MACH 3 2010 Screenset Zeroing Macros

Hi All,
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Couple of good things today - got my newly milled z-axis installed and working, fettled some potential stalling out of the y-axis whilst reassembling, gained about 30mm in z travel due to the old outer z plate being too long and also got hold of a "renishaw" style probing tool and wired that up.
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Question for those (probably Jazz as normal ;-) ), who have the MACH 2010 screenset: what does the middle button do on the zeroing screen (has a + in it). I suspect it may be a block centre find but I'm a little nervous in case I crash my probe.
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Reason I ask is I have used the other buttons that probe for the edges of a block and I can work out the centre of the block from the -/+ X and Y's and have also used the corner probing and this was very handy for re-zeroing when flipping blocks over for 2 sided machining. Method I have been using is to home and zero the machine and axis then do the edge probing which gives me the centre of the block from absolute machine cords (the spreadsheet I have been using to store the edge coords and calc the centre is attached in case it is useful). Then I go to the calculated middle of the block and zero the axis there and start my jobs for that face.
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Oh and one other question - where can I find a macro/plug in for MACH3 to try some scanning with my probe?
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Thanks in advance as always.
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Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Washout

Question for those (probably Jazz as normal ;-) ), who have the MACH 2010 screenset: what does the middle button do on the zeroing screen (has a + in it). I suspect it may be a block centre find but I'm a little nervous in case I crash my probe.

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CLUE:. . . .It has arrows pointing to the outside of a Circle. So the. . . Outside Circle Probe.!

The one in the top Corner with a Square and circle with Plus inside is the Inside Pocket probe for square or circle.

Cool - thanks - so not "probe outside of large block of aluminium" then :-)

Glad I checked........

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Washout

Cool - thanks - so not "probe outside of large block of aluminium" then :-)

Glad I checked........

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If your ever unsure just probe Air and touch the probe. It's always a good idea to do this anyway to check probes working.

When you installed 2010 I believe you will have got 2 manuals one is the Probe manual. Check it out because there are few things you'll want to know regards some settings. If you can't find it then go to Gerrys site and down load it. If you still can't find it then ask me and I'll dig it out for you.

Aha - don't know how I missed the 2nd manual - got it now and read.

I'm guessing that the probing wizard doesn't store the results of say all four edge probes and then work out the centre and possibly angle of edges (if you have clamped the piece slightly crooked), it rather gives you the results for you to work this out for yourself? Either way having a probe will help a lot as I needed to enlist an assistant previously, when holding a touch plate and using a tool inserted in the collet upside down to probe (my arms aren't that long).

Cheers


Chris

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Washout

I'm guessing that the probing wizard doesn't store the results of say all four edge probes and then work out the centre and possibly angle of edges (if you have clamped the piece slightly crooked), it rather gives you the results for you to work this out for yourself?

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The Edge probe probes 2 points on an edge a set distance apart which you define. It then returns the Angle of the edge (Edge Angle) and the OFFSET distance between the first and second touch points.(Edge Dx/Dy)

It doesn't store anything just returns these Angles etc. If you probing a square you only need one angle to work out the others but often your only really use the edge probe to align one edge to an Axis or setup a Vice etc.

If you want to find Centre of Square then use the Outside Cirlce has it does the same thing Circle or square/rectangle.