Touch Plate

X-Carve Upgrades
85

Tower Hobbies has tons of that stuff that will work great. Here’s a link to a page that shows lots of options.

http://www3.towerhobbies.com/cgi-bin/wti0095p?FVSEARCH=<b>banan<%2Fb>a+connectors

87

Thanks for the replies, I’ve been poking around in Amazon to see what I can find.

88

Here you go @DavidYerkes

89

Thanks Brian, I actually ordered from Amazon along with a few other items.

Appreciated the info.

1 Like
90

mine never seemed to work i think it did ONCE then croaked. i gave up :confused:

91

For those who’s spindle just barely moves and then freezes, or get an alarm code etc, Last night I discovered that if i clip the ground to the spindle shaft on my machine, it’s hit or miss whether it will work or not. But if i clip to the collet itself it works every time.

There must be a break in the continuity between the shaft and the collet interfering with the connection?

Beats me, but as long as it works I guess…

92

I always clip to bit. Since I installed, never failed. You’re right about proper grounding.

93

Does anyone know if there is support for finding edges (zero x,y) in chilipeppr?
Would make life alot easier :slight_smile:

94

you can use the same command you use for probing the Z. just modify the Z to which axis you want to probe.
ex: M30;G38.2 X.5F2;G92 X size of your probe plate;G0 X-.25

you might want to play around with this a little bit before trying it out with a bit in your router.

1 Like
95

I’m surprised there is so much misinformation. M30 is not the command to declare inches as the unit of measurement. M30 is actually a ‘end of program’ code, which shuts off the spindle/coolant/etc…

The code to get into inches mode is G20 and, conversely, G21 is millimeters.

The command I use for z-probing is

G20G38.2Z-1F1   (inches mode, probe toward worksurface to Z-1 at feed of 1ipm)
G92Z0           (set global absolute Z coordinate system to zero at current position)
G0Z1            (rapid to 1 inch above newly established Z0)

I added in comments between each part of the line to help you understand.

A good reference is: EMC2 "G-Code" Quick Reference

EDIT: To use this command you must set the current position that you are at to your Z0, where you position your tool above your probing surface/workpiece which means you could prefix the G38.2 command with a G92Z0 (after the G20 to get into inches) if you wanted this to work automagically.

96

Hi,

I bought this thing:

But this thread confuses me. Thomas posted an excel file with a wiring diagram. There is no mention of grounding, and I interpret it as simply connecting the alligator clip wire to the V- port on the XC power supply. In addition solder the wire from the touch plate itself to the A5 port on the Arduino board.

Is @CharleyThomas 's wiring diagram valid for a thing such as what I have bought or is the story different?

Bear with me… I am not good with electronics
Thanx

98

Ok…

So the wiring in the excel document further up is wrong. And when you say “machine controller” you do mean the Arduino, right?

Oh and I am developing a great hatred for this enclosure… Man, what a hassle it is to line up the two boards together and get things done. My Dremel looks more tempting my the minute… :smile:

100

Ah.

There is a GND wire on the Gshield that seems to drop down via a thin pin “thing” (insert unknown electronics term here) into the GND slot on the Arduino. That connection has a black wire that goes to Spindle GND on the powersupply.

So hooking the alligator clip wire on the PSU side of that loop should connect to ground.

Here goes. Thanx!

101

HA! It worked!

@AngusMcleod Thanx a bunch! :+1:

2 Likes
102

Well, I am totally mystified.
When I issue G38.2 Z-.5 F1, I get an immediate ALARM: Probe Fail from UGS.
No matter what configuration I have the wires in, and even if I don’t have any wire connected to A5 at all, which the machine should see as not yet contacting the touch plate.
The machine is working, I home it, then issue that sequence, and boom, probe fail.
My x-carve says GRBL 0.9j, which should be good enough.

Any ideas?

Thanks,
Kelly

103

@KellyHickel I think the problem is it is defaulted to mm. I had to do G20G38.2 Z-.5 F1

If I did not have G20, it would only move .5mm so it would barely move then set off the alarm saying that it never touched the plate. You can easily try this by changing it to 10 not .5 and see if it moves 10mm.

Just use the G20 code and it should fix it.

104

for some reason it edited my last post. not what i was trying to do…

105

No joy, it fails immediately with no motion:

G20G38.2 Z-.5 F1
ALARM: Probe fail

106

@KellyHickel even after killing power to the GRBL box, and closing UGS and trying fresh?

107

I had trouble using the Nightly Build of UGS. I had to use the stable version V1.0.9 from November. The Nightly would work about 30% of the time for me. Which version are you using?