Adding a DRO to my omnimil - pictures of the install and a question

[Andrew Wildman]

For my birthday my very kind wife purchased me a DRO for my Victoria omnimil, well I paid for it and ordered it, but she gave me permission!

The DRO is one of these cheap Chinese units.
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/3AXIS-DRO-DIGITAL-READOUT-FOR-MILL-MILLING-LATHE-WITH-3-LINEAR-SCALE-ENCODER-/271948450792?hash=item3f51640be8:g:EpMAAOSw3ydVn0CM
I am pleased with it so far and it cost half to a third of any DRO I could see purchased from the UK.

I will post pictures of the install later but first I have a question.  I have put the z scale on the wrong way round (I incorrectly assumed that the transport gagged position is zero!).  This is no big deal as I can just disassemble it and flip it over but it does mean dialing it in straight again which was a pain in the posterior as it is fixed to a fairly uneven casting.  Is there a way of inverting the direction of the scale on the console so as I move the table up the distance increases rather than reduces?

Thanks for your help

[John Stevenson]

Usually yes Andrew.
Not had any experience of that exact model as yet but I do have a couple on there way from China but most of the Sino and the like has the facility to select what direction to read.

[Will_D]

Based on my Easson ES-8A system:

You should find some info under the "Parameters Setup Procedures" menu

You want to find "Directn" [Chinglish for direction]
  There you can set the direction: 0: is positive counting,  1: is negative counting

Hth:  Will

[Andrew Wildman]

Thanks all. I will try to decipher the manual, although frankly it is hilariously bad!

[Andrew Wildman]

 I found the section of the manual but I did not help much as the button with the symbol that was in the manual was not on the DRO, anyway eventually found a button that did what I wanted it to.
For a laugh I thought I would quote one of my favourite passages from the manual:

"The god of the earth that points out that the obvious form of number provides the convenient ellipse halving hole function, handles person requires English to import an ellipse"

Don't ask me what it means, I don't have a clue, and I have spent many weeks in china deciphering Chinese/English conversations!

So back to the install... Here are a few pics(and yes the poor old mill could do with a paint job. The previous owner used something paint destroying as coolant)

[Jonny]

Must admit that's an exceptional price considering the lengths involved.
Why would anyone in the future opt for the inferior caliper type scales doing it on the cheap, cost me £230 17 years ago on RF25 and scrap within two months.