solutions for Automatic edge finding and Z touch off

[Matt McColley]

I'm looking for economical solutions and am wondering if this kind of electronic edge finder can be wired up to send a signal into Mach 3

http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ory=1261091193

I've seen some commercial solutions for auto edge finding, but they sure look expensive.

I seem to recall seeing some threads about building touch offs and edge finders from parts kits, but now can't seem to resurect anything.

Can anyone please stear me in the right direction?

[Matt McColley]

I've seen this one in MRM RC Models build blog... but don't know anything about it....

http://www.wildhorse-innovations.com...d&productId=80

anybody know what kind of accuracy it has?

any kind of spec. is conspicuously absent...

Looks like it has a little stereo jack wired up to it...

Any idea how this would hook up? Or whether there are any Mach scripts that support it?

[Bubba]

OK, I use Turbocnc, but the principle is the same.
I took a probe similar to the one in the link to LMS and stripped the guts out.
Drilled a hole in the side +/- 1/8" dia. Then took an old ball point pen and cut the length to fit inside the barrel of the edge finder.

Threaded a wire through the hole and into the center of the pen. Stripped just enough of the end to make contact with the business end of the probe and screwed everything back together. Hooked the wire to my probe input and it works great.

[Hans_G]

If you haven't read this, might be worth looking at http://www.brusselsprout.org/CNC/1P-Probe/

It's from the same guy that develops CamBam. Gives you an idea how the wildhorse probe probably works.

[hoss2006]

http://www.hossmachine.info/forum/ya...ool-Probe.aspx
Hoss

[Teyber12]

ive done a lot of thinking about this, and i honestly think the time spent getting it all together, setting it up, getting it to work (nothing ever works for me its always a big ordeal getting something to work ha) would be MUCH more then the time saved. If your really worrying about efficiency, a lot of parts can be made so you don't have to do extremely accurate edge finding, by oversizing the stock just a bit.

Having said that, it would be fun if you were as talented as hoss

[SCzEngrgGroup]

I'm looking for economical solutions and am wondering if this kind of electronic edge finder can be wired up to send a signal into Mach 3

http://littlemachineshop.com/product...ory=1261091193

I've seen some commercial solutions for auto edge finding, but they sure look expensive.

I seem to recall seeing some threads about building touch offs and edge finders from parts kits, but now can't seem to resurect anything.

Can anyone please stear me in the right direction?

Those can be easily modified to use a a touch-probe, but if you're going to be using Mach3, you better look into getting a quantity discount, because Mach3 has a nasty habit of doing unexpected things, and a rigid probe is unforgiving. If Mach3 screws up and runs the probe into the part, it will break off. I used these for about six months, and Mach3 would break about one a month. A real touch-probe, like the Wildhorse one (which I also have) is great for doing surface and outline probing, but rather problematic for edge-finding, as getting it calibrated, and keeping it calibrated take considerable effort. I don't use mine for edge finding.

Regards,
Ray L.

[cjdavis618]

Those can be easily modified to use a a touch-probe, but if you're going to be using Mach3, you better look into getting a quantity discount, because Mach3 has a nasty habit of doing unexpected things, and a rigid probe is unforgiving.

Regards,
Ray L.

What was happening? Wouldn't this work like limit and home switches to an extent? At least the electrical aspect.

[SCzEngrgGroup]

What was happening? Wouldn't this work like limit and home switches to an extent? At least the electrical aspect.

Every once in a while, Mach3 will do something completely unpredictable. In this case, it'll make a probe move at the wrong feedrate, or in the wrong direction, etc., or simply ignore the probe input, and plough on even though the probe input was active. It doesn't happen often, but it only takes once to snap the end off a rigid probe.

Regards,
Ray L.

[hoss2006]

Takes a little bit of work to make a power drawbar too but those who do love how much easier things become.
Probing is slick and fast especially my corner probes.
I'm luckier than most, only 1 failure in 19 months.
Hoss

[Matt McColley]

this looks promising....

http://cgi.ebay.com/ELECTRONIC-EDGE-...item3eff7fe3f8

I wonder how easy these LED edge finders are to disassemble?

If I could get it apart, I could wire power to it easy enough and then perhaps I could just solder onto one of the LED pins for my indicator signal and feed it right back into the G540

I guess it would be easy enough to jog your indicator in (especially with a pendant), but as usual, Hoss has a really slick automation.

Edited to add....

O.K. as usual, I make everything twice as complicated as it needs to be....

wire... check
Aligator clips....check
power source.... check
G540 limit switch connection.... check
Hoss's macro.... check

just ordered the Enco electric edge finder

should be easy and fun.

Thanks Hoss for posting the links

[Bubba]

Looks similar to mine. Just unscrew the cap on the top end and the guts (including the battery slide out!