I just got a Centroid KP-1 touch probe as it is one of the supported touch probes in EX setup. I have the probe installed an it seems to be working accurately. I set the stylus concentricity per the manual and managed to get ~0.005mm concentric accuracy. Then I ran the stylus calibration in EX using the calibration ring and get repeatable 0.001in accuracy, nice! I realize this type of accuracy can be a moot point when working mostly with wood products but it is nice to see.
When using the XY probing macros for an outside corner, the probe ends up in an XY location relative to the X0, Y0 above the part. At this point I can set my XY DRO to 0,0.
Question: When probing Z (top of part) the pop-up for “Single axis probe position” says 5.4248. The DRO for Z says 5.4748. I assume you manually enter the difference of 0.05 manually into the DRO for Z?
I saw that Centroid has a z-axis probing macro that zeros the Z automatically but I did not see this function in EX. Just want to make sure I am not missing something.
You need to make sure that you have the length of the probe accurately measured for the Z probing to work. Did you touch it off to the tool height setter to get that correct?
That should be fine… however if you’re seeing a discrepancy you can manually set the tool height if you want…
What you could do is use a spindle tool and our touch plate to Z zero to some known material, then switch to the probe and z zero to that. Adjust the length of the probe in the tool library until the Z zero matches.
Is there a way to bypass having to touch off a specific tool number? For example I leave T200 (Surfacing tool) & T199 (KP-1 Touch Probe) in dedicated tool holders.
Any tool that has a length won’t get re-touched off. We clear the length of tools that aren’t in the spindle, but we only do that for tools 1-100 so if you use 101-200 they shouldn’t get cleared…
Word of warning:
Tool length is based off of the spoilboard/work surface location so if you re-surface you’ll have to adjust/re-measure the length of the tools that aren’t cleared by us so they’re accurate.
My KP-1 just arrived today and I can confirm that the 0.05 difference is the retract to clear the probe.
I did find that if you use F7 Auto Zero from the set part zero screen instead of going into the probe screen you can touch off each axis and it will zero perfectly. That seems better than the single axis probing.
That being said, other than the bore probing cycle and find angle, none of the other probing cycles work for me. I start the probe cycle and it will do its first touch off but when it tries to reposition to the next touch point it just keeps moving and never stops.
For instance if i want to probe an outside corner I’ll set the probe ready to touch the face parallel to the x-axis, it will move along the y-axis until it touches off the face parallel to the x-axis. It will test that face twice, retract in the y-axis and then it will jog in the x-axis until it has moved the offset distance past the corner. It will then jog in the y-axis indefinitely until it’s long past the part. It never stops to move in the x-axis to touch the face parallel to the y-axis.
Hi Michael, I tried the F7 and got some strange behavior. It will touch the X, Y or Z face a couple times but on the second hit it stops in a triggered state. Moving the probe away from that face cannot be done with the pendant, only with the on-screen axis controls.
I have not noticed the macros on the probe screen acting as you described.
On my machine if the probe triggers, you need to change the feed rate to 1x in order to use the wireless pendant. Does that work for you?
And what is your experience with the outside corner probe? How do you setup the stylus and can you walk me through how it’s working for you?
I tried loading a fresh profile into the AVID Profile Manager 5.24u1 and had the same experience. I’m not sure if I’m trying to set it up wrong or if it’s behaving oddly.
I am now having issues with pendant communication so I cant test the 1x feed rate but I certainly will once resolved.
I calibrated the probe using the calibration ring. The established stylus diameter for me is 0.1925in. I MTC to the probe (T199) then touch it off on the tool height setter with probe unplugged.
Here is a video of the probe using the Outside corner routine.
There are some additional movements that I don’t know why they happen but when it completes, the probe is positioned ~1in above at X0, Y0. Then I set XY (F8).
This looks like correct behavior, but @MichaelR yours doesn’t. Can you show me in CNC12 how you had the probe settings setup? There are some fields you can configure for travel distance…
That last screen was the one I was looking for… Those settings for “distance to corner” and “clearance amount” look good… If you run that cycle and just trigger the probe with your finger does it do what you expect?
