Adapters for connecting iGaging Absolute and Mitutoyo SPC scales to TouchDRO

[ChazzC]

ooooooow! POOF!!!!

Don't you mean ?

 

[SouthernChap]

Weiss, Grizzly, Precision Matthews, Hi-Torque, and more are all just Seig resellers.

The G0758 is just a Seig X3.

Weiss, Seig and Yangzhou Realbull are the three main manufacturers of machine tools in China (Western known, that is; I'm sure there may be other, even larger manufacturers that we don't have access to in the West).

They each have separate manufacturing facilities, in separate places, in China.

They aren't the same companies and their designs do differ (although the three companies' products appear to have 'shared' casting designs, control box design and mechanical components from time to time) as does the QC the companies enforce; that doesn't seem to be consistent though, so I'd be wary of saying one company is any better than another.

By the looks of it, some of Precision Matthews Chinese models appear to have been sourced from Weiss for some time but that may not be the case now.

You wouldn't be the first person to laugh and say "Eh...Chinese machine tools? They all come from the same factory"; it's a common enough misapprehension, but it's still wrong and whilst repeating incorrect information on the internet seems to be en vogue, I think we can do a bit better on this forum.

 

[MidniteMachinist]

I don't tend to laugh at Chinese machine tools... I've got a few, and they make good parts. I often defend them.

They all do look very, very similar, and there's countless resellers who peddle the same machines in different colors, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance.

 

[SouthernChap]

I don't tend to laugh at Chinese machine tools... I've got a few, and they make good parts. I often defend them.

They all do look very, very similar, and there's countless resellers who peddle the same machines in different colors, so you'll have to excuse my ignorance.

Oh, I wasn't suggesting you were mocking Chinese machine tools. Sorry, I can see my post was worded poorly and could easily give the wrong impression.

What I meant was a lot of people assume that due to the name of the country's political system, that there's no differentiation between Chinese manufacturers and the names are just fake rebranding. These are genuine companies, with different leaderships (leaving aside the fact that the ultimate 'leader' of all of these companies is one fella in Beijing), different attitudes to quality and often different, to some degree at least, products that come off their production lines.

Now that variation doesn't appear to be necessarily consistent over time. There doesn't seem to be a 'best' manufacturer between those three, for example.

Precision Matthews' choice might suggest that Weiss are the most amenable to tighter quality requirements, but that might just be because PM are willing to pay more per unit than say, Grizzly or Warco.

Eh, Chinese lathes and mills and bandsaws and grinders, etc. are what they are. Sometimes they're good value for money, sometimes they can be good value, if one treats them as a kit preassembled for shipping convenience and is willing to put some effort in to release the potential therein, and sometimes, they're a pile of complete ****e (not so much these days though, it seems)

 

[ChazzC]

Oh, I wasn't suggesting you were mocking Chinese machine tools. Sorry, I can see my post was worded poorly and could easily give the wrong impression.

What I meant was a lot of people assume that due to the name of the country's political system, that there's no differentiation between Chinese manufacturers and the names are just fake rebranding. These are genuine companies, with different leaderships (leaving aside the fact that the ultimate 'leader' of all of these companies is one fella in Beijing), different attitudes to quality and often different, to some degree at least, products that come off their production lines.

Now that variation doesn't appear to be necessarily consistent over time. There doesn't seem to be a 'best' manufacturer between those three, for example.

Precision Matthews' choice might suggest that Weiss are the most amenable to tighter quality requirements, but that might just be because PM are willing to pay more per unit than say, Grizzly or Warco.

Eh, Chinese lathes and mills and bandsaws and grinders, etc. are what they are. Sometimes they're good value for money, sometimes they can be good value, if one treats them as a kit preassembled for shipping convenience and is willing to put some effort in to release the potential therein, and sometimes, they're a pile of complete ****e (not so much these days though, it seems)

IIRC, Frank Hoose (previously but “retired” from mini-lathe.com) met with SEIG representatives when they were in the U.S. for discussions with Little Machine Shop 5+ years ago. Based on my talks with LMS over the years they work closely with SEIG not only regarding quality and specific new features, but also little details like using oil instead of grease for rust prevention during shipping. From reports, PM has similar communications with their manufacturers.

 

[Nekit]

I purchased the TouchDRO adapter for attaching my iGaging quill kit scale to my TDA-420. I have a SINO glass scale on the Z knee axis and am hoping to combine it with the iGaging Quill access for my total Z reading. Yuriy wasn't sure if it would work or not. Before I bug him, figured I'd ask on here if anyone knows if I have the setting right.

I hooked up the adapter to my 4th input scale input. Used this Male to Male Micro USB cable Cable link

In settings:
Turn on Z axis secondary Input.
Not sure what Prefix should be set at, so left it at C
Resolution- 2650
Digital Filter- ON

I'm not getting any reading from the iGaging quill scale.

Not sure if I have anything glaringly wrong? Just got my TDA-420 a couple months ago and still learning.

Thanks for any help anyone can give.
Rob

 

[Dataporter]

I think I had the same problem, here is Yuriy's answer that worked for me :

Sorry, I need to upadate the user manual (haven't gotten to it yet).
You need to change the settings in the adapter. A few seconds after you connect to TDA-4xx, you should see a green "hardware" icon next to the connect button. Tap it, scroll down to the axis you are using with iGaging scale, and change the protocol to SPC (or something along those line; I'm at work, and typing from memory. There is Quadrature, BIN6 and Mitutoyo or SPC etc. Hit the save button, and reboot the adapter.
This will switch the decoder in the adapter to read iGaging protocol (it's quadrature by default).

Regards
Yuriy

 

[Nekit]

I think I had the same problem, here is Yuriy's answer that worked for me :

Sorry, I need to upadate the user manual (haven't gotten to it yet).
You need to change the settings in the adapter. A few seconds after you connect to TDA-4xx, you should see a green "hardware" icon next to the connect button. Tap it, scroll down to the axis you are using with iGaging scale, and change the protocol to SPC (or something along those line; I'm at work, and typing from memory. There is Quadrature, BIN6 and Mitutoyo or SPC etc. Hit the save button, and reboot the adapter.
This will switch the decoder in the adapter to read iGaging protocol (it's quadrature by default).

Regards
Yuriy

Hmmm. I’m only getting the option of Quadrature A/B from the drop down menu

 

[Dataporter]

I thought you had the Igaging on Z picture shows W

 

[ycroosh]

Hmmm. I’m only getting the option of Quadrature A/B from the drop down menu
View attachment 500375

On top of the same screen there is a filed that shows the firmware version of your board. It should be 3.2.