Need Help!- Renishaw tool probe on 2007 VF2 acting funny (see video)

[akedward]

I have never had any problems with my Renishaw probing system before this one but I cant figure it out. Just to back up a little bit, I had my spindle motor and spindle motor replaced due to a bad sound coming from the spindle (since then the sound is gone). The spindle motor they put in had a down rev encoder on it and it started giving me issues during tapping, so the tech came out and replaced the spindle encoder. There was an issue getting the encoder to work right and he had to reload the operating system and all the settings in order for it to accept the new encoder. At that point everything seemed to work right and I thought I was off and running until I tried to use my probe again.

I started the calibration from the beginning by fist indicating the touch probe and then the tool setter. I then try to calibrate the tool setter by using a tool with the known length and as soon as I hit the go button to start the calibration the spindle does some quick counter clockwise and clockwise indexing and then zoom, it drives the z-axis up and stays there. In the mean time I look over at the screen and it is moving along like there is a program running but the machine is doing absolutely nothing.

Anybody see this before or have any ideas? By the way, the first thing I did was buy new batteries for both the probe and the setter...no help. You can see the video below of what the machine does every time I try to go through the probe calibration

YouTube - Tool Setter Calibration Issue

YouTube - Tool Setter Calibration Issue

[Mic6]

I was having strange things happening with my probe the other week. Mine errored out, but my loc-line was blocking the probe line of sight at different z heights, but your prgram is still running so I'm not sure.

[behindpropeller]

When did you change your batteries last? Seems like every probe problem I read on this forum almost always ends with the batteries being replaced.

Tim

[HelicopterJohn]

When you replaced the batteries did you check the voltage to ensure they are reading at least 3.6 volts prior to installation?

Did you have a backup of your parameters and settings on a thumb drive? If so, were those the parameters and settings that the HAAS Tech loaded or did he load his own. If he loaded an incorrect set of parameters and settings that might be your problem. It seems that your problems with the probe started after he reloaded the parameters and settings. It is a good idea to occasionally backup your parameters and settings especially if you have made any changes. I think this has been discussed here on the form.

Did you get any type of alarm when this happened? I am sure you already know this but if the probe or tool is more that .4 above the tool setter in certain probing operations it will alarm out.

Just a couple of thoughts from a newbie.

John

[akedward]

The batteries are brand new, that was my first thought as well. There are no alarms and the program keeps running to the end like everything is going fine. Another interesting fact is that the machine does the same thing for both the spindle probe calibration and the tool setter calibration. The z-axis just rapids up and stays there until the program has stopped running.

[pants]

Try reloading the macro programs into the control. I had the same problem

[akedward]

Thanks for the tip I will give this a try and report back.

[akedward]

I reloaded the macro files that came with my machine and tried to calibrate the probe..no luck. Perhaps it is a setting issue?? I do know that the technician had to reload the operating system in order to get the new encoder to work, maybe he missed entering a setting properly?

One more thing, I stepped through the calibration program it tries to run for the probe and it looks like it is trying to turn the probe on with no luck. There is a subroutine that says something like "attempting to turn probe on (try four times)". So when the program is running and nothing is happening it looks like it is just running though that routine over and over until it reaches the fourth try and then it just exits the program. I wonder if there is a setting that might be associated with turning the probe on?

I made sure that both the transmitter and receiver windows were clean and it still did not work.

[Matt@RFR]

Is it at all possible that some of the macros that the probe uses have been overwritten by someone else?

Try typing G65 P9832 in MDI and hit cycle start. Does the probe spin on? If it does, does G65 P9833 spin the probe off? Even though it isn't calibrated, can you run any of the stock VQC probing routines?

Beyond that, I'm stumped. It's not batteries (the probe would just not respond), it's not line of sight being blocked (the probe would not respond). Rapiding up in Z is bizarre. None of the Renishaw macros have a first move as a rapid that I've seen.

By the way, it scared the **** out of me when it made that rapid move in your video! I'm so used to how these probes act that when it did that, I literally reached up and right from my keyboard...I was gonna hit a non existant E-stop.

[crabbass]

Is the toolsetter sticky? Have you tried triggering the toolsetter when running the calibration (with your finger). You might think this is an unsafe check, turn rapid down to 5% and feed to 10%. You should be able to generate an alarm when the tool starts moving from its Z home position.
I'm not sure about any diagnostics you can check from the controll, if not, the renishaw information that came with your probe might be helpful.
Please post your solution to this problem, as I don't want to be stuck in your situation some day.

AC

[akedward]

The probe turns on and off with the P9832 & P9833 commands. I get the same behavior whether I am doing the probe calibration or just trying to probe a corner with the VQC interface. I checked all the LED codes from the tool probe and spindle probe and there does not seem to be any problems there.

The tool probe is not sticky and does not respond to a deflection while the calibration program is running.

I guess I will call Haas directly on Monday, maybe they have the answer.

[akedward]

One more update. I found the Haas wireless probe setup doc on the web doc#96-10002 Rev G, and it tells you to activate the probes before calibration. This is done with the following code:

(Tool Probe Activation Code)
M59 P1133
G04 P1.0
M59 P1134

(Spindle Probe Activation Code)
M59 P1134

The instructions tell you to activate each one individually and make sure that when you touch the probes that they beep. Well I activated each one and they DO beep when I deflect them.

This tells me that the probes are sending and receiving signals, and there is no obstructions to block the signals. It would seem to me that everything should be working correctly????