The Shop > Electronics & IC Programing
TouchDRO on a mini lathe
Arbalist:
Thanks Phil.
CrazyModder:
--- Quote from: Arbalist on December 22, 2014, 09:08:56 AM ---Although I don't strictly need a DRO on my mill I'd like one. Having looked at the options it was too expensive for me, the display being the single most expensive item. I hope someone comes out with a reliable off the shelf solution that uses a tablet. Will this system work with magnetic scales? I'd rather pay the slight premium for a more robust scale.
--- End quote ---
Same here. I'm in the process of making myself a DRO (for a few years now, you know how it is... :coffee: ). I did make a 3-axis 7-segment-display years ago (before the advent of cheap tablets :bang: ) which has all the electronics to connect the cheap chinese scales. I even have a bluetooth chip and some arduinos lying around, and am willing and able to hook them up. Still missing the scales though. I experimented with sawed-off ultra-cheap scales (in the 10€ range) as prototype, but that did not go well at all as they are much to fickle to work in a dirty environment.
I have been procrastinating about getting "real" scales and will probably go for it soon[tm]. It will likely be a kit with proper mounting options, so that at least is taken care of.
Unfortunately, glass or magnetic scales do not come with a "slight premium" for me, they cost around 10 times as much as the capacitor style "chinese" scales. A set of those, made for the mill, cost roughly 110,- €; the cheapest glass or magnetic set is almost 1000,- € at my sources. I assume that is because there is probably not a market for "low-end" glass or magnetics. For example, I simply do not need the ultra-fine resolution of them; my mill is small and I'm happy to work close to 1/20mm, nevermind 1/100mm. The only "features" I could use is the robustness, and in the case of magnetic scales, the possibility to cut them off anywhere.
Did you find some that are cheaper? If so, may I ask where you found them?
philf:
--- Quote from: CrazyModder on December 22, 2014, 12:25:43 PM ---Did you find some that are cheaper? If so, may I ask where you found them?
--- End quote ---
Hi Crazy Modder,
I don't know what country you're from but I guess in Europe if you are quoting Euros. Scales are certainly available in the UK for a lot less than 1000 Euro.
My whole lathe setup including the display and optical scales was less than £600 and they've come down in price since.
Machine-DRO in the UK do a range of optical and magnetic scales at reasonable prices. (Usual disclaimer.)
http://www.machine-dro.co.uk/digital-readout-systems-dro-pc-magnetic-glass-linear-scales.html?encoder_series=1138
There may be cheaper sources.
Cheers.
Phil.
CrazyModder:
Thank you for that link. They indeed have a wide variety of scales, for example the GS10 series (0.005mm resolution glas scales) would be good enough for me. Those would cost just short of 400,- € for 3 of them. Or roughly 530€ for the cheapest magnetics. A far cry from the 1000€ I quoted, at least, while still more than twice as much as the mill itself.
I guess I'll get the cheap capacitor based scales first and if/when they fail, replace them with the more expensive and robust ones one by one.
modeldozer:
Hi all,
Have researched the scales a bit and on the bay there are scales at around the 100 pound mark, other than that machine-DRO seems to be the best. On the capacitive scales a 600mm one costs close to 60 pound so for me it will be glass scales on the mill.
Cheers
Abraham
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