Setting Aux Air delay in Ruida with disabled Air Assist in Lightburn creates delays

[zaubara (Martin Puza)]

Hi again,

so my second issue might be directly related to the controller firmware, but here goes:

In the controller, I can set the Air Assist to only switch on when the laser actually fires (instead of being on all the time until the cutting layer is done). That’s a major feature that I was missing in GRBL-LPC on my old K40, by the way.
How nice!
Now, again in the controller, I am able to set a delay before (and after) a cut, so that the airflow starts X ms before the laser fires.
I would like to set that to, say, 100ms.

Now, here’s the issue: when I’m vector engraving - and not cutting - I have disabled the Air Assist in Lightburn.
However, due to the set delay, I can hear the solenoid valve turning on and off - clickedy clackedy - every time the laser turns on. Since the air assist is set to Off, the solenoid closes immediately, but it still sits and waits there for the set delay, and switches the valve.

I would expect there to be no delay, and the solenoid not turning on and off, just as if i have set no delay.

Maybe there’s a fix possible inside Lightburn?

Thanks!

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

How is your air assist connected to the controller?

Via the ‘Wind’?

I have always followed that when I lase I have some air flow to protect the lens. I use low pressure when engraving.

Do you have other solenoids on the machine?

[zaubara (Martin Puza)]

On my controller, there‘s an „Aux Air“ pin that I’m using.
For engraving, when the solenoid is off, there’s a bypass from the „Ultimate Air Assist“ that I’m using

[zaubara (Martin Puza)]

Sooo… is there a bugfix possible without a firmware update?

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

If I’m reading you right…

You have the Ultimate Air assist and only using the ‘AuxAir’ for a control solenoid.

You can set the ‘AuxAir’ to only go active when the laser fires.

Most of us turn on low pressure, with ‘Status’ and allow the ‘Wind’ (AuxAir) to control the high pressure solenoid.

It might be that the setting you have for only when the laser fires over rides the Lightburn software.

How would the Ruida or lightburn know you are cutting and not engraving? How would it differentiate?

[zaubara (Martin Puza)]

Hi Jack, and thank you!

You have the Ultimate Air assist and only using the ‘AuxAir’ for a control solenoid.

Yep. I have the Ultimate Air assist, with the bypass valve, and the solenoid installed in the machine.

You can set the ‘AuxAir’ to only go active when the laser fires.

On the Ruida-Controller, yup. Couldn’t find that setting in Lightburn Machine Settings, by the way

Most of us turn on low pressure, with ‘Status’ and allow the ‘Wind’ (AuxAir) to control the high pressure solenoid.

As do I the compressor is always on, so there’s always a bit of air coming out of the business end, thanks to the bypass. When the solenoid switches on, high pressure air comes out.

How would the Ruida or lightburn know you are cutting and not engraving? How would it differentiate?

The solenoid switches on, when the selected layer has “Air assist” turned on.
For engraves, I have the “Air assist” turned off, so only the bypass is being used.
So it doesn’t have to differentiate at all.

The issue is that, with a delay greater than 0 set, the solenoid switches On and Off - with the “Air assist” turned OFF! There’s a short burst of air coming out (for the duration of the delay, in fact), when it shouln’t turn on at all.

So, again - when the respective Layer has air assist ON, it works as expected:
Laser head travels to position, the valve switches on and air assist switches to full blast, stays there for the set amount of delay, and the laser turns on and moves and does it’s thing. Wonderful!
However, when the air assist is set to OFF:
Laser head travels to position, the valve switches on and air assist switches to full blast, stays there for the set amount of delay, THEN turns the valve off again, and only THEN the laser turns on and moves.

Since there is no air assist set, I wouldn’t expect the delay to happen, since there’s no air assist that should turn it on.

It’s like the message to the laser cutter is “set the air assist on, but not for this specific cut” which would force the controller into this set of actions, instead of “the air assist is now off, wait for my message to turn on”.

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

@zaubara

here’s the issue: when I’m vector engraving - and not cutting - I have disabled the Air Assist

You advise it works differently when it’s engraving and not cutting. Which is where the “How would it know if you are cutting or engraving?” question came from and your answer of…

@zaubara

So it doesn’t have to differentiate at all.

…?

Maybe I should ask why do you have the solenoid on only when the laser is firing? I don’t know how many threads I’ve read about people trying to turn it off and I can’t remember one questioning how to turn it on or any positive uses for that configuration.

But I’m open to suggestions.

It sounds like how the controller operates changes depending on how the solenoid is programmed. There maybe other uses in different areas of manufacturing for these controllers. Such as cutting materials with something other than a laser. I highly doubt this is a lightburn issue.

Maybe if we are luck, @LightBurn can shed some lite on this. If we don’t hear from them, I will try some others that have experience with these controllers and maybe they can help.

It would be interesting to understand your logic of the solenoid only on when the laser is firing.

Personally it would drive me nuts…

Take care…

[LightBurn (Oz)]

Does it behave the same in RDWorks? I suspect it will.

The only thing we do is tell the controller whether air is enabled for a layer or not, and the controller itself handles the rest.

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

Thanks for dropping in…

It’s a different configuration, but doubted that Lightburn had any control over the operation.

Wonder what the basis of this operation is, I’m sure it was planned/programmed…

[zaubara (Martin Puza)]

Thanks, you’re right - RDworks behaves the same. As I was suspecting, it’s a bug in the firmware then, and if it works like you explained then there’s no way to do a workaround.

… any idea where one would find updates for a KT332N?

[jkwilborn (Jack Wilborn)]

The only other place that I know has that kind of information is RDWorksLab. But don’t know about that controller, mostly the deal with Ruida and I don’t know if that version is discussed much.

You might find someplace that has a patch for it…

You may have to ‘sign up’ for the site.