Hello
I bought few days ago a 20 years old Universal Laser System co2 laser with 40w RF co2 laser tube.
It is ULS XL-9200, the machine is working fine but due to very old system, controller and etc. I want to upgrade it to Ruida controller RDC6445S.
Does someone have any idea or experience with connecting ULS RF co2 tubes to Ruida controllers ?
Any ideas or someone tips could help me solve this problem 
Many people have change out controllers… Even on ULS machines
The only difference would likely be setting up the Ruida for an RF source… That’s a firmware switch…
It should swap out relatively easily… if you have questions, ask…
Thank you 
So here is my question for start, need someone who could help me with wiring my tube to Ruida.
In attachment some photos of tube and wires.
Maybe someone could help me to figure out where to put wires.
Can you relate these to a Ruida? I understand the controller is missing?
If it’s still there then it would probably be easier to guesstimate about the wiring.
LOL I did deep maintenance on an XL-12000 until a couple of years ago, the XL-9200 is the same “family”. It is a rare model, they built these very differently with:
Both the servo system and variable air assist valve are extremely rare components. In fact, variable air valves almost don’t exist at all in any form.
You may have either the variable air valve or just a solenoid that switches between two circuits with different flows. Ruida only has an air assist on/off- if you use it that way you have to
The servo drive is going to be problematic. The X and Y are servo, the Z is stepper. X and Y are driven by a pair of Coply Motion Control cards that slot into the motherboard in back. Since these aren’t discrete motor drives you can lug new step/dir wires into, this would be really difficult to connect a Ruida to. The servo motors are rare and not readily interchangeable with a stepper motor or any type of obtainable servo AFAIK. So that would also be very difficult to convert over to something the Ruida can drive.
ULS went in a really different design direction on these, but it ran into a dead end. They put all this expensive, rare tech in it but it didn’t yield much for better performance in the end- you’d think being servos, it could be run wildly fast, but not really, no, it’s not able to move the head all that fast. They killed the XL line in favor of the ILS line- same bed size and laser config, but tosses the embedded PC and servo system. In the end, a pretty limited number of XLs were made. Last I heard, we’d been one of the few XLs running in the US, but there were some still operating in Asia.
We ran that thing into the ground. Pretty great machine. But maintaining its rare components is fantastically difficult. The variable air valve was broken but still flowed and switched on/off when asked, but the whole module was a USB device that the system had to talk to and sometimes it stopped responding and the system wouldn’t run.
As it had more and more hrs put on it (very well-used machine) the servo system sometimes threw errors. I believe the servo motor itself was wearing out. Actually, when we got it for a really cheap price, one of the Copley cards was why it wasn’t working. Blown transistor and high side drive IC which was something possible to diagnose and repair with a reasonable skill level.
Thank you for your answers
I know that I have to make some maintenance with servo motors ( swap it on step motors).
Also maintenance some wiring with them and figure out air flow. This is not a problem at all.
I only need some help or tips how to figure out wiring with RF co2 tube.
As I know I have this plug see picture.
Description for wiring colors
Blue -wiring number 4 on plug means Modulation +
White - wiring number 5 on plug - Key +
Brown - wiring number 9 on plug - Laser diode input
Green - wiring number 10 on plug - Laser diode return
Orange - wiring number 13 on plug - interlock -
Yellow - wiring number 14 on plug - interlock+
As shows Ruida manual (see picture) I need to plug 3 wires only to control RF tube.
Maybe someone have any idea which colors should I use?
Below also pictures from plug
Here picture from Ruida manual.
I will be using only one co2 tube so let’s focus on it.
I need to connect
Enable
GND
PWM
Any tips or ideas how to solve it?
RF systems are generally only one wire, the pwm.
If you look at the Ruida schematic, the enable is hard wired to 5V, so all you need is ground and pwm… The pwm would likely be the modulation.
The ULR needs roughly 13v on pin 13 to enable. The mfg has 13v on pin 14, the intent was to use magnetic reed switches that connect these two pins with just a mechanical switch. It’s intended to be a low-level hardware interlock at the laser itself that electronics and software can’t screw up. Without ~13V on pin 13, it will power down its input stage and ignore the PWM input.
The RDC6445S connection diagram shows it’s kinda bypassing a laser’s Enable because it’s just hooked to 5V so it will be enabled any time the Ruida has power, it’s not a safety interlock. But the Ruida does implement door-open and coolant flow inputs and isn’t supposed to be able to send out a Modulation signal if the door is open. In any case, the Ruida’s 5V probably isn’t enough to wire to pin 13, and the 24V rail is too much and will probably damage the ULR tube’s input. So, don’t do that.
You’re using the existing ULS frame, so you’d leave this connected as it is. It goes through I think two Hamlin magnetic reed switches. If the lid is open, the controller won’t know this will just disable the beam and it runs without cutting for as long as the lid is open.
Warning though: ULS kinda screwed up these switches by mounting it in a steel frame. The flux from the magnet on the movable lid tends to mostly shunt through the steel frame so the switch has a much reduced detection range and very sensitive to misalignment. And with multiple switches in series it’s very hard to tell which one isn’t closing. A lot of people bypass the extra(s) and just rely on one switch.
The ULR tubes do not require pre-ignition, so you may not need to select “RF laser” at all.
Thank you for your help.
I will receive soon my Ruida so I could start trying to set it up 
We stay in touch.
