I’m doing a new laser project, driven by a 6445 ruidacontroller (Controlled by Lightburn also: D) and I have a question … currently I have a minigerbil board with 2 TB6600 drivers and 2 X motors and 2 Y motors, I have them bridged and I would like to know if the noisy controller could also do this without problems.
The idea is to put 2 motors on the Y axis, one on each side but with only 1 TB6600 driver as I currently have, with RuidaController this is possible too?
You can wire steppers in series, but I have never done it personally. If they are facing the same way, you have a pair to the A terminals on motor 1, a pair from the B terminals on motor 1 to the A terminals on motor 2, and finally from the B terminals on motor 2 back to the controller. if they are face to face, you swap pairs at one of the motors so one turns ‘backwards’ to match the other motor.
Yes, one of the motors must be reversed, so I have it now in another machine and without problems but in Ruidacontroller I don’t know if it will react with some kind of error. I also ask … The U axis that carries the controller and I am going to leave it unused, there it can be modified in options so that it clones the Y axis and so I put it separately?
The laser controller merely talks to the stepper driver. As long as the stepper driver can handle two motors you are good.
Personally, if you have a way to put a shaft between sides an eliminate a motor in any way shape or form, you should do that instead of two motors. On small machines, laser or 3D, you can get away with two motors, but on the longer distances in the bigger lasers, even the huge ones still only use one motor. A machine like this that will handle a full sheet at a time only has one motor per axis.
Also, they typically don’t use dual motor axis on lasers because if one stops working it can throw the entire gantry out of alignment and you end up with the laser hitting unintended places inside the machine. Potentially causing a fire. You should avoid it at all costs.
