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Hello everyone,
I want to purchase a touch plate and a probe for setting tool offsets in Mach standard mill. I have been a machinist for 38 years but I know nothing about electronics. Question: Where do I look for info in setting up these accessories? I noticed that the PDB panel has a 3.5mm plug for a probe on it but not sure where the other end of the plug goes? There is nothing connected to my Break Out Board “probe” pin #15?
Thanks,
Dave Z
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Interested in where this goes. I messed around with trying to connect my tool setter directly to the BOB along those screw terminals, but couldn't get it to work, so I just put an 1/8 male headphone jack on the toolsetter and probe and just swap them out. The connection for the probe port that's on the PDB, appears to run through the harness that connects the PDB to the BOB.
So you are connecting to the 1/8 plug on the PDB?Quote:
Originally Posted by WTFover
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Yes sir. I ended up just cutting up some old headphones to get the ends I needed. IIRC, the polarity does not matter, as it's just looking for a completed circuit.
Ok, so if I plug a probe into this headphone jack, I will only have to tell the software that a probe is installed and it should read the probe signal? I assume the probe will come with a manual for setup and installation. Any recommendations as to what is a good, reasonably priced 3D Touch probe?Quote:
Originally Posted by WTFover
Thanks again,
Dave Z
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The answer to your first question is yes. As for a recommendation I bought one of Cliff Hall's Impact Tolerant Touch Probes, and as far as cost, It really depends on what your idea of reasonable price is. Being a new CNC machinist, I wanted something that might be somewhat capable of absorbing a mistake. It is very well made and very accurate for a passive probe. His initial market was for Tormach machines, but it works just fine in the Novakon. Look him up on his YouTube channel "Threadexpress". Cliff actually has video manuals that are private that completely go over the setup of the touch probe in PathPilot. If you are using Mach3 or something else, you will have to measure and adjust the concentricity of the touchprobe, and then the provided measurements of the ball tip and length should be all you need. That's the only TTS style probe that I am aware of, other than the ones you can purchase from Tormach. I am sure there are others though. For a tool setter, I just got one of those Shina SK-66 $100 jobs off of Amazon. It repeats to better than half a thousandth, although with the Torus Pro, I did need to raise the tool setter height by 2" by putting it up on top of a pair of 1-2-3 blocks. The spindle did not come down close enough to the table otherwise.
As a post script to the tool setter questions, I remember the instructions for the tool setter being comically bad. Basically a piece of paper a little larger than a postage stamp. I believe I found instructions on here on how to wire it, just search for Shina. It's a normally open circuit so pretty easy to test.
Thank you for the info, I did see and talk to Mr. Hall about his touch probe and it looks to be of nice quality. No I just have to gather some change together and this is a hard time of year to do that with the holidays upon us. Thank again,Quote:
Originally Posted by WTFover
Dave Z
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Here is a link to another TTS probe for $249. Their building was totally destroyed by the recent fires in California and they are relocating to Texas so they may not be available for a while.. There are a number of youtube videos speaking highly of their probes.
https://drewtronics.org/s5000led-tts-1
Yeah, doesn’t look like they are shipping product. So sad!Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve303
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Ok, need more help. The drewtronic probe is now back in stock and this probe is a (NC) normally closed device. I am using a home-made (NO) normally open touch probe with the power drawbar 1/8” headphone jack. My question is, do I need to buy a normally closed touch plate so I can just switch the plugs and use both separately without changing the Mach 3 settings? As you can see, I know nothing about electronics.
Sorry for the stupidity.
Dave
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