Since I got my '95 Fadal VMC20 a few years ago, I've always wanted a probing system. Not only does it help you stay accurate and reduce work, but you can insert probing routines in the programming. I wanted it all, a tool setter and an optical probe to use while machining. I hunted on eBay for a couple of years (it takes a while to find good/inexpensive examples) to finally assemble the following Renishaw Parts:
Total $750 Next I had to figure out the wiring and how I was going physically mount everything. The first step was to create a diagram of how everything needs to be connected. ![]() The above layout should work like this: 1) If you want to use the Tool Setter, you send an M65. This will cause the MI8-4 to select the Tool Setter as an input and output it's status to the 1060 board. If you send an M64, it will select the Inspection probe (OMM) for the input. 2) If you select the OMM, then you need to also send an M66 to actually start the probe. In all of the Fadal wiring docs I could find, they never connect the Error and Battery status to the control. If you use them, you can verify the probe started OK is working before you initiate probing. I've written the gcode to test those after a start is issued to verify the probe stated (i.e. go from error to OK) and to make sure the battery isn't failing. If there's a problem the program will loop to try starting again or allow you to abort. In order to enable the M64 and M66 gcodes you'll need to populate the 1100 board with 2 SSR's (Solid State Relays) and 2 fuses. I used a Grayhill 70S2-01-A-03-A and a 1A fuse. Populate K31/F40 and K16/F10 on the 1100 board. These SSR's will be switching power supplied by the 24VDC power supply. Here's a shot of the SSR's mounted and wired. The red wires are from the 24V PSU. The Green wire is for the M64 signal and the White wire is for the M66 signal. In order to detect the Error and Battery status you'll need to create and adaptor for the 1040 board. This has a 26 pin edge connector that you need to interface with. By referencing the Fadal User Manual -> Macros -> Layout of I Macro, you can see that I(3) is pin 19 on J2 and I(4) is pin 20 on J2. You can test is the pin is logic high or low and create logic from there. I assume this card requires TTL voltage levels, so use 5V only! I decided to mount the MI8-4, the 24VDC PSU, and the connector block to the inside of the electrical cabinet. Luckily there were two 1/4x20 studs sticking out that I could conveniently mount a DIN rail to. I also made up a small connector block out of some perf board to handle wiring up the various components. I 3D printed a couple of DIN rail adaptors for the backside. The 1040 board uses approx. 10K pullup resistors on the input pins. I set things up so an Error or Low Battery are high (active - i.e. the default state) and you need to pull them to GND to indicate a no Error condition. I added some caps to help with AC ripple, as it seemed the power from the Fadal was kinda noisy. And here's the PSU, Connector Block and MI8-4 mounted and connected. All in all I'm happy with the layout. I mounted the TS27R on the back left side of my table and ran the wiring up and over to the cabinet. Initially I was going to mount the OMM on the top left of the cabinet as indicated in the Fadal Maintenance manual, but looking at a bunch of pictures on the internet of HAAS and Fadal OMM installs - it looked like the back of the cabinet would be better. I mounted the MI12 on top of the pendent and ran the wiring under the cover that runs along the top of the cabinet. I had to create a hole to run the wires through on the pendent end. (The black box to the right of the MI12 is my interface for a programmable coolant nozzle I'm working on - more on that in a future post.) I calibrated the TS27R (basically getting the stylus flat) and then determining the fixture offset. After that I tried a tool setting cycle and low and behold - it worked! Can't wait to machine something with my new capabilities.
31 Comments
9/29/2016 10:38:17 pm
Hi,
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Doov
9/29/2016 11:28:29 pm
Peter,
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John Mesolella
10/15/2016 05:22:31 pm
Thank you for posting this great work. I have all the parts now to give this a try.
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Matrix
10/28/2016 12:45:53 pm
I'm building this board and since I'm not electrical,
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Doov
10/31/2016 05:26:38 pm
Matrix,
Matrix
11/4/2016 02:44:31 pm
Can you check your interface board J6? If I have "J6 pin1(+5v)" going to "MI8-4 pin A1" cable screen (tied to ground) Wont this cause a short?
