quick question. when the machine asks me to change the tool and attach the probe i did. then when I press continue the z goes up instead of down and tells me it can’t do the probe and it estops? what did i do wrong? everything is plugged in correctly as far as i can tell i checked the joypad and up is up and down is down. Also, on the monitor it seems correct. when i press start the quote from my monitor is “caution the current toolpath file would move 0.181above axis limit with current offset.”
It sounds like the bit might be too far away from the probe. It should be pretty close before you continue, inside of 1 inch is good for me. Lower the probe with the game pad or controller screen and try again, I’ll bet it works.
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Sorry, I meant lower the BIT closer to the touch plate…
I did that it did not work but zeroing the xyand z then it worked now i have a new problem the probe touches down on the plate fine then lifts up and touches the side fine then it touches the same side and moves the hole pad even with mt holding it about 1 and a half inches . yep i am doing sompin wrong again lol
OK, just so you know, if you’re setting up from the corner of your work, it will only work on the lower left corner using the 1F XYZ probe routine. Also, you want to make sure that the SIDES of your bits, as well as the end of your bit, are conductive. When doing the probe setup and it asks you to touch bit to probe plate, try the side of the bit to make sure . My Bosch bits work fine from the end of the bit (Z-probe) but not always from the side, due to the coatings Bosch uses. Also. make sure bit and probe plate are clean, showing bright metal.
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thank you but i just got through reading a long answer fro the guy that makes onefinitys touch probe and he said it works on the upper right hand corner not the lower left. so now i have to wonder and tryt both ways yikes!
It’s the lower left of the material and uses the upper right of the probe block.
You place the probe block on the lower left corner of the material. That will bump the probe block up against the material with a little overhang on the left and right side. The upper right of the block should have the small circle that you’ll use in the next step for the Z target.
Attach the probe magnet to the router collet and move the router (with a bit in it) to where the bit is over the circle and about 1/2" above the surface of the block.
Tell the OF to probe XYZ or Z depending on what you need. You’ll get a message to touch the block to the bit. Lift it up and touch the block to the bit and the message box should turn the “Continue button” green. If it turns green you’re okay. If it stays gray, there’s a connection problem between the block and the magnetic probe - check your connections.
If it goes green, put the block back down on the lower left corner of the material and push it up and to the right so the material corner is in the cutout corner on the underside of the block.
The bit should still be centered over the circle on the block. Hit continue. It will slowly come down until it touches, go up a bit and then come down again. This zeroes the Z to the top of the material.
If you are zeroing XYZ then the bit will rise up, the router will move to the side off the block and drop down past the top of the block but not all the way to the material. Then it will move left until it touches the side of the block, back off to the right and then come back to the left and touch again.
It will then do the same going up past the upper edge of the block, move left and then come back toward the front of the machine until it touches the block. It backs off a little and then comes back in to touch again.
Then it will rise up, you’ll get a message that it’s successfully zeroed and a reminder to remove the block & probe magnet.
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thank you jim you are a life saver
Hey Jim,
nowadays, it’s always nice to see information as written text!
Of course nowadays this information is also there as a video, but I always like information in written form much better! And the topic (how to use the Touch probe) is not to find in the Onefinity manual, it just links to the video too, as does the Touch Probe product page, and also the FAQ section on Touch probe only links to videos (of course Charley, the manufacturer of the touch probe, also does a good job explaining Touch probing in this forum 
)
Nowadays, people seem to expect any information to be in video form. After the successful mass literacy and compulsory education in the course of industrialization since the 18th century in most regions of the world, are we now, due to the advent of the Internet, turning back into illiterates? When the WWW was invented and it was clear that it would become free for everyone and no one would have to pay royalties for its use, all people thought that now literacy would penetrate the last regions of the earth and the most precarious educational strata - after all, Hypertext is text, a kind of “Writing 2.0”. But what are people doing with this new invention? That’s right, share cat videos .
The Internet is full of videos today, there are hundreds, thousands of videos on every topic. And people, when looking for a piece of information, seem to type their search term into a video platform rather than an internet search engine. But why?
I always wonder, where do people find the time to watch all these videos? If I want to find a piece of information, and I enter my search term in an Internet search engine and find texts where I can immediately see if and where the information is, I find the information much, much faster. This is not possible with videos. Or have you ever tried to scan a video with “Ctrl-F” for your search term? No chance, you have to listen to the whole babble first, just to find out if the information you are looking for is there at all. But maybe nowadays all people are unemployed and have nothing to do and are used to watching TV all the time.
I also wonder where do people find the time to make the videos? If I have a piece of information and I want to make it available to others, it’s a hundred times faster for me to type it in than to stand in front of a camera and babble it out. And since it’s in text form, it can easily be found and searched.
Anyway, Onefinity has met today’s need to offer information as video, and provides the information on how to assemble and put into operation the machine as videos. The Onefinity videos are really concise, educational and easy to follow, there is nothing superfluous in them.
So the best thing to do after receiving the machine (or preferably right after ordering it) is to watch the Onefinity “Support” video playlist as a whole. It makes you a connoisseur of the machine and avoids asking obviously frequently asked (and frequently answered) questions.
Thank you Jim!
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in fact, Jim answered the question better than any video i have seen. Especialy the part about touching the end mill to the block which I took literally off the onefinity software and lowered the bit to touch the block. It never occurred to me in the language that I should pick up the block nor the reason being that it just shows continuity and then you can continue the process of zeroing the material. So yes, it was and is the perfect description. in none of the videos have I seen the block being lifted up to the end mill.
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Hey Robert,
Jim explained very well how to get to a succesful probing when you’re in Manual mode. You must jog (move) your bit i.e. your milling motor close to the touch probe before starting the zeroing process. You move it with the arrow buttons on display or with the gamepad if you own one.
However if you’re in Program mode, i.e. during the execution of a g-code toolpath program, you will mostly encounter probing in connection with a tool change. Z-probing becomes necessary here so that the machine can determine the length of the new tool. Unfortunately, the Onefinity machine does not allow you to jog around with the joypad or the arrow keys during the program, so it is necessary here that the parameters with which probing takes place are well set. Because if the probing fails, i.e. the Touch probe is not found during the slow probing movement of the millling motor, the program will abort. This adjusting of the probing process on the occasion of a tool change can be done in the ‘tool-change’ field of the General Configuration Tab, as described here ←.
Further Reading
Hey Robert,
you are right, neither this step nor its reason are part of the video or the manual, and must lead to confusion. There is just a separate video which is called Checking Touch Probe Connectivity that refers to this check, but it is not obvious that a user would know or find it.
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thanks for that. well I ran my first program a few minutes ago. took me a few tries because it was not obvious to me that after zeroing the material the machine would want to do yet another z probe and then I could start the router and cut the project, but I did figure it out. Unfortunately, I had loaded the wrong one or it switched programs amid all the reloading I did, to the team onefinity project instead of my own creation lol. Like they say live and learn. I feel I am well on my way to completing every newbie mistake.
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And here is my firsst created program . I did it on MDF scrap just to see if it would sork and it did. thank you for all your help and every one that so patiently answered my noob questions. thank you all
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