This thing is only 6 weeks old. It appears to only go to the rear when either up/down arrow on the controller is pressed.
I want her to check by moving the head to a front area then power it up.
She will have to ‘esc’ out of the boot sequence.
If she can move it more towards the front, it will eliminate the directional issue. If it only goes to the rear, then we need to eliminate the controller or the motor driver.
I’m suspicious the motor drive isn’t responding to the ‘dir’ signal. The only other option is the controller isn’t sending the right signal, hate to think that…
Well I’m still no further forward unfortunately it refuses to home due to the Y-axis not working no matter where I start the gantry even when I pull it to the front.
I only have the ability to go left to right on the X-axis only.
All the reading still read 100000 on either axis, I have contacted the vendor but yet to receive a response.
If I leave it at the back right where home is when I power up it kind of jiggles around fractionally moving left to right a couple of millimetres till it gives up.
But still won’t move on the y-axis, I’ve ordered a new limit switch but I’m hesitant to mess with it considering it’s only 6 weeks old.
I’m thinking it’s a faulty control panel as only 2 weeks ago I had the same issue but with the X-axis and It kind of corrected itself after a couple of days.
Doesn’t really fill me confidence that at 4 weeks old the X-axis goes then 2 weeks later the Y-axis faults.
I haven’t changed any settings or messed around with it in anyway.
Super frustrating
Just before it happened I powered up opened a file in LightBurn to get ready to make it from wood. The laser went to home perfectly then moved out to the job origin (bottom left). I framed to ensure it would fit within my wood piece I had and it was just a little too high of the wood.
So I resized my project in LightBurn and shrunk them all a little then framed again and this time it fitted within the piece of wood I had.
I turned the key for the laser on and pressed start, the project started running along the x-axis back and forth burning into the wood but then after a few minutes I noticed it wasn’t moving up and it was just continued along the same line back and forth on the x-axis only.
So I stopped the job, went to use the control panel to move the laser and that is when the grinding started and it would not move on the Y-axis.
So I powered off gave it a couple of minutes and powered back up which is when it refused to home and made all those noises you hear in the videos I uploaded.
The display read 10000.0 across the X, Y and U and it hasn’t worked since.
Ive double checked all the connectors this morning and every wire they’re all seated correctly, i’ve gone into the menu on the control panel and took pictures of it all. I am a newbie so I wouldn’t mess with it or change settings that I know nothing about.
I have looked at the displays in the menu and I am going to upload them so if you can spot something that has the wrong information in the setting I’d be grateful if you could point it out to me. I also got all the pictures from the LightBurn where it reads the controller too.
No I have not tried swapping the drivers as yet because I already had an issue with the X-axis only 2 weeks previous so i’m a little hesitant about attempting that. Cause the X-axis is working but wasn’t a few weeks ago I don’t wanna mess with it to much.
Another think you might check is the wire to wire connection at the stepper motor. Also check the wire connection at the driver to make sure it’s secure in the connector.
Good idea not to mess around with the hardware until you’ve heard from OMTech. Don’t want them to blame it on you getting in there.
Your description indicates a hardware failure …
The only common part between the steppers is the controller. It tells each motor driver what to do. If the issue changes from one axes to another, it would point towards the controller.
The only other possibility that I’ve ruled out is a power fluctuation occurring. The failure in that path is that the Ruida would have done a reset because of a low voltage …
I hate to say it’s probably hardware (as in the ‘controller’) but there is nothing common in the modes of failure except the controller.
I know there was a power cut when the machine was on but it wasn’t cutting anything at the time. So when the power came back on I had already powered it off.
That happened the day before I went to use it the next day when it messed up
Could that have messed up the controller ? Maybe
Ive been speaking to the support email that is located in the back of the manual book that came with it they answered me this morning.
They asked to see it in action and all the lights on the side panels etc so I have shown them a video of all the light on the panels etc. They confirm that all the lights are as they should be.
So next they asked me to swap over the wires in the driver of the X-axis and the Y-axis and then video my results.
I have just done them and swapped over the wires so I just wanted to let you know the results or anyone else that may have this issue and is following this thread.
Unfortunately it did not make any different and the X-axis still works fine and the Y-axis still won’t move, so one would assume that both stepper motors are fine ( I think there called that, they called them drivers) it’s gets very complicated, especially while i’m still learning…lol
I have sent them a video of the results as they requested and I await an answer from them to see where I go from here.
Did you swap them at the controller? That would prove the controller is good.
Your next step is probably swapping the connectors at the driver to see if it’s the stepper or the driver. Or the wiring to the stepper.
After reading this and @micrololin reply I feel like I swapped around the wrong thing or I missed something? If you have a pic of which bit is which or which bit I should have swapped around as I seem to be getting lost in all the terminology or section names.
I swapped around the wiring in the X-axis box and the Y-axis box what I believed are the drivers.
I did email them back for clarification as I wouldn’t move things around without them saying so. Im not a laser expert and I do not know all the sections or there names
So I fear now I touched the wrong section.
Jeff( @micrololin ) had good advice since you can think the following is what SHOULD BE happening: ie
Signals(Step/Dir/En) for EACH axis and colored red/blue/yellow in your picture, come from the controller board and connect to the input side of the Stepper Motor Driver modules.
Each Stepper Motor Driver Module also has 24V Positive and 24V Negative power connections and these supply the high power needed to move the motors, thick wires colored red/blue in your picture.
Each module then has 4 Stepper Motor Drive wires which output to the Stepper Motors, colored brown/blue/yellow/black in your picture.
If there was a bad motor (or a binding mechanical system) then when you swapped the Stepper Motor Driver Module inputs( either at the controller or at the modules ) then the problem would stay where it was. ie the bad motor or binding mechanical axis would still be a problem for the different Stepper Motor Driver Module.
If a Stepper Motor Driver Module was bad, then when you swapped the controller input wires the problem would have switched from one axis to the other.
I would take a hard look at the 24V positive and 24V negative wires going to the Stepper Motor Driver Modules and make sure they are very good connections. From the power supply to each motor driver module. Unscrew each wire, look for signs of corrosion or breakage at the end of the wire then reconnect. Do this for each 24V wire on the power supply and do it for each on the Stepper Motor Driver Modules. If the problem is still there, try swapping the 24V power wires between the Stepper Motor Driver Modules. If the problem moves to the other Axis there is a problem with the power getting to the driver module on the axis showing the problem. If there is no change, the problem is looking to be at the Stepper Motor or axis mechanical system.
That Y axis likely has one stepper motor but has output connections for drive pulley belts on both sides of the laser cutter. Both sides need to be looked at very carefully to see if one side or the other is binding or disconnected. The X axis rail must be 90 deg to the left and right Y axis frame or binding can occur.
as only 2 weeks ago I had the same issue but with the X-axis and It kind of corrected itself after a couple of days.
hopefully these pictures can be read ok
