I set up my rotary tool per the instructions and followed the set up instructions in Lightburn. I have the y axis chosen however in order to engrave at all I have to have the rotary chuck facing vertically rather than horizontally. Then when I adjust the parameter in Lightburn that says how many millimeters per rotation. It adjusts how far the laser runs on the x axis rather than the distance of the rotation of the chuck. It seems like it has got to be an easy fix but I can’t seem to find what I have improperly set. Can some one please offer a suggestion?
I do not have Atomstack parts, but I hope to get you started on the road to success.
Position the Rotary parallel to the Xaxis so the Xmotion makes it travel the length of the rotary.
This will orientate the direction of travel to be the same as the Xaxis. So X travels in X and Y rotates in X. Do you see how this is not going to work?
Pretend there is a ruler laying on top of the rotary chuck. When the rotary turns, the ruler will travel back and forth in the Y direction. Now imagine the rotary as being flattened out. That is your Yaxis travel.
Thank you for your reply. If I face the chuck in the horizontal access and run test, the chuck barely spins and then the laser moves on the Y axis. As I adjust the mm per rotations in stead of controlling the amount of spin on the chuck it adjusts the length the laser travels on the Y axis. To me it seems like the command is getting switched from Y to X somewhere in the software. Is this more easy description to understand?
It looks like I need to try and connect at the mother board rather than where the moor is located however none of the instructions I received with either product make that suggestion. Nevertheless I will definitely give it a whirl.
Thanks again.
I have an Atomstack X40 Pro with an R1 Chuck.
Here’s how I use my rotary:
Enable the rotary Set the MM per rotation and do a test. The rotary should do a rotation in one direction then the other direction and end up where it started. My setting for the Atomstack is 165 mm but yours may be a little different. After that measure the circumference of the object you are burning and enter that into the circumference field. After parameters are set up manually move or jog the laser where you want to start. Then change from Absolute to Current Position. You should be good to go
So heres the steps:
Plug Y Axis Cable from MB into Rotary
Open Lightburn
Turn off Home at startup
Turn on machine and connect to lightburn
Change from Absolute to Current Position
Enable Rotary
Set MM per rotation (165 Your machine may be different)
Play with this number until you get the rotary to rotate once in each direction and
end up where it strted
Do rotation test. (I put a little marker dot on top of the chuck to see start point)
Set Circumference of part
Mount and level product
Manually Move or jog laser to position you want to start
I always position my rotary left to right under the x axis.
I use a little jig i made to make sure the rotary is parallel to the X Axis
Focus Laser
Do Frame to check position
Adjust as necessary
Run Job
If you get an out of bounds error you can ignore it. Since you didn’t home the machine doesn’t know where its at. As long as your sure your machine isn’t actually going to go out of bounds
Thanks for all the concise instructions. I have done all of that. The one symptom that I think should point me to the solution is that the mm per rotation adjustment still runs the Y axis servo motor in a vertical direction rather than rotating the chuck. I’m not sure how that is possible because the chuck is plugged into the leads that used to be plugged into the motor. I’m not sure how the motor is even getting power at all. In fact the chuck rotates, the x axis and Y axis motors all run. There seems like the laser controller is not seeing that I selected rotary enable.
I tried uploading a video but could not. To me this looks like I have unplugged the wiring to the Y axis servo and connected the rotary. when I test it it moves the rotary and the Y axis and if I engrave it will move the rotary, the Y axis and the X axis. The MM per rotation doesn’t affect the rotary, it affects the travel along the Y axis.
I am thinking I might need to plug rotary directly into the board?
