I’ve gotten great results wiggling my way along for a while now. But I want to try out some probing! I am not in a place where I want to try out $1700, or even $500, worth of probing though so the Tormach automated probe and the Haimer are out.
What cheaper probes are you all using? Pros? Cons?
Here are the main two I’m eyeing
1- Made in USA for $175- Kyanite Productions CNC Probe
2- Chinese Probe for $116- CNCTOPBAOS CF-38 3D Trigger
As a hobbyist myself, I totally respect your budget constraints. We buy cheap enough until it breaks or proves to not meet our specifications.
I would probably buy the least expensive probe that has a step-by-step guide and wiring diagram for my exact machine configuration if I was making this decision.
Counterpoint - I wasn’t expecting these replies on this topic:
@Ashraf_Farrag dear lord that got aggressive, fast! Yeah, remind me not to ask about cheap probes on PM.
Perhaps I continue with my wiggler. It is yet to steer me wrong.
I get the rationale for a $5k wireless probe to hit better than a thou and to do Fusion360 probing, etc. Makes sense for production machines that cost $35-40k and more and it totally makes sense for the 1500MX.
On a 440? 
In my case, I use it to find edges, center of bosses and holes, center or work, and stock top and accuracy isn’t critical. Probably anything will “work”. I have a Tormach probe for my 440 and once it was was dialed in properly…since it hasn’t been dropped or over-limited…it repeats “good enough” for me. It plugs in and is ready to go. Time is $ and buy once cry once does apply to hobby stuff at some point, too.
You also need to budget for the an adapter for TTS or BT30 for the ones you specified…
I tried a couple of cheap electronic probes but wasn’t happy with their sensitivity and now use a Haimer probe. I really like that and find it useful as a quasi DTI as well (for tramming a vise or checking flatness of large stock in a vise). If/when you buy one, buy a few spare probe tips - they tend to snap when you aren’t paying attention.
I’ve been using the Hallmark ITTP Pro since day one my 1100mx (2 years) - It is accurate and repeatable - I imbed Fusion probing routines to set the origin into all of my .nc programs - couldn’t get along without a probe and in process probing.
they cost $845
Sigh. This is what I was afraid of. I had looked into the Hallmark ones and if that’s as cheap as one can get and not suck, that’s probably the route I’ll go. Do I truly need to imbed probing routines? No. Do I want to learn that skill? Absolutely! And at that point it is only slightly more expensive than the Haimer and you get the integratability. I also like that he actually has videos of how he’s making these things on his Tormachs. Kind of cool.
DrewTronics had a TTS probe for ~$250 last I looked (which was a while ago). Seemed like a good product although I haven’t been hands-on with one.
I bought a cheep Chinese 3D probe from Amazon and found myself a backup probe on ebay for 47 dollars. The probe I chose has an output that is normally high and goes low when triggered. This polarity is opposite of what Path Pilot wants to see. PathPilot does not have the capability to invert this signal as the interface implies. I put a simple FET transistor in the mating connector to invert the signal. This probe did require a external 5 to 24 volt supply! This probe works great for me using pathPilot probing routines.