Touch Probe 4 wire mod

Any members changed the touch probe wire from 3 conductor to 4 conductor and use the 4th conductor for the ground?

How many times have you forget to connect the ground wire to the bit.

My logic, the touch probe always follows the bit location, so why not have a short ground wire coming out of the touch probe housing with the ali clip?

Sure I could just tie the wires together but then that makes it for more cable entanglement.

Your thoughts … perhaps the part numbers for the connectors to the circuit board that I can order and I can easily replace the existing wire.

I willl let people that know of the internal workings of the probe to comment but… The thing that makes the probe work is the bit at ground potential touching the probe and making an electrical circuit close. So if the ground is attached to the probe body I think that would not work because as soon as you pick the probe function from the CM the circuit would already be grounded and would set zero at what ever level the z axis is at and as far as the 3 axis setting the same problem would exist and the x and y would be set as soon as each respective axis was trying to set. When the z is set the router moves to the right and then front and I do know if there are timings to check for the ground or if it is active the whole time that probing is activated in CM.

I do know know the internal wiring but I do not think it would work.

An alternative is to replace the alligator clip with a magnet but this does not help if you forget to put the magnet on the router collet.

Gdon_2003, the fourth conductor will be straight through where one end is grounded to the frame at the controller box and the other end is extended past the touch probe body with an alli clip.

Trying to minimize the addition of 2 separate wires.

My thought process is that the wire extending out from the touch probe will be dangling flagging the user to NOT forget to clip to the bit.

In the current setup, my ground wire is usually further from the touch probe thus it gets forgotten during the probing process.

Oh I get what you are saying. The 4th wire is not connected to the probe body but still performing just like the original wire and alligator clip.

Why not try it and let us know.

I need the part number for the connecter to the controller.

Connectors should be declared at: https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Shapeoko_3#Connectors

Hi Girard,

I have done it in this thread.

It is really easy. I would just make my lead shorter from the probe to my alligator clip. It’s on my todo list when I get a bit of time.

Cheers

Mod my Touch Probe so the ali clip follows the touch probe. No excuse to not forget to hook the ali clip to the bit. Prior to the mod, the ali clip was clipped to the frame or just dangling on the floor.

Used a telephone jack between the controller and the touch probe.

1 Like

This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.