Hi everyone,
I’ve started having trouble with my chuck rotary attachment. Sometimes it works properly and sometimes it does not
Two times yesterday i had fails on on engraving of a tumbler on my C02 laser.
The first time chuck just stopped rotating during an engrave while the laser was still going back and forth. My laptop was on and not in sleep mode so that definitely didn’t cause it to happen.
The 2nd time i was keeping an eye on it, (as i was starting to have trust issues) and during an engrave the rotary literally jumped backwards approx 3-4mm and laser head continued engraving over an a already engraved area.
Any ideas what could cause this? I thought it might have been a bad stepper motor in rotary attachment, but person i bought it from reckons it would be a lightburn issue. I’m a bit dubious on that though.
Thanks in advance Cleeve Costin
It’s always nice if you post the Lightburn information so we know what version you are using.
I have a Ruida, and I think some of us would have experienced this issue…
If you pc goes to sleep or not probably doesn’t matter as the Ruida stores the file on board.
If you use send, it will send the complete file, then you can run it from the console… this ensures that it’s all loaded into the Ruida controller.
If possible run the same code by running it multiple times from the console and ensure the error is repeated at the same place or into the run…
Don’t have to turn on the laser, just watch the mug and ensure it’s not doing one of these strange moves…
There are lots of these combinations around using Lightburn, rotaries and a Ruida, and it hasn’t been reported.
If it was software, it would repeat the same error, in all likelihood, if it’s a hardware issue, this repeat process probably won’t happen.
Software doesn’t break.
Most likely, the maximum speed & acceleration values are too high. The stepper motor will stall when the controller sends STEP pulses faster than it can respond, then behave badly.
If you haven’t dramatically reduced the Y axis speed, particularly the “idle” speed the controller uses when not cutting / engraving, that’s what’s going on. Reducing the acceleration by maybe a factor of ten would also be in order.
You can increase those values until the problem returns, then back off by a factor of two.
Those values are tucked in the Vendor Settings dropdown section of Edit → Machine Settings.
Protip: Save the current settings in a file so you can restore normal “non rotary” operation when you’re done spinning tumblers. Similarly, save a “rotary” configuration so you need not figure it out next time. 
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.