Calibration sphere

[[Ma...]]

I am trying to qualify a short right angle probe so I ordered a 8mm reference sphere(and shaft) without a base so that I can passive qualify the short probe in 180 degrees. I'm pretty green as far as Zeiss goes and had a few questions. I currently have the base that came with our CMM and the attached sphere. Does the original sphere come off the base so that I can put the 8mm sphere into the base? I haven't tried to take it off yet, but wasn't sure if that would cause issues when I went to requalify with it in the future. If the original sphere shouldn't come off, can I just put the 8mm sphere in the 30 degree position opposite the original on the other side. I'm currently using a Vast XXT TL1 head so I'm unable to reduce the sphere coverage during the qualification since it defaults back to 180 degrees and had to resort to the 8mm sphere. I'm pretty sure I understand how to add a new sphere, I'm just trying to figure out what I can do to get the 8mm sphere to the base. I attached a few images for visual aid. Thanks in advance for any input you may have.

20211101_094437.jpg20211101_094419.jpg

[[Cl...]]

Yes, you can attach the 8mm sphere to the existing
base. We have a double sphere base very similar to
what you show, works fine.

The only potential problem that could pop up is some
rotations/articulations might collide with the added 8mm
sphere, so keep that in mind.

[[Ma...]]

I thought so, thank you for the response. For now I only need 4 articulations so I should be good. Since that is the 30 degree all I need to do is change the angle to 30 degrees and inclination to 120 in the adding sphere tab correct?

[[Cl...]]

You should just be able to create a new ref sphere using the same base with a new angle/inclination.

[[To...]]

Just a heads up. When you are utilizing 2 or more reference spheres, you will need to check which reference sphere is active when you do the reference sphere position AND when qualifying stylus systems. I've seen the number change (possibly from referencing which sphere was used on last qualification). Always check the radius of the stylus after the qualification. The radius will be way off if wrong reference sphere was used.

[[Ne...]]

Mark,
Slightly off topic, I never messed around with the calibration sphere management but when I got here I noticed all the cal sphere stems are pointed straight up and we never have to rotate the tower(45° to 135°, etc..). I bring this up because it'll probably save you a lot of calibration time to calibrate all your probe angles with one passive and one geometry program. Like I said I never had to mess with the sphere management settings but since you don't have any angles coming from under the hemisphere maybe ask the annual calibration tech about what your management settings should be for your type of cal sphere with no angle. I'm sure you could figure it out before then too and I could also text you a screen shot of my sphere management settings. We'll talk soon.