Hi all I have read a short topic on here about changing to Rudia controller but didn’t help me much so here goes.
Background
I have Epilog Fusion laser which had caught fire and the owner has taken out the main electrical components ie tube, controller and power supply. It was offered for free pick up which I took advantage as I felt the damage wasn’t that bad.
Questions
It has the Brushless DC motors with rotary encoders and driver boards (well that’s what I think they are), air compressor and lift motor still in it. Lift motor is with a std driver controller so thats okay but I can’t figure out how to hook-up the boards that are in it to a Rudia controller. All help will be greatly appreciated.
Regards, Rod
Pics of controllers and motors
I don’t know the Epilog line, but the systems work pretty much the same way.
The PC → (Controller) → motor driver for the steppers.
Since yours has encoded motors, you have extra connections to the motor driver controller, such as encoded positioning, but the connections from the Ruida to the controller is usually just the step/direction control.
You would need to know the pin out of the motor driver input control, identifying the step/direction controls.
Make sense?
Thanks for that Jack and I know it should be easy once I know the wiring. I built another Laser and used Hybrid servo motors and a CNC Router with conventional Mtr and drivers and that was easy. Maybe I will ditch the drivers and get some off the shelf types.
Hunt around on places like Reddit and post a photo to see if anyone has the pin out you need.
You want to keep the fix it price low, so don’t replace things you don’t need… These motors are not as cheap as regular steppers.
Might ask the vendor if they can help you… all they can say is NO.
Good luck
You are 100% correct……vendor said no.
I will try reddit
Post some good picture.
If possible and numbers or anything that could relate to what someone has seen or worked with.
Is there a group of wires going to where the controller was? This would likely be the laser or motor driver controls.
Good luck
Turns out I misread the OP
Hi I tried what you had suggested on Reddit but they removed my post (rule3) its the first time I have used Reddit. I basically just copied and pasted what was here. Not sure what I did wrong…maybe I shouldn’t of said the brand
Rule 3
Respect the privacy of others. Instigating harassment, for example by revealing someone’s personal or confidential information-reporting/account-and-community-restrictions/posting-someones-private-or-personal), is not allowed. Never post or threaten to post [intimate or sexually-explicit media] of someone without their consent
.
Edit
I took out the brand name and it worked.
Hey Rod,
Congrats on scoring a free machine. I would have done the same thing 
As Jack tells us above, the Ruida will output a Step/ Dir signal and the machine’s motors need to be able to interface to that.
As far as I know, Epilog lasers use an encoder strip, which you can sort of see explained/ shown in this video:
Also, my understanding of Epilog lasers in general has been that they have a singular motherboard that is handling the reading of the encoder strip position feedback and in turn commanding the brushless DC motors how to move.
We see the board in this video:
I am actually curious, if you can trace this larger black cable named “X SERVO” to whatever it is going to at the other end. Lots more pics would help.
In short, this is very much into “here there be dragons” territory, and unfortunately, not in the fun way that using LightBurn would be.
Your easiest* path could be to replace both X and Y motors with a supported motor type: namely a stepper motor with “black box stepper driver”. You can also get a closed loop version of the above where there is a rotational encoder on the motor shaft and tied directly to the stepper driver. I would suggest that.
A more complex way might involve keeping the DC Motor I see in your picture, but getting a controller for it like an ODrive. I have no idea if this will work for that particular motor. By the way, SimpleFOC is the main alternative to ODrive, and is significantly less expensive.
With either of those products, the goal is to feed them the Step/ Dir commands from the Ruida and have them convert to/ drive the brushless DC motors.
The most complex way would be trying to get the existing linear encoders strip to work with ODrive/ SimpleFOC.
These are all really complex things. I’m pretty good with rewiring machines and doing controller swaps, as well as sometimes claiming to be an electrical engineer, and I know enough to know that these things might be possible, but even if this machine was in front of me and I was doing the work, I don’t think it would be easy.
Also, I have just found this topic which mostly agrees with what I said for a differing Epilog product line:
Hi and thank you so much for taking the time and reading my post.
You will see by the pics it would not be a easy job but not impossible to change out both the right and left Y motors and controllers as it would appear that the motors have a hollow motor shafts and the screw drive is held with a very small roll pin. The only way that I could see to do it would be to machine the end of the shaft to 8mm and use a conventional coupler and new motors with 8mm shafts. I haven’t tried to separate the motors from the screw so I am just guessing at this stage. The Z motor only drives a belt so that no problem.
The lead (DP Display plug I think)with X, Y and Z all go to the large board in the pics and I think that’s what the controller plugged into(which I don’t have)
I still think its doable but I hope I can do it.
Once again thanks for your time and I hope it makes sense.
Rod