VAST XXT sensor wont seat after rotating.

[[An...]]

CMM Zeiss Contura Sensor Vast XXT
We have a problem with our Vast XXT sensor. Anytime we do a rotation with the A angle position between 0 and 90 degrees it just shakes until an error pops up.It will not engage at the location. The error is 395 data transfer error[CAN bus[STD3/RDS]. If we catch it in time we can jiggle the sensor and then it pops into place. We have had to make our programs to avoid these angles, but it still errors out during a probe change A90,B0 if we don't catch it in time. This is a problem when we have programs with multiple probe changes. We have had a third party calibration guy look at it and run a sensor mapping software on it with no luck. There are two other shops in the area that have the same problem. Our machine is only a year and a half old with no crashes. The other machines are less than a year old so Zeiss will probably just replace them. We are trying to avoid spending 13k on a new head that is only a year and a half old. Has anyone else had this problem, or does anyone have any ideas for a solution to fix this.

[[Br...]]

We've had this issue in the past with our XTR head, not sure if the XXT is the same or not. We had to replace our head after about a year, and we had to replace the replacement about 18 months later. The same issue occurred on both. There are 3 gold spring loaded contact pins on the underside of the head that locate the probe position. One of the pins was stuck, which prevented it from locating. We were able to loosen it and grease it up enough to use it until we got a replacement.
Hope this helps.

[[Ne...]]

I've come to the conclusion these Vast XXT heads have all kinds of flaws. Every once in a while when a specific probe rotates to a specific articulation it will really snap into position at the end of the articulation almost causing the disc plate to break contact. It hasn't alarmed out yet after that but it does sometimes alarm out when referencing the sphere position. When it says to probe in the direction of the sphere and it does the double "click" after touch off, the clicks are so hard inside the sensor that it alarms out and I just have to keep trying until it accepts the touch off. The other big negative I see with these is the movement/vibration in the probe tip upon contact with the part at max speed which is only 300 for our machines. Its because of the springs inside the sensor and the speed. I started dropping my CMM travel speeds to cut down on that so I don't have as much outlier elimination of points. Sorry I'm not offering a solution but thank you for the opportunity to rant. 😉