When probing, the bit moves down slowly until it touches a metal plate. The controller detects the contact, and the app sets Z = 0 exactly on the material surface, minus the plate thickness.
Sequence
Open the wizard with Probe Z in the machine control or the Zero Z step of the carve wizard.
- Prepare: move the bit over the plate, about 5 to 10 mm above it.
- Clip and contact: attach the clip to the bit's shank, place the plate under the bit. Touch the plate with the clip: the contact test shows whether the controller sees it. If your controller only reports the probe while probing, the indicator stays off; then use Test contact: Z moves up slowly by 3 mm, you touch the plate to the bit meanwhile, and the controller stops at once.
- Probe: the bit searches quickly, backs off 2 mm and touches a second time slowly and precisely. Then it moves up.
- Result: Z = 0 is on the material surface.
Remove plate and clip afterwards.
Plate thickness
Measure the plate with calipers and enter the value. It is stored in the machine profile. An error here shifts every cut depth by exactly that amount.
Probe a corner with the XYZ block
An XYZ block (corner touch plate) sits with its lip over the workpiece corner. The wizard probes all three axes in turn and sets X0 Y0 exactly on the workpiece corner and Z0 on the surface. Open it with Probe corner in the machine control, with Machine → Probe (Z, corner, centre, edge) or at the top of the wizard with Corner X, Y, Z with block.
- Choose the corner and place the block: choose the corner (front left, front right, back left, back right) and enter the dimensions: outer size of the block in X and Y, height of the top above the workpiece, wall thickness (outer face of the block to the workpiece edge), bit Ø and how deep it should probe at the side. Move the bit roughly over the centre of the block.
- Clip and contact as for probing Z, with Test contact for controllers that report the probe only while probing.
- Probing: first Z on the top. Then the bit moves outwards above the block, lowers carefully (if it hits the block, it stops and says so) and moves slowly towards the side face, searching quickly and measuring again slowly on each axis. The app takes the bit radius and the wall thickness into account and sets the zero point with G10 L20.
- Result: contact positions per axis and the difference between the first and the precise measurement. If the project zero point is on another corner, a button moves it to the same corner.
The browser remembers the dimensions for next time. In the laser app only corner probing is available, with a probe pin on the laser head; this requires a laser with a Z motor and a probe input. How to choose the zero point in the project is explained under Workpiece.
Centre of a hole or boss
With Centre (hole/boss) the assistant puts X0 Y0 exactly on the centre of an existing hole (probed from inside) or of a boss, shaft or round blank (from outside). The current flows through the workpiece: clip on the bit or stylus, counter-contact on the conductive workpiece; wood and plastic only with a 3D probe.
- Hole: move the probe roughly to the middle of the hole and lower it below the rim. Boss: move the probe roughly above the centre, a few millimetres above the top.
- Enter the approximate diameter, the probe Ø and, for a boss, how far it should lower next to the boss.
- The machine probes X+ and X−, moves to the centre, then Y+ and Y−; on request it measures X a second time (more accurate if the start was far off-centre). For a boss it moves out per side to half the diameter plus probe radius plus 5 mm, lowers carefully (if it hits something it stops and reports it) and returns above the centre after each measurement.
- Afterwards the probe stands on the centre, X0 Y0 is there and Z is unchanged. The result shows the measured diameters in X and Y and warns if they differ a lot from your value or from each other (out of round or axes not square).
Single edge
With Single edge the assistant sets only one axis: X0 on the left or right edge, Y0 on the front or back edge. Move the probe outside the workpiece about 5 mm in front of the edge and below the top edge, choose the edge and the search distance. The machine moves horizontally towards the edge, quickly and then slowly, accounts for the probe radius and moves back 2 mm. The other axis and Z stay as they were. Measuring uses G38.3: without contact the machine stops at the end of the search distance without an alarm.
If it does not work
- No contact in the test: check cable and plug at the controller's probe input; clip onto bare metal, not a coated flute.
- Plate already has contact: the app does not start if the contact is closed beforehand. Separate clip and plate.
- Bit finds nothing: it was too high above the plate. Move closer or increase the search distance (probe failure).