This is a series, check out the previous posts at part 1, part 2, or part 3. This time, I’m going to make this probe hopefully do something.

I started out just verifying that the Pocket NC would treat the vers.by probe the same as the built in tool setter probe. So I ran a tool measure cycle, and then just tweaked the probe by hand. Woohoo! It stopped the cycle just like normal. Actually measuring a tool worked too if the probe wasn’t activated, or if it wasn’t plugged in. Success.

In part 1 and part 2, I covered my motivation and the mechanical hardware behind a touch probe add-on for my Pocket NC V2-50. In this post, I’ll cover my prototype electrical hardware.

My intention with the probe was to connect it logically “in parallel” with the existing tool setter probe that the Pocket NC has. I figured that would be likely easiest to integrate with the Linux CNC scripts when I got to the software point. The existing tool setter probe is located in the rotating B axis. That is connected to the Y axis via a single CAT5-ish cable, so my hope was that I could devise something which would pass through the necessary signals on that cable while also paralleling in the new touch probe.

Last time in part 1, I talked about why I wanted to add a touch probe to my Pocket NC. This time, I’ll cover the basic hardware necessary to make it happen.

I decided to start with an inexpensive probe so that as I was figuring things out, I wouldn’t be too sad if I smashed it a few times. I’ve seen a number of other hobby machinists use the “vers.by” probes, so I decided to give them a try too.