[Metrology] Mill Spindle Mounted Microscope (aka Cheap Optical Comparator)

Thanks for your upload, Jim.

I like the fine lines you have used for the cross-hairs. A nice addition would be to add a bulls eye pattern to make centering on a circular feature easier. The only other thing that I would like to see added would be software adjustable cross-hair positioning. That would allow easy centering on the spindle axis which will enable the use as an optical center finder.

I installed it on my office computer with out any problem. I have an older Gateway laptop down by the CNC that I will use for running the camera. (The Tormach controller runs Windows XP Embedded and I have not been able to load the necessary drivers for the camera on it). At first, I couldn't find the suggested cameras in the list but after a number of retries, they were there. I selected the USB2.0 UVC PC Camera and everything began working.

It looks like your app will do what I wanted to accomplish with it. I should be able to locate the spindle position to less than a thousandth. The other use was to measure the coordinates of features on a workpiece for the purpose of digitizing the part and that should work as is.

Thanks again!

Bob
 
RJSakowski said:
A nice addition would be to add a bulls eye pattern to make centering on a circular feature easier. The only other thing that I would like to see added would be software adjustable cross-hair positioning. That would allow easy centering on the spindle axis which will enable the use as an optical center finder.
Click to expand...


I think I can make that happen in a day or two.
 
Still waiting for my camera to arrive. They promised to send another one. Slowest order I ever had.
 
Updated program uploaded.

The changes thus far:
  • Changeable line colors, can be changed on the fly. Better contrast on some backgrounds.
  • Added Bulls Eye Function, up date time is a bit slow, working on it. Only works at 640x480 resolution
  • Software movable Cross-hairs via scroll bars
Attached is the updated DC_Microscope2.zip. It is an installer package to install the program on your computer. This has been tested on WinXP, Win 7, and Win 8, installs and works fine. When installing, if it asks you if you want to keep your existing Quartz.dll file, YES, keep your existing file.

I will try to implement anybody's requests, just ask. I'm having fun with this.
 

Attachments

  • DC_Microscope2.zip
    2 MB · Views: 64
This is really amazing and generous of you, Jim. Is it possible to add graduations similar to an optical comparitor? In other words if I wanted to check a radius of a cutter, or the tip of an engraving cutter?

Thanks so much for your time and effort with this.
Dave
 
fretsman said:
This is really amazing and generous of you, Jim. Is it possible to add graduations similar to an optical comparitor? In other words if I wanted to check a radius of a cutter, or the tip of an engraving cutter?

Thanks so much for your time and effort with this.
Dave
Click to expand...

Thank you for the kind words Dave.

It is possible to add graduations and is something I would really like to do. The problem comes in when trying to calibrate them, that's what I have been trying to figure out. You have to start with a known dimension some way. I can provide a one-button calibration function, but the calibration will be accurate only at that magnification and distance from the target. Any change would throw off the calibration. I need to hang this on my mill and see what I can do with it. Maybe tomorrow!
 
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