My apologies if this question has been addressed elsewhere. I have attempted due diligence both here and on CNC Zone but have not found an answer. I might
have missed it because of the sheer volume of information and posts. The closest data I found related to commercial probes with vendor supplied software.
I have just completed a homemade contact probe. In an effort to avoid crashing it through dumb setup errors, I wish to incorporate protected moves in my
routines. To do this, I envision using G31 for all moves, then testing the results to see if either I got to where I was supposed to and didn't hit something when I wasn't supposed to or I got to the end of a probe move and didn't hit something when I was supposed to. I have empirically determined that a G31 move with no probe contact acts like a G31 with a probe contact at the end of the programmed move. In others words, there is no error detected and, at least for slow feed rates, the probe is sitting at the end of the move.
However, this creates a problem. If the probe does make contact, the next move will start with the probe activated, causing Mach3 to object saying the probe is
already activated. Mach3 then proceeds to start moving all three axis in small steps, about 1 full step, 5 times a second. This won't stop until E stop is
activated.
What's going on here? I suppose I could do a small G0 to get the probe off the piece before doing the next G31 but I think something is wrong here.
Thank you for your patience and help.