I need Rotary help please

I can’t seem to get rotary calibrated. No matter what settings I try. The angle is 1.8 or 200 steps per rotation. Since the focal distance is always the same the diameter of the object shouldn’t matter. I can’t get a perfect circle and it seems I either get a straight line or an oval. Does anyone know what I’m doing wrong?

Of course the diameter of the object matters. If you request a 1" diameter circle how will it know how many steps it takes to equal 1" unless it knows the diameter of your object?

Enter the diameter of your stick and run it again.

Because the focal distance is the same every time, how does the diameter of the object even matter? Is a circle not a circle no matter the diameter ?

Do you have a rotary?

If you read my question it states that I entered in multiple diameters and same results no matter what

Hello,
Just a guess because you haven’t stated what kind of rotary attachment you have, if it’s one of the Chinese Chuck types which I have, I use 15000 steps per rotation, this is a good start to dial in your steps. You must either have the diameter or circumference of the object you are engraving for your dimensions to come out correctly.
Cheers

What does the focal distance have to do with anything? It has to do with how far the circumference of the material moves for each degree of rotation. In order to determine that it needs to know the circumference or diameter of the object.

Yep. got a chuck type just like the one you got from what of it I can see in your photo. Have used it successfully scores of times.

Can you show us a screen shot of your rotary settings window please? That may help to diagnose the problem.

I have the standard chinese chuck type and mine is only 6000 steps/rev. Maybe different microstepping or different gearing or both.

That is true, mine looks the same as your but stepper drivers, gears, and both all can be different.

Start with Tools > Rotary Setup. Show a screen shot of the settings you have there.

The object diameter matters a great deal - The controller needs to know how far to spin the motor to move the surface of your object in “real units”. For example, moving the object surface by 1mm means a rotation of 1 degree if the object circumference is 360 mm. If the object circumference was only 180mm, then moving the surface 1mm would require 2 degrees of rotation. Telling the system “it takes 15000 motor steps to rotate the object” is half the information it needs - the object circumference (or diameter) is the other half.

Thank you yes it is a no brand chinese one I bought on EBay. It says it is a 1.8 angle per step so 360 divided by 1.8 is 200. I will try 15000. Maybe I’m doing the math wrong. I don’t know. It’s just frustrating. I will play around with it again after work. I do enter the diameter and the focal distance.

Yes I will later today after work

Thank you I will show the settings and results later today

Hello,
Do you have enable rotary selected when you go to the rotary setup screen? I have forgotten to select it before and if you don’t , no matter what you enter, nothing will change to your controller.
Cheers

rotary

Thank you everyone! I can’t find who made the comment for the solution. I may have found it on another thread on here but my correct steps are 6666. With the proper diameter entered it comes out a perfect square.

I love a story with a happy ending. :slight_smile:

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