Very informative Jon. Clears up a lot of the confusion. The companies that sell us the Newest "Witchcraft" devices (DRO's and VFD's etc.) need someone like you either writing the manuals for them or making How to videos for them. I have been trying to wrap my head around this for about 3 years now. I learned how to program my Huanyang VFD by watching Finno Urig explain it in Finnish. I had to mute the sound and read the closed caption translated to English. But he rang the bell for me. Now I understand VFD programming much better and have done 2 different brands with success. Companies especially the overseas companies spend millions in marketing their products yet do very little to help after the sale. Thanks for helping us all understand the PCD function.
Thanks for your time making these videos Jon. One on each of the functions would be very useful and interesting. I can see people looking up individual videos as and when they need to know about a particular function. regards Laurie
You keep saying that entering n+1 holes is wrong, but the manual for my dro gives two ways of entering the end angle and # of holes, the n+1 being an alternative. Sometimes its easier to enter 0deg, 360deg and n+1 holes than to calculate the end angle in the workshop. BTW, the start angle and positive rotation direction is mathematical convention, that way, given the angular position of a hole, x = r.cos(angle), y = r.sin(angle).
one thing I do a lot is to just make start angle 0 and the end angle 360 and then just set the number of holes to one higher than I want. why? I´m more than likely to mess up the end angle doing the math in my head. also I often skip holes to drill the two that are on the same X or Y dimension first and come back to the other ones later. saves on some cranking handles and setting the same dimension several times. I can can jump back and forth in the PCD list with the arrow keys.
Interesting Jon I have a simple old school mind Jon🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 using manual methods, if i get a DRO i will certainly look back at this, to be lead on this DRO pathway, great explanation for all those wishing to take this path. see next time ATB Kev
Make one! Make a project of it, use some 1/2" silver steel , cut a left hand 1/2" BSW thread on it, turn a taper on the end, then mill three slots of the centre line to give the cutting edges roughly on centre. Then harden. Then temper back to darkish straw and Bob's your mothers brother! ( I've made similar LH Acme taps for finishing new nuts for compound, cross slide and lead screw nuts on my lathe)
What ho Grasshopper, The adding a hole to the number you want is not as daft as you might think, especially if your mental arithmetic is sketchy. By adding one and setting start angle as say 0 and final as 360 you don't need to know or even work out the end angle. A fudge it may be but if it helps the arithmetically challenged, I won't complain. 😉 PS I did A level maths but have forgotten most of it, so I count myself in the challenged category.🤣🤣 Have you investigated the zeros function, or whatever your device calls it, having 99 zeros on mine allows 99 features on a part to have their own repeatable co-ordinates. ATB C
Wonderful video ! Never did understand how my Chinese DRO worked. I would be interested in seeing and learning about the "Incremental" differences. Thanks for this Jon !!!
Hi Jon, I really enjoyed this video! Packed with very useful information, very clear and concise! Excellent content! Please do continue over the coming weeks and cover all functions on a dro, it will help many many people! Take care Mr Jon, Regards Tony.
This is a function I actually use, but I have learned a lot and will be a lot more confident with odd ball quirky parts. Many thanks. 👍😎 PS... I do often use the "extra hole" method, using eg 0° start angle, 360° end angle. It saves working out the end angle, a dirty methode but does eliminate a possible calculation error.
Ive just got my 1st mill, Haven't set it up yet, or ever used a DRO,, so this is fantastic. I subbed and will be watching every tip you put out. Thanks for posting this
Hi John, great and helpful video's. When I have a patron of 11 holes and a starting place on 14 digrees, it is difficult to give in the last hole position with digrees, is it correct if i gave in 12 holes and the last hole even on the 14 digrees? have I than a correct patron with 11 holes?
Hi Jon. Mine is the M-Dro. I think it is similar in op's. About 2 years ago i did a 6 hole pattern & for the life of me could not get it right . I was using 12 oclock as my datum. The manual is a very cocise one & as a last resort I read it like we always do. Last resort mmm should have read it 1st. Thanks for the video as many i am sure will make the same mistake. Steve.
