Jumpy igaging DRO

FanMan

FanMan

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I've heard this reported before and I've seen it a couple of times before but never like this. In the past, I've noticed my x-axis igaging DRO on my mill jump to a new number an inch or so off. Never actually saw it happen and the error was obvious. Last night I was drilling some holes and the reading was all over the place, like a hundred inches off and changing constantly. Wiggled the wires and plug at the display box, still does it, touched the slider on the bar and it stopped and did not repeat. Never got as far as turning off the motor so I don't know if that's related. Through all this the y axis (whose wires are bundled with the X until they split to go to different scales) was stable.

As I was in a hurry and was only moving in the y-direction I didn't investigate further, now I'll be away for a couple of days, but has anybody isolated this problem and come up with a definitive fix?
 
I have three iGaging DROs on my mill. I had the same problem. I loosened the ends enough to remove flex but still hold the scale. My X axis still occasionally jumps but overall it fix the problem. Very frustrating. :angry:
 
Did you by chance ever remove the reader head from the scale?
 
FanMan said:
Yes, to cut the scale.
Click to expand...

I would bet you assembled it upside down. I did the same thing when I installed the three DRO's on my mill. Two were perfect but one was crazy, jumped around and read in the 100's.

Look at the scale very carefully. You might have to play some light on it. On the black portion, notice that you can see faint images of what look to be a bunch of capital T's, like this TTTTTTTTTTTT.

The sliding reader has to go with the cord side to the top of the T's. Easy fix. I almost returned mine because it was crazy. I didn't cut my scale, but after dry run fitting, I decided I wanted the cord on the other side. I removed one end mount,slid the reader off, flipped it and slid it back on. It was quite a few days later when the mill was back together that I realized the problem. I compared that setup with the other two and I noticed the difference in the T's.
 
I have a similar problem on my 6" Z axis unit. I will zero it, start moving, and *occasionally* when it gets to around 0.200 it will re-zero on its own and carry on counting, and throws everything off.

It worked fine for about a year and I've never taken it apart or modified it.
 
Try changing the batteries before you do anything. When I first got mine, the same thing happened. Apparently, the batteries they ship with suck. Mine had only been installed for a day or two. The only other time this had happened is if it gets wet with coolant.

Also try blowing it out with compressed air, it could also be a small bit of metal got in there.
 
as xalky said. It has gotten dirty or wet. You need to make shields for them or thay will be a problem. I have to take mine apart and clean them every now and then. And I have shields on them.
 
I had some oil get between the scale and the pick up on mine and it caused the problem you describe

Cheers Phil
 
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