Info about DROs

FWIW, this thread should be moved the Machining Accessories or General Machinery forums.


I agree with everything Bix wrote. I have the cheaper black Igaging units on my mill. They don't register movement that fast or precisely but probably good enough for us non-NASA guys. :) I thought about using them on my Heavy 10 but I just don't know if I trust them enough to go with them again. My guess is the costlier AccuRemote units have a different reader/decoding chip and the scales are stainless. That's the only difference I would guess. But can the reso be that much better? :dunno:
 
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I had one of the Grizzly I Gaging units on the Z axis of my 19" Jet drill press and it worked perfect. Was very accurate and repeatable. One of the nice things is about the I Gaging scales is they can be cut to size with no problem using a hack saw, dremel tool, ect. These scales must be magnetic which is what the high end DROs are using now. It is amazing to me how well that some of this cheap stuff is working these days.

I also should have added that while it was great on my drill press, I wouldn't use it on my 9x32 mill or my lathe. It does have it's limitations.
 
Gentlemen
I have the G 07 04 mill and I have installed the stainlesssteel AcuuRemote DRO. I don't wanna gettoo far ahead of myself because I'mpreparing to post a new guy experience from purchase through a complete set upof the system. But I do have a problem Iwould like to remedy asap.
I would like to install a Power Supply to eliminate thebatteries in the add on DRO System.
I'm familiar with electricity, ( not electronics) and I'mnot sure how to check or connect to the positive and negative terminals. The batteries are three volts and Iam thinking that I should connect six volts DC to the respective terminals butI would be nice if someone could assure me that that's the right way togo. The next problem would be connectingall three readouts to one Power Supply. Pardon my child's drawing of the rear of the digitalreadouts. There is continuity between both positiveterminals then again both negative terminals. When I cross connect the probes of the multi meter I have no connectionbetween the upper right and lower left positive and negative terminals but themeter does show medium resistance between the upper left positive and the lowerright negative terminals. Scroll down please----

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Gentlemen
...AcuuRemote DRO...The batteries are three volts and I am thinking that I should connect six volts DC to the respective terminals... The next problem would be connecting all three readouts to one Power Supply.


I just checked one of my igaging displays. The batteries on it are wired in parallel, not series. That means you only want to connect to one of the battery locations, and with only 3 volts, not 6 volts. You can easily verify that your DRO is wired the same way by removing one of the batteries and operating with only one battery (doesn't matter which one). If the DRO works, it is wired the same as mine: batteries in parallel, 3 volts.

These batteries, when new, are 3.4v, and if I were doing a battery replacement I'd go for the full 3.4v as I find the display contrast is better with a fresh battery.

Running multiples from one supply: no problem at all. Just hook each of these up to your power supply.

Back to finding the supply: I looked at ebay for "3v dc adapter" and found several "wall warts", like the charger for your cell phone. Make certain that the one you buy is specified as "DC" and 3 volts. As for the current rating, the DROs take very little current and I doubt that it is possible to purchase a charger that provides too little current. The first ebay one I found (see below) is rated at 1 amp - that's probably enough for hundreds of the DRO readouts. If you have a choice, buy the smallest.

It is a little bit of a crap shoot to know just what voltage will really come out of these, but they are cheap, so if you get one that doesn't work out you can just pitch it. See for instance ebay item 140669436689, for $4 from Taiwan. If you get something like that, either get a matching connector from Radio Shack and wire that connector to your DRO system, or cut the connector off and wire directly. But be VERY careful to get plus to plus and minus to minus. Also, but sure to check the charger you get before actually connecting it to your DRO. Just plug it into the wall and measure the tip voltage to make certain it is (a) DC volts and (b) between 3 and 3.5 volts.

Connecting to the battery location: it seems it might be easy to come up with a fake battery with a couple wires that goes into the battery socket and connects to the outer ring connection and the bottom connection. Then the DRO would not be damaged by soldering directly to the battery connector. The wires could come out the back perhaps around a notch in the battery cover so that it would continue to function as well, in case you wanted to revert to real batteries.

Here's another way to do this: use a USB charger, such as ebay item 310499288944 for a buck. Get a USB cable and cut off the end that doesn't go into the charger, and with your voltmeter, find the two wires that have +5v between them. That's too much for the DRO, but we're going to reduce the voltage and get you a light to show that power is on as well:

Buy a 5mm white LED, such as ebay item 320878486780 ($1 for 10). Wire as shown below:

DRO Supply.jpg
For the resistor, anything from 85 to 100 ohms is ok, and it uses little power so the power rating is not important. The White LED will have about 3.4 volts across it, so that is what regulates the 5volts from the USB adapter down to the 3.4 volts needed for the DRO. Again, the caveat here is to be careful and check both the output voltage and the polarity before connecting this to your DRO display. The advantages of using the USB adapter approach are:
1) really cheap
2) you get an LED to show that power is applied (but of course you would know that anyway)
3) the LED makes a good regulator to ensure you don't get too much voltage into your DRO
The disadvantage of the USB adapter is that if the LED isn't connected for some reason, you would be applying 5 volts to your DRO instead of 3.4, and I don't know whether 5 volts would damage the DRO (I doubt it, but it could).