I guess my dro isn't the only one that seems backwards, at least to me lol. The whole ccw and down to go up threw me for a loop. Thank the machine gods for sharpies 😁. Cheers!
Great video Jon, thanks. I have seen that button on my DRO but I have not used it yet. Now that I have more info on this functionality I will be confident to give it a go.
Hi Jon, Any chance you could do a tutorial on use of Ruler Storage function, Ref-X, Ref-0, Find-Ref, etc.. I've read 3 manuals and they must have been translated using Google translate as they are almost identical and totally gibberish. Would be nice to have a clear English version. Hope you can help.
I Subscribed after watching this video. I've only used this function once and managed to scrap the part. I did get it to work on the second part but didn't understand why. After you video I'll not have any trouble with it. I would like very much to learn the other functions on my DRO (same as yours). Thanks
Hi john Not all DRO’s use positive angles for CCW and negative angles for CW, some have another setting for the direction. Mine does and the chinglish manual had the settings reversed which caused me some confusion. Now how about a video on arc machining.
Jon that's soo very helpful sir! Thank you for that. Those basic rules would have passed me by completely had you not demonstrated it for us! One thing I'd like you to cover is doing the linear compensation function. My chinglish instruction booklet is so bad that I can't even get into the function let alone know what the figures are to input lol Please keep these sort of demonstrations coming as they are so helpful to those of us not familiar with DRO usage.
I set the start angle at 0 and puts me at 3 o clock, end angle i just press enter and DRO takes care of it and gives me the correct hole pattern. Thanks for the tutorial.
Great and very informative video Jon. I’ve used the pcd function a few times, but I’ve learned a lot from watching this video. I didn’t realise that the starting position was at 3 o’clock and went counter clockwise and had no idea about how to work out the end angle. Thanks again Jon
Excellent video Jon. Can’t wait to get out to the shop in the morning and try it. If you are willing to show a few more commonly used functions that would be great.
Absolutely brilliant Sir, thankyou so much. I tried to understand the book and found it difficult, so I put it away, now I will get it out again. I would like more of your advice on these as I try to understand using mine. I have one on my lathe and mill.
Again a very informative video Jon. I'm still learning my DRO's function's. I have used the PCD function, but didn't realise about the start position or circle direction. This will be a great help in the future. Thanks also for the practical demo. Cheers Nobby
Hi Jon. Haven’t had a chance to catch your last few vid’s to busy in the shop. This was an excellent presentation with a clear and concise explanation, I’m very sure your subscribership new to DRO’s will find this extremely useful in furthering their abilities in using these very useful controllers. Keep up the excellent work! Once again cheers from Salt Spring Island Canada. Ron.
Really helpfull John. I was hoping to have the mill ready to go by now, but SWMBO has decided that I need to finish painting the conservatory first. And I despise decorating, I just need to do it and I can get back to doing real stuff.
Well done again John. I did that on DRO's before but you never got a job with PCD holes again for a long time and I used to forget! Sometimes I went back to the old-fashioned way of marking the new flange out with blue ink and center punching the holes lol. It was still enjoyable doing the old way as well. We were maintenance machinists in the automotive industry so are work was very varied and a lot of the work we did just left our heads and sometimes we had to call a toolmaker to show us along the way lol!
I have a DRO on my mill and the one thing it doesn't tell me is the speed the table is travelling at when driven in the X-axis by the motor drive. It could easily do this: it knows the passage of time, and it knows the table position. It seems the idea has never occurred to DRO makers. Anyone know a DRO that does this? My DRO has all sorts of trig functions that I never use. If I wanted to do trig I'd do it with my HP 35s calculator.
