Renishaw Probe

[brianbonedoc]

Excellent! Thanks for sharing that. Hopefully will have a chance this weekend to hook mine up.

[brianbonedoc]

Done. Thanks for the explanation! Also my mi-8 came brand new with the manual so that helped.

It's a bit more accurate, but it started out pretty darn good. hopefully the mi-8 will prolong the life of the probe without the arcing across the contacts

[popspipes]

Done. Thanks for the explanation! Also my mi-8 came brand new with the manual so that helped.

It's a bit more accurate, but it started out pretty darn good. hopefully the mi-8 will prolong the life of the probe without the arcing across the contacts

Glad you got it going without incident Brian.........

[Zetopan]

For what it's worth, I find that it's easier to build a small PCB using cheap tools like Eagle or free tools like KiCad, rather than use protoboards.

PCB123 is also available for free and they have over 750,000 DigiKey parts (electrical symbols and mechanical footprints) built into their libraries (this is what I use). If there is sufficient interest in my design I will lay out an appropriate EC board (represented as Gerber Files) that anyone can use to have the board fabricated wherever they want.

OSH Park will make a very nice PCB and mail it to you for $5 per square inch in about 14 days.

For the design that I have posted that is now in the public domain that is no problem. However you should be extra cautious about showing the design for a commercial product to the Chinese because they do not respect intellectual property and if there is a market for your product they will consider your board design to be their property.

[jwatte]

Sure, don't outsource to China that which you expect to sell at expensive mark-ups here.

OSH park panels are made in the US of A, though!

Even if you used some Chinese house (which will typically give you more boards for the same price,) they make many different boards on the same panel, so they'll have a hard time figuring out from all of the boards they make every day which board happens to be your $10k product that you make and sell 20 of, and which board is the hobby driver for 22 LEDs for a Christmas tree ornament :-) (Also: Don't put component name/values on the silk screen, just the reference designator and outline.)

[popspipes]

Done. Thanks for the explanation! Also my mi-8 came brand new with the manual so that helped.

It's a bit more accurate, but it started out pretty darn good. hopefully the mi-8 will prolong the life of the probe without the arcing across the contacts

I have noticed that if I use the probe in the orientation that I always use (leads pointing to the right side in X), and when its rotated 180 degrees the reading is off by approx .0015 . I dont know if this was caused by the arcing possibly.
I rotated the probe by 45 degrees between X and Y and now its off by .0002 when rotated 180 degrees, which I think is very good.

My probe had been crashed and who knows how it was used before I got it??

Just something you might check just for grins...........................

[lameks2]

What about for OLED solutins? I was thinking what is oled solution in this mills.

[Scot808]

Has anyone given any thought to using a TesaStar-MP touch probe? They’re all over eBay and supposedly are compatible with the Renishaw TP20 and also made in the UK. I’d like to try what you guys have been doing with these older probes but would rather pay a little more and, hopefully, avoid having any problems.

[popspipes]

Has anyone given any thought to using a TesaStar-MP touch probe? They’re all over eBay and supposedly are compatible with the Renishaw TP20 and also made in the UK. I’d like to try what you guys have been doing with these older probes but would rather pay a little more and, hopefully, avoid having any problems.

I would think it would be just as good, I went with Renishaw because there are a myraid of them on Ebay for sale, and my knowledge of probes is next to nothing.

I like the setup I have other than its a bit large and kind of bulky to handle.

[popspipes]

I found this on Ebay, an old but pristine MP3, so I bought myself a nice birthday gift ha! This one had never been used that I can tell, no chips in the anodizing anywhere and still had cosmoline or some sort of rust preventer in/on it. I took it apart and turned down the 40 size holder to fit my Tormach spindle, installed a microphone connector and coil cord to the machine (I just liked these connectors better than the DIN version). It also came with a 2 & 4 inch stylus, they appeared to have never been used either, got the wood case and the manual and tools, I just couldnt pass it up.

Hopefully with the new connectors and cord I wont get the false trips that happen occasionally.

[lens42]

Nice find. If the boots are good shape, then even better. Mine started sticking a bit after about a year. After a trigger, it would stay on. It appeared to be from the oil I put in. I had no idea what the magic oil was supposed to be when I first put it together, so I used a few drops of sewing machine oil . Cleaning the contacts with isopropyl fixed the sticking and this time around I put in less oil.

[popspipes]

Nice find. If the boots are good shape, then even better. Mine started sticking a bit after about a year. After a trigger, it would stay on. It appeared to be from the oil I put in. I had no idea what the magic oil was supposed to be when I first put it together, so I used a few drops of sewing machine oil . Cleaning the contacts with isopropyl fixed the sticking and this time around I put in less oil.

The only reference to oil that I found was mineral oil, I didnt find what oil is recommended for the inside of the probe.

boots are new condition as well.
Looking at probes, I always check to see if the boot is intact as service is nonexistent for those older probes.I like mine (older one) other than its so large.

[popspipes]

I have 2 of these Renishaw m4 thread 5 mm ruby ball stylus that came with the probes I bought and have no use for them.

I use a 1" with a 3mm ball.

I would consider a trade for something I could use, or a suggested use for them??

[popspipes]

My inbox should be working now.

[kstrauss]

popspipes, I sent you an email off-list plus via CNCzone.

[popspipes]

popspipes, I sent you an email off-list plus via CNCzone.

popspipes @gmail.com


I neeed to change that one on here, forgot about it.

[mb300sd]

Picked up one of these recently too. Here's my idea for a mount. Renishaw has all the mounting dimensions in one of their PDF files.


It'll go on one of the cheap 3/4-FMB22 face mill arbors.

The plan is to turn a press fit for the arbor and rough out the outside and front on the lathe, drill/tap the mounting holes, press in the arbor, and do the final turning in the mill spindle to cancel any runout in the cheap arbor. I can sneak up on the final diameter of the mounting boss a few tenths at a time.

I plan on turning a TTS-compatible groove in the arbor as well for a future ATC build.

[popspipes]

I just turned down the arbors that came with the ones I bought, nothing is really critical as the probe is adjustable to make it run concentric.
I enjoy mine, use it almost every time I use the machine, I even made a holder for my "matched pair" of MP3's, they are large but are reliable and no maintenance is required.
I did change out the connectors to microphone connectors and a coiled cord just for reliability (not too fond of the din connector).

[mb300sd]

I asked this in another post, but is there any reason I can't use the probe upside down as a tool height setter with a disc stylus?

[lens42]

Seems like the easiest path to TTS is to start with a machinable TTS blank, unless you have something lying around an don't want to spend the $20.