Calypso CNC User Forums

Hi Dave,

I hope you or some of the other users can help me with an issue I have just observed on my router.

When I do a tool length measures or a probe to the touch plate the X and Y axis move a small amount before the Z starts to move. The X and Y then return to the tool change location at the end of the measure or probe. I note the the Y axis moves a very small amount as the Z is moving sometimes to. If I switch to MC in the Current Position box on the tooling tab then go to measure tool length all axis, X,Y and Z start to move simultaneously. Don't know where the tool is headed but I'm sure this is not correct. I get the same symptoms on my mill.

I have been trying to get consistent tool length measurement, it varies less than 0.1 mm from reading to reading. I thought it may be noise but changing the de-bounce setting in the Smoothstepper config from 0 tp 40000 doesn't seem to make much difference. My mill doesn't have this problem, same tool length every time.

My config is-
MSM 2.0.10
USB Smoothstepper with plugin v17fe and USB driver 2.08.24
Mach3 .043.066
XP with all latest patches

Calum

Hi Calum,

Calum wrote:Hi Dave,

I hope you or some of the other users can help me with an issue I have just observed on my router.

When I do a tool length measures or a probe to the touch plate the X and Y axis move a small amount before the Z starts to move. The X and Y then return to the tool change location at the end of the measure or probe. I note the the Y axis moves a very small amount as the Z is moving sometimes to. If I switch to MC in the Current Position box on the tooling tab then go to measure tool length all axis, X,Y and Z start to move simultaneously. Don't know where the tool is headed but I'm sure this is not correct. I get the same symptoms on my mill.

Please go to the setting common page and look at the "rnd DIam:" DRO (right side column, upper panel) - does it have a non-zero value in it?
If the value is non-zero, this is what is causing the xy movement before the Z probe. MSM has an option to randomize where (within a circle centered on the TCP XY coordinates) the z probe is done. This prevents the point of all tools always landing in the exact same spot. See manual section 7.1.4.2 for more info.
Assuming this is the cause, setting the DRO to 0 will remove the XY movement before the Z probe.

Dave

Hi Dave,

I forgot to mention that I had already set rnd dtam to zero. When this was set to 10mm I got these extraneous X, Y moves after the rnd move.

BTW I have gone back to SS plug-in v17fd because the second probe move would not lift off the TP when doing a tool length measure or probe with v17fe. There may be other bugs with this version that I'm unaware of.

Calum

Hi Dave,

These unexpected X and Y moves continue to occur with “rnd diam” set to zero and now I can't do a tool length measure. The tool moves to TCP position then, after the unexpected moves, lowers to the TP. Once the tool hits the TP it stops as expected but does nor lift off and finish the operation. I have changed back to a single input, I was using the two input, probe and TP but the macro would change out the probe input for the tool length measure and would not swap it back again as the operation does not finish. Is there anything I can do to fix this so the I can measure tool length again?

Calum

Hi Dave,

I solved all of my issues by replacing the xml file with a copy of the MSM master, the xml must have been corrupted at some time.

Calum

Hi Dave,

I thought you may be interested to know that I have discovered what causes this issue. Recently I re enabled backlash compensation and the unexpected X Y movment returned, this disapaired once I disabled the backlash comp. I don't know if this is a function of Mach3 or Smothsteeper, may be I see if there is an updated driver for the USS.

Cheers
Calum