I have a 2 stage air valve for air assist on my ThunderLaser. In Lightburn, when the “air assist” is turned on for that layer it will trigger the high flow stage for cutting lines with higher air pressure. The “air assist” turned off is for fill for low pressure. This all works fine if you “Send” the file to the machine then run it. However if you use the “Start” button then the air assist does not turn on. It stays in low pressure and I get a flame on the workpiece. I typically remember to Send the file, but prefer to Start it.
I believe this is in all of the connected options. I use Ethernet and packet USB at different times.
@jarroddavis160 this is a known issue with Thunder laser systems (and something they changed in the Ruida firmware) that we’ve not been able to track down as of yet. I have a Nova 35 and have monitored the network traffic between LightBurn and the Thunder Ruida and there is no difference in how LightBurn sends commands and how RDWorks sends commands. So we think it’s something to do with our implementation of the lower level communications but it’s also something that has never been consistent. On my machine it some times works and sometimes doesn’t. Ethernet is typically more reliable than packet USB, which is more reliable than Serial USB but even then, that doesn’t always hold true.
Anyways, point being - we are aware of the problem it’s just been impossible so far to reliably replicate or fix the issue.
One thing that you can do, however, is use Shift + Send instead of clicking start. This will send the file to the controller and immediately start it. We’ve even considered making this what Start actually does under the hood in future versions. Running from the controller is far more reliable on Ruida regardless.
You can even disable the start button entirely in the latest release to prevent accidentally using it (note: you will need to restart LightBurn or right click on the “Devices” button to see the change):
