[borne2fly]

Can a digitizing probe be added to any 3D CNC mill, or does the mill electronics have to be designed to accommodate such a thing from the get-go?
I have a Milltronics Cent5 controller and have always wondered if there was a way to bolt up a digitizing probe

[ZZZZ]

I can't answer for all CNC controls, but your Cent5 control can accept the input from a digitizing probe.

You need to have a probe that switches a ground signal and will be powered by the voltages supplied in the magnetics panel.

Wiring the machine for a probe is a simple matter - power the probe and connect the probe output to a control input.

The control architecture makes it possible for you to write programs that will 'trap' position data and then store, manipulate, and use that data to do must anything you want.

You can get 3D surface data, 2D feature data, and locate surfaces, edges, and centers. Then you can use the data to re-set a tool offset, shift a work coordinate, measure a hole, or do a lot of other adjustments.

Dealing with the data is often more difficult and time consuming than gathering the data, some CAD/CAM systems can help.

[sportybob]

Borne2fly. What ZZZZ says is true for a C5 / 6 /7 control. You have a C1 control running C5 software. The C1 control does not have a digitizing input available.

sportybob

[dresda]

So if this is true and I run Cent 6, do I still have to buy Digiscan. I just want to do simple 3d digitizing, my old machine with Mach3 did a great job, don't want to spends $1000s on Digiscan.

[newman55598]

If you are able to write your own macros.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[dresda]

Guess that counts me out then.

[sportybob]

Hi Dresda, You don't NEED Digiscan. Digiscan is a program that allows you to take the "point cloud" generated by a digitizing probe and manipulate the data.

The probe is just a "switch" that sends a "point" to the control, the control keeps track of "all those points" and saves them to a file. You can down load the file and run it thru ANY program that you have that accepts a "point cloud" and put it "all together"

The trick is to 1. enable the control to accept the signal, ( it is one of 2 "hidden" parameters that I know of.
2. you need some thing to control the probe to probe in the manor that gets you what you want. Yes you can program every move, ( move in till it touches, back away, move over .010" and do it again.and again and again .......
Or you write macros to do this for you.

Or you buy a "package" for ~5K and be happy.

I do see now and again that some one is selling a Milltronics digitizing probe, usually it comes with the macros and possibly the Digiscan software.

sportybob