[The Meerkat]

Marting,
I had read good things about mach blue auto z and tried going down the road you're on. If and when you get discouraged with it, please take the advice of Jalissi below and download the code from Hoss Machine. If you made the auto centering and auto z devices that Erniebro detailed with pictures at the beginning of this post you'll be thrilled with Hoss Machine's code. It works perfectly with both devices. Here is the exact location you can download it from. Look about halfway down and you'll find the download. The link is small but it's there. Also, Hoss has very cool videos showing off how the code works and one of the coolest machines I've ever seen. I'm not knocking mach blue, I just could never get it to work as advertised. Hoss and Erniebro rock. Jalissi is a hero for guiding me to it. Hope this helps.

Automatic Tool Probe - CNC - The Hossmachine Forum

[ger21]

I'm not knocking mach blue, I just could never get it to work as advertised.

The standard Mach Blue has no probing options. There are a few different modified versions that support probing.

[The Meerkat]

Jer21 is right and made me remember that I was actually having trouble with the "Big Tex" version of mach blue. Big Tex is the one that's supposed to have all the cool auto centering script. But again, I couldn't get it to work and went with Hoss Machines version instead.

Thanks for clarifying that Gerry.

[marting]

Hi Meerkat, thanks for the pointers, much appreciated. At the moment I am browsing around to see what options or capabilities there are, in terms of ease of use in general. Since I am only using mach3 as an intermediate program between the CNC and CAD/CAM, I am not interested in canned cycles, 3D digitising or any of that stuff. What I truly want out of it at the end of the day is that I would be able to reference the cutting head to the workpiece in the beginning and then the rest is taken care of by the tool changer and touch plate for Z reference in between tool change. So far from what I read this is achievable, my quest here is to see which is the ideal setup for me without having to tweak too many things.

Any comments or advice are more than welcomed.
Thanks

[marting]

Oh Yes, I almost forgot!! Meerkat, I've tried to download from the link (The Hossmachine Forum) you provided but could neither register as a member nor download anything. I'll be doing some more searching for this screen.
Thanks

[Papkov_N]

I have MachBlue_setup and BlueProbeVer3. If that is what you are looking for, I can send by email. tell your mailbox.

[marting]

Hi to all you Guys!
Firstly I'd like to thank you for the feedback you have given me and secondly I like to let you know my progress so far. Well this week I've been setting up a separate PC to play around with MACH3 on without risking messing up my CNC, installed Hossmachine screen set and went around to familiarise myself with the looks and submitted my orders for the tool changer, which should be on the way.

To be honest I'm a bit reluctant to the Hossmachine screen set but it might be until I get used to it and maybe also have a look at other layouts and possibilities ...... one at a time! Another major thing thing that may be attributing to this reluctance is that once I wasn't quite sure about a button on Mach3 and ended up crashing the CNC machine ..... ever since I done all zeroing manually. On a more positive note, the Hossmachine screen set seems to have what I need, so I call it one step forward, but as I said, I'd like to see some other screen sets before I decide.
Thanks

[pauls]

I know this is an old thread but I'm setting up my router and would also like to add the auto probe feature to my IH mill. I can't get any response from the Hoss info pages and does anyone have this working on the newer Mach 3 or 4. . I would appreciate any help because when I try to bring up on the Mach support site I get error messages.
Thanks
Paul

[Trell]

I know this is an old thread but I'm setting up my router and would also like to add the auto probe feature to my IH mill. I can't get any response from the Hoss info pages and does anyone have this working on the newer Mach 3 or 4. . I would appreciate any help because when I try to bring up on the Mach support site I get error messages.
Thanks
Paul

I did try everything and nothing works better than The CNC Woodworker - Mach3 2010 and ger21 is on CNC Zone and email to give support
Work great and only 20 bucks. Got the free stuff to work but this is so much better and you don't get errors
this is the forum that it is on and you can get the help and ask questions on the issue. Maybe do a screen shoot of the error and let the forum take a look at it.
I couldnt get mine to work and Ger21 emailed me til it was up and running the way it should.
Good luck

[Trell]

Mach3 2010
sorry this is the forum that he is at Forgot to add it

[pauls]

Thanks, I looked at it and placed my order

[Papkov_N]

I know this is an old thread but I'm setting up my router and would also like to add the auto probe feature to my IH mill. I can't get any response from the Hoss info pages and does anyone have this working on the newer Mach 3 or 4. . I would appreciate any help because when I try to bring up on the Mach support site I get error messages.
Thanks
Paul

Hi Pauls! If it's still relevant, I can send. Tell me your email.

[Papkov_N]

You got my letter?

[maxpack]

I have installed the blue screen and the centre probe code, but it appears that the probe will only move up to 3mm before giving up and returning to zero. Is there a modification to the code to either increase the travel to, say, 15mm - or eliminate the limit altogether?

[Papkov_N]

This screenset for inch system. And You, metric. Give your email address, I will send You instruction how to alter. my email <[email protected]>

[on7tim7]

Hi, You have done a beautiful job! This is something that I always wanted to have on my mill. I followed all your instructions and everything went great! Only I have a problem that probably you will know what its causing it. On the blue screen the "touch plate led" is not complete off as it should be till you close the circuit with the probe, it will turn on green. Mine is blinking all the time, and it turn solid green when the probe touches ground as it should but when I run any of the on screen test, let said "find the center" the machine is not responding at all. I have checked almost everything including the PC. The breakout board is working fine for the limits that are normally close switches and I have tried all the input pins. Do you have an idea of what should I check next? Thank you for your time and dedication.

[Papkov_N]

Hi, You have done a beautiful job! This is something that I always wanted to have on my mill. I followed all your instructions and everything went great! Only I have a problem that probably you will know what its causing it. On the blue screen the "touch plate led" is not complete off as it should be till you close the circuit with the probe, it will turn on green. Mine is blinking all the time, and it turn solid green when the probe touches ground as it should but when I run any of the on screen test, let said "find the center" the machine is not responding at all. I have checked almost everything including the PC. The breakout board is working fine for the limits that are normally close switches and I have tried all the input pins. Do you have an idea of what should I check next? Thank you for your time and dedication.

Hi!
What is your system, inches or metric?
Email me at Inbox [email protected]

[on7tim7]

My system is on Inches.

[Papkov_N]

When You click search center, on the monitor screen, the coordinates "X", "Y" changing?

[on7tim7]

Yes, they do.