Hexagon (CSI) - Common Scale Interface (Manual)

Hexagon (CSI) - Common Scale Interface (Manual)

Overview

CMM-Manager 2026 adds support for manual machine with the Common Scale Interface, or CSI, controller. There are a few important steps to setting up the CSI to work with CMM-Manager as well as some important specific notes about the driver. These are outlined in the sections below.

Hexagon Common Scale Interface (CSI)

CSI Setup for CMM-Manager:

The below steps covered should be completed in the order that they are written in order to get the CSI controller working with CMM-Manager.

Driver Installation (Zadig):

The following steps cover using Zadig in order to install the WinUSB driver for the CSI.
  1. Download Zadig by downloading the attached zadig zip folder
  2. Extract Zadig from the zipped folder
  3. Run Zadig.exe
  4. Click "Options" in the ribbon bar
  5. Click "List All Devices" from the popup menu
    1. This will populate the first dropdown with devices
  6. Select the CSI device in the topmost dropdown in the applciation
  7. Select "WinUSB" as the driver to the right of the green arrow
  8. Press "Install Driver" button
    1. The device will be switched over the WinUSB driver
    2. This can take up to a few minutes
  9. It is recommended to restart you computer after this
Notes
These steps will change the device driver for the CSI meaning it will no longer work with PC-DMIS, steps to revert the driver can be found in the below section titled "Driver Rollback" if it is ever needed.

Additional Settings:

Additional settings can be found in the ini file located at "C:\ProgramData\QxSoft\CMM-Manager XXXX\Driver\IQCommonScaleInterface.ini". 
Warning
These settings should only be changed if the setup highlighted above did not work, or if there are issues with probe compensation.
There are some USB communication specific settings in the INI file that can be changed in order to potentially fix communication errors. Some of these include alternate setting, bulk in endpoint, and bulk out endpoint. A lot of these settings can be found by using the application found in the "UsbTreeView.zip". Simply download the zip file, extract the .exe, and then use it in order to see USB communication settings for a specific device.

CSI Setup in CMM-Manager:

Once the driver is installed it is time to configure CMM-Manager to be used with the CSI controller.

The driver can be selected using the "Select Driver" dialog. This can often be found at startup or by pressing the "Switch Driver" button in the "System" tab in CMM-Manager. The driver is "Manual" and can be switched to by selecting CSI from the dropdown. If CMM-Manager was already open it will need to be restarted. 

Once CMM-Manager is opened with the driver, try to connect. The CSI should connect and it should ask to "Reset Counters". Counters must be reset upon first connection and first connection after the CSI controller has been turned off. To Reset the counters simply move it to the "Home" position and then press "Yes". 

In CMM-Manager there is a page with settings for the CSI that can also be changed. This can be found in the "System" tab by pressing "Machine Setup" and going to the "Common Scale Interface" tab. The below is a picture of the page with a description of the settings proceeding.
  1. PID and VID (Only needs to be potentially changed if CMM-Manger cannot connect)
    1. Used to connect to the CSI box
    2. Can be verified by opening Zadig and selecting the CSI box
    4. The contents of the red box should match the VID value and the contents of the blue box should match the PID value
  2. Scale Factor
    1. Scales each of the axis linearly by a value
  3. Trigger Interval
    1. Clock that will ignore triggers if they occur within the specified window
    2. This can be increased if multiple triggers are registered when only one is desired

Error Map

QxSoft has a utility for converting PC-DMIS error maps for the CSI over to CMM-Manager style error maps. Please reach out to support for assistance with this. 

Driver Rollback:

If at any point you would like to revert the CSI driver for calibration or for use in PC-DMIS it can be done using the steps below.
  1. Open "Device Manager" in Windows
  2. Locate the CSI device in the list'
    1. Be sure it is powered on and plugged in
    2. Most likely under "Universal Serial Bus Devices" section
    3. Can confirm this by unplugging and plugging in the device will cause it to disappear and reappear respectively
  3. Right click the device and then select "Properties"
  4. Go to the "Driver" page in the properties dialog
  5. The "Roll Back Driver" button should be enabled, press it if so
If the "Roll Back Driver" button is greyed out, it will be necessary to uninstall the current drivers and install the ones that you want.

Using CSI with CMM-Manager:

Any time the CSI is connected to from CMM-Manager it will prompt to "Reset Counters". This only has to be done upon the first connection, or upon the first connection after the CSI has been powered on from an off state. Generally speaking. Is is best practice to always reset the counters whenever connecting to the CSI. For this reason, the CSI has all homing related functions disabled as this "Reset Counters" prompt acts in place of the homing mechanism. 
Warning
Whenever connecting to the machine, ensure that a stylus is attached. You should never connect to the CSI with an open probe as this may cause unexpected behavior

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