# Sino Digital Readout



## Chuck K (Aug 19, 2013)

I bought a DRO from Frank at CDCO.  I'm having some difficulty figuring out how to set up the readout the way I want it.  I sat in front of it this afternoon with the manual trying to figure out how to make it read to just 4 places at increments of 1.  The best I can do is 5 places in increments of .00040.  I don't really get it.  If it goes out 5 places why would you want it to jump 4 tenths at a time?  I'm sure I'm missing something.  I'm holding off calling Frank because I have a hard time communicating with him on the phone.  Actually I have a hard time when I'm standing right beside him, but I usually can figure out what he's trying to tell me.  Does anyone have any insight?  The model is Sino SDS6-2V.  Worst case I could take it to him and have him show me how to set it up, but I thought I would try here first.  Thanks

Chuck


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## Chuck K (Aug 19, 2013)

I was just googling for info and found this:

I have a Sino on my BRPT miller, love it except the 5 places to the right, that said the only critique I have is you need to put a stop bolt between your carriage and tailstock as careful as you are you will crash the tail stock into the scale guard and you don't want to do that there is a glass scale inside. And as a further aside I called Frank at CDCO about the 5 place decimal he said to put a piece of tape over the numbers that you don't want to see. 

This is kind of funny because I was thinking today about putting a piece of tape over the 5th digit so it didn't distract me.  I did find one thread that said something about switching to metric 4 places and then back to inch....something for me to try.


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## Chuck K (Aug 19, 2013)

OK....I tried the metric/inch button and got rid of the 5th digit.  Now if I can get it to read in increments of .0001 instead of .0004 I'll be a happy camper.  It's strange....when you turn the dial, the first reading is .0003, then .0007, and +.0004 thereafter.


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## Old Iron (Aug 19, 2013)

Its prolly in the resolution if it is a 10 change it to a 5 if it is a 5 change it to 10, My Sinpo was the same way.

Are you zeroing the DRO where you want to start? As far as it reading it is a lot more sensitive than you think.

If I set mine to cut .010 on the dial the DRO mite say .013 anyway thats the way mine works.

Paul


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## Chuck K (Aug 19, 2013)

Paul, I have changed the resolution so many times.  That..and precision of calculation.  At one point it was reading .005 for every .001 on the dial. At one point tonight it was reading four places with the 4th place being .001.  No tenths.  That wouldn't be bad if you're not trying to hold tight tolerances.  I guess when you think about it, it would be just like using the dial except it is giving you an accurate position. I agree with you about the precision when compared to the dial.  I thought the dro was reading wrong until I made some cuts and checked the diameter.  When you're using a lathe that has been rode hard since the late 70s, a cheap DRO is just the ticket.  A little wear in the screws and your off by .001 to .0015 on the dial. I'll get it to read .0001, because the .0004 thing would drive me nuts.

Chuck


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## Chuck K (Aug 20, 2013)

You're preaching to the choir my man.  There isn't an Asian machine in my shop.  Having said that....there are a few things that I will buy from cdco.  Mostly just tool holders. To be fair, I haven't contacted Frank and talked about the problem with him. I just figured that this same unit was probably branded with several different names, (I think it's the same unit DRO Pros sell) so I would check with the people here to see if they had a solution before calling Frank.  If I could have found a sony, accurite, ect, with the right length scales for half the price of this...I would have jumped on it.  But with electronics I'm kind of reluctant to buy used.  It might have a weak tube in it)

Chuck


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## Old Iron (Aug 20, 2013)

Both of my DRO'S are Chinese that being said I had trouble with one of the read outs after contacting the seller we tried differant things to fix it. 

None of which worked so they sent me a new read out, No problems since that point. All of my machines are US made and nothing newer than 1953 most from the 30s or 40s one of my Lathes is over 100 years old.

I really don't care for the Chinese stuff either but I found nothing but good reports on the Sino and Sinpo DRO'S.

Paul


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## PurpLev (Aug 20, 2013)

Not sure if this will solve all your problems, but just to add some context to your original question "why does it use 0 digits when it jumps 4 tenths...?"

you have 2 things at play here:

1. the display unit/DRO-controller
2. the scale/reader

The display can accommodate different scales so it allows you to view in either 4, or 5 digits past the point if your scales can support that precision. that's why you can go to 5 digits.

As for the "jumps" - that is all about the scale's resolution. if your scale resolution is 5 micron than it will jump in steps of 0.00005s , if you change the resolution reading on the display than it will jump in other steps. 

hope that helped clarify the relationship (or lack of) between the number of digits displayed, and the steps the reading jumps through.


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## 8ntsane (Aug 20, 2013)

You don't need to place tape over the 5th. I have a same Sino DRO, and you can get rid of it in your settings.
A few yrs back when I installed mine, I wanted the 5th gone, and found it was part of the first time setup. So I did it again with out skipping any steps, and all was well. Just so you know that you can turn off the 5th digit if you want.


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## Chuck K (Aug 20, 2013)

Sharon, That makes perfect sense.  I didn't even consider that the scales might not be able to read down to .0001.  The strange thing is.....the first reading is .0003 and then increments of .0004 from then on.  If it's capable of doing three....why doesn't it continue to read in threes?

Chuck



PurpLev said:


> Not sure if this will solve all your problems, but just to add some context to your original question "why does it use 0 digits when it jumps 4 tenths...?"
> 
> you have 2 things at play here:
> 
> ...



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8ntsane said:


> You don't need to place tape over the 5th. I have a same Sino DRO, and you can get rid of it in your settings.
> A few yrs back when I installed mine, I wanted the 5th gone, and found it was part of the first time setup. So I did it again with out skipping any steps, and all was well. Just so you know that you can turn off the 5th digit if you want.




Paul, I figured that out last night.  You have to switch to metric and then you can choose between 4 and 5 places.  I called Frank at CDCO this morning.  I don't think he really knows anything more than me.....actually less.  He didn't know you could disable the 5th digit.  He told me that it only reads down to .0004.  That is probably true.  He also told me that it wasn't necessary to read .0001.  While I'm not capable of cutting to .0001 on a regular basis....I do like the idea of knowing exact position (at least to .0001) when I try to sneak up on a dimension.

Chuck


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