Understood. Was just reacting to…
“I don’t understand how the logic of the cycle stop works”
“How does it know it over travelled”
“…but I couldn’t figure out how to test that…couldn’t find the magic combination…”
Apologies if responses caused frustrations. Glad you are happy with the functionality.
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Yeah, it being prewired from 1F was what was getting to me, and the power wire being tied to the probe caused massos documentation on the hardware wiring to be irrelevant and programming information being overlooked
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The E Stop is a specific set of pins, not a configurable soft input.
https://docs.masso.com.au/wiring-and-setup/setup-and-calibration/e-stop
Alternately you could configure the over travel switch as a hard limit on the Z axis.
It actually is supposed to be wired to cycle stop, which is configurable, and mine came as input 2, and is wired to the red button on the face… not to be confused with the bigger red button that you have to twist to unlock which is wired to the estop location in the top right.
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The overtravel switch is NC, I am guessing it would trigger a Estop all the time??
Pat
The Masso sees the input as high or low, you can connect it to GND with a pull up resistor to field power (PWR) so when the over travel switch opens it goes high. You can use feed hold as ChrisS mentioned too, I was replying to the specific statement about the E-stop input if that was your desired way to set it up.
I thought if using the Estop it would wire into that input direct and not have the ability to change from High to Low, feed hold is already used in the input dialog box drop down.
Hey Tom, hey Chris @ChrisS, hey Pat @PezWoodworks, hey Derek @WaywardWoodworker, hey all,
By G-code standard, the probing procedure does not need a second switch in the tool setter, because it only knows three states: 1. the probe is still moving along the given travel on the given axis at the given feedrate and has not yet triggered the tool setter, 2. the probe has triggered the tool setter, and 3. the probe has been moved along the given travel on the given axis and has reached the end of the given travel, but has not triggered the tool setter. Reaching the second state sets parameters #5061 to #5069 to the values of the X, Y, Z, A, B, C, U, V, and W axes (relative to the currently active coordinate system) and parameter 5070 to 1 for successful probing, while reaching the third state sets 5070 to zero and triggers an error to stop execution of the G-code program (which is logical, because what useful milling could the machine do if it doesn’t know how long its tool is). All this can be done with one switch. So the second switch, called “Overtravel” in the picture, can only have the sense to indicate that the first switch is not connected or that it or its cable is defective. In any case, this would be a condition that never occurs if the hardware is OK, right?
Since I have no experience with the Masso, I had a look at G38.2 Probing cycle – Masso documentation and it seems that it displays the error and simply stops the program, which is the behaviour described in the standard.
What is the difference for you if you wire the “Overtravel” (second) switch in the Tool setter to cycle stop?
The Masso doc says:
"Tool setters which include include a 2nd switch to detect over travel can be used with the Cycle Stop in case the first switch fails.
This will stop the probing cycle and allow the tool to be moved off the tool setter by jogging the Z axis."
Is there an additional possibility to probe again and resume the program with the Masso when cycling stop was triggered?
Regarding wiring the 2nd switch to emergency stop, I think this is logical in some way too, since it obvioulsy signals a hardware failure, but usually, one would want to know what the exact behaviour is at e-stop.
Thank you for better articulating with technical speak on my statement of not understanding how overtravel would work.
G38.2 & g38.6 would not work for a tool setter as it is used to get your initial z height, and as i understand it g43, g43.1 & g43.2 would set an offset, which are not supported (Supported G-codes) gcode commands. I tried modifying the post processor to include 38.2&38.6 but it errored out on the second change. That’s how my shapeoko did it at least, but the probe and the setter were plugged into the same port on the board, so that aspect makes sense.
I understand the theoretical aspect of over travel, but not the practical implementation. My switch is good for 3 million iterations it says, which is a pretty big number even including the iterations of trial by hooking it up to an average 4 cycles per project.
Great question. I’m going to say maybe, and it ultimatly depends. If you rehome your machine without any tool adjustments, and it did not register the new offset, it should work just fine. If it registered the new offset before cycle stop was hit and your carved the initial probe point away, it might have to join the burn pile.
