Is manual override possible mid-inspection?

[[Ja...]]

Hey inspection party people, I am looking for a workaround to an ongoing issue.

Issue: I have an ongoing issue with programs stopping mid-inspection with a stylus probe resting on the part but not redlighting and just sitting there with monitor/timer still running. More hapless details on this old thread: https://qualityforum.zeiss.com/topic/6086-program-stopping-in-mid-inspection/page/2/

Request: Is there a way to, if the program stops mid-inspection with the probe stylus just sitting on the part, to manually take over the CMM to take the point with the ol' joystick controller? And if that is possible once that point is manually taken where the program got hung up on would the program automatically continue on to the next feature/point of the inspection to completion?

The issue of the CMM program freezing is not my primary concern at this time, it's a quirk I have learned to work around as I have not been able to figure out why this happens and it does this on various programs on both of our Duramax CMMs, VAST XXT heads (see linked old thread above). Obviously it is a concern, and weird, but since most of our programs are typically under five minutes it's not the end of the world to redlight the program and just restart the run when the issue occurs. That said I have a much more extensive inspection program for a new part that is over 15 minutes long (which may be nothing to some of you gurus but it is substantial for our shop) and it is frustrating when five, ten, or fourteen minutes and fifty seconds into the program the inspection stops and I have to restart the program and hope it makes it through on the second or third attempt. There is no logic or pattern to this issue, the alignment is robust, and stops happen with various probes, various areas of the parts, and sometimes I'll go days without the issue occurring and sometimes it will happen several times a shift or even on the same part. 

Any ideas you may have will be welcomed but mostly I am curious if the manual override feature is an option mid-inspection for when these mid-inspection CMM naps happen or if any of you have tricks or workarounds for similar issues. 

Thanks!

 

 

Edited July 2

[[Jo...]]

You can un check "Clear Results" when restarting the run and it will attempt to pick up where it left off.

 

The probing behavior you describe is unfortunately the symptom we had when our RDS was failing and we had to replace it ($$$).  It would /eventually/ get the point but would take several minutes to 'settle' sometimes. 

[[Ma...]]

If it happens in the same place then you can go to Measure Plan Editor Features and change the feature from CNC to MAN. Once the feature is measured manually you will be prompted that the machine will move to CNC. 

[[Br...]]

What Mark above said is the way to go.

 

 

[[Ja...]]

Thanks folks.

I will attempt to try unchecking "clear results" next time I see this issue to see if the program picks up where it left off and report back. If that works it could be a huge time saver.

Unfortunately the freezing issue doesn't happen in the same locations, probes, or programs consistently enough to choose to make certain points manual. I really hope and don't think it is the VAST XXT head, the diagnostics I have ran under the guidance of Zeiss couldn't pinpoint the issue either and we had the issue persist even after full recalibration and head replacement a couple years back. Maybe just some ghost in the machine is haunting me ...

[[Ja...]]

Quick follow-up: Unchecking "Clear Results" works!

When the issue occurs and the probe freezes on the part mid-inspection I redlight it, move the probe to a clear position off the part, but then instead of running the full program again like we have been doing I simply uncheck the "Clear Results" option then click Run. The program picks up where it left off by remeasuring the feature/point that it froze up on, continues through the rest of the program as designed, and the report has all of the information in it as if the issue never occurred. The trick will be remembering to recheck the "Clear Results" option prior to running the program on a new part.

This is a very big win for me over here and can't thank

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 and the others that posted potential solutions enough. While the issue of the freezing has yet to be figured out I now have a workaround that keeps my operators and the higher ups happy by minimalizing rerun time on at least our longer programs if we have the issue occur. 

[[Ma...]]

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I’m curious, how are you clamping the part? Are you using a magnetic base, or any magnets?

[[Ja...]]

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- For this particular part we have a 3D printed fixture with a couple of spring locating pins pressing the part against three resting pins, no magnets. Part is snug in the fixture, no apparent movement, and the fixture itself is mounted to the CMM base, so no movement there.

We have a variety of fixturing for other parts, some have magnets and some do not. There doesn't seem to be a correlation between magnets and issues with mid-program stoppages, the randomness makes it really hard to pin down what is going on.

[[Ma...]]

Does the same program get opened on the two different CMM's, but from the same network? I had similar issues until I opted to save everything locally. 

[[Ja...]]

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 - We do store our programs on a network, very rarely would we have the same program up on more than one CMM at the same time and I am aware of some weird issues that occur in that scenario. That does not seem to be the issue here. I tried storing the programs locally but the issue would still occur, also checked latency and our ethernet cables to see if that was an issue without luck. Initially it was just on one of our CMMs but now it has begun happening on a second one, identical setup.

More details and attempts to correct the issue can be found over here: