Version Upgrade Notes

The first time TouchDRO starts after updating to this release, it will convert your existing calibration and probe settings to a new format. The conversion is automatic, and TouchDRO will show one or two notices summarizing what it did. This page is the complete version of those notices.

What changed is where the correction is applied. Previously, resolution, error correction and backlash compensation were applied per axis, on the way to the display, so the same input could be conditioned two different ways depending on which axis was reading it. They are now applied on the adapter, to the input itself, before the position reaches any axis at all. An input therefore carries one set of encoder settings and only one.

For the bulk of setups this changes nothing and there is nothing to do. The exceptions below only arise if two of your axes were reading the same adapter input.

When Two Axes Share an Input

Pointing two axes at one input was never a normal thing to do, with one exception. On a lathe, some people used it to fake compound vectoring before TouchDRO supported it: map the compound's input to both the cross slide and the carriage, then pre-calculate the sine and cosine of the compound angle and enter those as the two resolutions. The readouts then showed the compound's travel projected onto X and Z. If that describes your setup, read the next two sections and then "Compound vectoring replaces the old trick" below.

Where two axes were pointed at one input, the migration has to reconcile them. On first launch, TouchDRO will show a notice titled "Version Upgrade Notes" listing which of the cases below applied to your setup. The notice uses the same headings.

More Than One Axis Shares an Input

The two axes had different resolutions. TouchDRO will keep the first one and discard the second. Where the two resolutions already agreed there was nothing to reconcile, and the notice lists the input for information only.

If the value it kept isn't the one you want, correct it in the "Encoder Settings (Input X)" dialog. Tap the adapter icon in the title bar to open "DRO Adapter Details", then press the gear button next to the input.

Input Used Two Different Ways

This is the one to act on. The two axes read the input as different kinds of measurement, one as a linear position and the other as an angle, and an input can only be one kind. TouchDRO will keep the first axis's setting. The second axis will show wrong numbers.

The readings are wrong rather than merely stale: the axis is scaling counts as though they meant something they don't. Point one of the two axes at a different input in "Settings" so that each input is read one way.

Compound Vectoring Replaces the Old Trick

If you were faking compound vectoring by sharing an input, the migration ends it. The trick depended on the same input carrying two different resolutions, and that is the one thing the new model can't represent. Whichever resolution TouchDRO kept, only one of the two readouts can now be right.

TouchDRO does the projection itself now. Turning on "Enable Vectoring" for the compound will project its travel onto the X and Z axes and show the "Compound Slide Angle Compensation" function, so the angle is entered once as an angle instead of being baked into two resolutions.

The two cannot coexist, and TouchDRO will tell you so: while two axes still share an input, vectoring stays switched off until they differ. Point one axis at a different input first, then turn vectoring on.

Probe Settings Have Moved

Earlier versions stored one set of probe dimensions per machine. Say you used a 4 mm edge finder and a touch probe on the same mill. Entering the numbers for one would overwrite the numbers for the other. Probes now live in profiles instead: each probe you own gets its own profile, with its own diameter and offsets.

On first launch after the update, TouchDRO will show a second notice, titled "Probe Settings Have Moved", describing this conversion.

Check Your Probe Profile

The migration will convert your existing probe diameter and offsets into a profile and select it. The "Edge Finder" and "Set Z Reference" dialogs will point at that profile, so nothing about what they measure has changed.

You can open "Probe Library" from the menu to give the profile a name, correct its values, or add profiles for your other probes.

Probe Signal Settings Were Not Carried Over

If you had changed the probe's inverted or debounce setting, that change was not migrated. These two settings now belong to the adapter rather than to the application, so TouchDRO couldn't move them automatically.

Whether this matters depends on your adapter. On a TouchDRO adapter the two settings were doing nothing, because the adapter already conditions the probe signal before it reaches the application. On a home-built or legacy adapter they were doing real work, so this item mostly concerns owners of DIY and legacy adapters.

If your probe misbehaves after the update, the two settings can be set again in "Probe Input Settings", reached from the gear button on the aux input in "DRO Adapter Details".

Migration Report

TouchDRO will also save a report of the changes it made during the migration, so the conversion can be reviewed after the notices are dismissed.