I was unable to trigger the cycle stop on the F1 screen regardless of the manner in which i wired it. I was trying to utilize the wiring as it came and that might have been my downfall but really if the initial switch fails, and it goes to the secondary switch, how could you be confident it wouldn’t have failed too. That was the other part of my confusion about it. Like i said mine is rated for like 3 million triggers, if it fails before that, how can i be confident it won’t fail on the over travel as well. The difference is proximity vs mechanical
@Aiph5u I believe the probing routine differs in logic from that of the tool setter. I like having mine as part of my safety circuit as it stops all motion quickly. I believe cycle stop finishes buffered gcode actions so it may be possible for the z travel to crash the setter within the ~2mm buffer before it’s max travel. Since I built my own system, I know the circuits and there are not many situations that trigger an E stop, and I am aware of them and what to quickly check to trouble shoot. Also for my use case using an ATC, the tool setter is used infrequently, and not during a job, so I would not be inconvenienced with an over travel triggered E stop.
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Hey Tom, hey all,
I just try to imagine for what purpose the second switch could serve, except signalling that the first switch or its connection is gone 
The quote from Masso documentation:
is not really clear to me. Is the effect of triggering the “cycle stop” input the same as when the “probe not found” error is triggered during tool length probing?
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You are correct.
Probe sets zero, tool setter creates an offset based on the zero. The logic is it’ll get the initial offset after homing, jog to probe zero (xy)z, then when you hit run it queries to change the tool, then goes to the setter, and then begins machining.
He even says it in episode 017 of cnc nutz that if you set your input to probe when you should use tool setter, to quote the south park meme, “you’re gonna have a bad time.”
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I think Masso is just offering this as one option for this over travel circuit, as they also mention adding to an E stop circuit as I am doing. I do not think there is a probe not found logic when using the tool setter input.
The two switch circuits are separate, so I want the over travel to protect my setter from damage from a crash if the touch circuit does not function. The distance from first trigger to crash is small, so I want a method to stop motion as fast as possible.
I have considered adding fault LEDs to these various circuits, but am trying to keep things simpler for now, particularly since my fault circuits are working - low air pressure, no spindle water cooling flow, etc.
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I would agree, because it’s not a requirement to have a probe to use a setter. Could still do the paper method.
I am finding my 0.025 mm steel shim stock quite effective! 
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Now Available:
Ok, this might be a new one. Elite Foreman, I just got it about a week ago and thought I had everything all set up. This morning I started it up and all of the settings were way off, machine zero and all. I managed to get everything put back with the exception of my tool setter and manual tool change. Both of those menus lock up and will not save or cancel. I have to hard start the Masso G3 to get out of them. Also when I home the machine it drops at 0 looking for the tool setter.
Does the tool setter have an internal battery?
I can’t find that being mentioned anywhere on the product page or in the forum.
I’ve just received mine this morning and pressed it just to toy around with it, and I was surprised that the LED turned on, before I even connected the cable to the Masso controller.
I was expecting that it would receive power from the Masso, through the same cable it connects to the Masso. At first, since the LEDs need so little power to function, I thought it might be just leftover power after QA. But I’ve kept presing it, even for more than a couple of seconds at a time, and the LED keeps turning on when pressed. So it doesn’t appear to be “leftover” power, surely it has an internal battery.
Now, if it has an internal battery that’s needed to function properly, 2 possible issues come to my mind:
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How long does the battery last?
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Even if that battery would last for a loooong time, what about when the battery happens to run out while a project is running, just before a tool change? The tool setter might be broken by the spindle pressing on it, if the tools setter doesn’t have power to send the signal to the Masso controller, right? OR does the Masso recognise when the tool setter is out of battery, and doesn’t even attempt to do the tool set anymore?
Does anyone know?
Yes, it has a battery. I read from another post that the battery is only for the light. If the battery is dead or removed, it will still function properly.
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Yes, the tool setter has a battery.
The battery is only needed for the visual light. It does not impede functions of the tool setter operations.
- yet to be seen, but we think about 2 years.
- The tool change will still work as expected, just the light wouldn’t light up when it’s ‘pressed’.
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