TT-4 Touch Probe

[Simon]

Hey all -

is the TT-4 CNC Tool Touch Off Probe functioning like a Renishaw T27R tool setter, is it able to touch off the diameter and compensate for wear and end mill tolerances? Or only height?
Anyone got experience with this probe? How's accuracy/repeatability?

I did search the Forum, no posts mentioning TT-4, neither on YouTube.

Simon

[Nigelo]

I use the TT-2 which is the predecessor of the TT-4 and yes, they can be used for accurate diameter touch off using reverse rotational probing. Depending on your tooling you might need an extension to the std disc stylus.

I did some beta testing for Swissi's CHIPS add-on probing software using this technique. CHIPS has just been released for CNC12 v5.1 - see details on this forum

[swissi]

Hey all -

is the TT-4 CNC Tool Touch Off Probe functioning like a Renishaw T27R tool setter, is it able to touch off the diameter and compensate for wear and end mill tolerances? Or only height?
Anyone got experience with this probe? How's accuracy/repeatability?

I did search the Forum, no posts mentioning TT-4, neither on YouTube.

Simon

The Centroid TT-4 does allow tool diameter offset probing. I did test it with CHIPS Operation Mode 1 and it works exceptionally well.

-swissi

[Simon]

Awesome. Thanks for the input. That sounds really nice.

Regarding probes... The KP-3 and DP-4 touch probes are wired, only the DP-7 is wireless - correct? Do you guys use spindle orientation for the touch probe like it is common on most VMCs with OMP40 and similar? Anyone used both KP-3 and DP-4 or even all three models and willing to share experience? The styli don't have ceramic middle parts - how are they handling Z- collisions?

Simon

[centroid467]

Hello Simon,

DP-7 is not wireless. All current Centroid probes are wired. Do you require a wireless probe?

We do very strongly recommend using a consistent probe orientation. Typically, we suggest making sure that the LED is facing out the front of the machine for operator visibility. If the VFD has a spindle orientation function, it would make sense to use it for this.

If robustness is the main concern, then I would recommend the KP-3. It is more tolerant of abuse due to the simpler internal design. Of course, the accuracy and repeatability is quite sufficient for probing and digitizing with shorter styli.

All three of the probes use standard M3 stylus threads so you can mount whatever you want on there. The DP-7 is typically used with a 100mm ceramic extension.

Are you intending to use long styli? What are the use cases? In general, we recommend the KP-3 for most applications although the DP-4 has slightly tighter specifications. If you will be using long styli, then the DP-7 is the way to go.