New to RD Lab

[Brian Humphries]

Hello - I live on the far south coast of Western Australia in an area with a spectacular coastline adjoining UN accredited wilderness forest. I have been in the industrial signage industry for 25 years and previously had a very large business in Perth. I have now retired and relocated - I now have a Universal Laser Systems 50W laser - great machine and great software. I also have a CNC router using Vectric software (also great). About 12 months ago I decided to acquire another laser system not only as backup for my existing system but to "keep myself up-to-date". I bought a BODOR Omniplus PRO 2000 system with RDWorks 8-01-17. from a distributor in Sydney. Generally I am satisfied with the quality of the body of the machine and its accessibility. I do all of my graphics in Corel 17 (for which I am very experienced) and export files into RD Works - this is cumbersome but at least I am producing product. I have been forced to do it that way because the distributor told me that RD Works only supports Corel 12. I see from the Forum that support for Corel 17 is now available within RDWorks. I can only communicate with the distributor via email and upload of video to show them any problems - response is typically 24 hours whilst they communicate the problem (I assume) with someone in China. I am pulling my hair out at the moment with a problem - the table on my laser is stuck at the bottom and I cannot raise it. The stepper motor goes crazy and makes a loud noise but nothing else. It appears to me to be still trying to lower the table. I have tried to manually move the drive belt but it appears locked. The functionality to raise the table and reset the Z axis via the machine's control panel and similarly via the RD software USER interface do not work excepting to cause the stepper motor to go ballistic. I have no problems with either interface in the X and Y axis.
Has anyone else experienced this Z axis problem or control panel reset problem??? Cheers, Brian PS Thanks Russ for your great contributions via YouTube.

[Gene Uselman]

Welcome Brian- is this a new problem [you say you bought it 12 months ago] and it has worked correctly before? I would unplug the motor or motor driver. And then try manually moving the axis [or remove the drive belt?]. I don't think Bodor uses a lower limit switch. Gene

[Brian Humphries]

Hi Gene, Thanks for your prompt response. Not sure how I can unplug the motor as the spindle on the motor is tensioned by the belt (see photo) and the assembly to release the tension is currently inaccessible under the middle of the table. The photo also shows a limit switch for the Z axis screw spindle that raises and lowers the table. The table itself can be seen immediately behind the screw spindle at its lowest position.

Is this a recent problem ??? Well, both yes and no. It is an "old" problem in that I have, since day 1, not really known the sequence of buttons to use after hitting Z/U function to raise and lower the table. I have succeeded frustratingly by trial and error by playing with the ESC button, ENTER button and the UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT buttons. It is a "new" problem in that the table is now somehow stuck at the bottom. I have had no probs moving the head position with X and Y nor re-setting the X and Y as a new ORIGIN using the machine's control panel.

I have also tried RDWorks software functions - the display is explicit and unambiguous. The movements of the head for +/- X and +/- Y and HOME are OK. Nothing happens for the +/- Z or HOME except a crunching loud noise.

There is a second photo showing the coords of the Z axis which is currently set at 3000mm.

Cheers, Brian

[Gene Uselman]

Yep- the motor will be hardwired in but if you find the Ruida Controller you will probably find the X,Y & Z stepper drivers close by. If you can determine which driver is for the Z axis you can unplug the motor where it plugs into the driver. If you cannot tell which is which, try unplugging one and see what happens. If you can disable the Z motor you should be able to move it at least off the limit switch and maybe regain control. I am attaching the only pict I can find that 'might' help. Middle pict on the left side shows the beige contoller and then 2 black stepper drivers.

M laser 7.20.17.jpg