ProbeBasic and sidemount, retractable 3D Probe

Yes, a rack would be easier for sure and save quite a bit of time, debugging and possibly issues.
But would I extend the work area, I still don't want to lose 10cm to the rack.
Also due to exponentially increase of the risk of ballscrew whip, I don't want to go bigger than 2000mm on the screws, which means 1840mm of work area after extending +200mm.

It's just my application, probably for most other people it would be fine to place the rack.

Construction wise, I only shifted the X beam about 5cm from the current symmetric configuration.
It wasn't easy to design but there is room to do the toolchange outside of the working area and still reach the full width with the mill and probe.
One issue I have to solve is the retractable probe is entering the work area, so I will change that later on to a different construction not protruding, with two carriers,

 
 

Would only be an issue if I put something on the table which occupies the whole space, like a huge block of foam.

I think you misinterpreted my design meaning, I mean put the tools outside along the y axis.

 

Ahh yes, apologies I did misinterpret.

Yes that would be possibly I think, I did not see this possibility when I was drawing out concepts.
It would require a fairly large (stationary) support structure outside of gantry support, and access to table would be limited a bit, but other than that it should work.

I did already buy all parts for the carousel and got all the aluminum plates ready to route the holes, but its a good alternative option without loosing work area!

Lcvette wrote:

nice.. have you considered simply adding the probing tool number parameter to the toolchange call with an if statement? this way anytime you load or unload the probe tool it would activate a subroutine to either deploy the probe or retract it?
 

 

I made it like this now, reading the tool number, converting to float, compare with wcomp.
3D_Probe_Extend is bound to an output pin on my mesa daughter card.
 

I obviously forgot to rename the signals.
motion-type isn't used anymore, so naming should be:
tool-number-s32 and tool-number-float.

sweet! let me know how it works for you!