Probe Basic Tool Setter questions

I am able to probe my work with the Hallmark probe, in the spindle,  and I have an amazon toolsetter wired in as well (it is set on the corner of the mill table). They both trigger the probe input just fine. I followed a couple videos that showed how to touch off the spindle nose from the toolsetter and I was able to get a value and enter that for spindle zero. The next step in the videos is to insert a tool, set toolsetter coordinates (with z all the way up, 16 inches in my case as it is set 0 at bottom of travel and 16 at top home switch) and then touch off the tool. When that is done in the videos, the z moves down at the rate set in probing and it enters the tool length into the tool table. My machine moved down at a very high speed, 100 ipm. When I push the toolsetter with my finger, it gives an error, probe tripped during non probe move. I'm not willing to let the tool come down that fast to see what would happen. It seems something is off just by the rate the head drops. Changing the speed makes no difference, unless I set rapid to 0, then it says it can't make the move. What DOES change the speed is moving the V slider down from 100%. Still, pressing the toolsetter while it is moving slower just gives the same error. Maybe something is off in the hal file and it isn't realizing that is the toolsetter.
 
Right now, I'm tired and am new to getting this all setup and I also don't understand all the work offsets. I can get more data or a video to share if needed, so someone can better follow along with the problem I'm having. It has been challenging to find much in the way of videos or information on setting up and actually using Probe Basic.

PM833TV mill
clearpath servos
7i96s board and 7i84 expansion board
the hallmark probe and toolsetter are both normally closed and wired to different inputs, but they are tied together with an or string in hal, so I must have both connected at the same time. They both turn on the probe light on the probing screen.

I do not know if everything I need in the probe basic conversion actually transfered over. Some of the conversational pages are blank. It only has facing and hole drilling. I went into the simulation again to see what it includes and it matches what I have. Perhaps something else is off with the conversion and that is part of the problem with trying the toolsetter.

I am using the TTS tormach tool system but want to machine o ring grooves in cylinders to build my power drawbar, so am manually changing tools. My goal is to get one or two tools to work so I can machine a simple circular groove in those parts and face (manually if needed) them to mate up properly. I did the first Titans of CNC video on fusion 360 cad and watched the video on cam. I have only run the machine manually and am learning how to get it setup to run a part.

The other thing I have not quite figured out is how to set the length of my Hallmark probe, or more accurately, how to determine it's length so I can set it......other than trying to use calipers. I don't have a granite plate and caliper setup for measuring tool length.

Maybe someone knows why z rapids down and is not using the probe parameters for speed that I set at something like 10 ipm rapid and 1 ipm slow, or has a link for more info. Does anyone have a link for a good explanation of all the different offsets........anything to become more familiar with what is on the probe basic pages? Any help would be appreciated......let me know what info I should add.

Thanks

Did you copy the Sim file config VAR file?

No. I went back to the instructions and did see a page (kcjengr.github.io/probe_basic/probe_basic_parameters.html) saying to copy the file (The Probe Basic Sim Config Folder contains the sim.var file), which I don't recall seeing that instruction page.

In the folder: linuxcnc/configs/probe_basic/ I saw the sim.var file and also a bak and log version of that file. I copied those to my working folder but it did not work. Opening the file shows the lack of the lines which control touch off speed, based on the chart of the instructions page. What I do have is linuxcnc.var in my config folder and my ini file has that listed under rs274ngc section for line: parameter_file=linuxcnc.var

Also, after reading which files and folders to copy, it seems I am missing two other folders and I don't see them in the simulation folder. One is user buttons and and I don't recall the other one.

If I'm missing folders from the simulation, do I need to completely reload linuxcnc?

When I converted to probe basic, there was one error and I had to read the debug and change an item, but that was months ago, so I don't recall what it was. It took many, many, hours to figure out how the ini and hal files worked to get something to happen and I did not have the ballscrews to run the machine so was at a disadvantage.

At this point, I'm not sure if the probe basic simulation folder is complete any longer.

I have backed up changes made to my hal and ini and may have a backup of my folder from when it was AXIS. Maybe I need to start over and either reuse or copy and paste the important parts from my hal and ini files and make sure all the files and folders are there. At least now that the mill moves, I have all the data to put in for travel, direction, pins, and so on. While I was afraid I might have to start over with probe basic, some time back, it might not be too bad now that I know more about how to navigate the different parts.

So, start over or do you think I can salvage my install?

Thanks for the help, just the short line you typed sent me in a great direction. I knew there was a missing link like that somewhere.

there is only to be one var file at any time, it can be named whatever you like, but the ini must call that file name. not knowing what version of probe basic you are on or what method of installation you used makes answering your question very difficult. for that purpose, i would say to remove probe basic and reinstall using the apt installation method. going forward this will update probe basic whenever you run sudo apt update sudo apt upgrade to update your system. any changes of note will appear on the status splash page so you should read the notes thoroughly to find if there are any changes required to update your config files and how to do so. this will put you on an easier path going forward. if you have a working config currently, you should be able to simply review the installation docs for the necessary files your config needs from the probe basic simulation as well as any possible edits to your ini file or existing hal files and subroutines folders. it is advised to always copy over the latest subroutine folder or at the least do a file change comparison with something like meld software to determine what changes were made. unless you are modifying the subroutines the easiest way is to simply copy and overwrite the existing subroutines folder.

my guess is that your installation is likely ahead of your outdated config folder, but again, i can't know what you don't disclose so the only sure way for me to instruct you in resolving is to reinstall probe basic. this also assumes you are on the latest Debian bookworm release and the lockdown version of linuxcnc 2.9.4

if you are unsure, i would recommend uninstalling linuxcnc as well and reinstall using the instructions in the probe basic docs. this will put you on the linuxcnc lockdown deb file install which will only be updated when linuxcnc sends out a lockdown release update. this is what probe basic is tested on and what we support.

hope this helps!

Chris

I am using the same probe and probably the same tool setter.  I am using the QT_Dragon_hd UI and Basic Probe not Probe Basic but concept is the same.  I am using whatever QT_Dragon_HD comes with.  I am using a mix of fixed length tools via TTS and random length tools (mostly drills) in a Jacobs chuck. 

For the probe, it is the effective length that you are looking for.  That is the distance from the TTS seat face to the point where the switch opens.  That value will be less that the physical length with the switch not tripped.  What I do to measure that is to put a 123 block in my vise.  Then bring the empty spindle down to just touch the 123 block and note the ABS Z value.  Then I put the probe in the spindle and select tool 99.  Then probe the top of the 123 block. The difference between the previously noted ABS value with the spindle nose on the block and the ABS value of the trip point is the effective length of the probe.  I would do an actual probe of the block rather that manually moving the spindle down until the probe trips.  I think it is more accurate to do an actual probe.  Don't forget to subtract the amount that you have the probe back off of the black after the probe.

I think your issue with getting the "probe tripped during non-probe move" is because you are not in a probing mode G38.?.  It sounds like you are doing a rapid move.  I generally use a G38.2 at speed that is slow enough to find the prod point and then probe very slow when backing of the probe point to get the final probe value G38.2 followed by G38.4 at F1I hope this helps.John
 

he needs to update the config files so the user parameter entries are correctly stored in the var file. once he gets his configs sorted the parameter values will be stored persistently and will be pulled into the subroutines correctly. probe basic does tool setting a little different than qtdragon, so there may be some confusion if he tries to interperet G38 statements and translate them into probe basic.

other reasons for probe triggered during a non probe move can be that the hal is incorrectly setup to handle probe and tool setter inputs if one of the circuits is in the triggered state, ie the touch probe unplugged when attempting a tool setter function. but without his configuration setup its difficult to tell.

To set up my computer, I followed Dr. Dflo.
www.drdflo.com/pages/Projects/CNC-Mill.html#linuxcnc
Click on linuxcnc from the left menu.The last line of the paragraph has a specific link for setting up for Probe Basic, so that is what I have been following.

He lists this link: kcjengr.github.io/probe_basic/quick_start.html

From here, I downloaded the Debian 12 bookworm image (on my win 11 computer) and followed the instructions to make a bootable usb drive. I probably used the link to make the image but am not 100% sure......it was a simple utility like what is listed.

I ran that usb drive on my new computer for this mill: Intel NUC mini desktop Core i5-9300H, 8GB ram, 256 GB SSD. It removed windows and only Debian is installed.

It appears it was Debian 12.2.0, as you can see from the first commands I typed into the terminal (text file below).

I just updated Debian by using sudo apt update and sudo apt upgrade from the terminal.

It gave me an error on lines 705 and 722:

Let's see if I attached the file correctly.....
 


What does this error mean and how do I address it?

I have not yet restarted the computer, but ran the command to check the debian version and it is still 12.2.0. I will do a restart and check again.



 

Try running update upgrade again, if errors are encountered, run the following

sudo apt --fix-broken install

After restarting, I ran

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

And again, it came back with errors, so I ran

sudo apt --fix-broken install

It also came back with errors:

 

This report is much shorter. Reading through it, it isn't apparent to me what is happening.

Copy each of the missing dependency names and run

sudo apt install dependencyname

once the missing deps are installed it should complete update without complaint. I've not seen that before though.. kind of odd