We have also launched our new website, www.holcoservice.com where you can find answers to questions relating to use and programming of smartscopes.  We invite you to create an account, which will allow you to post questions if you need help with anything.  The site is designed so that you can also answer other people’s questions.  The more answers you give, the higher your ranking will be.  We plan to reward the highest ranking customer each month (think giveaways, free training, that kind of thing).  Hopefully, in time it can be a wonderful resource for sharing information and tips. 

As a result of the new company and website, this blog will be retiring.  We’ve hired on a new technician, which should help me add content more often.

We appreciate everyone’s support and look forward to an exciting new year!

Any Flash, Zip or Zip Lite running Measure-X 4 should be running version 4.02.21+.

We will be getting technical training from the guys from View this week, and on Thursday and Friday there are openings for customer demos.

Click this link to learn more about View and the applications for this ultra-high precision ultra-high speed system.

If you want to come in to our office and see a demo or have questions about the system, please call us at 215-283-0156 or email at:  service@holcosales.com.

The demos will be held at:

Holco Inc.
329 Francis Ave
Ambler, PA  19002

The machine will only be here this week!  Don’t let this unique opportunity pass you by!

Want to know what you’re missing out on?

Click here for a list of enhancements of each version of MeasureMind, starting with version 10.

If you need any further information about any of these enhancements, please let me know and I’ll post the details.

See anything you can’t live without - contact us for a quote for upgrading!

This paper explains why, including the mathematical formula for all you math geeks out there.

If your print has a radius dimension, but the arc is really small (imagine one slice of a 16-cut pizza), there is a way to measure the radius:

1. Measure the lines that are tangent to the arc - one on each side.
2. Construct a gage ball the size of the nominal radius tangent to these lines.  This will construct the theoretical center point of the arc.
3. Measure a point in the middle of the arc with the strong edge finder or Min or Max Weak Edge tool.
4. Construct the Straight-Line-Distance between the measured point and the gage ball.
5. Construct a Math step that calculates the difference between the nominal radius and the SRL distance.   This is the deviation of the radius from nominal.
6. If you need the actual, add this deviation to the nominal.  The reason for this is:  if the SRL distance is too big, it means the radius is too small.  So, the SRL distance in Step 4 is NOT the actual radius dimension.

Here are the important details to remember:

October 22-23, 2009

Hilton Garden Inn Ft. Washington
530 Pennsylvania Avenue
Fort Washington, PA  19034

Cost:  $655 / person

You can register online by clicking here:  http://www.ogpnet.com/gdt/holco

Or, you can register by calling Holco Inc. at 215-283-0156.

The official flyer with more details is available by clicking here.

HURRY! If you register before September 18, you will be automatically entered to win a FREE GARMIN GPS.

View Instructions

Note:  Using the above instructions will create a Tab-Delimited text file.  If you want a CSV, just replace all the ^I’s with commas in the templates.  Then, change the extension from TXT to CSV.

Here are a few template files you can download and use.

Right-click on each link and choose “Save Link As…”
Then put them in C:\OGPMM\CONFIG

Excel.cfg

CSV.cfg

Excel_2Col.cfg

Excel_3Col.cfg

To use these templates, go to System -> Configuration -> Stats Output.  Then click “Load”

These templates should work in later versions of MeasureMind as well!

Other than that, the best thing a SmartScope operator can do is keep the machine dusted and the filters clean.

If you have a SmartScope Flash, you should check the air filters on at least a monthly basis.  We clean the filters every six months, but more often than not, here’s what we find:

This machine is in a relatively clean office environment and was cleaned six months earlier, yet the filter is completely clogged with dirt.

Here’s what the filter looks like when held up to the light:

If light can’t get through, how much cool air do you think is blowing through the filter?

A clogged filter can lead to all kinds of problems - the internal circuitboards and power supplies generate a lot of heat - and can fail prematurely if not properly cooled.  It could cost thousands to replace damaged boards - it costs nothing to keep the filters clean.

Here’s how:

Pop off the plastic cover and remove the filter.   Rinse out the filter in the nearest sink (the filter is made from a wet/dry material).  You could choose to blow it out instead, but rinsing is a lot less messy!   I like to hold the filter dirty side down, and let the water push the dirt out of the filter.

When clean, wring the excess water out and let air dry.  Look at the difference:

Some companies have PM systems where the filter can be put on a list to remind you to check the filter regularly.  If not, you could certainly write a note on your desktop calender the first of every month to remind you to check the filter.

If you have a SmartScope Zip, MVP or FOV with a white or blue filter material - these are not washable.  However, if your’s is completely clogged, you can contact us and we will send you a replacement.  Be sure to ask the calibration technician for a spare filter that you can use between service visits.

