[ubergeekseven]

Oh. Not using that one. Should have stated that. I'm using the crafty CNC one.

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[wmgeorge]

Oh. Not using that one. Should have stated that. I'm using the crafty CNC one.

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Here is my thought of the day. BTW I have done Zero on mine since finding out the pin out may be wrong. Thought, get a very small 12 volt relay, they make them to fit on a IC socket. Run source 12 v+ to one side of the coil and then the - side of the coil go into and out of the probe. Its just going to act as a switch for the relay. Then you can use the relay contacts for anything. When the probe hits something its going to de- energize the relay.

[ubergeekseven]

Here is my thought of the day. BTW I have done Zero on mine since finding out the pin out may be wrong. Thought, get a very small 12 volt relay, they make them to fit on a IC socket. Run source 12 v+ to one side of the coil and then the - side of the coil go into and out of the probe. Its just going to act as a switch for the relay. Then you can use the relay contacts for anything. When the probe hits something its going to de- energize the relay.

I thought about using a ssr. But, I finally have everything working and working well.
Turns out that I had the transistor set up in a way that it was just producing the n/c output. I had to change it so that the probe went to ground and then run the 12v output from the brown wire through a current limiting resistor. The brown 12v also powers the circuit. Then the blue 12v signal line goes to the collector of the transistor and the ground goes to the emitter. I knew it had to be something simple and have no idea how I was able to get the circuit to work on accident a couple times. Now I know exactly what to do.

I will post everything as soon as I can. I have a schematic and pictures to help. The support from Eric at crafty CNC is amazing. He sent me a sketch of what he thought could be done for the schematic and from that I was able to test another scenario that included the ground and current limiting resistor to the probe. I would not have figured that out even though I always use the same sort of setup with pin inputs and buttons so that I don't have a floating input on microcontrollers.



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[wmgeorge]

Excellent. Yes and I have a solid state relay around someplace but never thought of it. I should be out working on it right now but its so darn cold out and It would take an hour to heat the shop from 45 to 65 DegF.

[wmgeorge]

I did find my tiny soldering iron tip and got some more wires in the plug to bring out an test because there is a little difference between the plug diagram and the numbers. Got the two I needed and hooked up temporary and the active low pin switched to active high and it tested ok. So tomorrow I will use my good plug and wire it up permanently.

[ubergeekseven]

I did find my tiny soldering iron tip and got some more wires in the plug to bring out an test because there is a little difference between the plug diagram and the numbers. Got the two I needed and hooked up temporary and the active low pin switched to active high and it tested ok. So tomorrow I will use my good plug and wire it up permanently.

I was actually going to mention that, already started typing it up and left the app. Everything I typed is gone. Anyway, I guess you decided to try the white wire instead of the black for the input. The black has a 1.2k resistor on it for what I think is a pulldown or up resistor. It took me a week of going to cncrp and the probe guy to work out what was happening. After getting all of the data sheets for everything I could identify and then working out the inverter, I can say I mostly understand what's happening inside.

I still do not understand why the blue wire has 12v, other than it is active low and no current goes through until pulled to ground. I think I just answered my own question about that. However, I'm adding the schematic that worked for inverting so I can have as many inputs on that one input as I want to.

Going to add a tool offset touch plate next, to eliminate using the corner plate for tool offsets, other than the setup. I kept messing up the circuit at first because when testing, I was trying to light up an LED and got that working the first time without issue. Then I figured it would be bad to connect the brown 12v to the circuit with the 12v from the signal wire. So I attempted to use the signal wire to power the circuit. Well, it would need to have ground for that to work, so it always shows in theach3 screen as activated. Because it was. The brown wire now powers the circuit and the transistor controls when ground is connected to the signal wire. So it only activates when a connection is not seen on the probe.

Typing that out actually just let me understand it more than I thought I did. Funny what sleeping can do after you fumble something together and make it work. I swear I was trying to work it out in my sleep and couldn't think about anything but this when awake. Seriously, such an easy circuit. But any not gate circuit you see, without experience, would make you think that triggering by putting the probe on the 12v side would work. It's completing the path, but it's only the opposite when using the ground! Now I know and I'll probably read this again when I forget.

Here's my circuit schematic. I may, in the future, order a pack of 10 boards from a place I use. Real cheap. $10 for 10 boards. Jlcpcb and they have a schematic program and board program that works online and now they have a program that can be installed. I've used them several times after it took so little time to receive and the price is insanely low. They throw your boards on what would be waste of other jobs. They can even populate boards.

I'm thinking of making one with several not gates that can be bypassed by switches. Building a housing for M12 connectors, one in and however many out you want. Probably 3 though. Then you could run it from the input and plug in 3 probes and flip a switch to invert signal.

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[wmgeorge]

Ok mine does not need to be inverted, I have attached a picture of my notes from the job. It was a SOB soldering tiny wire to tiny pins. My trusty soldering iron with a small tip and magnifying glass on an arm. It works I just need to get it working with the machine software.

[dharmic]

Bear in mind you're working with N/C & N/O contacts - it's the input side's job to do the pull-up. R1 is redundant. Leave it floating when the output's open, pull it down with the transistor to close it. Want to make it even simpler? Switch the tranny out for an N channel FET and you can ditch R2 as well

[ubergeekseven]

Ok mine does not need to be inverted, I have attached a picture of my notes from the job. It was a SOB soldering tiny wire to tiny pins. My trusty soldering iron with a small tip and magnifying glass on an arm. It works I just need to get it working with the machine software.

