[Pplug]

Has anyone ever converted a Renishaw TSP1 touch probe for use with a LC 4896 and the techno probing software?

[Pplug]

The renishaw probe is just a simple normally closed switch that opens when the probe is hit. Could this be configured to work with the lines from the tool touch pad. The tool touch pad is in the encoder 4 slot?

[Montabelli]

the key is in the wiring, there are several ios and the expansion interface for those with a 4th axis will have to use this. I would think they would not use the same inputs for the probe as the touch pad, or the remote start stop, etc otherwise one would be constantly re wiring the thing.

[Pplug]

I found a wiring diagram for the servo control board, it showed all the pinouts for the encoders. The diagram shows that the tool touch off is connected to the home pin on the encoder connector. In the diagnostics window of the probe software, the tool touch off shows when triggered. There is a separate input for the probe that I do not know how to trigger. Knowing that I cannot use the tool touch on encoder 4, how do I connect the probe to the control box so it will be recognized?

How does the real techno touch probe connect to the servo box?

I have the base LC/LP controller without the expansion card.

Any Ideas?

[Pplug]

BINGO!

I started experimenting last night and found out what pins on the expansion port to use! I took a look in the diagnostics setup section in the probe interface. I saw that some inputs were labeled with numbers. I took a look at the pinout diagram and they corresponded to the number of inputs. I then took a SCSI internal connector and stuck switch leads in the holes. The darn switch worked on the probe input the first time!

[Montabelli]

congrats, I never even thought of using the diagnostic section

[XJ13Jaguar]

Good Morning Pplug,
I'm looking for some wiring help to install my Renishaw probe onto my LC4896. I have read a lot of your posts and your mind goes down the same paths, as mine, very often. I searched the CNCzone blog and you popped up. You are a great source of information for many people.
I was interested what was the final wiring configuration that you ended up with?
Thanks

[Pplug]

They say great minds think alike....

It was a while ago that I did that. If I remember correctly, I put a volt meter on the connector pins and found the ground pins. I then put the g code interface on the diagnostic screen. I used a wire to touch each of the pins to ground and saw that the lights on the diagnostic screen would light up according to the shorted pins.

Look at the pin out diagrams for the connectors in the techno manuals on their web site. Those were a huge help to find the right connector and pins.

I found the probe pin that way and connected a ribbon cable to the driver board. I then ran a 30 ft telephone wire through the cable runs up to the flexible coiled probe wire.

The damn thing worked!

The next time I open the control box, I'll take some Picts, but it really looks like a cob-job.

[fcarpcarp]

Eric Feldman at ArmorCNC was a BIG help to me on this.

My machine is an LCX Plus with a I/O riser card coming off the processor card. On it are two 15 pin D-subs. Connect your normally closed probe across pins 2 and 14 on either one.

Eric also passed along a nice tip for those of us who may not have probes, but might have (as I do) an edge finder that lights up. The part I needed to map was a lexan sunroof, so I wrapped foil tape around the edges and top of the part, along with strips down the middle in X and Y. My part was symmetrical so I only needed to map half the part.
I then connected the tape to spindle ground, so that when the edge finder touched the tape it lit up (I foil taped a point to the end of the edge finder).
Open the Techno Interface, and select EDIT. The purpose here is to automatically collect XYZ data and output it to a TXT or CSV file.
Select Format String (bottom of screen) and format your data as you wish. You now step your axis around and whenever your probe touches the part, press F11 to record the data.
In my case, I indexed around the 3 sides to collect X-Y data, then stepped about .03" inside the part edges and collected the Z data for the perimeter.
Lastly, I collected the XYZ data for the strips I had run down the dorsal and lateral strips. 2 files for each of three edges, 1 file for each center strip, for 8 scans total.
I was careful to do all scans with the same point spacing and going in the same direction.

Bingo, copy and paste the top edge Z data into the Z column of the XY edge scans, and I had all the information I needed to take the data to Rhino3D and generate curves from the points, then use 2 rail sweep to generate the surface of the part from the left, right, and center cross curves, with top and bottom as rails. Less prone to error than manually collecting and transcribing the data and much, much faster.

Needless to say, you could use the same technique with a battery and a light bulb connected in series with the spindle and the tape.
I was pleased with the results, and repeatability was within .005 on repetitive touches at the same location.
Eric saved me a load of time with this function: I owe him a beverage of his choice (case of them, actually).

I'd like to pass on a couple of other things. I had picked up a momentary contact pushbutton (NC) with the intention of attempting to use it as a Z only touch probe.
You can fool the TechnoProbe software into doing this by setting the X scan interval to .0001" and it will touch Z and retract, then index to the next Y interval.
All well and good, but Eric warned me the software was tetchy about noisy switches or hysteresis and would continue to drive the spindle down after a touch.
So I tried using the switch on a disposable surface and yes, it does just that. So be careful

fcc