Adding motorized Z height to my 50w OMTECH

I’m installing a third driver and stepper motor on my MF1220-50 OMTECH laser, to motorize the bed. I will, of course, be plugging the driver into the unused Z axis port on my RDC6442G controller. Would someone with a motorized bed care to share their Z axis setting so that I can use them as a starting point. There are values already entered in the Z axis section of the Machine Settings, but I’m not sure if those would work as is, and I don’t want to damage anything right off the bat. Also, at some point, I may install proximity sensors for Z+ and Z-. Any recommendations? I’ve found a few on Amazon that look similar to the OEM ones but I’m not sure if they are compatible.

There are a few folks here with this engraver. My 50W uses a different different controller so I can’t help directly. Russ Sadler may have some good content.

I don’t want this to get lost in the shuffle - I’ll come back when I get caught up on a few more posts. :slight_smile:

The Ruida uses the standard ‘low’ for ‘active’.

The standard limits switches on the China Blue are usually NPN output hall effect switches.

They only require some type of Farris metal in proximity to detect an object. But anything that pulls the input low should operate OK. These were/are my stock switches.

As long as the input to the Ruida is pulled low when it’s active it should work.


Many of these have the ability to invert the input, so a ‘high’ is active. On the Ruida it’s “Limit trigger”, I believe. I’d suggest keeping like it was designed… pull it to ground if possible for active.

Good luck

:smile_cat:

This thread (chasing a different problem - shows the Z axis wiring and shows the 6442G controller )

John, thanks for sharing that post. It was an interesting read for a very curious problem. I’ve got the wiring squared away between the DM542 driver and the NEMA 17 stepper motor. What I’m not sure about are the changes that need to be made in vendor settings once I enable the Z axis controls in device settings (or do I need to make any at all). My end goal is to be able to raise and lower the bed using the stepper motor through the Ruida control panel, instead of cranking on the black metal knob. The design is based off a post from Reddit. The write-up is pretty good until he gets to the Z axis vendor settings, he just says “configure Z”. The default settings that are already in there may be close, or they could be out in left field, I just don’t know. I’m not trying to install an Auto-Focus setup, I just want to motorize the movement of the bed to make it easier to switch between tumblers and cutting boards. This is what’s in vendor settings right now.
Machine Settings 5

The driver and stepper motor have been installed in the cabinet and power has been applied. For testing purposes, I’ve left the motor sitting just outside of the cabinet so that I can observe it’s behavior. I have not made any changes to whatever the default settings were when I received my OMTECH 50w laser. Using the control panel, with Z move selected, I will get multiple 360-degree rotations at a fairly rapid rate when I click on the left or right arrows. My last post shows what the current settings are. Can anyone offer any suggestions as to what changes I need to make to get fewer and perhaps, somewhat slower rotations. I have no desire to add auto-focus, I just wanted to make it less tedious when changing from cutting boards to tumblers, with parts I had on hand. Once I get the rotational speed under control, I will come up with some way to mount it inside the cabinet where it belongs. I have a 12mm GT2 gear on the stepper and I will be installing either a 40 or 50mm gear on the lead screw. Whatever works the best. At this point it’s kind of an experiment to see if it works, so any comments or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

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