You're not likely to find any manufacture interested in adding speed calculations to their DRO's. There are numerous obstacles, but the biggest is that it requires accurate timing, with interrupts, that would cause havoc with the cheap processors used in DRO's. There is a work-around though. Some DRO's provide a data output connection that can pass information to another device, which in turn could provide travel rate info. I did some research on this subject for a different purpose. I wanted to use a DRO's position information to control stepper motors for setting end points of movement. Unfortunately, the slow processing rate of DRO's can cause a significant delay in transmitting location data. It's been awhile since I've played around with this issue, but one option I've considered is to intercept the signals directly off the linear scales and feed them to a Raspberry Pi.
@@EDesigns_FL Thanks. I find that quite surprising since table movement is very slow compared to computers. Also, why should interrupts be needed? Measure X position, note real time clock value. Next time you have a spare moment repeat. Calculate speed., display.
@@samuelfielderBecause DRO's primary function is just counting pulses and then calculating positions based upon the counts, they have no need for a real time clock. Also, RTC's have a resolution of one second, which is a ridiculously long timing cycle for this type of application. Timing in these situation is typically done by running a loop of a known duration and counting the cycles to determine how long it took for an event to occur. Interrupts are used to avoid losing track of pulse counts for the linear scales while running a timing loop. When I write code to do something like this, if an RTC is available, I include a timing loop that runs upon startup to evaluate how many cycles a baseline loop will run in a given time. This data is used to set a timing variable for later calculations, and allows my code to run on any capable microprocessor irrespective of its speed. If an RTC is not available, then the code will be microprocessor specific.
@@samuelfielder I don't know what your point is. There are numerous methods of timing events. You had mentioned using an RTC and apparently didn't appreciate the limitations. Some Arduinos do have RTC's. They are embedded in the WiFi board. I gave you a method that I have used for precision timing and it's the best that I have used for pushing the limits of mediocre processors.
Gday Jon, this has been extremely helpful, I’ve learned a lot in this video that’s going save me a lot of headaches later on, thanks very much mate, cheers
Hi Jon, Fantastic explanation...thanks soo much. I'm finally going to get off my rear and install a DRO on my mill this winter and advance to the 21st century. 😁 This is a great series and as others have commented...please keep' um coming. ATB....Cheers.....
Very informative Jon. Clears up a lot of the confusion. The companies that sell us the Newest "Witchcraft" devices (DRO's and VFD's etc.) need someone like you either writing the manuals for them or making How to videos for them. I have been trying to wrap my head around this for about 3 years now. I learned how to program my Huanyang VFD by watching Finno Urig explain it in Finnish. I had to mute the sound and read the closed caption translated to English. But he rang the bell for me. Now I understand VFD programming much better and have done 2 different brands with success. Companies especially the overseas companies spend millions in marketing their products yet do very little to help after the sale. Thanks for helping us all understand the PCD function.
Nicely explained Jon, I've learned a lot from that, I thought I'd mastered the PCD thing, but you've taught me a lot more. thanks Jon.
Morning Jon. Using a PCD function on my milling machine DRO was a game changer for me. It worked faultlessly. Thank you for an interesting video. 👏👏👍😀
Well explained Jon . I still think the dro that came with my big mill looks more like a microwave oven ! 👍
Thanks for your time making these videos Jon. One on each of the functions would be very useful and interesting. I can see people looking up individual videos as and when they need to know about a particular function. regards Laurie
Excellent explanation. clear and precise. If it helps Anyone the Easson DRO from M-DRO goes clockwise from ZERO.
Brilliant, well explained and easier to understand than a badly translated chinese manual. Regards Peter.
very informative and clear now I just need to remember it when I need it!!!
Good video Jon. Very useful for future reference on refreshing using the DRO for future projects. Appreciate the content.
Thank you! That helps this beginner a lot!
If you have a 90 deg head or a boring / horizontal mill then X-Z and Y-Z come into play even on a manual mill.😊
Well done, thanks!
You keep saying that entering n+1 holes is wrong, but the manual for my dro gives two ways of entering the end angle and # of holes, the n+1 being an alternative. Sometimes its easier to enter 0deg, 360deg and n+1 holes than to calculate the end angle in the workshop.
