I’ve listed the vers.by probe adapter I have been working on (and probes with Pocket NC compatible shafts) on Tindie:
I also made up a short video showing it in operation and how to install/use it:
Thanks to everyone’s feedback so far!
Great work @jpieper! I wanted to note that you shouldn’t need to make any modifications to your INI overlay if you’ve updated to Kinetic Control v5.1.2 (and seeing as you’re still on a prerelease version, you really should!).
Yep, I’ve since updated after that video was made.
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Just installed mine and it works as advertised.
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Hi All,
I got a touch probe adapter for PoketNC from Tindie.
I am having trouble with the setup process and would appreciate any advice on how to get the vers.by touch probe to work.
++ Background to the problem ++
I proceeded smoothly to add the subroutine folder to the PocketNC directory after checking the USB cable and the electrical connection with the touch probe, using the YouTube video as a guide.
I edited the INI Overlay on the browser according to the video’s contents and rebooted the system. The RS274NCG was added to Active INI, but I had two problems.
Problem1.
I am using Penta’s stock control pendant, and it no longer accepts jog operations from it (come to think of it, I remember editing the machine settings when I installed the pendant as well).
Problem2.
The A-table is no longer level when the machine is at Home (it is at 0 degrees in Kinetic, but in reality it is tilted about 10-20 degrees as below image).
GitHub** stated that INI Overlay is not required when using the latest version of Kinetic, so I updated the Kinetic at hand to the latest 3.6.0, which solved the problem of not accepting jog operations via the pendant. The latest version of Kinetic no longer requires CONFIG to be tweaked, so the conflict may have been resolved.
** GitHub - jpieper/pnc_probe: Tools for touch probes on the Pocket NC
On the other hand, the problem of not being able to level the A table at Home did not go away, so I rebooted after deleting the settings made in the INI Overlay and the SUBROUTINE folder from the main PocketNC folder, but the problem persisted. At this time, RS274NCG remains in Active INI.
++ Question ++
Unfortunately, I do not have a backup of the last MACHINE CONFIG, but I am hoping that if I can delete the RS274NCG in ActiveINI, I will be able to use the G38 .2 and solve the problem of the A table tilt not being level during the home operation.
Please advise me on how to remove it from ActiveINI and eliminate the effect of the CONFIG operation done above.
*After I finish checking the operation of G38 .2, I will again add the SUBROUTINES and NCFILES in GITHUB to PocketNC itself!
++ My environment ++
PocketNC: V2-10
Kinetic control: 5.6.0(latest version)
I really appreciate any help you can provide.
I don’t think any of the configuration you changed should have resulted in your A table not being level. If you remove the probe adapter from the circuit does it home to the correct place? That should check to see if something in the circuit is causing problems.
I admit to not having updated my software in some time as I haven’t needed to, if that doesn’t fix your A table, you might be able to contact penta support to get your original config files.
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Thanks for your kind comments.
As you said, I will check A table homing without adapter next time.
If the A table tilt is not resolved, I will contact Penta’s support team to see if they can provide the original machine config file.
@ jpieper,
I checked the homing position of Table A with the adapter removed.
Since the tilt still occurs in this state, it is more likely to be from my config settings than the adapter circuitry.
I am contacting the Penta machine support team to see if they can send me the original configuration.
I hope to get back to the phase of checking the touch probe again.
Thanks for the advice.
@jpieper
I finally got the MACHINE CONFIG file from the shipment and am trying again.
I went through A to C in order as below, but even though the touch probe reacts red while running G38.2, it is not being fed back to PocketNC.
When I was having trouble with the homing position, I disconnected the magnetic cable connected to the touch probe and KineticContorol displayed a warning message saying that the touch probe was disconnected,
When I do the same thing now, KineticContorol does not warn me, so I am concerned that the touch probe is not recognized by KineticContorl.
I would appreciate it if you could point out any work I am failing to do.
(A) Restore the environment
STEP1: Restore KineticControl to the original version and upload the original MACHINECONFIG file.
STEP 2: Update KineticControl to the latest version (5.6.3) and confirm that there are no problems with the homing position and pendant operation.
(B) Hardware setup
STEP3: Attach the “Adapter for the vers. by touch probe to a Pocket NC mill” and check the power supply to the touch probe.
STEP4: Confirm that the homing position is normal and that the pendant is working properly even when the power is supplied from the adapter to the touch probe.
(C) Set up the software
STEP5 Copy the “ncfiles” and “subroutines” folders in the ZIP downloaded from GITHUB under the POCKETNC folder.
(Ref.)The latest version of KineticContorol (5.6.3) has RS274NGC configured as follows
CONFIG → MACHINE CONFIG → ACTIVE INI → RS274NGC
[Name]USER_M_PATH
[Value]/home/pocketnc/mcodes:/opt/pocketnc/Settings/mcodes
[Name]SUBROUTINE_PATH
[Value]/home/pocketnc/Subroutines:/opt/pocketnc/Settings/subroutines/probing:/opt/pocketnc/Settings/subroutines/cmcamlib
[Name]REMAP
[Value]M999 modalgroup=8 ngc=reset-rotary argspec=P
[Name]PARAMETER_FILE
[Value]pru-stepper.var
[Name]FEATURES
[Value]4
[Name]ON_ABORT_COMMAND
[Value]o call
[Name]RS274NGC_STARTUP_CODE
[Value]G17 G20 G40 G49 G64 P0.001 G80 G90 G94 G97 G98 G54
Disconnecting the probe from the adapter box should not trigger any warnings, so that much is expected.
When you have the probe connected and depressed, it should turn red, and the tool length probe on your machine should also illuminate. Does it do so?