Ya'll not gonna believe this

[Brian Book]

Hello Everyone ... Well Blanca got back to me and explained some things but answers on the Bent axis left me puzzled ... she said that it doesn't hurt the machine to be like that and that she would send me a spare coupler ..... but after really looking at it .... the bracket that holds the Motor is not square to the bed of the machine .... now I have to decide if I am going to remove the bracket and square it or try shimming the Bracket so it sits square ... I'll post a picture tomorrow

The Knob beside the Milliamp Meter is for Quote ".adjust the currentmeans adjust the laser power. And clock wise rotary to increase thecurrent/power
also you could set upthe laser power in the program.
the controller NO. isRDC6442S and ventor password=rd8888 if needed."

Not sure I understand that one ... sorry to sound ignorant but this is all greek to me ... can someone explain to me in simpler terms it would be appreciated.


As far as the Rotary .... she says this particular laser does not have the Quick disconnect ... the blocks on the controller need to be changed and plug the Rotary in the Controller .... not really a big deal ... I just don't understand why it couldn't be wired for a disconnect ?

I really do appreciate everyone's help here ... I certainly feel a lot more at ease going forward because of the Help

Brian

[John Lifer]

She just emailed me also.
Well, look at machine closely and make sure you don't see anything else broken. She can put it in with coupler and send at one time.
It looks bad, but it might be picture and they've done enough of these it will probably work fine. But I still think it should be closer to linear.....
But who am I?

Ok, so knob is power knob.
Guess you don't speak Chinglish!
You can adjust the power, 'current' is the right term. clockwise is higher output, counterclockwise is lower.
You can also adjust power in RDworks like the rest of us do. In program you set min/max, (minimum really doesn't help me much, I put in same for both)
So if for instance I want to cut at 50% power I put in 50 in program. And this would be what machine would run at for that part of the program.
If I want to change mid stream, I would stop and then change on controller the max % and then restart. It would then cut at whatever % I plugged in at the controller.

With your knob, I would expect it to be a limiter. I would confirm this by setting up a test cut that ran slow so you would have time to play with the knob.
Say 20% power
Then send and start cut. look at mA meter. make note of the output. Then turn knob clockwise a bit, does the mA meter go higher? then turn CCwise, does mA output go down? I expect that down will work and up might not if you have low power output. (expected results in my case is the knob is override of controller)
So if you are at 80%, if you go Clockwise, nothing changes, but CCW it goes down.

Rambling, yeah, you'll have to figure out, but it sounds like easy way to keep mA from being too high and to adjust on the fly somewhat.
YOU DO have same controller as the rest of us. And if you need password it is rd8888. (stock and standard)
make sure you have gotten the RDworks english manual from the RDworkslab.com
you need it!
Save your settings before doing too much. manual makes it relatively easy to understand.

[John Lifer]

Crap, missed the point about rotary.
YES, they are being CHEAPER than they should!
would cost them a few minutes and about $2 for switch and plugs.

Well ask Blanca for a spare PLUG for the rotary.
a nickel cost to them, but you can't find one over here!
That way you can wire the rotary into the spare plug and plug and unplug to work the rotary.

MAKE SURE YOU ONLY PLUG AND UNPLUG WHILE POWER IS OFF!!!!
If you want, at later date, I can trace my wires and give you diagram to add an external plug and switch.I really don't like messing with controller that much and I leave my rotary plugged up and next to machine, I just change switch and program to make it work.

[David Somers]

Hi Brian!

Glad Blanca got back to you. If it helps, one thing I do with her often is paraphrase what she has told me when it isnt clear and reply back with that, asking if that is what she meant. I had also explained that was what I was doing to be sure we were on the same page and she was just fine with that. Avoided a lot of confusion that way.

Look up your EFR tube on the EFR site. It will show you what the maximum mA that should be applied, as well as a recommended mA max to make the tube have a long and happy life. That is the number you want to live by. You should be able to enter that into the laser itself so if you are using it manually you dont accidentally exceed the number. Plus as John said you can control it within RDWorks.

For the rotary....is there just the one connection? (I am asking since I have seen some machines where there are two connections, one for the rotary and one for the normal axis control. You could switch from one to the other.)

On my machine the wires from the controller for that axis come up into the bed chamber and there is a 3 pin round connector there. The axis controls plug into it with a matching end. Or you pull that out and insert the round connector from the rotary. If mine had come directly wired from the controller to the axis controls it would have been a simple matter to put a 3 pin plug of some sort in there with a matching plug on my rotary. Annoying. But simple enough.

[Jerome Stanek]

Hello Everyone ... Well Blanca got back to me and explained some things but answers on the Bent axis left me puzzled ... she said that it doesn't hurt the machine to be like that and that she would send me a spare coupler ..... but after really looking at it .... the bracket that holds the Motor is not square to the bed of the machine .... now I have to decide if I am going to remove the bracket and square it or try shimming the Bracket so it sits square ... I'll post a picture tomorrow

The Knob beside the Milliamp Meter is for Quote ".adjust the currentmeans adjust the laser power. And clock wise rotary to increase thecurrent/power
also you could set upthe laser power in the program.
the controller NO. isRDC6442S and ventor password=rd8888 if needed."