BTW, the start angle and positive rotation direction is mathematical convention, that way, given the angular position of a hole, x = r.cos(angle), y = r.sin(angle).
I was going to ask about the counterclockwise rotation thing, as it crops up everywhere. The mathematical explanation makes perfect sense. Thanks.
Excellent clear and precise instruction Jon👍. You made it very easy to understand thanks very much.
also clutch retaining bolts on flywheels, bearing retainers etc
Gold! Appreciate these videos, keep them coming 👍🏼
another goodn Jon
one thing I do a lot is to just make start angle 0 and the end angle 360 and then just set the number of holes to one higher than I want. why? I´m more than likely to mess up the end angle doing the math in my head. also I often skip holes to drill the two that are on the same X or Y dimension first and come back to the other ones later. saves on some cranking handles and setting the same dimension several times. I can can jump back and forth in the PCD list with the arrow keys.
Interesting Jon
I have a simple old school mind Jon🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 using manual methods, if i get a DRO i will certainly look back at this, to be lead on this DRO pathway, great explanation for all those wishing to take this path.
see next time
ATB
Kev
Jon I can't find a 1/2" BSW left-hand nut In Aussie , can you or view help . Will pay costs .
Kit from down under
Make one! Make a project of it, use some 1/2" silver steel , cut a left hand 1/2" BSW thread on it, turn a taper on the end, then mill three slots of the centre line to give the cutting edges roughly on centre. Then harden. Then temper back to darkish straw and Bob's your mothers brother! ( I've made similar LH Acme taps for finishing new nuts for compound, cross slide and lead screw nuts on my lathe)
@samrodian919 thanks for your help but I don't have the Equipment to make one .
I reckon your theory on PCD function is full of holes.
The instruction is excellent.I have a "VEVOR DRO" the sequence is almost the same, I did the cardboard test and it worked great. Thanks a lot😊
What ho Grasshopper,
The adding a hole to the number you want is not as daft as you might think, especially if your mental arithmetic is sketchy. By adding one and setting start angle as say 0 and final as 360 you don't need to know or even work out the end angle. A fudge it may be but if it helps the arithmetically challenged, I won't complain. 😉
PS I did A level maths but have forgotten most of it, so I count myself in the challenged category.🤣🤣
Have you investigated the zeros function, or whatever your device calls it, having 99 zeros on mine allows 99 features on a part to have their own repeatable co-ordinates.
ATB
C
Wonderful video ! Never did understand how my Chinese DRO worked. I would be interested in seeing and learning about the "Incremental" differences. Thanks for this Jon !!!
Yes fabulous explanation and video cheers.
Hi Jon, I really enjoyed this video! Packed with very useful information, very clear and concise! Excellent content! Please do continue over the coming weeks and cover all functions on a dro, it will help many many people!
Take care Mr Jon,
Regards Tony.
Great stuff Jon, thanks mate, the dro on my Bridgeport has me proper confused, I'll try again now you've explained how it works
This is a function I actually use, but I have learned a lot and will be a lot more confident with odd ball quirky parts.
Many thanks. 👍😎
PS... I do often use the "extra hole" method, using eg 0° start angle, 360° end angle. It saves working out the end angle, a dirty methode but does eliminate a possible calculation error.
Great video Jon! You did a great job explaining PCD.
Thank you John i just bougt my first dro for my mil and installed it i learn alot from your video's
Ive just got my 1st mill, Haven't set it up yet, or ever used a DRO,, so this is fantastic. I subbed and will be watching every tip you put out. Thanks for posting this
Me too! Excellent video.
Very helpful thanks
Excellent vid, clear and informative. Just installed a dro on my mill this week so very helpful. Thanks.
Jon, thank you for another very well-described lesson - not only how to, but how to spot it going wrong, and what might be the likely causes.
Hi John,
great and helpful video's. When I have a patron of 11 holes and a starting place on 14 digrees, it is difficult to give in the last hole position with digrees, is it correct if i gave in 12 holes and the last hole even on the 14 digrees? have I than a correct patron with 11 holes?