Well, my next step is to get the software all working. I bought 2010 screener a while back and never got around to setting up because of confusing things I didn't understand until recently.

When I get the chance, I'm going to add the corner plate script to that screenset and get the probe all working. I know that's not what you're looking for, but I'll need to get the probe working in the same way you will. I'll post what I do to get there. Hopefully someone during the week.

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[wmgeorge]

So I did my first ever scan with the new probe. Object to learn how to scan or digitize without crashing the probe. I taped with masking tape a upside down container of screws. Set everything slow and easy for a Perimeter scan. I had the step over set at .02 and soon realized it would take hours to do. Aborted and set the step over at .1 which is a lot, and it went pretty fast. It created a .dxf file that looked just like the part only of course it has no scale .

So when you take into a CAD or VCarve Pro you need to tell it Inches or MM's. When I first saw the file which looked pretty darn good, not a point cloud like I expected but a drawing. The file had a blip in the lower right corner, a screw up darn.... but when examine the part I found the same bent over area!!

[ubergeekseven]

So I did my first ever scan with the new probe. Object to learn how to scan or digitize without crashing the probe. I taped with masking tape a upside down container of screws. Set everything slow and easy for a Perimeter scan. I had the step over set at .02 and soon realized it would take hours to do. Aborted and set the step over at .1 which is a lot, and it went pretty fast. It created a .dxf file that looked just like the part only of course it has no scale .

So when you take into a CAD or VCarve Pro you need to tell it Inches or MM's. When I first saw the file which looked pretty darn good, not a point cloud like I expected but a drawing. The file had a blip in the lower right corner, a screw up darn.... but when examine the part I found the same bent over area!!

I want to try and scan on the rotary axis. If I could mount a log and scan it and then wrap something around that as the material block,I could take the game design and put it on unique pieces.

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[wmgeorge]

What you need is what I am looking for also but not for 4th axis. IF you could scan and create a point cloud and convert to STL file would that work? Perhaps mounting your round on a rotisserie (stepper motor) so to speak and turn by hand indexed to stop at certain distance.

I am looking for the old Mach3 point cloud creating probe Wizard. Maybe I need to go to Mach4?

[squirrel_41]

My probe routines do 4 axis point cloud for Mach3 search for "Squirrel Probes"

[ubergeekseven]

My probe routines do 4 axis point cloud for Mach3 search for "Squirrel Probes"

This is what I'm looking for.

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[wmgeorge]

After searching I found the file download. How many people have used this add in or macro successfully?

[squirrel_41]

I have no Idea I use it myself on a daily basis I can only tell you it has been downloaded over 600 times I built the routines to suit my needs
I have had no feed back from any other user (good or bad)
If you need any help with them I would be happy to assist.
cheers !

[wmgeorge]

I have no Idea I use it myself on a daily basis I can only tell you it has been downloaded over 600 times I built the routines to suit my needs
I have had no feed back from any other user (good or bad)
If you need any help with them I would be happy to assist.
cheers !

So it does a point cloud from a setup 2.5D object, like a dish or plate? My son brings me something from time to time like a carburetor mounting plate he would like to copy.

[squirrel_41]

The 4th axis probes routines are for objects placed in the rotary 4th axis ie A axis it can be parallel to the X or Y axis selected from the interface.
The object is then probed for 360 Degrees, degree increment and point step is chosen from the settings.
At the end of the probe you click a button to generate the 3d point cloud which is a simple text file containing the the ZYZ point locations in 3d space in my case I then load this into Mastercam and put a surface on the 3D point cloud.
There are many ways to skin a point cloud this is left entirely up to you and the software you have if, you never done this before it will be a big learning curve for you.
You 4th axis needs to have homing capabilities as do all your other axis many thing can go wrong with probe routines
I have designed these routines specifically for Mach3 and to be as simple as possible to use.
I need to do more work on the help screens but because of the lack off feedback I have not done this as yet.
I built the routines and know exactly how they all work so I don't need the help.
But as I said before I would be happy to help you.

[wmgeorge]

I do not need 4th axis probing but I assume it will do standard flat table object scanning? I am not looking for "free", looking for something that works and I am willing to make a donation or purchase whatever does the job. Thanks for the feedback and I took a brief look at the files and I am impressed by the amount of work you have put into this!!

[ubergeekseven]

The 4th axis probes routines are for objects placed in the rotary 4th axis ie A axis it can be parallel to the X or Y axis selected from the interface.
The object is then probed for 360 Degrees, degree increment and point step is chosen from the settings.
At the end of the probe you click a button to generate the 3d point cloud which is a simple text file containing the the ZYZ point locations in 3d space in my case I then load this into Mastercam and put a surface on the 3D point cloud.
There are many ways to skin a point cloud this is left entirely up to you and the software you have if, you never done this before it will be a big learning curve for you.
You 4th axis needs to have homing capabilities as do all your other axis many thing can go wrong with probe routines
I have designed these routines specifically for Mach3 and to be as simple as possible to use.
I need to do more work on the help screens but because of the lack off feedback I have not done this as yet.
I built the routines and know exactly how they all work so I don't need the help.
But as I said before I would be happy to help you.

I have homing on all axis except for the a axis. I've set it up to be able to rotate a very large amount of times without running to the"end". Does your 4th only rotate 360 once?

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