I’m up and running with my first laser cutter – a DIY 60W CO2 laser running a Ruida 6445G (15.01.22 FW_ . Lightburn integration seems to be working great and I’ve cut and engraved a bunch of projects successfully.
I attempted to add a rotary this weekend by unplugging the Y-axis stepper and plugging in the rotary stepper and I’m experiencing the issue that others have reported but I’ve never seen a resolution for. Is this because it just won’t work in this configuration? During the rotary setup in Lightburn, everything moves and the “test” function seems to work as expected. When I try to send over a job (either with start or send), it doesn’t work. With the start button, nothing happens at all (no movement, laser fire, or messages); if I ‘send’ something over and then start from the controller, the x axis starts moving as if it’s going to home, but never backs off of the switch and the y axis (rotary now) just keeps spinning resulting in me having to stop that operation with the control panel.
If I uncheck “enable rotary” in Lightburn and start a job, it works and fires the laser and moves axis as expected although the proportions look off (attempted a circle and got an oval).
If anyone has any definitive way to get this working, I’d appreciate it! I’m hoping the answer is not that I have to buy another stepper driver and integrate that into the “U” position.
That’s correct, confirming I do not currently have anything connected to the U axis. I built the laser with a circular aircraft connector so I could easily swap in the rotary to the Y-axis when I wanted to use one but figured most of what I did would be cartesian. Is the fix, install another driver on the U-axis and hook this up to that? Seems plausible if that’s what the Ruida is enabling when you have “rotary enabled” from Lightburn but that didn’t match my understanding from others who have done similar (unless they just don’t talk about the issues they had) DIY Rotary Attachment for my DIY Laser Cutter - YouTube
It is a Genmitsu (SainSmart) v2 Roller Rotary. I didn’t count the teeth but I believe the drive gears are all the same size. For the steps/rotation, I started with 6400 then commanded a manual move in Y for the circumference of the object and then mutiplied by the ratio of actual mm to reach a mark I made divided by the expected (circumference of the object).
You want the ‘roller’ or the drive wheel to rotate one revolution and back. Object diameter has nothing to do with how this works… assuming the object will fit on the rotary…
The steps/rotation come from the motor driver … this is the motor driver switch settings for my machines Y axes…
For testing to see if it works. You could move the Y axis to the U at the controller to see if the rotary works like it should. This would verify you needing a U axis controller in the future.
Sorry guys, I must not be communicating well. I appreciate your help. Let me try again.
The rotary is connected to the Y axis. It moves with manual Y-axis move commands from Lightburn or the control panel Y axis buttons. The step calibration may be off but I’m not worried about that and can dial that in after it’s working with lightburn. I understand motion systems and am not asking for help with that.
The issue that I’m trying to get help with is that nothing moves and the laser does not fire when I try to run a job using “start”. When I try to use “send” and start from the control panel both X and Y (the rotary in this case) move in unexpected ways.
You could try (as @Dave01 has suggested) upgrading the firmware to 15.01.30.
Your .22 version may be redirecting the rotary output to U axis output pins when you “Start” at the controller which is not what you want.
15.01.30 allows you to select the output to be used when rotary output is enabled. You have to upload the firmware and make sure the “Rotating Axis” is set to Y using RDWorks) e.g.
Hi guys, in my case the problem is that the option rotating axis in rdworks does not appear. I installed the .30 fw version over a year ago and now that I get a driver for the u axis I find that the option its missing. Tried already the .19 , .22 and .30 but with no luck. Some ideas? Btw, I can work the rotating axis perfectly swaping it with the Y
Thank you @Dave01 How do you keep track of the latest revisions and change log? I haven’t found Ruida’s support to be very intuitive. I see through youtubers and your google page that there are more recent versions but I haven’t found out the source of these newer versions or a good way to keep track? I’ll try an update and see what that does!
Unfortunately Ruida does not do a lot of direct updates beyond new versions of RDWorks on their web site. I lucked out and managed to contact the CIO, and do my best not to ask too many questions. I’m hoping to beta test the all new version when they release it for testing.
Ruida is primarily the manufacturer / wholesaler, and the end dealers are supposed to do the support as they are allowed to customize the interface. That’s where the ball gets dropped. The customize what’s coming in the door if they want, but don’t provide much end user support. It’s been a while since I’ve asked about new firmware, will probably drop them an email after the first of the year.
