Running a Rotary on the Y axis - ULS Laser

[Bill George]

I have a rotary attachment, smaller than the real ULS one and it runs but no engraving because I don't have the correct hook up to the 9 pin connector. The stepper motor hook up was easy, and the two pins to make the system recognize the rotary I have figured out but I need the rest. Seems no one here owns an older ULS and rotary so on to plan B.

The rotary motor holds position, and runs and does the start up boot connected to that 9 pin connector. I am wondering about just disconnecting the Y motor and hooking this rotary up to it what changes do I need to make to the job engrave right? I know this is what some machines do as a matter of fact, just unplug the Y and plug the rotary into the same plug. Since the ULS uses steppers, it should be easy to just put the X carriage wherever and go.

Suggestions? Frankly if I had a ton of rotary jobs, I would pay the $1500 for a new one in a heartbeat.

[Lee DeRaud]

Well, if it was me, I'd shoot an email to Mike Mackenzie (my local ULS distributor) and see if he has the pinout listing handy. (He is/was a member here, but I don't know if he has PM notifications turned on.)
Try info@cemlasers.com

[Bill George]

Well, if it was me, I'd shoot an email to Mike Mackenzie (my local ULS distributor) and see if he has the pinout listing handy. (He is/was a member here, but I don't know if he has PM notifications turned on.)
Try info@cemlasers.com

Thanks Lee but ULS has the information pretty well locked up. I have Searched for weeks and there is nothing or no info on the wiring of any rotary attachment, except the Chinese machines. I doubt if a ULS distributor would give that information out as he would be fired.

[Brian Lamb]

I have a ULS laser, but no rotary, so am interested myself. It would be easy to create the attachment. I have the guy I purchased my laser from, he worked for ULS back in the early days and did a lot of the software/hardware design, so I'll check with him and see if he has the pin outs.

Beyond that in regards to your questions, you have to specify the diameter of the part when activating the rotary, so that ties into the stepper drive to give you the Y axis amount converted to rotary motion. You would most likely need to know the specific gearing that ULS used, or worst case, engrave a 1" square and then measure your result. If it was .750 for example in the rotary direction, you's have to lie about the diameter to get a square box. Once you figured out the percentage, it would apply for all diameters.

[Gary Hair]

I doubt if a ULS distributor would give that information out as he would be fired.

Not sure why you would think that. I was given the Trotec pinouts for their exhaust connector with no problem at all. Sure, it means that you aren't buying their rotary but it makes good sense to provide your customers with info about their machine - not providing it certainly won't force you to buy their rotary...

[Bill George]

All I need is the Pin outs for the wires other than the Stepper motor, like I said the motor was the easy part. I do have a wiring diagram of sorts for a older machine but no detail of the connector. I know the stepper I have works because connected the motor is in the "holding mode" and the motor just gets warm. On start up it boots and rotates the attachment I have just fine. I also have the OEM motor spec's and what I have is very close. I just need those 3 pins identified.

[Lee DeRaud]

Thanks Lee but ULS has the information pretty well locked up. I have Searched for weeks and there is nothing or no info on the wiring of any rotary attachment, except the Chinese machines. I doubt if a ULS distributor would give that information out as he would be fired.

Not really. ULS actually provides a bunch of info to its customers, they just don't have it posted on the website. It seems to all be in separate 2-5 page PDFs, like somebody started to write a tech manual and got distracted. Don't confuse "not published" with "proprietary".

Worst case, he won't have that particular file on hand, doesn't hurt to ask.

[Lee DeRaud]

All I need is the Pin outs for the wires other than the Stepper motor, like I said the motor was the easy part. I do have a wiring diagram of sorts for a older machine but no detail of the connector. I know the stepper I have works because connected the motor is in the "holding mode" and the motor just gets warm. On start up it boots and rotates the attachment I have just fine. I also have the OEM motor spec's and what I have is very close. I just need those 3 pins identified.

The troubleshooting info in the service manual I have is pretty limited for the rotary...you've already done most of it.

Will it let you select 'Rotary' in the 'Fixture Type' selection?
And if you go to the focus tab, is the red dot pointer close to the centerline of the fixture?

