So who wants to tell me how to use the XTR Head?

[[Ch...]]

So this is my first day with the XTR and it's got me scratching my head a little. As far as I can tell, the documentation for the XTR head is abridged to say the least. Does anyone want to give me a little tutorial on how to use it? I don't need much. Just enough to get off of the ground a little.

I'd rather get my advice from you guys than a call to Zeiss.

Right now, i'm trying everything on my offline seat. The new machine with the XTR head is just too far of a walk.

[[Me...]]

I ran one for 3 years. I didn't quite care for it as much but it was more accurate than my current RDS-CAA head.

Unless they revised the firmware for the controller, the first thing I would suggest is to turn off the ID CHIP function because that was a huge problem with my XTR. I don't want to get into the specifics but it was a 4 month process in figuring out what was going on and Engineers from Zeiss in Germany had to change the firmware in the controller...

If you program parts with odd angles, you may want to look into building custom angled blocks for your head.

Buy a newton meter (Nm) torque screwdriver for replacing or adjusting the XTR adapter plates. I believe the spec is shown on the plate itself which is 1.2 or 1.4 Nm, that is critical to the calibration if the heads are not torque'd to the correct spec. The only reason you would adjust the plates is for custom angles...

I'll keep editing this response if I can think of anything else..

[[Ch...]]

100% agree with the ID Chip function. This has always cause me more problems than it has solved.

How to I edit the angle of the probe in the measurement strategy? I.e., lets say I want to use the number 4 probe to measure something that is facing -Y.

[[Ri...]]

Man... The ID Chip function always works well for me. 🙂 Most issues arise from dirty contacts. I have seen a case where the contact prongs on the bottom side of the head were damaged, so the head had to be replaced.

The head itself is pretty basic to use. There is no CAA correction, so each rotation/tip has to be qualified manually. You can rotate the head in the software, or manually by turning on the rotation button, and rotating with the Z axis (left and right).

The two biggest things you need to watch out for is weight/unbalance, and crashes. On the normal VAST XT Gold you can get away with a little unbalance, but with the XTR if you are going to do rotations you want to make sure your stylus system is balanced or it will degrade the head. Regarding crashes, be extremely careful because since the stylus system is actually locked onto the head, if it gets hit hard in the X or Y, it will rip the guts out of the stylus plate (and then have fun removed the center piece as it is magnetically help up there - you need to two people as one needs to manually release and the other pull it off the head).

Unfortunately I've had to learn all of this stuff the hard way myself.

[[Ch...]]

All good to know and much appreciated.

I never really had a problem with the chip ID, I just never got any added value out of the function. I don't think it prevented a single crash while I was using it.

As far as the XTR goes, can I change the rotation in the feature measurement strategy? Are there any PCM functions the work for this?

[[Me...]]

Depending on your Clearance plane, Retract & Clearance Distance settings, you may have to add clearance moves in between points or scans. If you've selected the correct probe, it should do a clearance move and rotate to whichever probe you have selected to measure.

I treated my stylus systems similar to a Star system.

[[Da...]]

I usually cal all the angles that I use. Then you can just change probes as usual. Obviously move clear before rotating but, it doesn't move very far in Z- to do a rotation, allowing a half inch is plenty. I also, as suggested earlier, make sure the stylus system is balanced. I use a lot of Tee shaped probes . This also saves a few rotations. The wreck advise is golden !!! I plowed into a clamp in X axis ,It tore the probe from the base...