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Cylinder probe calibration issues

Hello all.
I have been having an issue with a custom cylinder probe for a while now. A forum friend of mine has previously helped me, but I don't want to bother him yet AGAIN. The cylinder probe is a 3mm (dia) x 13mm (length from tip to thread shoulder) with a 20mm extension. I had to tear the probe down a couple of days ago because another job came up. Well, I'm back on the job that needs that probe so I built it again. When I calibrated it this time, it comes up w/ the error "measured probe diameter exceeds limits". The 3mm cylinder checks anywhere From 3.290mm to 3.330mm. For some reason it's NOT calibrating around the equator of the sphere. In all honesty, I guess it doesn't really matter for THIS job, since I only need the probe to check in the Z direction. But what IF I ever need this probe to check diameters? I'm screwed. I contacted Hexagon back in May of last year when we first bought the probe because it wasn't in the drop down menu. I was on the phone for 2 or 3 days with the guy, and he had control of my computer. NEVER could get the probe to read diameters correctly. I finally gave up because I only needed the Z direction. Here is the usrprobe file. Can anybody PLEASE help me? Thank you in advance.

ITEM:TIP3BY13MM_CYL_PART_268 M2
EffectiveWorkingLength 13.0
begintip
ribcount 10
color 80 80 80
cylinder 0 0 0 0 0 -2.5 3
cone 0 0 -2.5 3 0 0 -5.5 2.0
color 80 80 80
cylinder 0 0 -5.5 0 0 -7.5 2.0
cone 0 0 -7.5 2.0 0 0 -9.0 3.0
cylinder 0 0 -9.0 0 0 -12.8 3.0
cone 0 0 -12.8 3.0 0 0 -13 2.8
sphere 0 0 -11.5 3.0
hotspot 0 0 -11.5 0 0 1 3.0 3.0 shank
endtip


Probe file=3X13 CYL PROBE +20 Date=2/8/2024 Time=1:46:41 PM

T1A0B0 THEO X 0.000 Y 12.000 Z 213.075 D 3.000
T1A0B0 MEAS X -0.058 Y 11.961 Z 214.065 D 3.290 StdDev 0.002

Measured probe diameter error exceeds the limits.
T1A0B0

Parents Reply
  • Thanks DMIS_guy for your reply. I have to check that job again today.

    The 5 hits was, I guess, the default? I changed it to 13 like you said. The shank qual box is now checked.  Yes, it's in MM (all of our prints are in MM).

    The 1st time I calibrated it w/ the new settings, it checked like it always does the 1st time I calibrate it - BIG and it exceeded the limits. (See below.)




    Then I "reset" the probe tip and it came out better - BUT the diameter is STILL reading about 50+ microns big. (See below.)
    That's ok for THIS job, since I only need to use the bottom of the probe. Obviously it won't be if I ever need to use the sides of it.



    WHY do I have to "reset" this probe tip everytime?? I've never had to do that w/ any of the other probes I've ever calibrated. 

Children
  • Almost all of our tips use the "reset tips" checkbox in the measure window. I believe this is so that it doesn't used old stored data from a previous calibration's measured value and sets the tips back to theo values instead of keeping that meas value. Try calibrating this tip 0,0 again without using reset tips and see if the data changes.

  • It changed again when I calibrated it. It went back to almost the same #s as before. I knew it wouldn't be good because I could see it going around the sphere above the equator.



    Hit "Reset" and cal'd again and got...

  • Sometimes probe files get corrupted. I would delete the probe and recreate it.  Also it's good practice to always "reset tips" before each calibration.  If you use the probe builder wizard make sure your geometry matches the actual probe.

  •   As I've mentioned before, there is a 1mm offset being introduced to the length from somewhere.  The THEO length is 13.075mm.  The first time you calibrate after resetting the tip, The MEAS length is set to the same as the THEO and PC-DMIS uses that length to drive the tip around the cal sphere.  It then updates the MEAS length to what was actually recorded during the calibration which is where your 1mm offset gets added in.  The next time you calibrate, PC-DMIS uses the updated MEAS length to drive the probe around the sphere and it tries to take hits 1mm higher up.  Because it is a flat bottomed cylinder, rather than a sphere, the corner of the cylinder hits higher up the sphere and the diameter shows out.

    .

    This can ONLY happen if one or more of the components making up your probe build has a different physical length than the one that is defined.  You have previously told me that you've measured your cylinder component and that it has the correct length, what about other components - extensions, probe module, indexing head, adaptors between the head and the Z ram?  Have you looked at the results for all of your other probe builds to see if any of those have differences between their THEO and measured lengths?