Thoughts on DROs

MrWhoopee said:
Maybe I'm nuts. Having used both a DRO and Trav-a-dial on a lathe, it is much easier to track a dial as it approaches zero. Now that DROs come with full color LCD displays, how hard would it be to display a dial along with the digital display?

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A old school analog display would be a cool option.
 
Winegrower said:
I added a dial indicator to a sliding rod that's always attached to the lathe. Normally it's retracted and not in the way, but if there is a very critical operation point I can't go beyond, I slide it out into position and zero it on the carriage, then use the DRO until I get close and switch my attention to the dial indicator. Not perfect, but a benefit is that the dial indicator is a bit closer to the eyeball action than the DRO display anyway.
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It's not just "a bit closer to the eyeball action". It is much, much faster into the brain! Possibly an order of magnitude faster.

The eyes are an extension of the brain. There is much that goes on in the way of processing right at the retina. The way straight line, right angle, and circle recognition happens, even when the circle is tilted. The estimation of linear distance is fundamental to how you move, and how you make your appendages move - like the hand adjusting the lathe tool, with the eyes as feedback input.

That you have to ever "slow down and take care when approaching a target point", and keep making sure of direction, is evidence a thinking stage is required. This difference is there, even if the approach is really slow anyway. A dial indicator, moving toward a target position, is sensed seemingly instantaneously.
 
Very new to lathe work , 2022 and maybe 50 hours total on it. It did not take me but a few hours to rig Dial indicators up.

Between eye sight, back lash and inexperience I needed that.
Although it only took a few minutes to realize my Eye Glass Correction did not help much with dials and indicators as much as 3 feet away.
So now I am looking into DRO simply Because of visual needs and to eliminate using different pairs of glasses and a handheld magnifying glass!
I have a “scanner” I use at work for car diagnose. Do a lot of electronic graphing …the “analog dial” feature is great while glancing over at data. vs the numerical , which is small and or the graphing option.

Question do these DRO displays come with decent directions of the functions?
 
I think it's a great idea, but I can see the difficulty reproducing a dial and sweeper accurately. But why do that? Using a simple bar like your PC uses to how how complete something is, you could show the last X units on the bar easily and with plenty of resolution. Within reason, it could even be configurable ie. last 5 thou to set point, last 15, whatever.
 
MikeWi said:
I think it's a great idea, but I can see the difficulty reproducing a dial and sweeper accurately. But why do that? Using a simple bar like your PC uses to how how complete something is, you could show the last X units on the bar easily and with plenty of resolution. Within reason, it could even be configurable ie. last 5 thou to set point, last 15, whatever.
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Even with low end graphics a bar indicator, shouldn't be too tough to implement. Off the top of my head that would be
  • Repaint old bar with background color
  • Paint longer rectangle bar proportional to value
  • Change color (via mapping function?) or whatever as you get close, or even change color on sign
  • Loop
 
Still Really hard to beat a dial travel indicator or Trav-A-Dial. Watching flickering numbers does not help.
 
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