What's the point???

Probably would save Yuriy some headaches to add a disclaimer to the website concerning various issues reported with capacitive scales

-Mark
 
Asm109 said:
Yuriy, it appears that you would be ahead of a lot of aggravation if you just said no to supporting capacitive scales.

You said yourself, the protocols are proprietary and you are trying to peek behind the curtain and taking your best guess.
Guessing isn't good enough when the user is counting on your product for an accurate reliable reading.
Click to expand...
I have thought about that many times and almost pulled the plug earlier this year. In order of decreasing headache it goes something like this for me:
1. People who attempt to build an adapter from scratch. People do this to save money, but it often goes very wrong if this is the first project a person built. I get at least one of these every day. I plastered the site with all sorts of "here is hot you build this thing more reliably", but I often get emails from people who need help finding which part is a resistor.
2. People using iGaging scales with various jumping issues. I get one almost every week. Earlier I did the numbers and about 7% of iGaging adapter orders have at least one post-order contact. One interesting observation is that customers who ask questions before the order are a factor of magnitude more likely to have problems afterwards. I don't fully understand what exactly this data point means, though.
3. People using glass scales who bout a pre-assembled TouchDRO adapter. In five years I had a total of seven orders with ANY problems (two were caused by a failed voltage regulator, which could be a part defect or wrong power supply, the rest were scale-related).

in other words, you are right, I would have much less headache if I dropped the capacitive scales. The reason I haven't (yet) is that a lot of people of fixed income use these scales and decide to add TouchDRO at some point, and without a pre-assembled option they would need to scratch-build one, which leads to an even worse experience. Second, capacitive scales are sed a lot in poorer countries.

This year I decided to do a "last hoorah" and switch to a more sophisticated adapter circuit with a more powerful processor. I don't want to completely hide issues, but there is more I can do with a CPU that has a hardware floating poting unit and more than 512 bytes of ram. If that doesn't change the trend, I will drop support of iGaging scales later this year. (in the sense that it will be only a DIY adapter option)

Regards
Yuriy
 
So the OP continues to lob unhappy threads into the forum like grenades, hoping to what, give the manufacturer a bad reputation? If anything, it's doing the opposite. You've received a number of suggestions, which get ignore, which only make yourself look worse, instead of trying them and reporting back on the findings. At this point, suggest you pull up before your wings start clipping the trees.
 
I am glad this thread came up. Even though the initial post had a negative overall experience, I have been researching what DRO to get for a mill I just purchased. This actually turned me on to the idea that I have the option to use a software based "head" with basically any (loose term) scale I wanted. I am in the tech industry so I like the idea of the flexibility of a software solution. The risk of course is if Yuriy gets hit by a bus we will lose support, but if it is working, hopefully for us home guys it will do what we need long into the future without much issue. Worst case, we have scales and just have to buy another head.

I was never considering the cheap scales so that wasn't a concern. I had planned on purchasing magnetic scales anyway so now that I have an idea of what is supported, I will just purchase the magnetic scales (probably ditron), the wireless DRO adaptor, and download the software.

I understand everyone can't afford or just don't need the best of everything, but I have yet to find many happy with the cheapest thing they can find. Hopefully this is a good balance.
 
Hozzie said:
I am glad this thread came up. Even though the initial post had a negative overall experience, I have been researching what DRO to get for a mill I just purchased. This actually turned me on to the idea that I have the option to use a software based "head" with basically any (loose term) scale I wanted. I am in the tech industry so I like the idea of the flexibility of a software solution. The risk of course is if Yuriy gets hit by a bus we will lose support, but if it is working, hopefully for us home guys it will do what we need long into the future without much issue. Worst case, we have scales and just have to buy another head.

I was never considering the cheap scales so that wasn't a concern. I had planned on purchasing magnetic scales anyway so now that I have an idea of what is supported, I will just purchase the magnetic scales (probably ditron), the wireless DRO adaptor, and download the software.

I understand everyone can't afford or just don't need the best of everything, but I have yet to find many happy with the cheapest thing they can find. Hopefully this is a good balance.
Click to expand...
Regarding "Yuriy gets hit by the bus" I have a contingency plan: two of my brothers and the wife have the keys to the code repository and their instructions are to open source everything. Hopefully, someone else will be able to support it (although I look both ways when crossing the road, just in case. ;)).

Regards
Yuriy
 
kb58 said:
So the OP continues to lob unhappy threads into the forum like grenades, hoping to what, give the manufacturer a bad reputation? If anything, it's doing the opposite. .
Click to expand...
It has turned me towards a touchdro. I have just started looking at getting a DRO, for the mill, and lathe. I had forgotten about Yuriy's products. After looking at his website, that is likely the direction I will go. Now thinking I will do both machines. and work through everything at once.
 
I did my due diligence, and after learning about some of the less than ideal results, and some solutions, I chose to implement a TouchDRO on my hobby mill. The end result for me? A very affordable, accurate, and reliable DRO that has proven to be the best improvement I could possibly make to my mill. I love it. Was it plug and play? No. I had to install caps inside my igaging scales (per user documentation ), add some braided metal shielding sleeving, and isolate the scales from the mill (I had this in mind when I designed the scale mounts) to resolve stability issues. I knew it might require some tweaks to get it to work and I figured it was a good trade off for what I ended up with. It was a calculated risk. I'm so glad I had this option. Thank you Yuriy. I could not be happier with it.
 
I'm a relative newcomer to DRO's on my Mini Mill (LMS 3990) and only added Yuriy's latest adapter about 6 weeks ago. However, I am very happy with the performance of the adapter with my iGaging Absolute Plus SS scales and with the TouchDRO application (running on a Galaxy Tab A 7"). I selected these scales as 1) I have a Mini Mill; 2) Although I liked the features and some of the mounting details of the LMS Magnetic Scale Kit, I did want to make some changes; 3) I liked what had I read and viewed about TouchDRO; 4) I had seen too many issues with the iGaging EZ-DRO scales. I have not had to add capacitors, replace cables or make any of the other modifications to the scales or my power connections that many have noted when using the aluminum EZ-DRO scales.

When I first installed my scales utilizing the included iGaging readouts, the 12" scale on my Z-Axis failed (random readings, poor response) after about a week. The cable connectors were OK, there did not appear to be any broken/loose connections on the pickup pcb and the readout itself was OK when checked with the other scales. Since this particular scale had been purchased over a year before, I just ordered a replacement, which was fine.

I switched to the TouchDRO system to get access to features that are not available with the individual readouts, and would not go back. Based on my hands-on experience and with Yuriy's extremely helpful responses to emailed questions and his obvious interest in being helpful, I would do it all again, even if I were to go with higher end scales.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top