Ruida 6445G Ignoring Limit Switch

Community Laser Talk
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I built a Further Fabrication Y1200 (1200mm x 600mm) CO2 laser with a Ruida 6445G controller and 60W actual (80W) CO2 laser. I have been using it now for many hours per week for about 2 1/2 years now. In the last 2 months or so, I have been experiencing a bizarre problem where the controller will simply ignore the Y limit switch and blow past it. The red LEDs illuminate on the controller, but the controller continues to drive the motor anyway, which is not good for the belts!

Going into the Manufacturer Settings and disabling “Enable limit trig”, clicking “Write”, reenabling the limit trigger, and clicking “Write” again fixes the problem most of the time, but the problem returns on power cycle. Out of morbid curiosity, I just set the Enable limit trigger to OFF on the Y axis in Lightburn and it is currently working and homing correctly??

Has anyone experienced this? I just upgraded to firmware version RDC-V15.01.22 and the problem does not seem to have gotten better or worse. Is my controller going out?

  • Because the laser tube is on the LEFT side of the laser on my model, the X and Y axes are oriented 90 degrees off from what most people would expect. X travel is front-to-back. Y travel is left-to-right.
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Does the Y limit cable run through the drag chain? I’ve heard many times of intermittent operation because of a failing ‘limit switch’ wire in the chain.

Assume you are referring to ‘Limit Trigger’… This just ‘inverts’ it from the normal active low to active high.

“Enable Homing”, false, disables homing in that axes.

Screenshot from 2022-07-25 13-53-14

You can see on the Ruida if the switch is making in two ways. The console has a “Z/U → diagnostic” panel that will show the ‘read’ state of the switches and the LEDs on the Ruida itself has x and y hardware display…

That’s how mine is, if we are talking the same?

I’d try replacing the limit switch… cheap and will eliminate it as a probably cause…

:smile_cat:

1 Like
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FYI, .30 is the latest release I have for the 6445G. I know there were a few with some funky problems a while back, but don’t remember what or what versions.

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Were you talking about the “limit trigger”?

I have a 6442g… they all seem to have their quirks.

:smile_cat:

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Thank you for the replies. Thanks for the correct information about Limit Trigger vs. Enable Homing. What odd framing instead of saying “Active High” or “Active Low”. I have ordered new limit switches and will re-run that later this week with new wires to see if it’s an intermittent issue in the cable chain. I HAVE had wires in the chain break before so that seems like a reasonable solution to me. Will get the .30 firmware. I’m really wanting to use “U” for rotary.

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I have the firmware in a folder at the top of my Google Mod Page in a folder. There are several versions and types, make sure you get the right one.

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Maybe the Chinese version would be easier for you to read?

That’s the problem with most of these translations. For example, ‘air assist’ is ‘Wind’ on the Ruida…

Part of the ‘fun’ of low cost lasers…

:smile_cat: