I have a HL 1060 100W, while tinkering, decided to try to use the U axis for rotary output, after reading a number of other posts, most saying that it didn’t work, I still thought I would give it a try.
After wiring everything up and verifying that the axis was enabled in the machine settings I started to play around. While in the “move” tab of lightburn, all 4 axis will respond to their specific keys, x,y,z and “A” indicated by the CW/CCW arrows in the keypack, which directly drives the “U” axis from the controller, the step/rev adjustments also change with the machine settings, but alas there is no way to select any option other than “Y” in the rotary enable menu, even though the move commands obviously work.
Has anyone gotten any farther than this? I suppose worst case I throw in a 3PDT switch and feed the 4th motor driver with the Y axis signals, as the motor on my rotary is much larger than the Y axis, so I’m using a fourth stepper driver the 36V supply that exists solely for the Z axis drive on this machine, but it would be much nicer to just enable the rotary within lightburn.
My thought is it may be as simple ( I know… in code it may not be that simple as lightburn is obviously a complex bit of software) but allowing the “A” axis to be tied to rotary for the ruida controllers…
Thanks for reading! (if you made it this far)
Mike.
What firmware version are you currently running? Do you happen to know what firmware @Nicholasl is running?
I’ve downloaded the “latest” from the ruida site, but haven’t yet flashed the controller. (8.01.67) I’ve made a config and settings backup through RDworks, but am going to photograph every configuration page just for extra peace of mind.
I’ve also considered putting the controller back to “factory settings” before flashing just to see if it’s something HL configured(out) of the options as I’ve read that ruida allows OEM to customise the control options.
As well as the U axis, I’d also like to be able to use the OUT 1 and 2 potentially.
I don’t remember what version @NicholasL is using, he’ll have to chime in on that. You’d have to hunt back through the posts of people trying to get the 6442 to use the U axes for a rotary.
Don’t… You will lose your vendors setup information. These are generic controllers and the vendor information varies by manufacturer. Who made the controller didn’t build your laser.
All the values that determine movement and distance will be lost. That’s great that you done a backup from RDWorks, but I don’t have an available Windows machine.
Out1 and Out2 are, as far as I know, not user configurable. They are used for the stack lights to indicate what state the machine is in.
I’ve always been uncomfortable loading firmware into a controller… I’ve seen too many of them get bricked in the process. Unless I need a specific function that the firmware offers, I don’t upgrade it.
As far as the ‘factory reset’ it was only a consideration… I’m not overly keen on having to re-enter every param by hand if restoring from the backup cfg files were to fail for some reason.
I’m currently using both the status and wind outputs to control my air assist, using the air toggle in lightburn for cutting with high pressure air, and the status to enable a second solenoid for a low pressure low flow to keep the smog away.
I haven’t probed or played with the out 1&2, to see if they were functioning as status lights or not… I’ll have to look into that.
As well I need to rewire my flow switch or at least hook up the output from the chiller alarm to the controller directly, as it is wired currently, it only breaks the enable line to the laser HV supply.
I’m also hesitant to update the firmware, for the same reasons, though I have a bad habit of doing so on my 3d printers just for the hell of it… I think being able to use the U axis would justify it in this instance.
I’ve been under the hood of a few different manufacturers CO2 lasers and it’s a little disappointing to see how they go about (not) utilizing the capabilities of these ruida controllers… it seems they go for the bare minimum to get things to run, yet at times they make things more complicated for the assembly. In my machine they have a small 3A 24v supply for the ruida, and the x&y steppers which have max28V rating, whereas most stepper drivers I have encountered have at least a 42v rating, then jammed in to the side they have a 36V 10A supply just for the Z stepper… at the same time they make combo output switch mode supplies, my friends 150W machine has a 5@10a,12,24,48V combined supply, that is smaller than the 36v in mine.
Rambling best suited to a different topic I suppose.
My controller model is RDC6442G-LY with 8.07.70 firmware. It seems that this functionality on the 6442 might be limited to a select few sub models, such as the ‘LY’ that Thunder Laser uses.
So I’m not sure if the firmware update you have will do much to help you?
Your best option might be to switch the Y output to a different driver, you could use a relay board like this to do the job neatly.
@NicholasL
That was plan A actually, until I got sidetracked and decided to see if there was any control possible to the U axis, so I guess it’s still plan B…
I’m just wondering if there’s anything @LightBurn might be able to recommend since the U axis, is actually tied to the “A” move soft-keys, and seems to work just fine there, I’m just not able to tie it to the rotary output from lightburn. I was hoping through this thread, that there might be something in firmware / RDWorks that would let me link the two within the controller.
I’m tempted to do the firmware update just to see, I’ve not seen any mention of a firmware update doing anything bad per say, no instances of electronic bricks that I’ve come across (specifically regarding ruida controllers). I’m still doing some more poking around the interwebz to see if I can find any horror stories to dissuade me from attempting it.
