The GCode thing pausing is something I’ve seen before, and has to do with how GCode devices handle moves that use both a rotary and non-rotary axis. Normally you specify feed rate in mm/sec, but for a rotary move you specify degrees per second. When you use both, you have to do some really ugly math to come up with “the right number” to make both move at the correct speed, and a rounding error is what’s causing the pause. On the Ruida, it knows the diameter of the object and does all the number crunching internally.
On the Thunder, you’ll need to set up the steps per rotation properly before things will be properly sized, yes.
that makes sense. so is the gcode thing fixable? is it in lightburn or its something in the firmware of the c3d mini? i was hoping to use one of my two k40s sitting around as a stand alone rotary for smaller stuff and use my thunder for larger items
hey i am trying to change the steps per rotation and it doesnt do anything {on the thunder with ruida}. i know wheel diameter doesnt do anything. ive tried both. its running on the Y axis but in rotary setup i can only select A axis no matter what. whether i set it as roller or chuck style. maybe this is the reason its not doing anything. ive done 15000 and 1 step per rotation and no changes happen.
closed out of LB. told me my license expired. closed the window. all works fine. opened rotary tab and it was set to Y axis which it never was able to before. changed the steps. still engraved same size box {trying to make a 1x1 square and its about 3 inches at the moment}. went back into the rotary tab to adjust steps again and its stuck on A axis like usual.
Can you try the same thing in the stock Ruida software? I’m curious if the rotary settings there work.
Thunder Laser has told me that they have a special controller that uses the U axis for the rotary (I need to change the label from A to U, but that’s what that means). If you are unplugging the Y axis and plugging the rotary in there, it might explain why you’re seeing no difference. On the other hand, I wouldn’t expect the Y axis to move at all when running in rotary mode on that version of the controller. You don’t get to choose the axis on the Ruida controllers - it’s hard wired, which is why you can’t select or change it.
i can try rdworks. im not familiar with it at all but i know its similar. it uses an RDC644XG controller. weird that there is slight differences like using the U axis. i have a switch running to the y axis to flip between the y and the rotary. the machine comes wired and has a plug and a toggle for a rotary but it uses a different style plug with 8 wires. the one i have is an HM V2 and i had to add a stepper driver to drive the 2 phase stepper since the thunder is 3 phase. so no, the y doesnt move during the rotary.
Thunder Laser told me they have a special version of Ruida firmware that uses the U axis to drive the rotary, not the Y axis, so there isn’t a need to unplug the Y and plug in the rotary. If you are actually use the stock Y axis of the machine, it might not work on their controller, at least not the standard way using the rotary settings - you’d need to ask them. I don’t know if they have an option in their version of RDWorks to let you choose between the hard-wired U axis or the Y axis. I’ll need to look into that.
hmm thats strange. ill have to find someone else that has a thunder and a rotary that isnt the type they sell and see if they have it working. all i have done so far was vector engrave a square and circle and it all works with it on the y axis, i just cannot change settings i guess. ill try to contact thunder and see what they say
They just told me to just manually adjust the image. Not really the fix I was looking for but do you know of that will be a certain % of the height and I can use that same number everytime to get the image right?
You’ll have to figure out the scale difference - It’ll depend on your roller diameter and stepping settings. Draw a box in LightBurn and run it on the rotary. Measure the output, and the ratio of how big you asked for vs how big you got is the scale to use.
So, for example, if you ask for a 100mm box, but it comes out as 50mm, you’d use 100/50 (200%) for the Y scale.