Need Help -- Calibrating Renishaw MP12 in Mazatrol

[pjr170]

I recently purchased a used VTC-20B Milling center with a renishaw touch probe. I indicated the ring guage in within a few tenths and the touch probe was around .0004" TIR. I ran the calibration program in mazatrol and it seems to complete successfully returning to the home position. However, it does not update the parameters in L1-L4.

When I try to do an x-y bore find, the program runs fine, but the calculated center is consitently .013" out of round. I am unshore if I have the inspection plus software installed on the machine, How could I check that.

I have talked to mazak, they say call renishaw, when I talk to renishaw, they say talk to mazak. I really would like to use the probe, Its just not looking feasible right now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

Pat

[jimiscnc]

first mazatrol probe calibration parameters and renishaw user macro based calibration are MUTUALLY EXCLUSIVE! renishaw is generic G code macro and I think they store the calibration factors in user macro registers, not MACHINE PARAMETERS. You have to calibrate both the mazatrol side the mazatrol way, and then do the g code equivilent with the renishaw 9000 series calibration macros, which are pretty well engineered themselves!

the mazatrol mms units are some of the most beautiful things to behold in all of cnc. the important thing here is that the wpc numbers immediately preceding the mms calibration unit must be DEAD NUTS in machine coordinates to the centerline of the ring gage you indicated in. the calibration is only as good as how well you do this.

the calibration unit has a switch - calibrate: yes or no. this is so in your program, you use it once with calibrate yes on, then turn off that switch in the program and mazatrol will simply ignore the calibration unit completely.

only reason why it may not update the parameters is that you may not be running the program all the way to end unit and cycle stop? I dont have a good response for that.

renishaw techies are generally excellent, but few are mazatrol friendly. (theres at least one guy in chicago that is damn good in mazatrol, but i dont think he wants that broadcast)

Mazatrol has cut staff (ask me how I know that) and they have to prioritize support for brand new machines first and reinstalled used machines may not be very high in their priority list right now, considering that machine tool sales are down 80% from a year ago.

Mazak does generally embrace used, but these times are exceptional.

another FYI is that when using the probe in mazatrol as a "glorified edge finder", the wpc immediately preceding the mms unit is updated based on the probe readings from the mms unit immediately following the wpc. this immediately preceding WPC does not have to be dead nuts, but you should try to teach this wpc initially with an eyeball tolerance of maybe +/- .050". the WPC has to be good enough to bring the probe into operating range so that it's in good position to take its measurements.

hope this helps.


jim

[pjr170]

jimiscnc,

I did what you said and repeated the calibration....It worked!!! I appreciate your help in this as I am just new to the cnc game and have devoted a lot of time and money into it so far.

The values all updated and when I ran an x-y bore on another part and indicated it, it was within .0001". Close enough for this cat.


Thanks again

Pat

[jimiscnc]

cant get much more accurate than the inch system resolution! good work.

one more point: this calibration will deterioriate over time. its probably good practice to recalibrate once a month. tool changes take their toll. depends on how much you use it.

some people leave their ring gauge in a seldom used corner of the table just for this.

jim