Renishaw Probe Out in Z

[Sam I]

Hi all,

I've got a HURCO VM10i and the Renishaw part probe is out in Z by -73.8104 mm! I was in on Friday and used it with no problems, came in this morning to finish a few things off. Started the day probing the part to engrave a serial number and it tries to put the tool through the part! Lucky I never fully trust the machine until the offsets are proven so other than a bit of a gouge in the part which will hardly be noticeable once the engraving is in and a chipped engraving tool it's not so bad.

It's worth noting that no one has used the machine since I powered it down last. I took a tool and touched off of the tool setting probe then set machine zero in Z by touching off a gauge block. I then ran the probing cycle on the gauge block and the difference is -73.8104 mm.

I've changed the batteries in the probe and restarted the machine. Not sure what else I can try so any suggestions will be welcome!

I'll give HURCO a call on Monday if I can't get it fixed but I've got some parts that I need to get finished this weekend so it would be really handy to have it working!

 

[Sam I]

Someone on the UK & Ireland machinists Facebook page mentioned they had experienced the same problem - turns out the machine will periodically forget the probe offset in the tool setup page which isn't somewhere I had checked (sent straight to the probe calibration settings page!). Apparently his machine forgets this value every couple of months and HURCO aren't able to offer much in the way of an explanation other than possible power surges or cuts can muck about with the windows machine. Still odd that it only affects tool 99 though!

 

[GENERALDISARRAY]

I would cal both the setter and the probe.

 

[Ianagos]

Someone on the UK & Ireland machinists Facebook page mentioned they had experienced the same problem - turns out the machine will periodically forget the probe offset in the tool setup page which isn't somewhere I had checked (sent straight to the probe calibration settings page!). Apparently his machine forgets this value every couple of months and HURCO aren't able to offer much in the way of an explanation other than possible power surges or cuts can muck about with the windows machine. Still odd that it only affects tool 99 though!

I have to be honest I really don’t see how that’s their answer. Did you contact them directly? How can the machine just forget the offsets? That’s crazy.

I’ve heard of some similar problems with hurco but still I thought they were a reputable machine tool builder

 

[mhajicek]

I don't think I would trust a machine with Windows on it.

 

[Ianagos]

I don't think I would trust a machine with Windows on it.

I don’t know my Mazak is windows and I’ve never had trouble with that part of it.

 

[Vancbiker]

I don't think I would trust a machine with Windows on it.

Me either.

I don’t know my Mazak is windows and I’ve never had trouble with that part of it.

I had a Mazatrol Matrix that lost or corrupted the language .dll files. Control would boot and run but none of the text for the display and softkeys was visible. The sad thing was that a phone call to Mazak resulted in zero help. Had to figure it out on my own. Reloaded the .dll files from a backup and got it going again. Left me kinda nervous about what might happen if a more crucial file got corrupted.

 

[Ianagos]

Me either.



I had a Mazatrol Matrix that lost or corrupted the language .dll files. Control would boot and run but none of the text for the display and softkeys was visible. The sad thing was that a phone call to Mazak resulted in zero help. Had to figure it out on my own. Reloaded the .dll files from a backup and got it going again. Left me kinda nervous about what might happen if a more crucial file got corrupted.

That is scary.

I haven’t had any problems like that but I’d be surprised if Mazak wouldn’t help. They seem to be very helpful although I am local to them.

 

[Sam I]

I would cal both the setter and the probe.

Thanks, I've re-calibrated the Z offset for the part probe and all seems to be working as it should now!

I have to be honest I really don’t see how that’s their answer. Did you contact them directly? How can the machine just forget the offsets? That’s crazy.

I’ve heard of some similar problems with hurco but still I thought they were a reputable machine tool builder

I've not yet spoken to HURCO directly as they're closed until Monday. That was a report from another user who has been in contact with them directly. It's pretty poor though - it scares me to think I could come in one day and the probe be out by 3 inches! It was pretty frustrating yesterday even though there was no real harm done - checking, double and triple checking the program, offsets etc.. pulling my hair out because everything checks out!

I don't think I would trust a machine with Windows on it.

I have found the control to be a bit problematic - it's crashed unexpectedly a quite a few times, usually when editing something. It's pretty frustrating to use - I know a lot of people like it but compared to the control on my HAAS lathe I don't like it all that much. I can't get my head around the conversational side of it although to be fair I've had zero training on it so it could well be a user issue!

 

[gkoenig]

I don’t know my Mazak is windows and I’ve never had trouble with that part of it.

Is it full Windows top-to-bottom?

Or is it like Okuma OSP and Fanuc's iHMI which is a low-rent Windows computer glued in front of the "real" controller, just to provide the user interface?

 

[Ianagos]

Is it full Windows top-to-bottom?

Or is it like Okuma OSP and Fanuc's iHMI which is a low-rent Windows computer glued in front of the "real" controller, just to provide the user interface?

I actually cannot answer that as I don’t know. All I know is on power on it says it’s some embedded windows version. The interface application is all on windows but I’m not sure if all the cnc processes are as well.

Machine is not slow and runs hsm toolpaths well. I’ve yet to have any real glitches in the operating system. All my problems have been with the darn Mitsubishi drives