[project5k]

so i've done some searching, and lots and lots of reading, and i have decided that i absolutely must have an electronic touch-off plate for setting my z zero on my work.

I've looked at several methods, and i have decided that the copper clad pcb is the way to go for me... so....

The hardware part is easy, i understand all of that.. but where my problems come in is in the software changes and stuff like that.

i see lots of things about macros and vb scripts and stuff like that, and i have no idea how to do that stuff in mach3.

What i'm hoping for is a step by step process to add this into my mach3, screen shots are a definate + in my book....

If anyone is willing to help me out with this, i would surely appreceiate it.

One thing that i'm going to do that i havent seen any one else do is that i will have the top of my plate be the + and then i'm going to have the bottom be a ground.. I think that it would probably work without it, but i figure, it really cant hurt anything, and might improve the chances of ground finding its way throught the machine..

One other thing that i really liked was having the touchoff information on the screen inplace of the spindle speed control. I'm not using it, so why have it on my screen...

[hoss2006]

I covered the button setup in Mach a bit in this video.
if you download one of the screensets for Mach, the Blue and silver/blue I think,
they have the spindle control replaced with probing buttons.
It's covered in erniebros post.
My video should help show how you assign the codes to the buttons.
Hoss

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrhCzr8ZQs&feature=channel_page"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=khrhCzr8ZQs&feature=channel_page[/ame]

[escott76]

so i've done some searching, and lots and lots of reading, and i have decided that i absolutely must have an electronic touch-off plate for setting my z zero on my work.

I've looked at several methods, and i have decided that the copper clad pcb is the way to go for me... so....

The hardware part is easy, i understand all of that.. but where my problems come in is in the software changes and stuff like that.

i see lots of things about macros and vb scripts and stuff like that, and i have no idea how to do that stuff in mach3.

What i'm hoping for is a step by step process to add this into my mach3, screen shots are a definate + in my book....

If anyone is willing to help me out with this, i would surely appreceiate it.

One thing that i'm going to do that i havent seen any one else do is that i will have the top of my plate be the + and then i'm going to have the bottom be a ground.. I think that it would probably work without it, but i figure, it really cant hurt anything, and might improve the chances of ground finding its way throught the machine..

One other thing that i really liked was having the touchoff information on the screen inplace of the spindle speed control. I'm not using it, so why have it on my screen...

If you solder a wire to the bottom of the plate to make a ground connection you are going to make a bump. Not so good. Although there might be a couple of ways to get a wire on there and get it flat, it's gonna be tricky and prolly best left alone.

[project5k]

nah, flat is easy, drill through the top and middle layers, and then solder to the bottom layer on the inside. then slide heatshrink tube down to keep it from touching the top copper.

i made some simple keycards that way once.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

nah, flat is easy, drill through the top and middle layers, and then solder to the bottom layer on the inside. then slide heatshrink tube down to keep it from touching the top copper.

i made some simple keycards that way once.

BTW - Grounding the bottom side of the touchplate is not a great idea noise-wise. You could inject noise into your other electronics. The "ground" on the machine is likely to be quite noisy compared to the ground at the power supply, and you'd be providing another direct path between them anytime your touchplace was on the machine.

When you use shielded cables with things like home and limit switches, you ground the cable shield only at the power supply end, not the switch end, as that provides the most effective shielding and minimizes noise pickup. Your touchplace should be connected the same way, or you may find it's performance compromised.

Regards,
Ray L.

[project5k]

yea, just like when you'r wiring ballanced audio lines, you allways ground on one end and not the other...