Hardware end position during probe change

[[Ma...]]

I recently took delivery of a new Duramax HTG and until today everything was running great. While trying to perform a stylus system change the machine alarmed out when it got near the probe rack. It gives me a "15 command" D99 hardware end position. I restarted the machine and it homed out normally but still won't perform the stylus system change. It behaves this way regardless of which system I am trying to load or unload. Any ideas?

[[Ja...]]

That is weird. Check your machine settings. Believe its in Extras >Settings > CMM. Check machine size and everything.
Check your probe rack to see if its within hardware end limits.
Also try probe change at slower speed. Sometimes if your probe rack position is too close to hardware end, high speed approach can trigger that error.

[[To...]]

Manually load MasterProbe and reset holder location. Prior to that, jog the machine over to the right, in-line with far right pocket. Check the X location on the joystick controller. It needs to be less than 500.

Also, is it possible you're to far to the left? If so, slide the probe rack to the right a little bit.

New machine deserves a call to the hotline.....

[[Da...]]

Have you tried to re-teach the rack position?

[[Ma...]]

Thanks Tom, I will try that. It's actually hitting the axis end point in the Y axis. We have tried resetting the holder location with no luck. If I manually drive the Sensor head in the Y axis it will stop just short of the probe rack which is the same way it is acting during the CNC probe change. If I raise it up in Z until the probe head clears the rack it will allow me to travel in Y past the rack. What has us baffled is that it was working fine and to our knowledge nothing changed. We have a call into Zeiss and I will let you know what the fix ends up being.

[[To...]]

Please sign in to view this quote.

Interesting. I'm going to go try that on my machine.

Does it happen in all programs or just one? If one, do you have Navigation Check active for probe rack? Plan > Navigation > Navigation check.

UPDATE: I tried jogging into rack and it stopped before hitting it. However, I have 2 racks on my DuraMax and the invisible force field does not protect both of them. At around X295 is where the left edge of the zone appears to be on my machine. I've heard this zone is adjustable (by Zeiss service) if you add additional racks to the machine.

[[Th...]]

Please sign in to view this quote.

Dredged this out of the manual, where 1 indicates the upper bound for the protection and 2 indicates their X ranges. Changing which zones are active does require a service tech. They're either on or off, with no ability to adjust along the rail, so if you have a rack bridging two zones you need both on. The manual also says they're only active after the machine has been homed.

rackzones.jpg

[[Ma...]]

Update:
I have twelve available stations on three different probe racks with two of them being traditional Zeiss three station holders, and one of them being an aftermarket six station holder. I have this same setup on two other Duramax machines and it works great. I re-taught both the Master Probe length and the holder positions. No change.

I went to Plan/Navigation/Navigation Check and I can see the twelve X marks where the probe stations are located. 9 of them are in the back slightly outside the thicker blue line in Y+. Three of them remain slightly inside the thick blue line as they are offset in Y-. When compared to my other Duramax setups everything looks the same.

I'm still waiting on a call back from Zeiss so I figured I would offer an update.

[[Ma...]]

I spoke with Zeiss and ended up having to turn off the Probe Rack protection in order for the CNC probe change to work. I'm still not clear on the reason why as my other two Duramax machines have probe rack protection on and they work just fine. At least we are up and running for now but we are still going to keep digging on this. I appreciate your help.