Not sure I understand that one ... sorry to sound ignorant but this is all greek to me ... can someone explain to me in simpler terms it would be appreciated.


As far as the Rotary .... she says this particular laser does not have the Quick disconnect ... the blocks on the controller need to be changed and plug the Rotary in the Controller .... not really a big deal ... I just don't understand why it couldn't be wired for a disconnect ?

I really do appreciate everyone's help here ... I certainly feel a lot more at ease going forward because of the Help

Brian

The vendor password is for the software you may want to go to file and go into vendor settings and save your settings so if you make changes you can reload them.

[Bill George]

I would first make sure the machine ran before making any changes. The motor needs to be remounted so its aligned, that coupling was never designed to be bent like that.

[Kev Williams]

What Bill said, fix that Y stepper mount. Couplers like that are designed to compensate for small angle misalignments , not to run at a 5° angle indefinitely. Might be fine, but I'd be for stacking washers under the low side of that stepper until it's straight.

That motor bracket welded up on that bad and angle, and everything else, I would almost think they had a skeleton crew building machines to keep up with demand during the Chinese holiday and the big trade show that followed shortly thereafter.

And there's NO EXCUSE for them to expect the end user to finish up ANY electrical wiring...

[Kev Williams]

I'm finding other 'angle' issues in that pic, the limit switch plate for example, although the top of the plate does appear parallel to the Y shaft, unlike the motor-

But I'm also curious about the rod or shaft the arrow is pointing at, not sure what it's for- ??
what.jpg

[John Lifer]

Kev, I was wondering about that too! Can't determine from picture, David, from what Brian wrote, you plug and unplug the connection for the yaxis in order to use rotary. But I traced my wires and I are forgotten it uses a stepper driver. Wires run from controller to stepper driver, from stepper driver to the center poles of a three pole three position switch. One side goes on to the y axis motor, the other goes to the connection for the rotary on side of machine. Would be easy to wire, I still question by they didn't do it. It will be difficult to change just wires, I'll assume same stepper driver used, plug is 5 wire so no easy change.

[Brian Book]

Hi everyone .... well I took some more pictures and for sure the Bracket that holds the stepper motor is way off .... not sure if I take it out and try and straighten it out or shim it ?

There is 2 rods near the end of the of the stepper motor and I believe they are stiffeners for the rail ?

John I believe the connectors for the Rotary are referred as Microphone Din Plugs can get them anywhere.


I also upgraded the Exhaust Fan after talking with Jason and he said it was his only complaint ... well really good exhaust ... not so good for the flimsy ducting they sent

[Kev Williams]

Geez, if you use that machine as is, the fatigue will get to that one coupler pretty quick I'd think...

So I assume the long rod must run uphill to the left Y rail? MOST DEFINITELY STRAIGHTEN THAT OUT! --two things you need to do:
1- remove the bracket, clamp the short end it a vice and attempt to square the bracket:
sq.jpg

Then, you need to shim the motor until the motor shafts are aligned to the Y drive shafts. Maybe some thin bar stock with holes drilled to fit for the initial lift plus some thin flat washers for final tweaking. With the bracket square and the right shims you'll be better than new. (ahem)

[Bill George]

That looks like C R @ P, I would send those pictures to Blanca and let her figure out what to do. Its almost like it came from a different company, not Ray Fine?

[Doug Fisher]

This whole situation is a definite black mark against Ray Fine and Blanca. I was giving her some benefit of the doubt while we waited to hear from her but her reply, particularly about the rotary's bare wires being normal is misleading at best given what we have seen from other Ray Fine rotary owners. Bummer because I have recommended her to some newbies who wanted a trustworthy contact for buying direct from China.

[Brian Book]

Hi Doug .... just to clear things a bit .... Blanca never said that the Bare wires are normal ... she said that the person assembling the machine was negligent in not doing the Rotary hookup and he be penalized for not doing it ... what she did say was about the y axis being ok the way it is and I'll quote her about that "--There isno problem with the coupler.The coupler is with elasticity andthat distortion won't effect the machine working.
We will send a new coupler toyou if you worry " ..... I'm not sure what they can do for me being on the other side of the world ... I'm pretty sure they won't be sending me a new machine .... the good part she hasn't ignored me and is trying to work with me ..... I haven't sent her the new pictures yet .... and I'm not sure if I should quote what some of you are saying ?

I don't want to alienate her from anymore support ... any suggestions going forward?

Brian

[John Lifer]

Be​ honest with her, and she'll work with you. Another buyer had issues with unlevel table and she worked with him to finally resolve the situation. I don't think that they will let you down in trying to fix. Does the shaft on the right of the motor have a bearing where it goes thru did rail? I can't tell. If so, it looks like that bearing should move down slightly and you could adjust motor down. I'll see if I can mark up fix.