What I've learned about the scanning probe.

[pkunk]

I get alot of error messages if I haven't waited long enough for the shop & machine to warm up. It must be considerably warmer for the probe than to carve a project.
If what I'm carving is soft and/or has paint on it there will be noticeable damage. I've lost paint on the wood carvings I probed, & broken (disposable) plaster castings of items I didn't want to scratch.
The result at 'best' setting is very good only if the item you are copying is good.
It can be cleaned up in the 'editor' if you know what you're doing.

[mtylerfl]

Thanks for your informative summary of your experience with the probe. I'm gonna try my probe this weekend on something that I don't care if it gets scratched up (maybe scan a wrench instead of creating one manually like Jon Jantz did in CorelDraw!).

Say, I was at my dentist the other day and was dreaming about my CW scanning probe while in the chair. ;)

Starting asking him about the molding stuff and quick-setting dental plaster he uses for making models of people's teeth. I explained what I planned to use the stuff for, so he gave me some info and a supplier catalog that he orders from. Told me he'll order whatever I want to try out, although he warned me that some of these items can get a little pricey in larger quantities.

I'll let you know how it turns out, if /when I try making rigid models from the dental plaster for scanning!

[mtylerfl]

Hello Pkunk,

I scanned a 6" wrench this afternoon - twice!

When I mounted the wrench on my sled, I placed the longest dimension so that it was parallel to the X-axis of the machine. On BEST quality, it took 1hr 15min.

TIP #1 - During the scan I thought to myself, it looks like the scan would go faster if I had mounted the longest dimension of the wrench, parallel to the Y-axis instead. So I tried that and it took 40 min for the exact same scan object! (at BEST quality again) That saved a significant 35 minutes of time. (Both scans came out equally well - orientation seems to make no difference in quality)

Too bad nothing was mentioned in the Probe manual about this, but those NASA scientists probably figured it was so obvious it wasn't necessary!:)

So, objects that are rectangular and with their longest dimension able to fit between the side rails of the sled, should be placed so that the longest dimension is parallel to the Y-axis of the machine to save scanning time. (this doesn't apply for circular or perfectly square objects, of course)

TIP #2 - I recalled someone suggesting setting the probe's maximum depth to a piont just a smidgen above the scanning bed's surface. That person used the Offset option in the scan setup menu I believe, but I simply put two stacked business cards on the surface and allowed the probe to rest on them to calculate its own maximum depth automatically. (Menu Item #2 in the scan setup)

This instructs the probe to scan the object but "miss" the scanning surface on the area outside of the object's edges. This procedure yields a scan that has little or no graphic cleanup required around the perimeter of the finished object. Great tip from whoever mentioned it before - thanks! that probably saved me another 10 or 15 min. and likely saves some wear-and-tear on the probe too.

The two pics show the two wrench scan results - -
1) the scan pictured on the left was done with the long dimension of the wrench placed parallel to the X-axis and took 1hr 15min.

2) the scan pictured on the right was done with the long dimension of the wrench placed parallel to the Y-axis and took only 40 min.

[James RS]

Thanks for your informative summary of your experience with the probe. I'm gonna try my probe this weekend on something that I don't care if it gets scratched up (maybe scan a wrench instead of creating one manually like Jon Jantz did in CorelDraw!).

Say, I was at my dentist the other day and was dreaming about my CW scanning probe while in the chair. ;)

Starting asking him about the molding stuff and quick-setting dental plaster he uses for making models of people's teeth. I explained what I planned to use the stuff for, so he gave me some info and a supplier catalog that he orders from. Told me he'll order whatever I want to try out, although he warned me that some of these items can get a little pricey in larger quantities.

I'll let you know how it turns out, if /when I try making rigid models from the dental plaster for scanning!

Nothing to do with the carver really, but my friend use to make masks and all sorts of stuff.He made me a set of fangs one year, he used that dental molding stuff it was wild.You could actually eat with them also just a memory I wanted to share

[Julie Coffey]

Pkunk or anyone else who reads this- what is the max depth for the scanning probe. I looked but haven't found it in any posts yet.

Thank you so kindly in advance.

Julie

[pkunk]

Pkunk or anyone else who reads this- what is the max depth for the scanning probe. I looked but haven't found it in any posts yet.

Thank you so kindly in advance.

Julie
1" - it wouldn't do any good to go deeper if you couldn't carve deeper.

[Julie Coffey]

Thanks :)


J

[Ron Baird]

The answer to your question about the heigth it can scan is on page 7 of the scanner manual where you will find much more useful information!
Does anyone read the manual, I have been working on the new manual and I am beginning to think it is a waste of my time.

[Julie Coffey]

Thank you for your input and no I had not read the manual yet- I had looked on the site using search and found nothing. Normally I don't read a manual until I've purchased the product. I have enough faith in the product now I don't feel I have to research everything to the infinite. And figured since I did a 'search' and couldn't find it posting a question to a mod. who was touting what he had learned and was willing to share was not such a 'breach'.

Thank you Pkunk for replying so kindly. And yes when I do purchase the scan probe I will be equally appreciative of the effort done on the manual.

Julie

[IM2HAPPI]

Julie,
Now you know what I mean !!!

[mtylerfl]

Pkunk,

I was scanning this morning and stopped the scan mid-stream (opened the cover).

Closed the cover to resume and the probe holder suddenly rotated violently around, yanking the probe's plug out of the socket and wrapping the wire around the base of the holder.

It's a mystery as to why this happened and it scared me - thinking it could have damaged the wire and put my probe out of business.

Have you had this happen to you, and/or know a way to prevent this from happening again?

[BoardSilly]

What version of the software are you running?
It sounds like the system confused the probe with a bit and tried to spin it up.

[pkunk]

Wow :eek:, it's not happened to me, but I've never had occasion to stop it in the middle of a probe. Hope it's OK.

[mtylerfl]

Wow :eek:, it's not happened to me, but I've never had occasion to stop it in the middle of a probe. Hope it's OK.

Hello BoardSilly and Pkunk,

I'm using 1.115 version of the software (don't plan to update until I'm confident the newly introduced error issues are fixed in the latest version).

I scanned without any problem whatsoever after the "violent rotation". Everything seems OK.

I emailed Tech Support for their take on this and their theory as to why it happened and how to prevent it.

BTW, I stopped the scan to answer the phone. Done it before and never had a problem resuming. Noticed it doesn't stop instantly like when stopping a carving, though.