While many people tried to blame many of the problems on the very slow PC I was using for quite a while, not ONE problem was ever definitively pinned on the PC, and the vast majority were PROVEN to be actual Mach3 or SS bugs, and most have since been fixed.  It works FAR better now than it did two years ago.

Regards,
Ray L.
Regards,
Ray L.
Re: What is a good probe to use with Mach?
« Reply #19 on: January 21, 2010, 11:41:47 AM »
Memory again...But didn't someone already make-up a macro for a probe for centering a circle or square/rectangular piece of stock? A couple of years ago... ???

I have "published" several sets of macros for doing edge finding, tool length setting, center finding, mid-point finding, measuring distance, etc, .etc.  The most recent were posted a few weeks ago.  Modulo the unavoidable random Mach3 bugs, these have worked perfectly for me.  There will soon be a new Mach3 screenset, which will be the default screenset for v4, that has similar macros, based on mine, built in.

Regards,
Ray L.
Regards,
Ray L.