An "external" probe head is implemented externally to the machine controller and the particular machine interface. Because the machine controller and interface are not aware of the communications capability of the probe head, PC-DMIS must communicate with the probe head separately through an additional communications port. Therefore, PC-DMIS implements external probe head support in a generic manner, and the support does not depend on any particular machine interface.
Currently, external probe head support is designed to be able to read A/B angular positions from a manually-indexable probe head. Specifically, it was initially developed for the Renishaw MIH-S probe head. It does not currently support the commanding motion of a DCC-capable probe head; therefore, some connections, such as a PH10, are not supported.
Supported Probe Head Types
The MIH-S external probe head is supported.
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