Tormach Passive Touch Probe issues in metric (G21)?

Hi guys,

After reading a lot of comments about the touch probe, I picked up the passive probe from Tormach. Got though the initiation phase of using it for a few hours, calibrated, played with it, then broke the stem. Whew now that I'm over that learning curve I will "never" break that again.

Problem I'm having is with the macro for finding the edges of a part while the machine is in metric mode G21.

I found that with the diameter of the probe tip set correctly in T99, I can get it to find the edge under G20 no problem, but as soon as I switch to G21, it is not setting the offset to the edge correctly. I can fudge the tip diameter to make it work, but then it doesn't work under G20. I'm a little stumped as to why it doesn't work. Seems like whatever macro they are running for calibration isn't taking into account the unit mode. I do most of my operations under G21 and having to switch to G20 mode just for probing doesn't make sense.

Does anyone else have experience with this? Is this a known issue or am I doing something wrong?

Thanks.

Yeah, it sounds like the macro doesn't take the units into account. That's a drag but it may not be possible. I just checked the standard Mach3 edge finder offset scripts and they don't seem to take the units into account either.

Does the Tormach version of Mach3 let you edit the macros? In normal Mach3 you can click "Operator" (in the menu bar) and choose "Edit Button Script". The macro buttons will start to blink and when you click on one it'll open the script editor. Maybe there's something you can add in there that'll let you automatically change the tip diameter. Another option would be to automatically change to G20 before running the edge finding macro. That could introduce the problem of forgetting to switch back afterward though.

Yes, there's a bug in Tormach's implementation of the probe feature using metric units. I emailed them about it but all they cared was to congratulate me on solving MY problem, they wouldn't even take a look at my corrected code.

Send me your e-mail and I can send you the corrections I made to the probing macros.

Just a note to say I've been dealing with this problem for a while also. I G20->probe->G21, and I definitely worry about forgetting to go back. I'm also not convinced this works every time. Sometimes it seems like even in imperial, the offset isn't applied. Could be operator error, of course. Metric-size numbers in G20 will almost certainly result in something bad happening.

I've PMed Manoel, hopefully he sees it and can send his fix to me.

Ideally Tormach can issue an update and save everyone a lot of potential hassle!

I've finally had time to look at this for myself. Seems Tormach worked around a Mach3 race condition bug (nasty), but in doing so, made a mistake of their own.

On the XY probe screen, there are four buttons to probe with on the left-hand side - X+, X-, Y+, Y-. While making the fix, they forgot to set the flag for being in metric on all the buttons except X+. Fixing this is not difficult, it is a one-liner per button.

Find the MachScreen directory, and fire up the executable. Use it to open the PCNC1100M3-II.set file. One by one, double-click on the buttons that need fixing, and look in the code window that appears. You should see the following at the top of the code:

Code:

---

Option Explicit

Rem ©2008 Tormach® LLC. All rights reserved.
'  Changelog
'        5/12/2011 Changed method of aquiring probe tip diameter *dpr

Dim Posn  ' current position
Dim Metric as Boolean
Dim Dist as Double ' distance we are prepared to go probing
Dim OffDist as Double
Dim ProbeRad as Double
Dim UserTool as Integer
Dim X, Y as Double
Dim Tol as Double
Dim Tripped as Boolean

If GetOEMLed (16)  Then
  Message "Cannot probe when displaying Machine cordinates in axis DROs"
Else

Code "G90G80G69G50"

---

Add the following line right under that section. If you aren't sure, look in the X+ buttons code to check what you are doing.

Code:

---

Metric = GetOEMLED(802)

---

Save the file as something other than the original name, then go to Mach3 and load the screens, and try it out. If you are happy, backup your original .set file, and rename the fixed one to the original filename.

For what it is worth, I've just downloaded the trial version of ProbeIt!, and am heading out to the shed to give it a whirl. At a minimum, I need boss probing, and the tip compensation in ProbeIt! looks very useful as well.

Sorry it took me so long to reply to this thread. To the people who PMed me, Spooq's solution is the same as mine, so you can just follow the instructions and probe happily in metric!