What brand/model DRO is this?

[andrewgr]

My new 1340GT came with a DRO that doesn't seem to be on PM's website. The flimsy page of barely recognizable "instructions" that came with it does not list the manufacturer, brand, model, or SKU. I can't see a brand or model on the DRO itself, unless the brand is "Digital Readouts", in which case, I can't find them online, since that search string finds literally every brand and model ever made.

Not having used a lathe DRO before, I don't have enough base knowledge to decipher the instructions; if I had more familiarity, maybe I could puzzle them out, but there's just too much Engrish and I have little frame of reference.

I'm attaching two pictures, can anyone help me? I'm looking for an online manual, but I assume the starting point is to figure out what I actually own.

 

[Norseman C.B.]

Sending an inquiry to PM would be your best bet, I have heard they are of good help with their products..

 

[markba633csi]

Apparently a generic unit that was made and/or branded specifically for PM
-M

 

[Ken226]

That appears to be the 2 axis version of the Chinese Delos displays sold on Alibaba. The DS50-2v. Good luck finding a manual.

DS50-2V_Delos Encoder Co., Ltd

DS50-2V-Delos Encoder Co., Ltd-DS50-2V series can be set for Milling or Lathe or Grinder

m.delos-encoder.com

The little D badge on the front is consistent with that.


Screenshots from Alibaba.com







Does the display appear the same when powered on?

 

[Ken226]

Here's these best I could find for a manual, and it appears to be for the LED version. Good luck.

https://www.chicagolathe.com/load/DELOSDROMANUAL.pdf

 

[andrewgr]

Same layout as the Delos screen, albeit not as colorful.

 

[Cletus]

I believe that's the new PM DRO, the one I supposedly will be getting. Matt sent me this pic about two weeks ago.
Not a particularly handsome display IMHO

Some additional info here:

LCD DRO_Products_Delos Encoder Co., Ltd

LCD DRO-Delos Encoder Co., Ltd-LCD Digital Readout

www.delos-encoder.com

 

[andrewgr]

I heard back from Precision Matthews. The instructions that come with the DRO are all they have. They're not nearly as good as the instructions for the EL400 DRO that came with my PM Mill, which I found by doing a Google search (https://www.dropros.com/documents/EL400 OpManual.pdf). For example, there are only about 100 words devoted to the Tools library, which I think is probably at least an order of magnitude too few.

In any event, thanks for the help!

 

[B2]

Interesting. Purchased a lathe from PM about 1.5 years ago and ask for the magnetic DRO. I think I might have been one of the first to get the PM magnetic scales, as the outside of the ones they how show on the web site has a little different logo on it. Anyway, it is called the Magna Kit-L (EL-400 DRO and S1/S2 Scales). I think they now call them MagXact. https://www.precisionmatthews.com/shop/magxact-magnetic-2-axis-lathe-dro-8x40/ It and the manual looks just like the picture of the manual you provided the URL to. The manual that came with it just says EL-400 on it, is pretty good, but is only 55 pages long, has a revision date on the back of 10-02-2020. It does not have some of the fluff pages that is in the Oct. 22, 2010 URL version. PM used to just have a hand full of DRO models, but if you now use the PM search command and just put DRO in you get a lot of PM hits!

So here is my question for all HM out there that might have these DROs. The specs, just like in the above URL, will provide the resolution, but none them seem to provide the accuracy of the readings, which is far more important! I.E. If the lathe bed is moved exactly 5 inches what does the DRO say. How about 40 inches or even just 1 inch? Anyone every actually determined if they are actuate or linear or etc.? How much hysteresis (back lash) do they have?

 

[Winegrower]

I spent a lot of time looking at accuracy issues of my D80 with mini-mag scales…it’s a complex question. Some of the answer depends on your lathe, for rigidity, backlash, etc. Part is in the material and setup, how much deflection, tool sharpness and forces, etc. Some is a function of the DRO and the scales, the resolution, math accuracy, etc.

In my case, I found the following:

1) I had to be very careful to take out all backlash on the cross slide, manually pushing in the direction of the tool forces.
2) Light cuts with sharp tools correlated better with DRO readouts, when checking the cut afterward.
3) The mag scales were disturbed by small ferrous chips collecting along the stainless cover strip. This produced erroneous readings on the order of 0.003. Blowing off the scales removed the error, and I eventually added some protective tape at the mag strip to stainless cover plate interface.
4) I believe the math converting from metric/imperial and radius/diameter is done crudely, with bigger errors than the basic scale resolution would imply.
5) To address the above, I think a 1 micron resolution on the X axis is mandatory to address these issues.
6) It is necessary to do a linear compensation on the DRO and scales, as there was a 0.3% error intrinsically. It compensated out ok.
7) Still after all that, I really cannot rely on the DRO readout to completely predict the final diameter of a cut. It’s in the ballpark, but if it’s a critical dimension, I do it like my grandfather would have done.
8) The Z axis is way less critical to me and other than doing the compensation, it has not been an issue.
9) I spent a long time with 0.0001 indicators, 1-2-3 blocks, Mitutoyo 50 millionths mike, etc. My conclusion is that for moves in the 6” plus range, the DRO is the most accurate instrument I have.