Ruida boot sequence question - and controller problems

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Is there a list of what steps the firmware takes, when the Ruida CPU boots up?
Like homing, then once ok, check for water flow, then once ok, move to origin... or whatever is the actual normal sequence of checks in booting?

And which lights on the controller should be lit when in operation?

I was in the middle of a job - just finished 10 minutes of engraving Rowmark/traffolyte, and it went to cut the perimeter full depth.
It did the X axis cut, and then instead of doing the Y next, the display flickered, and it rebooted.
It asked me if I wanted it to restart from the error/stop, but it flickered and rebooted again, then tried to home itself, then travelled back, but failed, and rebooted again.

It does home properly - then gives me a 'fail to connect to controller' message. This is regardless of whether the PC is on or not.

The red #15 LED on the RD6442S (or G?) controller is lit up. (means +5vDC... but I'm not sure what it means - error, or happy?)

I had a spare Rd6442S controller so put that in - no different. I checked the PSU - it puts out 24v DC which is ok.
I have not tried to replace the RD keypad/console yet... perhaps I ought to.

It gives me 'fail to connect to controller' messages, but 'what' is failing to connect to the controller?
Then continual attempts to reboot, with the console screen going off/out, briefly.

Any thoughts would be appreciated on how to fix the issue, or work out what the cause is!

If I can upload a 20 second MP4 video I will- it might take a while to upload though.

http://www.gattonheavyhorses.com.au/...927_155906.mp4

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Update: a fresh short video.. It homes, then double-checks the home position, then seeks the origin, and the screen blacks out , the machine beeps, and it repeats. What's causing the beeps?

I swapped out the controller. No difference.
I swapped the display. No difference.
I put a new 24v PSU in for the controller. No difference.
I bypassed the mains EMI filter. No difference.


http://www.gattonheavyhorses.com.au/...bootfail-3.mp4

Its behaving, to my mind, like the display is briefly starved of power.

[Kev Williams]

You may have answered your own question; your display may be bad. Watching the display in the video, something's disconnecting, but from where and why..?

I had to replace the controller in my Triumph awhile back, it CAME with a new display. I'm thinking the display's are integral to the entire 'working relationship' with these machines. FWIW my GCC, which is a Synrad metal-laser machine, but made in Taiwan, it's LCD display has been giving me fits lately. I think the problem is the cable that connects the display to the machines control board. My problem is the display has been going quite dim at times, or not so dim but as the machine works it dims on every turnaround of the X gantry, and occasionally the display just starts going bonkers, displaying random flashes of black lines and stuff. When this happens the motherboard beeps. Oddly, the machine will keep on engraving when this happens, but the controls are dead, so I can't stop or pause the thing. OR if the BS gets bad the machine will just quit running... My only fix for this nonsense is to pull the plug off the control board and the display, spray the daylights out of the wire plugs and the sockets on the board and display, then wiggle the plugs on the sockets, while it's engraving, until I get the best mix of dark display and non-flickering display. I'm pretty sure the problem is the plug on the board-end has gotten 'sketchy' as to the connections between the plug pins and the wires. Could be Jorlink has a replacement but for now, 10 minutes of fiddling when it goes bad makes it work for another week. If I didn't know how to MacGuiver things I don't know what I'd do!

Not sure if your display is plugged in on the display side AND the controllers side like my GCC is, but my Triumph's display is wired directly, and the only plug connects to the control board. My advice would be to get some CRC electronics cleaner spray, and start unplugging and spraying the bajeezus out ALL your plugs and sockets and see if that helps at all. I probably go thru a can of that stuff every 2 months!

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Thanks, for the reply, Kev.
I have another update on what fixes don't work:

I unplugged the Y cable from the Y driver, and started the laser..
The X homed ok, and I was able to press Esc, and use the arrow keys to drive X across the bed, left & right. until the blackout and beep happened.and happened, and happened.

Then I unplugged X and plugged in only Y stepper wires from the drive to Y stepper, and booted up. Halfway down the bed it blacked out, beeped, & went into the usual beep-blackout-repeat mode. I restarted, and same. I turned off and let it start from right back near home, it homed, then I pressed Esc, and could use the keypad keys to drive Y forwards to me, until it blacked out & beeped. Repeat. Repeat.

This suggests to me it's like a power/time issue, as if a capacitor is discharging, and then there's no oomph left to continue the controller's own internal step wants, till I turn it off and restart. ?

I might try another 24v PSU swap out...

The screen blackout and beep also happens even if both stepper & power leads are disconnected from both drivers - implying it's independent of the steppers & their 3-phase delivery wires. (suggesting the stopping & blackout is not due to a short in the stepper wires flexing n the plastic cable chain.)

______________________________

The display console has a single-ended lead to the controller. I plugged the new console in - they're not serial-number matched. No difference anyhow.
I have WD-40, and I have electrical freeze spray, but I know what you mean - our router has issues every few months, and wriggling some leads gets it normal again for 3-4 months... I've macguyvered and nurtured it for 15 years, because I had to.

