Igaging digital readout products

[gbritnell]

I had installed an Igaging scale and reader on my 11" Logan lathe. It worked fine most of the time but every once in awhile it would lose the -0- setting. It would just change to some odd number. I would reset it and finish the job. Pain in the neck! It started happening more often so I made sure it had fresh batteries in it but it became a real annoyance. About 3 months ago I bought another one, the latest version, thinking that the old one was just giving out. I installed it and within a month it started doing the same thing as the old unit. I contacted Igaging and they said to send a copy of the purchase order, which naturally I don't have several months later. I told them the unit was purchased new from a third party seller and I sent them pictures of the box and UPC label. The said there was nothing they could do and I would have to take it up with the seller. Yeah right! Your product but no service!
Buyer beware of Igaging products!
gbritnell

[Barry L]

George I have two on my mill. They both reset themselves at random and inconvenient times. They also turn themselves on and run the batteries down.

Barry L

[crueby]

Sounds a lot like the digital calipers I got once. Went back to the dial type pretty quick.

[gerritv]

These scales do not like getting wet, with oil or cutting fluid. Also don't like metal filings.

I have 5 spread across 2 machines (mill with 3, lathe with 2). Once I isolated them electrically from the frame of machines the problems went away. I also keep them covered to keep them dry.

Gerrit

[Jasonb]

That's why I took the budget ones off my mill and fitted glass scales and proper box, could not be use they would jump in the middle of a complex part.

[ShopShoe]

I had the same experience. I'm not doing that again and saving up for a proper DRO.

--ShopShoe

[GordonL]

It may not apply to your situation but I have an old Sony MagnaScale on my mill and it started acting strange and giving false readings. After some time and further investigation I found that the ground wire was loose and would periodically not make a good connection. I tightened the screw and things have been well for the last several months.

[Firebird]

Hi

I have the igaging scales on my mills set up with the bluetooth DRO. Here's a link

http://www.modelenginemaker.com/index.php/topic,2865.0.html

I had a similar problem with the scale reading suddenly changing. Eventually I realised it was when I turned the power switch on the mill on or off or switched to reverse that it affected the readouts. No problems when I just use the variable speed knob to stop the machine

Cheers

Rich

[Jo]

I’ll enter the foray... not complaining about a specific  manufacturer, just complaining.

...

A few years ago I switched to digital calipers, thinking I’d get better wear from them.  The first I bought has lasted two years till it started randomly switching from imperial to metric scale, and loosing the current measurement while doing so.

Anyway i just purchased and took possession of a new digital 6 inch caliper, haven’t even used it yet.  We’ll see how much longevity I get out of this one.

I have a solar Mitutoyo Caliper its, over 25 years old still going strong - keep loosing it  So brought various others as back ups. Love dial calipers but I wear them out  Finally I picked up a second hand Mitutoyo ABSOLUTE as a replacement backup. So far it is as good as its grand parent 

Jo

[Barneydog]

Hi guys,
I have scales on two lathes and a mill. They are all the lguage scales with the digital readers. I have removed the readers and they are plugged into a single arduino reader for each machine. They are displayed on an an android tablet running the touch dro app. No resets, no freezing and no jitters.....they just work. Rich has the same boxes as me as i built and programmed them. Rich had issues with sudden rests and we initially traced it to the switches on the mill giving feedback. This was elimlnated by removing the power supply to the dro reader boxes and running on a 9v pp9 battery. Running from battery cured it all but you have to remember to switch box off when finished otherwise battery flat in a couple of days. I certainly have had no problems and I am not aware of any further problems with the ones in rich's workshop. Dro facilities do not have to be too costly or complicated to work well. The board fitted to the arduino is engraved on my cnc mill and only has a handful of components. It can read four axis or three and a tacho. Fourth axis can be linear or rotational.

Cheers

Julian

[kvom]

With no virtue on my part I have Newall DROs on both my lathe and Bridgeport, in place when I purchases the machines.  One display is missing an element so I have to be aware of the difference between 9 and 4, but otherwise foolproof for the past 10 years.

[propforward]

I have a solar Mitutoyo Caliper its, over 25 years old still going strong - keep loosing it  So brought various others as back ups. Love dial calipers but I wear them out  Finally I picked up a second hand Mitutoyo ABSOLUTE as a replacement backup. So far it is as good as its grand parent 

Jo

Yeah - I have two Mitutoyo calipers. One I obtained in 1996, and it's still going strong - good as new. The other I obtained in 2016. I'll report back in 20 years on how its doing. 

I don't know anything about iGaging products, but I think I'll avoid them. I'm thinking of going with DRO Pro's when I get to adding DRO's to my mill.