Jenix scale reader heads sold separately?

[A.K. Boomer]

Why on earth could you not buy a separate reader head for a linear scale? they come apart very easy but you have to buy the whole glass scale too?

how many have had reader heads go bad? what did you do?

still don't get how my scale can work 99.5% of the time but has a glitch now, the wire connections seem good in there, anyone ever find a problem and repair theirs somehow?


They almost want half the price I paid for the entire unit with two scales just for one scale replacement

[Noitoen]

Sometimes there is wear in the tiny lines etched on the glass. This will cause glitches

[CCWKen]

I'm just throwing something out there hoping it might stick to the wall, but have you identified where the problem might be?
Cracked scale or reader head?

I can't imagine the physical mechanics of the scale going bad (unless cracked) so it's more likely to be a broken/loose wire or a dirty scale.

If it's the reader head, buy the shortest scale they make and transfer the reader head to your scale.

The scales are the most expensive part in most systems. I can get the display head for my 3-scale system for around $80. The scales are a lot more than that for each one. Another option would be to buy a third-party scale and just run with it. I would check the pin-out before just plugging it in though. Some "snooty" makers/importers swap the pins on the scale leads and/or display heads.

[CCWKen]

Didn't you mention it works until you go to one side or the other then back to a working range? I'm thinking you might be dragging dirt or swarf from the extreme ends back to your work area on the scale. As you say, they come apart easily; why not pull an end off along with the splash guards and look at it?

[A.K. Boomer]

Already had it apart and it's pristine inside - there's no dirt or coolant haze or anything, glass scale is perfect with no drag marks,,,

swapped the X and Y leads and then problem transferred to the Y readout so the X scale is the culprit and found out that the scale does indeed have glitches throughout its travel range,,,

basement is as cold as it's ever been and im wondering if anyone has had problems with their scales acting up in colder temps? would be nice if it came back around on it's own... (i know - wishful thinking)

[Captain K]

My shop is around 5C and I've never noticed a problem

[PStechPaul]

Have you looked at the following set of videos?

Some basic installation and troubleshooting info:

http://www.jenix.co.kr/en/manual/down/DSC800/EngMan5-5.pdf

[Sparky_NY]

Why on earth could you not buy a separate reader head for a linear scale? they come apart very easy but you have to buy the whole glass scale too?

how many have had reader heads go bad? what did you do?

still don't get how my scale can work 99.5% of the time but has a glitch now, the wire connections seem good in there, anyone ever find a problem and repair theirs somehow?


They almost want half the price I paid for the entire unit with two scales just for one scale replacement

You don't describe the glitch behavior so this may not apply. I recently got a chicom new dro for my lathe. When I installed it the X scale would not work at all. I reseated the connectors on the control head and it began working fine. Well... it worked fine for a couple weeks, then one day the X was not reading again. This time reseating the connector didn't do a thing. I pulled the display head and opened it up, the header on the pc board for the X axis was seated at about a 45 deg angle. Apparently it only made contact intermittently, since plugging the header in squarely the problem never reappeared.

May not apply to your case but no harm mentioning it.

[A.K. Boomer]

Well - I swear the only thing I got to go off of is it's cold related, today is the first day we broke out of the freeze and the X scale has not skipped a beat --- I just went down for the third time and tried it - end to end table run with every bag of dirty tricks I could come up with,

Neutral slams,,, reverse to forward shots, even mimicked an epileptic seizure --- come back to zero on the RT - put the dial indicator on and it's spot on....

I did not change a thing from yesterday just quit using it and relied on the RT table to do my bolt hole calcs with the Y axis and let the X sit... only thing that changed is the shops a little warmer down there today then yesterday...

[PStechPaul]

Don't bother looking beyond Part 1 of the videos. It at least shows what is inside the DRO reader, and how to take it apart. The other three videos are basically machining bloopers, and I could have spent that wasted hour doing something more productive, like watching the sun set...

And he never even finished the silly little threaded cable clamp, and never showed if he was able to get the thing working.

[edit] Does it use lithium cells? I think they are notoriously bad in the cold.

[dalee100]

Well - I swear the only thing I got to go off of is it's cold related, today is the first day we broke out of the freeze and the X scale has not skipped a beat --- I just went down for the third time and tried it - end to end table run with every bag of dirty tricks I could come up with,

Neutral slams,,, reverse to forward shots, even mimicked an epileptic seizure --- come back to zero on the RT - put the dial indicator on and it's spot on....

I did not change a thing from yesterday just quit using it and relied on the RT table to do my bolt hole calcs with the Y axis and let the X sit... only thing that changed is the shops a little warmer down there today then yesterday...

Hi,

It is quite possible you have a cold solder joint contracting a tiny bit when cold. Good luck finding that.

As a rule, DROs and most industrial control systems ain't fond of repeatedly being exposed to temperature extremes. I would consider either not working in the shop during cold snaps or heating the shop to a consistent temp.