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complex probe moves not working
« on: October 20, 2020, 03:44:44 PM »
Hello, I try to get my new 3D touch probe working in Mach4, but I am puzzled with certain not working behavior. While simple probing like edge finding or z-finding works OK more complex moves like finding center of opposite edges do not work. Here the probe should move from the middle past the first edge, dive down and do its probe move.
In my Mach4 it only does the first x/y move behind the first edge and stops. Nothing more until Reset is pressed. Normally it should move down the z-axis to dive in, but it stops in middle of the probing script.
Anybody with an idea what's might going wrong?
I tried different z-settings and even the most recent developer version of Mach 4.2 without any success.

Mike

Offline Graham Waterworth

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Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #1 on: October 20, 2020, 08:33:15 PM »
What motion controller and probe are you using?
Without engineers the world stops
Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #2 on: October 21, 2020, 03:33:43 AM »
I am using an UC400 controller over Ethernet together with my Stepcraft M.500 machine. 3D touch probe is from Poland, Slavtec.
The thing is some probe moves do work and some more complex do not. I have no idea why.

Offline Graham Waterworth

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Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #3 on: October 21, 2020, 04:49:22 PM »
Has the UC400 driver/config got a 'safe probe move' option?  we have seen this option on some controllers and it stops some of the Z moves while the G31 is active.

I use a CS-Labs and had to use my own probing routines for this reason.

Without engineers the world stops
Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #4 on: October 21, 2020, 05:44:38 PM »
I am also starting to think it's an motion controller issue in connection with the build in Mach4 scripts.
Is there any source for self made LUA probing scripts for Mach4?
Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #5 on: December 23, 2020, 02:55:43 AM »
I have a similar problem with Mach4 and ESS. Simple probing moving in one direction to a single surface works and so does measuring an internal diameter but probing requiring 2 or more moves such as finding an external corner or measuring the diameter of a boss fail. It is behaving as if it is expecting the probe to make contact on the first move. The probe should only make contact after the 2nd move for finding an external corner or the 3rd move for measuring a boss. If I set up extra obstructions in the right places for the probe to hit as it does the complex moves then it progresses through the sequence of moves so something is wrong with the way the probe state is appearing or being checked in the probing script. It is not obvious to me where the script error is as looking through it and comparing the probe checking for simple probing and complex probing the logic looks correct.
Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #6 on: December 23, 2020, 03:22:40 AM »
When I ran into this problem I started with the UC400 module. At a certain point I realized that the the UC400 driver is my problem in so many issues that I had to say the UC400 is not usable with Mach4 at all. So this as a warning to all.
I swapped the Ethernet board to the ESS and almost all problems disappear beside your problem mentioned above. From what I've learned so far Mach4 is making the preparation moves as probing moves in case it hits something. But in default configuration the ESS driver expects to hit something before the move is over. This does not happen with the preparation moves.
This behavior can be set up in the ESS config at the probing page. Here set the option not to generate an error if probing fails. Then it works.

Mike
Re: complex probe moves not working
« Reply #7 on: December 23, 2020, 05:13:27 PM »
Thanks Mike. That solved the problem. I had to update the latest ESS plugin to find the option to stop the ESS probing from aborting. Looking through the standard Mach4 LUA probing module code I think some of it is a bit dangerous. There are a number of places with G0 and G1 moves. I think these should all be G31 probe moves so that if the probe makes contact the motion stops. With G0 and G1 moves if there is also an incorrect work offset or probe length active, then there is a high probability of crashing and damaging or destroying the probe. It would also be useful if the Probe screens had X, Y and Z axis DROs particularly with the option to display distance to go.
Keith