Warning probing still broken on the UC-300

[derek]

I did a ton of Z axis probes with the UC-100 and had no problems.

Just got my new Tormach probe and was using it in my mill with the UC-300 and it did the same thing as lat time. Went to find the Z surface and just kept going even thought the probe indicator was lit.

Back to the drawing board:(

I'm emailing Balazs now and I'll post back what I find.

Derek

[DaveCVI]

Well at least when a problem tracks with what hardware is used, you have a good idea where the problem lies.
Dave

[derek]

No The problem lies in that I'm an idiot:)

Somehow I ended up with a -.75 tool offset loaded for the probe tool. I removed it by calling up another g43# and then loaded the probe which has 0 offset and it's working fine.

I'm assuming (hoping) that was the problem?

You know it's not the price of they stylus that sucks it's the time it took to get the runnout out!

Derek

[DaveCVI]

The TLO for the probe will depend on the TLO scheme you are using. IF you are using Master tool Mode and the probe is the master tool, then it's TLO will be = 0 (as the master tool's TLO is always 0). But if you are touching toof tools to a surface then the Probe will have a non-zero TLO and since TLOs are negative numbers in this scheme, a -0.75 is not an impossible number. IF you were using PLT for TLO, then the TLO number would be > 0 (as it's hard to have a physical length <0).

Caution: Don't set TLO values for one approach, then run in a different mode....

Dave

[derek]

The TLO for the probe will depend on the TLO scheme you are using. IF you are using Master tool Mode and the probe is the master tool, then it's TLO will be = 0 (as the master tool's TLO is always 0). But if you are touching toof tools to a surface then the Probe will have a non-zero TLO and since TLOs are negative numbers in this scheme, a -0.75 is not an impossible number. IF you were using PLT for TLO, then the TLO number would be > 0 (as it's hard to have a physical length <0).

Caution: Don't set TLO values for one approach, then run in a different mode....

Dave

Well I was in master tool mode so that-.75 would cause issues. Correct? Issues as in broken rubies. And I'm not talking slippers:)

Derek

Edit: The probe would go down to the surface, pause, then proceed downward. Does this sound like a symptom of using a master tool with a negative offset?

[DaveCVI]

Well I was in master tool mode so that-.75 would cause issues. Correct?

We need to draw a distinction here between Master Tool MODE (MTM) and what tool # is set to be the master tool.
with MTM ON, the TLO for the master will be = 0. This is because in MTM all tool TLO values are relative to the master tool PTL (Physical tool length), in other words the TLO is the difference between the Master Tools PTL and the tools PTL. SO... the difference between the Masters PTL and the Masters PTL has to = 0.

Not then, assuming MTM is in use, what the TLO for the probe tool will be depends on if the probe tool is the master tool. It could be or it courf not be. If the Probe tool # DRO (WC Offset, probing tab) has the same value as the Master tool # DRO (Tooling page), this is the setup that tells MSM that the probe tool is also indeed the master tool. In that case the TLO for the probe tool will = 0 (as it is the master).

Well at least it will be if you have MSM measure the probe tool. OF course you can always put any value you want into the tool table as the TLO for any tool... If the operator puts in a value, it gets used - the old garbage in, garbe out situation.

If the MT# is Not = Probe tool, and MTM is on, then the TLO for the probe toll will be the difference between the PTL of the master and the PTL of the probe tool. in this case, a TLO value of 0.75 is possible- it would be saying that the probe tool is 0.75 different in length from the master tool.

Edit: The probe would go down to the surface, pause, then proceed downward. Does this sound like a symptom of using a master tool with a negative offset?

Probably not. What MSM does when double probing is:
G91 G31 to the find a surface (G91 is convenient as it's easy to say probe for max probe dist)
Check if probe is triggered. If it is we found a surface. if not go back to start point.
back off surface using G91
probe a 2nd time using G91 G31
check if triggered - if so back off by user set back off distance.

Note that MS uses G31 in G91 mode - some controllers mess up G31 in G91 modes; that's an all too common problem.

Another thought - make sure that you have set the probe diameter correctly in the tool table. If may not be obvious, but the logic of things assumes you are moving a sphere around to find surfaces. The Diameter sets the radius of the sphere - and that radius is used for Z probes (as well as X and Y). Some people have thought that diameter only matters for X&Y - but that's not true.

Dave