. .

Thread: UCCNC Probing

  1. #1
    I've recently downgraded my old HP laptop back to Windows 7 and installed a shiny new version of UCCNC. I've gone for the now standard new screenset as it is designed for a 1920x1080 display. Previously I have used A-Camera's excellent probing plugin but I believe this is not set up to work on the new screenset. So I've tried to make sense of the built-in probing.

    Am I the only person who cannot make head nor tail of how to make it work, even after reading the instructions? I managed to get it to tell me it was actually probing, and it said it had completed probing when I touched the tool with the probe plate, but nothing ever actually moved and the Z axis DRO didn't change.

    All I want is the most basic function - move down till you hit the plate, stop, reset Z axis DRO to 3.0mm.

    Any help would be gratefully received, otherwise I'm going back to the old screenset and A-Camera's plug-in.

    Kit
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  2. #2
    Neale's Avatar
    Lives in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 20 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 1,725. Received thanks 295 times, giving thanks to others 11 times.
    Kit,
    I use two different copies of UCCNC. My router uses the latest version - but that machine does not have any probe on it so I've never investigated. My mill is running the previous version of UCCNC and does have a fairly crude-but-effective 3D touch probe which I use a lot. I use the out-of-the-box UCCNC probe routines and I agree that they are not very intuitive. All I can say is that I have discovered the mystic incantations to make it work - simple Z probe, edge-finding, find the centre of the workpiece - and it does what it should reliably. But trying to relate what is written on the screen buttons to what they actually do was a voyage of adventure and exploration! I have not updated the mill to the latest UCCNC version as I have a few self-written macros to do with tool-setting which involved creating a new screen. For example, on tool-change the machine automatically goes to the tool height sensor to set Z zero, and I have no idea if the updated version is going to work with my screen.

    Now you mention this, I'll take a look at the probing screen in the new version and if it is sufficiently similar to the previous one that I use daily, I'm very happy to go through the basics here. The documentation really does not add anything - everything I know about it has been found by experiment.

    - Brian

  3. #3
    Thanks Brian,
    I'm so glad I'm not the only one! A-Camera's setup was so simple and easy to understand. I should have a look in the UCCNC forum as well. There must be a simple explanation somewhere of what to enter in which boxes.

    One of the error messages I got while trying it was "The P1 value cannot be zero". There's no explanation of what the P1 value means, the problems are that basic! With P1 set to 1 it said it was probing but nothing actually moved.
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  4. #4
    Neale's Avatar
    Lives in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 20 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 1,725. Received thanks 295 times, giving thanks to others 11 times.
    I had a look at my router setup last night while my mill was quietly getting on with another job - having been set up using Z, edge, and centre probing! It does work when you figure out the mystic incantations. The new probing screen seems to have the same features as the previous one, but all in a different place.

    I'll see if I can I write down a simple guide to at least Z straight probing later today to give you a start. At least, the way I use it, you don't have to use the probe ball diameter for that. I'm assuming that that's what you need, at least for the time being?

    - Brian

  5. #5
    Thanks again Brian, but as I should have realised before, the answer's always YouTube. A simple but effective explanation is linked below. I haven't tried it yet but I have every confidence.

    Kit

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvfQZxKukao
    An optimist says the glass is half full, a pessimist says the glass is half empty, an engineer says you're using the wrong sized glass.

  6. #6
    Neale's Avatar
    Lives in Plymouth, United Kingdom. Last Activity: 20 Hours Ago Has been a member for 9-10 years. Has a total post count of 1,725. Received thanks 295 times, giving thanks to others 11 times.
    That looks pretty good. In fact, it looks as if they have tidied the screen layout a bit to make it easier to understand and use in this version. I still don't fully understand the "gauge height" parameter but the rest of it makes sense. I think it will become one of those "I don't understand why it was so difficult at first" things once you have used it for a bit!

  7. #7
    I've just jumped on the 3D probe band wagon, spent the evening setting it up and wiring it in, and had a little play with the probing routines in my (slightly older, before the default screenset change) version of UCCNC.

    I've managed to figure out the basic probing commands with the help of a few YouTube videos, my final success for the evening being locating the centre of a circle.

    I tried some digitising, and it looks like I've got a few spurious XYZ 0,0,0s in there, but otherwise the text file looks alright. I'll throw it into meshlab when I get a chance.

    I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on Z offsets when moving between the probe and a tool - I don't have toolholders so would need to touch off Z against a plate after a toolchange. How do I relate this to the Probe's data if using a surface map? Do I just have to look at the mechanical positions after touching off against the same reference and then do the maths, or are there any handy buttons in UCCNC which will take care of this?

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Kitwn View Post
    I've recently downgraded my old HP laptop back to Windows 7 and installed a shiny new version of UCCNC. I've gone for the now standard new screenset as it is designed for a 1920x1080 display. Previously I have used A-Camera's excellent probing plugin but I believe this is not set up to work on the new screenset. So I've tried to make sense of the built-in probing.

    Am I the only person who cannot make head nor tail of how to make it work, even after reading the instructions? I managed to get it to tell me it was actually probing, and it said it had completed probing when I touched the tool with the probe plate, but nothing ever actually moved and the Z axis DRO didn't change.

    All I want is the most basic function - move down till you hit the plate, stop, reset Z axis DRO to 3.0mm.

    Any help would be gratefully received, otherwise I'm going back to the old screenset and A-Camera's plug-in.

    Kit
    I haven't seen this post before now...

    Anyway, which version of the my probing screen are you trying to run? The latest version is Version 4. https://www.mycncuk.com/threads/1466...-available-now

    I never used the new UCCNC screen and never will as long as I can avoid it. I simply don't like it, it is just too much. However, if I ever start using it I will probably abandon my own probing macros also. There are some features in their probing which I like but don't have, and I am too lazy to create new functions to my probing screen.

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. A probing question
    By Neale in forum General Electronics
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 12-02-2021, 02:04 AM
  2. My UCCNC probing screen and macros
    By A_Camera in forum CNCdrive (UCCNC)
    Replies: 6
    Last Post: 13-01-2019, 04:19 PM
  3. 2.5d Probing
    By m_c in forum Probing, Digitizing & Scaning
    Replies: 7
    Last Post: 27-04-2018, 09:07 AM
  4. Digital probing
    By Leadhead in forum General Discussion
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 18-07-2017, 08:24 AM
  5. Probing / Digitizing - What the best way to do this job?
    By Mad Professor in forum Probing, Digitizing & Scaning
    Replies: 2
    Last Post: 08-05-2011, 12:32 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •