So now that 3D Touch probes and Tool Height Sensors are affordable, is OB planning to support them in a future BlackBox + in Control? Eg : 3D Touch Probe compatible with mach3 and grbl https://a.aliexpress.com/_mPWJFTC Automatic Tool Sensor https://a.aliexpress.com/_mrJ9iBG I’m considering replacing my DLC32 with something more capable, but I’d really like support for both of these features and doesn’t require selling my kidneys.
CONTROL is aimed at the Ease-of-use market, but you can already use other Hosts like ioSender, Candle etc for that
You can come up with several optional solutions: - Use multiple NO probes wired in parallel connected all at once - Use combination of probes, but use Xtensions connectors to make them swappable - Use your 3D probe to probe stock offsets as well
Cheers, I think I'll make a manual probe "switch" to get around it for now - NO is a bad idea for sensing on CNC machines, you won't know if a wire breaks until your machine crashes and destroys something.
Just thinking about this some more - why not add more advanced features? If done right, it won't make OBC harder to use. Just look at macOS, it's a UNIX OS that is easy to use without taking away the power under the hood. I really like OBC, it's very logical and intuitive, but I would like to see it grow with the user base who want to keep exploring their machines capabilities. I've looked and some of the other options on the market and the UI's are generally terrible and features poorly implemented. I would happily pay for an OBC+ version if development cost was a concern. If an OBC+ was tied to a BlackBox+ (eg that had support for dual probes and closed loop steppers), I would be very excited and happily upgrade. FWIW, I already pay for Fusion 360 and would happily pay a fair price for OBC+ - perhaps OB could survey their customers to see if there is a market for my suggestions?
The door input could be used as a second probe input if not used? There is a template plugin available for controlling a probe selection relay, either automatically or via M-commands. This could be modified to switch between two probe inputs instead if the SAFETY_DOOR_PIN is assigned as an aux input.
Hmm, good ideas. Would there still be enough relays to control air assist/cooling and vacuum chip extraction? PS, ideally I’d like to have both probes operational at the same time, but I think switching between them work work.
If the safety door input is unused and can be repurposed as a second probe input no relay is claimed. A new plugin has to be made for that, possible since the HAL probe routines can be redirected on the fly to use the safety door input.
That could work for a tool height sensor - I'd have to check if they are 2 or 3 wire. That said, touching off the 3D probe against a tool height sensor would work as the 3D probe wouldn't need to be powered on to verify its Z height.
I have tool height and 3D probe working as NC while retaining the standard NO 'touch' probing on a single probe input. It just needs a simple electronics box to combine the signals. All probes can be left connected and any can be used without having to un-plug or switch anything. The Jumper is there to short the second N.C. probe position if it isn't connected. The controller needs to be set for a N.C. probe. The diagram also showns connections linking the over-travel switch on the tool height sensor to the E-Stop input on my controller - just ignore these connections if your controller doesn't have an E-Stop input. (You can make it even simpler if you don't want LED confirmation of probe state - omit the LED, the transistor connected to it, the two resistors and the capacitor.) The tool height probe works with my macro in OB Control.
No, it's a homemade ESP32 controller running Grbl_Esp32, but that shouldn't make any difference - the probe input will work the same. (The Black Box doesn't have an E-Stop, so ignore that part.) NB!! Just in case: The pin numbering on the diagram refers to my controller ***NOT*** the Black Box - you would need to find the probe input, ground and +5V on the Black Box connectors.
Just circling back to this discussion, now that I’m running grblHAL on my DLC32, I have an extra input I can use for a tool height setter. i just need to make a break out cable for the EXP1 IDC header …. And buy a 5v compatible tool setter.
