I have a Ruida 6445 controller on my machine that I recently retrofitted. I am getting it dialed in pretty good. I decided to setup my “Y” axis under both the Y axis and the U axis parameters. My plan is to use a switch to change both step and direction signals between the Y and rotary axes. This would be I think far safer then to swap motor power leads whilst the amplifiers are under power.
So what I was actually wondering was are their any parameters or information getting written to the controller when the rotary option is turned on? Or would it be possible to write to both the Y and the U parameters when this option is turned on? I would actually like to store parameters for the rotary under the U axis and get those moved to the Y axis when enabled. At this point I could jog the actual Y axis manually and my limitation of the rotary would not be limited to the Y axis length.
The ‘steps per rotation’ and ‘diameter’ are stored on on the controller. When you enable the rotary setting, the controller manages the Y axis with those settings instead of the normal Y axis settings. It’s not possible to use the U axis for the rotary without flashing completely different firmware to the controller.
I have been considering having a few additional settings, like idle speed, line shift speed, and Y axis length that LightBurn could optionally write for you when you switch, but I’ve resisted ‘coloring outside the lines’ too much to this point.
Oz, yes I understand that the U can’t be used for the rotary. I guess it would not be needed to store the rotary parameters under the U axis. I can continue to store the mirror of Y axis there. It would be great to have more ability to adjust parameters for the rotary when you write to the Y axis parameter set.
That kind of does bring up another question, what would happen to the Y axis parameters if the system crashes while the rotary axis is enabled? Or are the Y axis parameters left intact? Just curious
Back up your system settings NOW!
Back up your controller settings!
^^^ Read the above two lines!
If necessary do a screenshot of the settings as well, and save those. If you never need them, then no problems, but if one day you DO need them, you’ll be so glad you saved them!
The rotary enable doesn’t alter any of the Y axis settings, it just flips a switch internally in the controller that tells it to use the rotary settings instead.
If I was to make distinct settings for rotary mode or non-rotary, they’d be stored in the prefs file for LightBurn. If the software crashed and managed to corrupt the prefs file you would lose those settings, so it would be good to have them backed up.
Stewey, I should have mentioned that my real job is servicing cnc machines. I preach backups all the time. I have and will continue doing so on my controller. I do agree with you 110% backups are most important.
thanks for the advice. We all need to make sure this happens.
Jim.
Thanks Oz, I am just trying to get a feel of what is actually happening. I can’t help it. It is the way my mind works. Knowledge is a powerful thing. I am know it has to be a bit frustrating on your part knowing what can and can’t be done while people without that knowledge as for things. I don’t mean to add to your burden.