I'm tempted to put fresh 24v DC wires from the PSU to the controller, and see if that helps.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Latest update - problem located but not identified:
I decided I wanted to get the user & vendor settings onto the other controller, so if I ever needed to do a direct swap, I'd have fewest issues, in theory.
After reading comments about unplugging everythg, I was game to start it, with just the display and 24v power. I had to assign a static IP address the same as what was on the other one, and did, and it was happy. All lights behaving as expected. I plugged the LAN lead in, and 11 & 12 did the right thing - 12 was on, and 11 flickered whenever data was sent. I had to read the embedded user & vendor settings, (all incorrect defaults) then import old backed up ones, and write - all good. Then I sent a file to the new controller via the LAN. That was ok too.

So I went back to the problem controller on the laser, and unplugged all plugs. The Bootup was textbook perfect, but of course nothing happened except it was happy when I plugged the LAN in. I plugged the limit plugs in - bootup was good - no shutting down. I plugged the X driver control in - good, Y good. Then I powered the stepper drivers. All good. Normal bootup, homing, and heading to origin. Leds 11 & 12 were bright and normal, and 14 was good.

Only CN 6 & 5 remained unplugged - they're the controls for the 2 laser tube power supplies.
Water protection is directly to the PSUs, not the RD controller, so they had just 3 leads, gnd, pwr on, and pwr intensity.

I plugged CN6 in, and the console went back to its tricks of screen shutting down every 8 seconds before even homing.
I undid it and plugged CN5 in - the controller for the other tube. Same problem - screen blacking out & shutting , except it tries to move the head to home as well, in between blackouts, and clunks to a stop at each blackout.
At this stage I had the 2 switches beside the console that turn the tubes on & off, both off. But when I turned them both on - no difference.
When I turned the chiller on - no difference.

So something about both CN 5 & 6 is the culprit- individually, and jointly. For now that's as far as my brain could get to.

Thanks for helping me so far!

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Update:
I think I'm getting there...
CN 5 goes to the w2 , 100 watt laser psu, and
CN6 goes to the w8 180 watt PSU.

Both 'look' ok, other than a bit of dust. no obvious blown fuses - besides the controller display STILL faults out even when the laser PSUs are switched OFF at the console. (our console has an isolator switch for each tube's supply) I did screw the wires in more firmly into the terminals- no improvement.
But something is starving the controller of power, causing the blackouts.

I disconnected the laser PSU ends of the CN 5 & 6 plugs, from the laser PSUs, so they sat in mid air.
Reboot- same problem. With either or both cn 5 & 6 green plugs plugged into the controller- except it's mildly worse when 6 is in.

I'm thinking that most likely there is a signal wire that both cn 5 & 6 plugs share, that is perhaps shorting out somewhere between the RDC6442 and the high voltage laser tube PSUs - otherwise how come the problem exists when the back end is not even plugged into the PSUs, and why both lines?.

I'll do some tracing soon.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Fixed...needs a good clean tho'.
I traced the fault to a short in the head from a faulty autofocus that was wrecked 4 years ago, but the laser makers had piggybacked the DC ground for it, from the laser PSU control Gnd, and that was tripping it. After I disconnected it from CN5's terminal 1, and spent 45 mins slowly following where the other end went to, it was business as usual! works ok now i disconnected the crook wire

[Kev Williams]

In another thread recently I mentioned that clear back in the early 80's running my first CC engraver- New Hermes Concept 2000- that was driven by an Apple IIe (with a whopping 64k of memory!) and Dos, that every few months I had to pull IC chips off the boards and clean the pins with a razor blade. Thing's have gotten a BIT better since then but not much... Off track a bit, but my experiences with the bad crap that goes wrong with computers, and usually it's a faulty connection somewhere and not a faulty part, is precisely why I am absolutely and vehemently opposed to SELF DRIVING CARS. One stupid bad wire and ---- well, the results are likely much worse than friggin laser that won't boot up!

--off my soap box now--

GLAD you got it going, and hope it stays a cheap fix!

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Agreed, Kev. When our cnc router plays up, a shake of the wires, or a clean of the contacts fixes most problems...

In case anyone comes here, searching what I did, here's what I learned:
Bootup: The RD 6442 controller does not need to be attached to anything at all, except the display console, and 24v power supply.
It’s safe to unplug everything else.

1. It sends a signal to the X & Y stepper drivers, to send them continuously driving the head & gantry toward where it thinks (0,0 ) is for home, at the speed set in ‘speed’ on the display panel. You can Press Esc to stop this if it’s heading in the wrong direction. It knows where to go , because of the settings in the Vendor settings/properties file.
2. After the limit switches have been triggered, it moves off the home point by about 5mm, then rehomes slowly & gently.
3. After that, it heads off to wherever you last told it the origin was to be- and it does not care what the limit switches do thereafter.
4. It awaits further instruction, once at the origin or last stopping point.
   
   The red LEDs shining on the controller are an indication that each numbered part IS working ok, and being accessed.
   (except #13 - Error)

Hope that helps someone!