# Shumatech Digital Readout for Chinese digital scales



## alan2525 (Apr 16, 2008)

Has anyone here purchased or used one of those Shumatech Digital Readouts?

I purchased a Digital Vernier from the model engineering exhibition and noticed it has a little 4 pin socket for plugging it into a readout. I thought it might be nice to fit the linear scales to my Taig Mill to aid positioning.

The Shumatech devices are sold as a kit by:

Lester Caine Model Engineers Digital Workshop http://medw.co.uk/#

I work in metric so can't get to grips with the Imperial dials on the Taig. I use metric dial gauges on my taig lathe as a poor mans DRO.


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## John S (Apr 16, 2008)

I have one but not that impressed with it.
They seem to be very scale dependent and mine jumps about a lot, even when parked up. Also freezes up from time to time.

What about getting Digital dials ?







These are made for the Chinese C3 lathe and come as a kit with new screws and nuts. However they need a 20 tpi screw to work which the Taig has so it's a simple job to fit these on.

True they are not a DRO in that they compensate for backlash but they do allow qick change from metric to inch, re zero at any point and it saves having to count turns.

.


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## Bogstandard (Apr 16, 2008)

Go half way down the page and you will find a Digital Display Unit (Single Axis) for £30.

http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement

Plug it into your doodah and you are away.

Battery powered, but you should easily be able to put a PSU on it to do the job instead.

John


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## John S (Apr 16, 2008)

Yes John, Never gave them a thought and I have two on my slotting machine as the dials are that low they are hard to read.

Same controls as the calipers, zero, swap units and better still powered by two AA batteries.
They have a magnetic back so it's possible to swap them from machine to machine.

The other John


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## Bogstandard (Apr 16, 2008)

Other John,

It is very mind boggling for me now.

There are two John S'sssssss on here now, one is a personal friend, so I have to be careful who I am answering to.

John


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## jgarrett (Apr 16, 2008)

Alan2525, I went with the YADRO and am very well pleased with it. No jitter at all. I also bought it from Lester. I lucked up and found a swing arm mount that would hold a laptop so I can swing it between my mill and lathe. Yes the Schumatech looks neater but this is very versatile. 
Thanks,
Julian G.


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## alan2525 (Apr 16, 2008)

Julian Garrett  said:
			
		

> Alan2525, I went with the YADRO and am very well pleased with it. No jitter at all. I also bought it from Lester. I lucked up and found a swing arm mount that would hold a laptop so I can swing it between my mill and lathe. Yes the Schumatech looks neater but this is very versatile.
> Thanks,
> Julian G.



Julian,

I already have three PC's and a lapop on my bench - would I need a dedecated clapped out old DOS laptop and do you know if there are issues with running the yadro on a Windows XP machine in dos? I looked at the Yadro website and it mentioned that all versions of Windows have a version of DOS but then also mentioned there are probs wih the interface when running windoze! I like the idea of being able to configure the software for more than one machine too, could also use the interface on my lathe if I get to cnc my mill at a later date too.

Lots of solutions to the problem though! Thanks for the advice!

Alan


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## SmoggyTurnip (Apr 16, 2008)

Bogstandard  said:
			
		

> Go half way down the page and you will find a Digital Display Unit (Single Axis) for £30.
> 
> http://www.arceurotrade.co.uk/Catalogue/Measurement




-This is great. Does anyone on this side of the Ocean sell those things ? (Canada)


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## Cedge (Apr 16, 2008)

John S
You've confirmed a problem I suspected was effecting more than just me. The scale freezes up and I have to remove the battery to reset the thing. It seems to be some small miscommunication between the DRO and the scale, but I've yet to get an answer from those in the know about such things. I just had to do the fix on my X3 mill quill scale, last night. 

A bit of a pain since I had to do some disassembly on the mill to get to the little battery cover. I finally made a small mod to the cover so it is no longer a problem to get on and off.

Anyone got any ideas on the scale freeze thing?

Steve


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## jgarrett (Apr 16, 2008)

Alan, All you need is basic DOS. What he is saying is that it will not run in a DOS shell under windows. My LT has nothing but DOS on it but I know people that boot to DOS on a floppy with the software on it with no problems. There is a version of Windows that someone wrote (maybe on the EMCO Yahoo group) but you are stuck with a mouse and typical Windows problems. I have one interface box and a set of scales on both my mill and lathe that I can switch between just by swaping 3 DIN plugs.
With the YADRO the scales are powered via the interface. You solder a small capicator in where the battery goes. Nice part of that is that you can power on the interface without the PC and use the scales.

Yes there is a gentleman in Canada that sells the kit. Go to yadro.de and look under suppliers.

Julian G.


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## Rog02 (Apr 16, 2008)

SmoggyTurnip  said:
			
		

> -This is great. Does anyone on this side of the Ocean sell those things ? (Canada)



I was looking at the inexpensive readouts some time back and bookmarked this one. I haven't done business with the guy so can't tell you much more than what the ad says.

http://stores.ebay.com/SMW-Precision-LLC_Digital-Displays_W0QQcolZ2QQdirZ1QQfsubZ7QQftidZ2QQtZkm


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## Cedge (Apr 17, 2008)

Rog
That is the guy I bought mine from and it works well, although it's a pretty bare bones unit. It will give you good accuracy but sometimes has a bit of a problem with spurious signals generating some ungodly number that will pop up and then go away. Support has been excellent and the guy seems to really know his stuff. Most of his sales are to high end users and the small machine and economy DRO market is relatively new to him, but he supports us small guys as if we were core accounts too.

Bottom line... I've already been a repeat customer and will be again if I need more capability.

Steve


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## Bogstandard (Apr 17, 2008)

You guys having trouble with the cheapo units kicking to zero, this can also cause the random readings.

This is usually caused by the unit being slightly off wack, a few thou will do it, by allowing the spring wiper to have an intermittent contact with the sliding surface.






You can do a slight adjustment, not only to take up wear in older units, but to compensate slightly for the tendency to lift the wiper strip.
You will have to find out which screw is the adjustment one and give it a tiny tweak. Too much and the unit won't slide at all. Normally a watchmakers flat driver can be used.
Most units as far as I know will have the holes for adjustment on the top, others might be under the plastic main cover.

It is always better if you can get the mounting spot on.

Hope this has helped.

John

I also refurb my old digital calipers by stripping down and giving all the wiper faces a good clean and adjust. They usually work just like new after this bit of TLC.


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## firebird (Apr 17, 2008)

Hi
If you look on page 9 in the 'TOOLS' section you will see one of my posts 'DRO ON THE MILL' with plenty of photos and a dro from arc eurotrade. Hope this helps.

Cheers


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## two dogs (Apr 23, 2008)

I have the same problem as Cedge on only my X axis on my mill. I bought it from Shars. I complained and then sent both the X scale and DRO unit back. They said it worked fine, well it doesn't, it locks up and I have to remove the battery. It took about 3 months of back & forth between them from when I originally got it to when I got all of it back (due to them not sending back the cables) so I'm not going that route again. It's not that hard to remove & replace the battery, but...  anyone out there got any ideas what I can try. 
It's specific to the scale; I've swapped cables and tried plugging it into the other ports. 
Dang, it would have to be the most expensive of the 3 scales I have :-\

Thanks for any info
Mark


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## CrewCab (Aug 11, 2009)

I picked up one of ............ 

*These* 

a little while ago, I find it a useful tool 
	

	
	
		
		

		
		
	


	




 anyone else like them.

CC


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