644XG Ruida Controller in a Brand New 180W Blue and White Chinese CO2 laser Mac or Windows?

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Ruida controllers
1

So everything I read or saw about this laser I received yesterday… (30 days later than promised) Was that is was not supported by Mac and that it was a Windows Only machine.

Uncrated the thing yesterday, fired it up today only to find out that my Windows laptop could not find the laser while running LightBurn. Walked away for awhile and came back with my Mac that also has LightBurn loaded. Found the laser, no problem. Etched a few things, cut out a few things.

Is this normal? Are all Ruida controllers really Mac compatible? Was I given bad information?

Thank you in advance.

2

Actually, up until LightBurn software, the only laser drivers were for Windows. I seem to remember a laser enGraver in Las Vegas, which had its own printer driver in, and you could print from any program. LightBurn is really the best software I have seen for any computer, and any supported controller.
I have an OLD Epilog Summit made in 1994, and it has a great driver for early Windows 95 up to Win 2000. It is an RF laser, and it does a superb job of engraving photos. I don’t know if LB supports a parallel port, though, so I may be stuck with RDWorks.
Any current CO2 or diode laser should work with LightBurn software, on any platform. I am sure that you will have No problem with a Mac, as I use a 2012 iMac and it works well on a Ruida 644xg? Controller.

3

Try a few of these results from searching. Your controller + LightBurn + Windows is all good.

Search Results Here

4

The controller itself does not know, or care (meaning not required) what OS is used to “bundle up” or package the information used to drive a laser. The controller knows only these instructions, not what was used to package and send these instructions.

LightBurn understands what the Ruida, and the other supported motion control devices require to communicate and send the appropriate instructions. The reason most suppliers list their laser as a Windows Only machine, is they only provide Windows-based software, usually supplied with the motion system (Ruida & RDWorks) and there were little to no options for other software. LightBurn is a native application written for Windows, macOS, and Linux.

5

We do not, sorry. LightBurn currently supports USB and Ethernet communication. We do have something in the works you may find helpful. :slight_smile:

Here is a video released in the last few days showing some new things coming in our next release. In particular, the new ‘Print’ feature allowing you to output LightBurn designed work to print-driver driven systems. This link jumps to that section of the video, but there are goodies throughout.

Thank you for the confidence, but there are limits. “Any” is a big word. For a current list of supported gear, have a visit to our front page. We update this list when we add new support: https://lightburnsoftware.com/

Designed to Work With Your Laser

LightBurn talks directly to your laser, without the use of additional software.

We currently support most Ruida, Trocen, TopWisdom, and GCode based controllers. Supported GCode controllers,include Grbl, Smoothieware, Grbl-LPC, and Marlin. Supported Ruida controllers include the RDC6442G/S, RDC6445G, RDC6332G, RDLC-320A, and R5-DSP. Supported Trocen controllers include the AWC708C, AWC608, and TL-3120. More controllers will be added soon, so if you don’t see yours listed, send us a message - maybe we’re already working on it!

If your controller is GCode, Ruida, Trocen, or TopWisdom based, even if it’s not listed it might be supported already - Download the free trial and try it for yourself. If it doesn’t work, sometimes it only takes a day or two to make the required changes to support a new board in these existing families.

Please note that LightBurn does not support the stock M2-Nano board in the popular K40 laser. This board does not offer control of power through software - we recommend upgrading the board to take full advantage of LightBurn.

6

The controller isn’t Mac or PC compatible. It’s a device.

The incompatibility comes from RD Works, which is only PC compatible.

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