Tool size report with AutoZero

gSender 💡 Suggestion
1

Hi,
With auto touch plate, you obviously have to determine tool diameter in order to position its center at the 0,0,0.

It would be really nice to display measured diameter since you already have it, it would help a lot to have precise cuts, since none of the router bits seems to be exact dimension that is being labeled with and measuring it with caliper is just not reliable due to spiral geometry of typical bit.

I looked at console after zeroing with auto touch plate, and I suspect that information is already there but don’t know which of various commands and numbers displayed can be used to determine exact diameter, so if you can’t display it in interface, if you could at least point to which output in console can be used to calculate it manually, it will still be better and faster than manual measuring.

Thanks

2

Hi Dragan,

If your machine is diled in and is accurate, you have the best calliper you could ask for.
You might be able to determine straight mill tool diameter using the auto touch plate as your tool.

If you go to calibrate tab you have a list of probe and switch trigger display. You have a metal enclosure (auto touch probe) with known dimensions. If you jog the bit to one side untill probe gets triggered in calibration window. Zero the axis you use as measuring scale and jog untill you trigger the other side. Subtract the measured distance from the known dimension and you have your tool diameter.

And yes, this is the same thing that autozero is doing. And I like the idea that gsender would indeed share that information. But untill then, you could do it manualy and determine if it would yield accurate results, or not.

Maybe someone with macro skills would be able to help automate the measuring process. That would be neat!

3

Hi Eddie,
I’m not quite clear what are you referring to with ‘If you go to calibrate tab you have a list of probe and switch trigger display.’
I understand your idea, but I don’t see any means to do it - calibration has surfacing, xy squaring and movement tuning, and I don’t see a way there to jog and see when touch plate was triggered
In ‘probe’ tab with auto zero plate, there is no option to jog manually, you just have to bring probe to touch a bit and rest as connectivity test

4

Hi dragan,

I’m still bunkering down on G-sender V1.2.2 so my screenshot may look a bit alien to newer versions, but Ibet this is still in there somewhere.

For me the pin list is directly in the diagnostics tab of the calibration tool.

afbeelding
afbeelding1125×872 89.2 KB

You can either jog via keyboard shortcuts set at the machine, use a joysticksomethinsomethin, or use a remote device, like a phone, tablet, or even a seperate pc in a remote location (like mine).

To start the tool measurement by hand, jog the tool towards one of the inner walls, have it lowered as deep as you can without it touching the slopes and jog untill you get a green light on the probe pin. retract one jog, reposition the block (it got moved oh so slightly) and decrease the xy jogging distance.

afbeelding
afbeelding407×365 11.5 KB

Creep up to the wall again untill you hit the green light again and zero your xy at that point.

Jog to the other side (prolly best to increase your step distance to speed up the process.) untill you are close. Decrease the xy step again and creep up untill you hit a green light again.

Subract the vallue you measure on the machine from 45mm (inner square) and you have a good indicator on how much your tool deviates from its specs.

I would have done a measurement myself and posted it here, but I have a project on and am not willing to rezero my xy for this post, so I cannot attest if it works accurate or not. Only that it might be worth trying, if you suspect a deviant tool, or simply want to know if you can expect deviations and how large they might be.

I did a crude simplification in this example. It’s best to take this as a howto and home in on how to do this more accurate by using smaller steps or implementing a few more retracts, and reductions to accurately determine the best possible zero position.

Now I know these steps can be automated with a macro, scienci does exactly that, and who knows your request might be granted (it seems easy ernough) but untill that glorious day, you could play around with the pin screen.