Hello Huib, that simple trick does work correctly on my DRO.
Hi Jon. Mine is the M-Dro. I think it is similar in op's. About 2 years ago i did a 6 hole pattern & for the life of me could not get it right . I was using 12 oclock as my datum. The manual is a very cocise one & as a last resort I read it like we always do. Last resort mmm should have read it 1st. Thanks for the video as many i am sure will make the same mistake.
Steve.
I guess my dro isn't the only one that seems backwards, at least to me lol.
The whole ccw and down to go up threw me for a loop. Thank the machine gods for sharpies 😁.
Cheers!
Great video Jon, thanks. I have seen that button on my DRO but I have not used it yet. Now that I have more info on this functionality I will be confident to give it a go.
Hi Jon, Any chance you could do a tutorial on use of Ruler Storage function, Ref-X, Ref-0, Find-Ref, etc.. I've read 3 manuals and they must have been translated using Google translate as they are almost identical and totally gibberish. Would be nice to have a clear English version. Hope you can help.
Brilliant, great info, great pace!
I Subscribed after watching this video. I've only used this function once and managed to scrap the part. I did get it to work on the second part but didn't understand why. After you video I'll not have any trouble with it.
I would like very much to learn the other functions on my DRO (same as yours). Thanks
Hi john
Not all DRO’s use positive angles for CCW and negative angles for CW, some have another setting for the direction. Mine does and the chinglish manual had the settings reversed which caused me some confusion.
Now how about a video on arc machining.
Hi John , thanks for this great info, it really appreciated , any chance you could show how to construct arc using dro?
Jon that's soo very helpful sir! Thank you for that. Those basic rules would have passed me by completely had you not demonstrated it for us! One thing I'd like you to cover is doing the linear compensation function. My chinglish instruction booklet is so bad that I can't even get into the function let alone know what the figures are to input lol Please keep these sort of demonstrations coming as they are so helpful to those of us not familiar with DRO usage.
I set the start angle at 0 and puts me at 3 o clock, end angle i just press enter and DRO takes care of it and gives me the correct hole pattern.
Thanks for the tutorial.
G'day Jon ,, wow what a lot to remember but the video was very informative!!👍
Great video Jon, and a very clear explanation...many thanks for taking the time to do this...cheers
Thanks John. That clears up so much. I'm on my first DRO and my Chinglish had a lot of difficulty with the manual.
Great and very informative video Jon. I’ve used the pcd function a few times, but I’ve learned a lot from watching this video. I didn’t realise that the starting position was at 3 o’clock and went counter clockwise and had no idea about how to work out the end angle. Thanks again Jon
good video jon
Excellent video Jon. Can’t wait to get out to the shop in the morning and try it. If you are willing to show a few more commonly used functions that would be great.
Absolutely brilliant Sir, thankyou so much. I tried to understand the book and found it difficult, so I put it away, now I will get it out again. I would like more of your advice on these as I try to understand using mine. I have one on my lathe and mill.
Excellent, great tips for creating PCD features, thank you.
Thanks Jon been a great help to me. Would be pleased to see anything DRO related.
Excellent, I have just put one of these on my mill and have never used the PCD function
Good film Jon I really enjoyed it.
Great! Keep them coming.
Nicely explained Jon 👍👍👍
Thanks Jon - looking forward to more of the same Cheers
Superb 👍🏴
Again a very informative video Jon. I'm still learning my DRO's function's. I have used the PCD function, but didn't realise about the start position or circle direction. This will be a great help in the future. Thanks also for the practical demo. Cheers Nobby
Hi Jon.
Haven’t had a chance to catch your last few vid’s to busy in the shop.
This was an excellent presentation with a clear and concise explanation, I’m very sure your subscribership new to DRO’s will find this extremely useful in furthering their abilities in using these very useful controllers.
Keep up the excellent work!
Once again cheers from Salt Spring Island Canada.
