PC-DMIS 4.3 MR2 upgrade from 4.2 MR1 - Star Probe calibration Gone Wrong...

[SunfireSSR]

Having trouble calibrating a STAR Probe. New PC, Hard Drive, Fresh install of XP SP3, Fresh install of PC-DMIS 4.3 MR2.
1st, I have done this previously on another CMM and it works fine.
2nd, there is no Probe facing down in -Z- on the Star probe setup (not using connection #1). Same on all the CMM's using this setup.
When calibrating the Star probe, the other probes are hitting the sphere instead of clearing it for the probe I am trying to calibrate. Can’t figure out how to move the hits so they aren’t
as deep into the sphere.

After all the usual things like deleting probes, rebuilding, change the PROBE.DAT file, changing the Setup Settings for the probes, nothing works
Re-loaded PC-DMIS 4.2 MR1 with the original part programs it had, does the same thing. It worked before but not now.

[louisd]

you need to define the start/end angles of the sphere. If i recall correctly 90° end angle is a point at tangent vector of your probe, so you likely need to set start angle to like 20° or so.

[Douglas]

+90° is top of sphere and 0° is the equator I thought

edit... nevermind I read your reply wrong, 20 start 90 end is what you mean and should work

[louisd]

That applies when tip is defined with a T1A0B0 vector. It's technically applicable as 0 being equator and 90° being tangent to probe vector, but both start and end angles are relative to your probe's normal(tangent) vector.

If you have a knuckled probe, like this star, it is still End angle of 90° equals tip of sphere, regardless of how your probe is oriented and start angle of 0 = equator of sphere.
It should automatically avoid colliding with the calibration sphere shank. If it doesn't, and it crashes on the shank, you can adjust the diameter of the shank.

[Douglas]

yes I oversimplified... 0° is the spot normal to probe vector, you nailed it I just read it backwards at first

[RandomJerk]

Start 10° or 20°, end 90°

A note - if you've already done this on both probe files, I wouldn't worry about changing it, but otherwise.... If you're building a star probe that doesn't fill all of the connections, you should still put something in that position, then delete it, and work in sequential order. If I were trying to work with your program I'd be cursing all the way through as T2, which should be the XPLUS tip, is the YPLUS tip. You shouldn't have a T1 tip, that's ZMINUS, but you do...

[Douglas]

yes the first tip you populate is given T1 no matter where you put it... I learned that the hard way here