Touchplates and probes are not difficult to connect, they are essentially a normally open switch. One wire connects to an open input on the breakout board, and the other connects to GND or 5VDC (active high or low) on the breakout board.
Then go to Config/Ports and Pins/inputs/Probe and enter the Port and pin number and set the active high or low with a green check or red X
My opinion on touchplates in the absence of an automatic toolchanger where a tool library is built, they create more work than they eliminate. There are G31 routine scripts that can be ran to calculate the surface of the workpiece by entering the thickness of the toolplate etc. A tried and true method is simply lay a piece of paper on top of the work surface and jog down close and then hold CTRL and tap "page down" key to step jog until the cutter is felt by sliding the paper around. Then simply Zero out the Z axis. Works every time.
The probe on the other hand is a very useful attachment for reverse engineering surfaces.
I've put together a run down on how to use them from mounting them to generating G-code, as follows:
A probe is essentially a normally closed switch. Anything touches the stylus, it breaks contact - opens the circuit.
It connects to any open input terminal on the Breakout or Encoder board. An input is activated by simply taking the input terminal to a board ground or GND terminal. IMPORTANT, do not take an input to chassis or earth ground.
Here is a schematic of the terminals with the corresponding pin number:
romaxxcncrouters.com/downloads which shows machines prior to 3-16-2016, after that the breakout board terminals are clearly marked.
In Mach3, Config/Ports and pins/inputs, scroll down to the "Probe" Green check and enter the corresponding port and pin number.
Ok we're ready to start digitizing:
The probe is mounted to the Z axis plate.
The probe connects to the front "Aux" plug.
The Probe is simply a normally closed switch - touch the stylus and circuit is open. Make sure the Probe is working with Mach3. Open the diagnostic screen and make sure it is activating the "Digitize" input when the stylus is touched. If not then the pin number is not correct in Mach3/Ports and Pins/Probe.
At the top of the screen in Mach3 Under Wizard , select Digitizing Wizard. Set the paramamters for what you're wanting to scan. This will generate a "Point cloud" which can then be taken in to Vectric Aspire, Cut3D etc for surface creation and toolpath generation. A point cloud is simply a list of recorded X, Y and Z positions.
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To convert a Mach3 digitizing point cloud to STL
For practice and learning how, start with a small point cloud file.
First, download "Machcloud" from Artsoft software (Same people that make Mach3) Free program. Another free program that converts Point clouds to surfaces is called "Meshlab" and it has much more functionality it appears, not much experimentation was done with it, although it appeared to work as well.
Open your collected point cloud with Wordpad
With "Replace" function in Wordpad find and replace letters X, Y, Z and A 0.0000 . Simply hit the "replace" button and enter each character one by one and the replace with nothing on the second line. On large files this can take a few minutes, so be patient.
Result should simply be three columns of numbers.
Example:
0.00000 0.00000 0.13742
0.03995 0.00000 0.13742
0.08006 0.00000 0.30149
0.12001 0.00000 0.13742
0.15996 0.00000 0.13742
0.20006 0.00000 0.13742
0.24001 0.00000 0.13742
Save as whatever name you wish as a "Text document"
Open Machcloud
File/Open Your filename
Then select "Mesh-Ballpivot" Should display as a gray skin.
Then "File /Save as STL" Enter the name of file you wish and add the ".stl" to it. Even though you select "save as STL", the ".stl" must be added.
Now it can simply be opened in Vectric Cut3D as an STL for G-code generation.
Or to open in Vectric Aspire:
Open Aspire
Click File/New
At Job setup, set material size and other necessary parameters, and click "ok"
The select "File/Import/Import component 3D model
Point to file location, and it should display for Gcode generation.
-Ron
