After reading this post Ruida 6445G controller and rotary attachment problems - LightBurn Hardware Compatibility / Ruida controllers - LightBurn Software Forum, I got to wondering if it might be possible to co-op the U axis output on my KT332N controller for rotary use. On my last CO2 laser (an MF1220-50) I had to resort to a 4PDT toggle switch because the RDC6442 didn’t support U axis for rotary, though I read that the RDC6445G might. I now have an OMTECH ZF2028-60 with a KT332N and I wonder if anyone has hooked the U axis output up to a stepper driver and tried running a rotary with it? If not, I guess I’ll be buying another 4-way switch.
The information you seek might be found here.
Although I don’t know, I doubt it. I have a 5442g and would like to use the U axes on it, but so far all I’ve seen is people with a 6445 doing it. Read about lots of failures with the 6442 in attempts to get the U axes to operate the rotary… I have the hardware, but have never tried to get it to operate in that mode.
@ednisley has one of these animals… wonder if he’s in the know about this Ruida…
I am sort of hoping he’ll chime in.
The U axis on mine drives a honkin’ big stepper motor moving the platform up and down, so it’s definitely not available for a rotary:
The machine has the usual aviation connector in the Y axis stepper wiring, which seems like the standard way to connect a rotary.
For my setup, while it may be possible to coerce the controller into using the U axis for a rotary, it’s totally undocumented and not worth the effort, particularly because it’d disable the platform motor.
When I eventually get a rotary, I’m thinking of adding another stepper driver tuned for that motor, another aviation connector dedicated to the rotary, and a simple SPDT switch enabling either the Y axis stepper driver or the rotary stepper driver. Set up two machine configuration files, load the appropriate one, flip the switch, and away it goes.
Which is playing in hard mode, but that’s just me being me. 
The bed on my ZF2028-60 is controlled by a pair of momentary push button switches on the front panel. There is a connector plugged into the U axis socket (thank you OMTECH), but there’s nothing wired to it. There are U+ and U- buttons at the top of the control pad (circled), but as I said, nothing is wired to the controller. That’s why I was hoping there might be a way to use that output.
Just for fun, I took a look at the rotary settings, where Y is the only available axis. Enabling the rotary (which I don’t have) and hitting the Test button calmly moves the Y axis, as expected.
Without a way to designate & enable the U axis for the rotary, which might be available in RDWorks (which I can’t run on the Linux PC at the laser), I think you’re out of luck.
I had the same thought, which is why I downloaded the latest version from their site. Some of the threads I’ve been reading (the ones @MikeyH posted) alluded to that possibility. I didn’t want to install it on my PC because it is a bear to uninstall (i.e. the Uninstall.exe doesn’t seem to do anything) but it looks like I’ll need to, for “investigational” purposes.
I keep thinking this would be a great excuse to learn more about virtual machines, but there’s plenty of other diversions stacked atop that particular rabbit hole.
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.