This parameter specifies the amount of time to wait when changing light sources during a run. The default value is 30, so changing it to 4 will decrease runtimes.

The challenge was: I needed to construct a line at a calculated Y value.  Of course, one can construct a line at a reference value using construct points, but what if the reference value can only be calculated and changes for every part?

The solution involved using the Send Command and File Input.  (NOTE:  The Send Command is only available in MeasureMind (sorry MX users)

The part was similar to a large screw, except the “threads” did not form a helix, but a series of grooves along the length of the part.  The print called out a dimension for diameter of the groove based on a reference width of 1.93mm across the groove.  (see below)

The obvious thought would be to turn to Gage Diameter, and enter a diameter of 1.93.  But this wouldn’t work because the angles of the grooves were not symmetrical.  One was around 7 degrees and the other was 45°.  A Gage Diameter is always measured perpendicular to the angle bisector - thus, the diameter would not have been parallel to the centerline of the part, as the print required.  I needed an “Advanced Gage Diameter” - one that would allow me to control the angle the gage diameter, but that doesn’t exist…..  (yet?)

I then realized I could easily calculate the Y value of the point where the gap equaled 1.93 with basic trigonometry.  If I made a triangle from the two lines of the groove and with the third being the 1.93 gage line, I could calculate the Y distance.

Here’s what the equation of the Math step looked like:

Now the hard part.  I needed to construct a line at the Y value calculated above.

Send command to the rescue!

Send is pretty much like Data Stream - it outputs the entire contents of a measured or constructed step: data points,  XYZ locations, and, you guessed it:  results of Math Steps.  And you can also specify a custom template for each Send - it was this functionality that I realized I could use to output two coordinates to create a line (see below)

With special templates, I could use the send command to create a text file with two points - TempY1 and TempY2.  The points would have the Y value calculated from the math step, and slightly different X values.  I first had to create the templates; I named them SendYValue.cfg and SendY2Value.cfg, and saved them in the config folder.  Here they are (notice the SEND_FEATURE_TEMPLATE lines)

SendYValue.cfg

#
#  SEND DATA CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
#
#  TP_POINTS_UNCORRECTED
#  0 = Output touch probe xyz point values corrected by tip radius
#  1 = Output raw, uncorrected touch probe xyz point values (default)
#
SEND SEND_BOS
SEND SEND_BOF
SEND SEND_FEATURE_TEMPLATE -2.00,@D,0.000^J
SEND SEND_BOP TIP_RADIUS
SEND SEND_POINT_TEMPLATE @X @Y @Z^J
SEND SEND_EOF
SEND SEND_EOS
SEND SEND_TP_POINTS_UNCORRECTED 1
SEND SEND_IN_MACHINE_COORDINATES 0

SendY2Value.cfg

#
#  SEND DATA CONFIGURATION PARAMETERS
#
#  TP_POINTS_UNCORRECTED
#  0 = Output touch probe xyz point values corrected by tip radius
#  1 = Output raw, uncorrected touch probe xyz point values (default)
#
SEND SEND_BOS
SEND SEND_BOF
SEND SEND_FEATURE_TEMPLATE 1.00,@D,0.000^J
SEND SEND_BOP TIP_RADIUS
SEND SEND_POINT_TEMPLATE @X @Y @Z^J
SEND SEND_EOF
SEND SEND_EOS
SEND SEND_TP_POINTS_UNCORRECTED 1
SEND SEND_IN_MACHINE_COORDINATES 0

These templates would create a comma delimited text file with the calculated Y value like this:

-2.00,  < Math Result >  ,0.000
1.00,  < Math Result >  ,0.000

Next, I added the send command.  The math step above was Step 78, so next I added two User Inputs steps with the following lines in the User Prompts:

SEND 78 “tempY.txt” “” “c:\ogpmm\config\sendYvalue.cfg”

and

SEND 78 “tempY.txt” “” “c:\ogpmm\config\sendY2value.cfg”

SO, when it runs, it creates a text file named  “tempY.txt”  in the default directory (for me, this was “C:\Partrtn”.  Here’s what that file looks like:

With the XY origin at the intersection of the two lines, it was time to create the theoretical line:  The next step was Measure - Line.  I selected “File Input” for the target and loaded the TempY.txt file the program just created.

The final result looked like this:

After that, it was easy to construct the intersection points and construct the distances.  Granted, this was a complicated application of the Send Command, but you can use the basic technique any time you want to construct a feature in the model window that has a calculated coordinate.  Math steps just create values - you can’t intersect a value.  With the Send Command and File Input, you can turn that value into a real feature in the model window that you can use for anything you want.

OGP recently did a similar thing, and you can read about it here.

For more information on how to use the Send Command, search the Online Help for “Send”.