Odd air assist behavior on RDC6445G

[Scott Miller1]

I've got an RDC6445G with firmware version RDLC-V15.01.17 (which I can't find referenced in any documentation anywhere, and Google comes up empty) and I've just wired up a 24v solenoid valve for air assist, but it's not behaving as expected.

I'm using LightBurn, and I can enable or disable air assist per layer, but when it's enabled the output follows the laser 'pen down' state - if I'm raster engraving, I can hear the solenoid cycle (or try to cycle) many times on each scan line. Obviously this isn't good for the solenoid and it's not doing anything useful.

It works fine on long, continuous cuts, but again as soon as there's any switching of the laser the solenoid starts clicking on and off.

The solenoid is rated at 4.8 watts, so 200 mA, well within the 500 mA specification. I've got + wired to the +24v pin on CN1, and - wired to 'Wind'. I've installed a snubber diode across the coil. The hardware seems fine.

What gives? It makes no sense that it'd work this way, and I can't find any relevant settings.

Thanks,

Scott

[Pete Cyr]

Sounds like a bad solenoid or a problem with the pwr from cn1.
Steady state the load is stable but changes in loads are stressing the controller.
I don’t Know an easy way to trouble shoot without a strip chart recorder or to try swapping solenoid

[Dave Vigness]

I have the same problem. Near as I can tell, something got swapped in the controller either software of the silk screen between WIND and STATUS. I put my feed for the air assist in the STATUS connector and all is right with the world again.

[Dave Vigness]

SOLVED !!!!!

Thanks to Matt at MW Laser.

Seems Ruida put an option in RDWorks and forgot to give us a place to make the change. In .48 on the right you have Work, Output, Doc, User, & Test. In the User tab under Other you now have BLOW TYPE. You have laser on and Processing. Change it to Processing to make it go on and off with the layer.

One quirk as usual per Ruida. The setting saves with the file, but when you open / import a new file it reverts back to Laser On so you have to change it with every file you generate.

It also has a CANVAS tool bar ( Camera ) but nothing in the way of documentation and a number of buttons come up all question marks for labels. So far I can only get it to work with my laptop built in camera, the external USB locks it up.

[Casey Griswold]

I'm glad I found this thread, I'm currently dealing with the same issue on my new machine. Which is a dual head Chinese machine (company is called style CNC).

I installed the solenoid and relay myself, with help from them walking me through. It's working, but is turning off and on a ton, instead of only being on when the machine is on/running as I'd like it.

I do not have the "blow type" option on my RDWorks Software. So I am not able to set it to "Processing Blow"

It is an RDC6445G, with version 8.01.40.

I'm assuming my software needs to be upgraded? Hopefully that's the issue anyway, where I can see and change the blow type option.

Changing the connection from 'wind' to 'status' the air is always on and blowing, even when the machine is off. This is not what I'm looking for.

If anyone has any light they can shed on this topic for me, I'm all ears. In the meantime, I'm going to get my software upgrade and see if that fixes the problem.

[Gene Uselman]

I posted my thoughts on the 6445 here in the FAQ section- viewtopic.php?f=143&t=5309

I updated my controller firmware to .22, when you say version .40- are you speaking of the RDworks version?

[Dave Vigness]

You have to have .44 or newer RDWorks, and .17 or newer firmware. Latest stable published version of RDWorks I believe is .47. If you can't find it, I have it at the top of my Google Mod Page.