Rotating a MH20i Standard

[cmmspm]

Hi -
I have a part up on it's side. I aligned and check everything on one side with the head at A90 B-90. Went above the part, rotated the head to A90 B90, and checked everything on the other side. When I run program in DCC mode, I rotate the head when prompted, and the first side ran well at A90 B-90. I rotated the head to A90 B90 when prompted, but the machine does not recognize the rotate. It shows the rotation in the tip box. The head is a manual rotating head (MH20i). Does a knew alignment need to be made after each rotation of the head, and does it also need to be calibrated each time it's rotated. Can I even rotate the head in the middle of a program?

[Brian Gudauskas]

Yes you can rotate in the middle of the program. By chance did you forget to program the probe rotation when you made the program the first time, and add it later?

It might help if you describe what you mean by "doesn't recognize the rotation"

HTH

[Wes Cisco]

Hi -
I have a part up on it's side. I aligned and check everything on one side with the head at A90 B-90. Went above the part, rotated the head to A90 B90, and checked everything on the other side. When I run program in DCC mode, I rotate the head when prompted, and the first side ran well at A90 B-90. I rotated the head to A90 B90 when prompted, but the machine does not recognize the rotate. It shows the rotation in the tip box. The head is a manual rotating head (MH20i). Does a knew alignment need to be made after each rotation of the head, and does it also need to be calibrated each time it's rotated. Can I even rotate the head in the middle of a program?

I am not familar with that head. But my Renishaw book says it is a repeatable head, so no you do not need to recalibrate after a rotation, but you might want to do a few test on a 1-2-3 block or the like to prove the repeatability of your indidviual head. You do need to calibrate before you run the program and you must always recalibrate anytime you loosen a threaded connection anywhere in your probe/tip build. You should not have to create a new alignment just because you rotated. There should be a line of code in your program telling the software you have rotated. It should look like this:

TIP/T1A90B90, SHANKIJK=1, -0.0007, -0.0007, ANGLE=-90.0478

Are you still using 4.0 or did you upgrade to 4.1? HTH

[craiger_ny]

His problem is PCDMIS and/or the machine control is not regognizing that the tip has rotated. The rotation command is there, the rotation has taken place, and chances are the drop down for tip rotations shows the proper angle. However, in DCC mode the machine goes to measure as if it is the previous tip, if I am reading this right. I have had this happen even with motorized heads. Exit the program and restart everything. Exit PCDMIS and reboot the PC as well as doing a machine shut down and restart. You could try just restarting PCDMIS but if I am not mistaken this problem involves the machine controls as well and requires a machine restart. That is of course if you are having the problem I think you are.

Craig