Doov
11/4/2016 03:49:44 pm
Matrix - I see the confusion. The designation 1,2,3 (under the square) are just pins numbers that happen to be in the part model I used for in Eagle CAD. They don't actually have any relation to the numbers on the MI8-4 (i.e. A1, A2...). I all I was trying to document was those three wires need to go to the 3 terminals MI8-4 A1-A3, However, I see now, it falls short of specifying which one goes to which. If I get time I'll try update it to make it actually useful. Thanks for the catch! Hopefully the correct connections are obvious.
Ed
1/21/2017 05:12:07 pm
Hi, Thank you very much for the blog. I'm having a bit of trouble figuring out the connection between the 1060-0 and the MI8-4. Perhaps you can shed some light. It seems that we should provide (+) and (-) on A10 and A12 respectively and then route the signal in A11 to J12-11. The (-) would come via the shield in the cable from J12-10 and the (+) would be sourced from the lower left corner of the 1060-0 (+12V). This would be very similar to page 42 of the Fadal wiring diagrams where a TS-27 is being connected to the 1060-0 via a "Fadal Signal Conditioner". Is this right? If not, can you give a brother a hand? Thanks!!
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Mike
6/6/2019 09:27:33 am
I understand the red wire on the 1100 board but where did you put the ground from the psu
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Doov
6/7/2019 07:33:59 pm
MIke,
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Mike
6/7/2019 07:53:16 pm
I only have the probe hooked up to a mi12 box. I have one side of the psu Going to 1100-1 pin 20. I have the negiative of the psu going to the star. I can not get the machine to pass the probe test. The probe always says touching regardless of position.
mike
6/7/2019 08:16:15 pm
Just to make sure you have 24volts going to 1100 pin 20 Correct?
Doov
6/7/2019 10:25:38 pm
Yes to 24v to pin 20.
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Mike
6/7/2019 10:44:14 pm
My light blinks green when depressed and if I use AutoStart it will talk back and forth between the mi12 and the probe Just not the Fadal.
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DS
3/12/2020 07:27:36 pm
Hi there,
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Doov
5/5/2020 09:22:47 am
Nope. Plus they are copyrighted so you'd have to purchase them.
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Richard
5/1/2020 10:05:10 am
Do you have the M64 and M65 backwards? M65 is for the tool setter I thought.
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Richard
5/5/2020 09:04:06 am
Thanks for the detailed write up. Very helpful. Although my stuff is slightly different the information was super!.
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Doov
5/5/2020 09:22:13 am
I wrote my own as the Renishaw routines have A LOT of variables and subroutines to make all the features work. At one point, someone gave me some of them (although I never got all), and I just gave up and did my own. I really only cared about finding a corner or the center of round feature.
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Richard
5/6/2020 07:58:59 am
How did you do the user input check for errors? I'm trying the inputs like the macros show and I get Illegal Expression.
WES
11/12/2020 07:57:57 pm
Thanks for sharing. Your info was helpful in pointing me in the right direction. I was able to get a TS27R and OMI /OM400 working this past weekend. Ive written a couple macros to do my probing. Do you still have any of the renishaw routines given to you? I would be curious to take a look and compare how they did some things.
joe
11/13/2020 05:00:11 am
would you be willing to share the probing macros? I have been lookling and researching and still trying to grasp writing my own. I have the probe from factory just trying to install the ts-27 now.
Doov
5/6/2020 08:17:03 am
Richard,
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Joe
1/21/2021 04:20:45 am
I don't think you can use the easy probe app. It's different then what the fadal uses. Mostly gotta write your own from what I've found. I'm still learning also
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Richard
1/20/2021 07:45:38 pm
Clicked on unsubscribe by mistake so subbing back...
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JD
11/28/2021 12:07:45 pm
Hi Doov,
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Doov
11/28/2021 12:42:43 pm
I ran the armored conduit to the left of the column, up to near the top of the computer enclosure where I mounted an electrical junction box. The conduit terminates there and from there I made the connection to the rest of my wiring inside the enclosure. The trick was finding the correct armored conduit. I'm pretty sure it's Anaconda Sealtite M-1/4" Liquid Tight Conduit. I zip tied it in a few places to secure it so the the table moving around wouldn't pinch it or pull it.
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JD
12/1/2021 10:32:29 pm
Thanks for the reply! checking for options for mine.
JD
12/8/2021 08:10:32 am
Hi Doov,
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