Ron.
Really helpfull John. I was hoping to have the mill ready to go by now, but SWMBO has decided that I need to finish painting the conservatory first. And I despise decorating, I just need to do it and I can get back to doing real stuff.
Well done again John. I did that on DRO's before but you never got a job with PCD holes again for a long time and I used to forget! Sometimes I went back to the old-fashioned way of marking the new flange out with blue ink and center punching the holes lol. It was still enjoyable doing the old way as well. We were maintenance machinists in the automotive industry so are work was very varied and a lot of the work we did just left our heads and sometimes we had to call a toolmaker to show us along the way lol!
Thank you I have struggled in the past. The information you have give. Has answered all my questions 😊
I have a DRO on my mill and the one thing it doesn't tell me is the speed the table is travelling at when driven in the X-axis by the motor drive. It could easily do this: it knows the passage of time, and it knows the table position. It seems the idea has never occurred to DRO makers. Anyone know a DRO that does this? My DRO has all sorts of trig functions that I never use. If I wanted to do trig I'd do it with my HP 35s calculator.
You're not likely to find any manufacture interested in adding speed calculations to their DRO's. There are numerous obstacles, but the biggest is that it requires accurate timing, with interrupts, that would cause havoc with the cheap processors used in DRO's. There is a work-around though. Some DRO's provide a data output connection that can pass information to another device, which in turn could provide travel rate info.
I did some research on this subject for a different purpose. I wanted to use a DRO's position information to control stepper motors for setting end points of movement. Unfortunately, the slow processing rate of DRO's can cause a significant delay in transmitting location data. It's been awhile since I've played around with this issue, but one option I've considered is to intercept the signals directly off the linear scales and feed them to a Raspberry Pi.
@@EDesigns_FL Thanks. I find that quite surprising since table movement is very slow compared to computers. Also, why should interrupts be needed? Measure X position, note real time clock value. Next time you have a spare moment repeat. Calculate speed., display.
@@samuelfielderBecause DRO's primary function is just counting pulses and then calculating positions based upon the counts, they have no need for a real time clock. Also, RTC's have a resolution of one second, which is a ridiculously long timing cycle for this type of application.
Timing in these situation is typically done by running a loop of a known duration and counting the cycles to determine how long it took for an event to occur. Interrupts are used to avoid losing track of pulse counts for the linear scales while running a timing loop.
When I write code to do something like this, if an RTC is available, I include a timing loop that runs upon startup to evaluate how many cycles a baseline loop will run in a given time. This data is used to set a timing variable for later calculations, and allows my code to run on any capable microprocessor irrespective of its speed. If an RTC is not available, then the code will be microprocessor specific.
@@EDesigns_FL An arduino without an RTC can time to milliseconds.
@@samuelfielder I don't know what your point is. There are numerous methods of timing events. You had mentioned using an RTC and apparently didn't appreciate the limitations. Some Arduinos do have RTC's. They are embedded in the WiFi board. I gave you a method that I have used for precision timing and it's the best that I have used for pushing the limits of mediocre processors.
Another fantastic and useful video. Thanks for sharing your knowledge in such an easy way to understand!
Cheers from Canada
Fantastic job john i have learned a lot form you today.
Thanks for your time making these videos
Very nicely presented. I am new to DRO on mill and your lesson was excellent. Thank you.
Great tutorial again Jon, spot on ref standard convention on angular notation and co-ordinate planes.
Thanks for sharing.
Great thanks Jon, keep the tips coming. I have learnt so much from them
Great video, simple and clear explanation. 👍
Gday Jon, this has been extremely helpful, I’ve learned a lot in this video that’s going save me a lot of headaches later on, thanks very much mate, cheers
You explane very well, Jon. Even I could understand some bits of it :)
Hi Jon, Fantastic explanation...thanks soo much. I'm finally going to get off my rear and install a DRO on my mill this winter and advance to the 21st century. 😁
This is a great series and as others have commented...please keep' um coming.
ATB....Cheers.....