Good luck with this, and if you work out a fake battery to make the connection to the DRO, please publish that.

bix

DRO Supply.jpg
 
I should have added:

If your readout really is six volts (batteries in series instead of parallel), then it won't work on just one battery. In this case, you can find the plus to minus points that have nearly zero ohms between them. Connect to the *other* plus and minus points with your external power supply.

Instead of buying a three volt adapter as in my post above, buy a six volt DC adapter (see ebay item 280754754175). The USB/LED idea won't work if your DRO needs 6 volts.

bix

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For those, like me, using batteries, buy them from ebay for less than $0.20 each, such as ebay item 260612665163. Compare that to $5-6 for one battery from Radio Shack or $2.50 at CVS. I buy in groups of 20 and store them in our garage refrigerator (which probably is't necessary - these batteries have very long shelf life).

bix
 
Fascinating thread!!
Sorry if this is is an off track question.
I am a NOOB, working on a conserving a Cincy Toolmaster 1B.
I respect and would appreciate a good DRO. No question about that.
However, given the price and availability of old dial indicators I am wondering if I could make a dial indicator holder that would give me precision.
I understand that it would be limited by the distance the indicator could travel, and that the indicator only supplements the hand wheels.
I also understand that it would take some time to design and machine (darn, more time in the shop!). However, for a hobbyist, time in the shop is measured differently.
Ideas? criticism?
Does anyone have better pics of such devices different than are what in the Cincy manual?

Cincy Dial Indicator.png
 
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Well, I just had to see if I could make an adapter to plug wires into the battery sockets on the DRO readout. I figured that the battery fits, so maybe I could hollow out the back of a battery and attach wires to the two battery faces, and then plug that assembly into the battery socket. This is all to avoid soldering directly to the battery connectors on the readout, to avoid damaging the readout itself in any way.

This is where I have to say: lithium is dangerous stuff. I'm still alive, but I make no warranty that doing the following won't hurt you. Be careful about heat, fumes and the stuff itself.

First, take a CR2032 battery and discharge it completely. One way to do that is to clip an alligator clip to it to connect both sides together. Let that sit for quite a while, at least a couple of hours. It will get hot, but that's about it. Check with a voltmeter that it is zero volts before going further.

Next, cut into the back. I started doing this on a mill. I didn't know what to expect inside. Here is the first result:

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As I cut into the battery (from the "+" side), there was black stuff inside. A couple of times I got nice puffs of smoke and maybe a little light at the same time. The case didn't cut very well - the above photo is after sanding the face to get rid of burrs. I used an xacto knife to dig out all the black stuff I could, and used a brush and pcb flux remover to try to clean further. But there was still black stuff under the ledge I could not get at.

Next I needed to see if I could solder to the case. I don't know what the case is made of, but it is difficult to solder to. I ended up thoroughly scraping the area where I wanted solder balls, then applied a lot of flux and a very hot iron to make small solder balls on each face:
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I attached wires, and pressed the connection on the + side down so it would present a more flush face, for closing the compartment lid:

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But rats! it didn't work. I'm pretty sure it didn't work because there was still black stuff to be removed. So, I removed the wires and chucked this in a lathe to enlarge the hole, and then used the xacto knife to scrape out the remaining black stuff under the ledge, then reattached the wires:

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I'm happy to say that this worked. So the secret is: get all the black stuff out of the battery case. It looks like a recess could be filed in the compartment cover to allow the wires to come out. The wires could come out in any other direction as well. Going the other way and coming out thru a notch in the cover might be best.

If I were doing this again, I'd probably make that hole in the back of the battery even larger so that very little lip was left, to allow more access for removing black stuff. Then I would try to solder the wire on the edge of the lip instead of on top, to make sure it doesn't interfere with the cover.

When doing this, use rosin core solder and electrical flux, not acid core solder. The wires can be quite small.

bix

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BIX ----- Thank you --- You saved the day, I was ready to try the 6v. Thanks for doing the research. Your idea of reusing the batteries is great,I also think I might try to get lucky if I can find the right size -- making a copper /rubber/copper, washersandwich.

THANKS
Charlie

 
I checked my DRO is 3v. The reason behind this is that someone on one of the other threads complained about the batteries going dead in the middle of a project.
 
Instead of ravaging the lithiums have you tried soldering thin-gauge wiring to the battery contacts on the circuit board? After that there's multiple ways of going to the PSU, either via a jack of some type you could make or direct soldering to the PSU wires. You don't need >15W gun to do this and it'd be safer and easier than messing with lithiums.
 
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