PC-DMIS Star Probes | CMM TechTips - CMMXYZ

Watch our video and learn how to easily build Star Probes in PC-DMIS. Star Probes can add versatility efficiency to your programming!
Hey there, welcome back to my series on PC-DMIS tech tips. Today, I wanted to answer one of the most frequently asked questions I get as a PC-DMIS instructor, "How the heck do you build a star probe?" I get this question all the time so I thought I'd make a video and explain how we do it.
The probe you're looking at here is called a non-custom star probe, non-custom meaning that we can't add or remove any of the tips that you see. The other type is called a custom star probe, and I'll just bring it up on the screen here. That's a customized star probe and each one of those tips can be removed. We can add. We can have five maximum. We can have one. We can have two and every different diameter and tip that's available.
Let's first have a look at the non-custom star probe, the one that you see here on the screen. One of the challenges in building a star probe is defining its components because they have special names and we need to know them exactly. Let's have a closer look at our star probe. There's actually only two tips I need you to remember. The first one is called 2 by 18 mm Star. It's the one there on the bottom pointing down. The other one is called Tipstar 2 by 30. That's a reference to the cluster of tips you see there. It's actually one piece but we need to enter those individually one at a time.
Let's open probe utilities right here and have a look at our probe file. What I'll do is delete what I've already created and then show you how I've entered it one component at a time. Okay, I've deleted everything from the extension piece down and now I can start entering my star probe components. With Empty Connection #1 highlighted, I'll go to the pull down and look for my first component, 2BY18MMSTAR. Give that a click.
You'll notice after I click that, I now have four empty connections. Each one of those I'll need to enter my TIPSTAR2BY30 one at a time. It's one component, but we still need to enter these individually. Let's just do that. There we go. You can always slide this up and down to see your tips. It looks good. We'll click okay, and there's our build.
The next thing we need to know about star probes is the tip assignment. We need to know which one is Tip 1, Tip 2, etc. I'll just point that out for you. Tip 1 is always pointing down Z-. Tip 2 is X+. Tip 3 is Y+. Tip 4, X-, and Tip 5 is Y-.
To change tips, we just go to our settings toolbar. Select which tip we want to be the active one. I'll select Tip 3. Give it a click. You'll notice the tip turns blue to indicate that that's active. Okay, let's go back to Tip 1. Good, that's that. That's the non-custom star probe.
Let's now have a look at our customized star probe. Here's my customized star probe. Mine only has two tips. It's just one I like to use. This one, there's only one special component we need to remember, and it has a special name. It's called EXTEN 5-WAY. There it is in the middle of the cluster and that has five empty ports with threaded holes that we can enter any tip that we want, including extension pieces.
Okay, let's go into probe utilities and I'll show you how I did that. We're back to where we started on the other build. We have the extension piece, the 20 millimeter extension. Beneath that, we have Empty Connection 1. Here's where I choose my special piece. There it is there. It's called EXTEN5WAY. It's that little knuckle piece.
You'll notice I have now five empty connections. What I want to do is enter tips specifically in the connection number that I want. I want a tip in Empty Connection 1. In my build, I'll do 4BY40MM. What I want to do now is skip Connection 2, Connection 3, and go straight to Connection 4, and this will be my Tip 2, and that will be pointing to the left in the X- position. I'll scroll down and I'll pick TIP3X20MM. Give that a click. You can see it there. I'll just rotate that so you get a better look. There it is there and the X-. It looks good. I'll click okay. There we go.
It looks a little different than the one I had originally, but I've just entered different tip sizes. Same as before, if we want to activate Tip 2, we just go to our settings toolbar, select Tip 2, and you can see it's turned blue. There we go.
That wasn't so bad. That's how to build custom star probes and non-custom star probes. Well, I hope you found this useful. Thanks for joining me and we'll see you next time.
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