Thanks for the clarification Bob. I am never sure of what mach and the motion controller are responsible for doing. I am building a new touch probe and will give it a second go. I think I will take my axis motors from 600 Ipm down to say..... 50 Ipm for my testing! This is a copy of my original post
Posts: 45
View Profile Email Personal Message (Online)
Can anyone please explain the touch probe settings/calibrations?
« on: May 06, 2016, 01:19:42 AM »
Reply with quote
Has anyone successfully used a touch probe in mach 4? It seems to be very inconsistent in the direction it travels when trying to calibrate the z. Most times it goes up, away from the work piece instead of down to contact the work. Without changing anything I can run the calibrate z again and it might go the other direction. The last time I did it, it traveled down to the work piece at 5 Ipm, contacted the material and repeated that process several times, each time the probe light came on when it made contact. After about the third time it did a full rapid move into my vise, turning my touch probe into a pancake. #%@* . After I regained my composure, I removed the wires from what was left of the probe and redid the calibrate Z. This time the z could not physically contact the vise. I broke the wire connection each time to simulate the probe contact. With the same settings I got the touch, touch, touch and ram, A full rapid up to machine z0, faulting out my servo!! Yes, in the other direction. The feed rates for probing was set to 10 and 5 ipm so where is the rapid comming from? Sooooo, before I destroy my machine can anyone give a detailed description on how to set up a probe. The mach manual doesn't mention probing. I cant find anything for mach probing on youtube, ect. A example of someone probing the edge of a vise, bore or boss with screen shots of their settings would be helpful. Anything would help. Thanks