The touch plate basically does the same operation but for a single point it seems to me. It differs in that it requires completing the circuit between the bit and the plate, not identifying contact with the wood or some other non-conductive material.
If you took that ability to map 0,0,0 and expanded it out to a user defined array of points to me that sounds like the ability to create a surface map. The digitizer mounted in the collet is just a switch that changes state when contact is made. I don’t see why it couldn’t use the same connection to the controller as the touch plate.
Hi @Bob_D yes there is a way but it doesn’t involve the stock 1F controller.
Features like this are software/control dependant. For example I upgraded one of my 1F machines to a Centroid Acorn control system and this software/control package does have this feature. Operations like this will require a more powerful/industrial control package.
2 great ones to checkout are Centroid Acorn and Masso G3