[Bill George]

When I have the one pin jumped to ground pin #4 (red wire) and its not a direct connection I have a 100 ohm 1/8 watt resistor in series, just in case. That pin causes the Y axis to move to the center line of the factory rotary and moves to the start position of the graphic in Corel. The Rotary is selected in the Print driver and the calculation is done on the diameter in mm of the work piece. All is fine, the X starts the process BUT the laser beam does not come on nor does the rotary stepper operate. So I am missing something. Very cautious about what I jumper to what and its either a 1000 ohm or 100 ohm resistor in series.
I am very aware the main board is nearly $2000 and that is why I was going to go with the Y motor connection and forget the connector and the jumpers. Moving the carriage by hand (disconnected) in the Y axis because its a stepper not a servo the machine will never know.

[Brian Lamb]

One would suspect some of the wiring is to close/open a circuit so that when the Rotary axis is plugged in the Y axis is disabled. I would call ULS and talk to Darryl, he was helpful when I talked to him the other day.

[Brian Lamb]

Kind of bringing back this post... I'm in process on making a rotary axis for my Universal Laser and have found out some information that might be of help to others. First, the ratio on the stepper is 6:1, the pulleys are 15 tooth on the motor and 90 tooth on the rotary spindle. Second, you can set the default amount that the Y axis moves down to center over the rotary. Third, I got the cable pin outs. I will try to post the pdf file they sent me about the cable... well that didn't work, so I converted to jpg.

132-0112-0 rotary cable.jpg

[George Hall]

Kind of bringing back this post... I'm in process on making a rotary axis for my Universal Laser and have found out some information that might be of help to others. First, the ratio on the stepper is 6:1, the pulleys are 15 tooth on the motor and 90 tooth on the rotary spindle. Second, you can set the default amount that the Y axis moves down to center over the rotary. Third, I got the cable pin outs. I will try to post the pdf file they sent me about the cable... well that didn't work, so I converted to jpg.

132-0112-0 rotary cable.jpg

Thanks for the details on the attachment. I have owned a ULS machine for going on 20 years and never wanted to fork out the money for their rotary attachment for the very few times I have engraved something that needed such an attachment. I too was researching this and found it near impossible to get the info needed so now that this is available I will be building myself an attachment.

Any updates on the rotary attachment you built?

Thanks
Mike

[Brian Lamb]

Hi George/Mike?

I did complete a test version of a rotary attachment. It was kind of my proof of concept situation. I intend to make and possibly market some rotary units for the ULS machines.

I used a 5C collet indexer (from metalworking industry, I have a CNC mill and had this laying around), milled out a motor mount bracket, got my hands of a couple sprockets and belt, and found the right stepper, added in a microswitch for homing and it all came together fairly well. I made a video of the first test we did with it, you can see it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1K4iDwR2W-c

Please realize that I only have a 2" lens and due to the diameter of the steel disc on the indexer, and the small (7/8") diameter of my wood dowel, I couldn't get focused without crashing the lens into the disc, so it's about 3/4" out of focus. It would work fine on something larger in diameter like a Yeti or something, but not so good on smaller stuff unless I get a 3" or 4" lens.

[George Hall]

I have a XL12000 laser so i need to make sure the specs you listed are going to work for it. There are very little if any at all parts or drivers which are able to interchange between all the other ULS machines and the XL machines. It has been the biggest pain in my butt ever.

[Brian Lamb]

Not sure on that machine, I managed to get inside and photo the label on my Y axis stepper then did some searching on line and found it was a 2 amp, .9º (400 steps per revolution) motor. The Y axis stepper driver just runs the rotary motor, so if you use the same style motor as you have, it shouldn't be an issue.

After figuring out which connections to use with the limit switch, and setting the correct graphic window, 3.1416 x the diameter of your part, enable the rotary axis in the ULS software and it was engraving perfect. I still need to rig up a tailstock of get a small chuck, made a large cone already.... but still need to finish some things up. Biggest issue is my indexer is cast iron and too heavy to want to lift in and out on a regular basis, a lighter aluminum model is in the design/build stages.