Common Problems with iGaging EZ-View DRO Scales

[ycroosh]

Good part of the day,
I get a good number of emails and messages from people who use iGaging EZ-View and DigiMag scales with TouchDRO. These scales are a popular choice for DIY DROs, but due to a few design decisions, are prone to some undesirable behaviors. Yesterday's conversation nudged me to finish the blog post I've started some time ago (now that I discovered the amazing power of being able to create animated GIFs ).
If you are experiencing an issue where the readout is jumping up and down by about 0.001", take a look at the Common iGaging EZ-View DRO Problems
The "TL;DR;" version is that this behavior is inherent to these scales (much more so than other capacitive scales). It happens when a scale is stopped at the spot where the interpolation algorithm has to round the value up or down. Minute changes in capacitance can nudge it one way or the other. Some scales take care of this internally by using a more resilient interpolation method, but iGaging chose to smooth the readout in the display by some combination of averaging and latching. I don't do that in TouchDRO, since it can mask more serious problems.
I'm experimenting with a more sophisticated approach that might reduce the issue in the new 32-bit TouchDRO adapter version but I doubt that I will completely eliminate the jumping without losing the accuracy of the system.
Regards
Yuriy

 

[markba633csi]

Any digital system is subject to quantizing errors like this- the solution is more resolution- more bits- and with that comes more cost
-Mark

 

[Ken from ontario]

I use the older EZ-view type (that came with an aluminum rule) , I've had 3 of them on my mini mill for 4 years now , out of the 3 DROs one jumps the way you describe but jumps by 3 inches, I have cleaned the rule a couple of times which seem to have done nothing to correct the situation, I'm thinking of swapping the displays to determine if it is the aluminum rule that's worn out/dirty or if it's actually the display that's faulty,.
I still like them for their overall accuracy/performance. this jumping problem is happening only since a few months ago, before that they were just fine doing their jobs.

 

[kb58]

wrong thread!