Automatic tool height

That may be the issue for me. Hanging the plate off to the side I won’t have to worry if it is secured, or that it might fall off mid-cut. But I do see the advantage to having it right there on the sled too. Just for me, solving that attachment is more than I feel like dealing with since a hole in the plate and a screw to hang it from is so easy.

My thought is to add a slider on the sled, that is a piece that would slide over the sled opening like a small swinging door on a single pivot.

Thank you

That is a good idea. I considered something similar, but the added complexity made me decide otherwise. If you do go that route, make sure that you account for the offset of the sliding piece since it would likely not be located under the bottom of the sled.

It may end up being another 3D printed dodad. Inset with a guide thin metal can be flexible.

Thank you

remember you ideally want the plate to be at the same z-height as the workpiece, which means that it needs to be below the sled when used. you could have it at a different location, but that would then have a few negative effects

  1. it would restrict the bit size you can put in the router (as the bit now needs to clear the sensor, not just the workpiece

  2. you need to change the code so that when it contacts the sensor, that isn’t considered 0, it’s some other amount

  3. if the sensor is not mounted extremely rigidly, it can move so that the sensing height isn’t exactly what the distance you set in #2 is, so your depth is off.

KISS, stick something flat under the sled so that it’s at exactly the same z-height as the workpiece would be

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Hi All,

So just curious, I’d be interested to see what Maslowian’s are doing, “pictures”, with connecting the plate and alligator clip to the PCB. I’m thinking of installing a quick disconnect for both the plate and clip to ease in handling. Similar to Dag83’s post from a while back. I’m curious to see a video of the actual setup and operation.

Here’s Dag83’s post

Thanks!

TMW

Here’s my lash up:

Using parts from the parts bin, though I think the original source was Fry’s:

Pretty sheet metal bends. Do you have a brake?

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No, just scrap wood, a vice, and a hammer. Oh, and time :grin:

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That is even more impressive!

Is the g code for this working?

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To my knowledge, yes.

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blufl,

Thank you for the pictures. Would you be kind enough to show a video of zeroing a tool? I was able to obtain a 6 pin phone jack and omitted the 3 unnessary pins. I was have identified which two wires I need to produce ground (Black) and signal (Blue). When I go into Ground Control I noticed that the auto zero Z function is grayed out. Is this the function I should be using/should be looking at to zero the tool? Any further help for this process is greatly appreciated.

Thank you,

TMW

@TalleyMakeWork,
I won’t be able to make a video, but let’s see what we can accomplish.

The approach hasn’t been adopted by enough users to turn that on yet, the ‘greyed-out’ button is a place holder for now.

For now, I use one of the Macros to achieve the same thing. In Settings, down toward the bottom, find ‘Macro 1’ and ‘Macro 1 Title’
Click on ‘Macro 1’ and paste or type in this:

G20 G90 G38.2 Z-.15 F1 G20 G90 M02

Click on ‘Macro 1 Title’ and give it a name like: Z Axis zero

To test the rig before using it, attach the clip directly to the ground plate and try the macro. The z-axis should not move, and the line “z axis zeroed” should appear in the GC terminal if the wiring is correct. Watch out if the z axis does move - it will try to run until it arrives at -.15 inches. The ‘Stop’ button will be your friend if the travel gets too near the end stops. If the first test wash successful, then disconnect the clip and try it again, touching the clip to the ground plate after a second or two to simulate a bit touching down. The z-axis will move until the clip touches.

Here’s my sequence for zeroing before a cut.

  • unplug the router and install the bit you’re going to use.
  • rig the z-axis cable from the PowerControl board to the ground plate and the bit
  • use the ‘Z-Axis’ controls to move the router bit to within 0.15 inches above the ground plate, and ‘Define Zero’. This doesn’t have to be exact, just close, and if it’s too far you’ll get another chance without hurting anything.
  • Now, when you run the macro you created, the z-axis will lower until either the bit touches the ground plate and the z-axis is set to 0, or the z-axis reaches -0.15 inches and gives up, reporting “error: probe did not connect, program stopped, z axis not set”
  • if the z-axis is zero, unrig the cable and ground plate and you’re ready to plug in the router and cut
  • if the z-axis reported “error”, take a close look at the bit - is it still above the ground plate? if so, use the ‘Z-Axis’ control to set the zero here, and run the macro again. If the bit is touching the ground plate and lifting the sled, recheck the connections…

I hope this helps, ask any questions I’ve missed. If it works, you could do a video :smile:

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Thank you for your in depth detail of setup. I hope to try this out tonight. I’ll let you know how this goes.

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I can report a success yesterday with Auto-Z’ing and would love to see this fully implemented (as seen in the Z-Axis window) in an upcoming GC release.

I was able to use the indent for the orientating tab on the standard RidgidRouter, clipping the Ground clip to the base so that the outside of the clip contacted the router drum, and sliding my touch plate between the work surface and the sled.

3 cheers to everyone who helped get this running!!

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Just as a follow up here; I followed the detailed write up from blurfl and the setup worked flawlessly. Thanks for your help @blurfl. @blurfl would you happen to know what Aux 1, 2, 3 can be used for? From previous reading I somewhat remember that Aux 1 can be used for spindle on/off. Is that right?

Thanks again for your help.

TMW

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Glad to hear you had success!

That’s right. The others (don’t forget AUX5&6) haven’t been used yet.

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We can use this simple Touch Off Plate.

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I took a steel ruler scraped off the cork board backing and goo. Then put a bend it so it will hang off the top of the sled when I slid it underneath.

For now I use the continuity tester buzzer on my multimeter, until I solder in the aux port pins.

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