I just received delivery of my new LightBurn Bridge raspberry device.
I have spent the past 2 hours trying to configure this thing. Now I’m going back to cables because I have work to do.
I have followed the instructions carefully at least a dozen times. The first time included entering my WiFi passcode to connect the Bridge to my WiFi and every other attempt did not include that step.
I’m using a Ruida RDC6445S(EC) controller on a Koenig K0906 laser machine and a MacBook Pro.
The Ruida controller initially had an IP address of 192.168.1.100 but I changed that to 10.0.3.3 as per the documentation.
I only have the option of adding 1 IP address, not a gateway address as well. Not that I know what that means, I just want this $200 piece of plastic to work!
When I follow the wizard, it finds the Bridge but not the laser.
When I click the link to open http://192.168.42.1 it never opens on my browser.
I would appreciate any help, I thought this was ‘plug and play’?
I don’t have your controller and don’t use the Lightburn bridge however I just when thru this with my machine.
My recommendation is to get a cable to work first. Assuming you can plug a lan cable into your computer. Set up a free ip address on both the controller and in Lightburn. Verify it’s working by going into cmd and pinging that IP address. Power controller on and off to verify it’s working. Should be able to send a file to the laser.
If the bridge is working you should be able to simply replace the cable with the bridge. You should be able to log on to the bridge as if it were a router using your phone. Would not have internet
The bridge should connect up to your router and is really a hotspot meaning it provides a signal to a device. The IP address allows Lightburn to find that device. This is a very simple device and works great however really frustrating when it doesn’t work. I looked at that Lightburn bridge and thought it might be plug and play. Possibly not based on your experience.
The IP address on the Ruida is 10.0.3.3 as per the Bridge documentation. But the Bridge comes up with a different IP address, even though they says it’s configured for 10.0.3.3
If the Bridge is configured with 10.0.3.3 why is it coming up with 192.168.0.18? Is that because I already connected it to my network on my first attempt and now it’s showing that number?
I’m getting in the weeds here and that wasn’t in the brochure. I’m not a computer guy so I’m not comfortable typing some sort of code into the SD card (which I would have to go out and buy an SD card reader for…). I just want to get back to my lasering jobs. Is there someone from the company here that can help? I paid over $200 for this thing, I shouldn’t have to be doing all this stuff.
I do appreciate everyones help so far but it still doesn’t work and I’m wondering what this http://192.168.42.1 link in the Bridge setup instructions is supposed to be because it doesn’t work either.
The 192.168 number is your network with your computer. The 10.0.3.3 is the network from the bridge to the laser. If you see the bridge in your network it’s connected.
Another thing to look at. I originally used the ethernet cable that came with the laser. It didn’t work with the bridge. There were only 6 wires in it not 8. When I got a new cable it worked.
I’m going to back up a bit. With the PI booted did you ever directly connect to it with your computer via WIFI? If you have not we need to back up a few steps.
The first thing I see in the instructions that could go awry is the instruction next to ‘Short Network cable’. Please confirm the cable type you connected between the LightBurn Pi Bridge and the back panel of the engraver is a short ethernet cable (Cat5 Cat6 etc). The height difference of the ports in the 2nd picture in ‘the instructions’ is subtle.
Previously, when you were “using cables” how did the Mac and the Laser communicate?
When successfully engraving, are the engraver and the Mac are cabled to the switch (aka. router) or were you successful with directly connecting the mac to the laser engraver? I’m attempting to be particular here because it’s easy to introduce a problematic cable into the mix.
Occasionally there’s a short extension cable from the Ruida controller to the back panel inside the engraver that causes problems. It may be worthwhile to bypass the short cable inside the engraver temporarily (connect the LightBurn Bridge directly to the controller) to see if it helps.
Because you’ve entered your network credentials into the bridge, and you can see the bridge, it seems likely that you have connected the bridge to your wifi network.
When the wireless network credentials are entered, and the bridge can connect, your switch may have assigned a new address to the device so you wouldn’t be able to reach it through 192.168.42.1
I can see how these could be conflated. I’ll reach out to the documentation team if this contributing to the confusion.
I noticed in the fine print in the tenth image in ‘the instructions’, LightBurn is shown finding the Bridge at 10.0.0.11 on the Ruida network. If the bridge is plugged into the Engraver, maybe the Engraver can also assign the IP address (and conversely if not plugged in - it can’t)… I’ll have to ask one of the devs about that one.
Please test with the Bridge address set to 10.0.0.11 and the Engraver address set to 10.0.0.3.
These appear to be sorted Alphabetically D-Z and not by signal strength (Except the last one). Are there any devices at the bottom of the list under ‘Other’?
Please confirm the cable type you connected between the LightBurn Pi Bridge and the back panel of the engraver is a short ethernet cable (Cat5 Cat6 etc).
The network cable I plugged in is the one supplied in the box of the Lightburn Bridge. It’s about 1 metre long. It has “Cat 6 flat cable ROHS” printed on it.
Previously, when you were “using cables” how did the Mac and the Laser communicate?
Via USB-A cable with a USB-A to USB-C adaptor to plug in to the MacBook. That still works, the only problem is data loss on larger files where the job stops and I have to restart it in the oppposite direction and manually stop it when it reaches the previous incomplete engraving. This is why Koenig, my laser supplier, suggested I buy a Bridge to fix the issue.
When successfully engraving, are the engraver and the Mac are cabled to the switch (aka. router) or were you successful with directly connecting the mac to the laser engraver?
I’ve only ever used the USB cable directly before, no router connection before.
These appear to be sorted Alphabetically D-Z and not by signal strength (Except the last one). Are there any devices at the bottom of the list under ‘Other’?
No.
Please test with the Bridge address set to 10.0.0.11 and the Engraver address set to 10.0.0.3.
This is done on the rudia controller itself. I believe the 10.0.0.3 is a typo per the instructions it should be 10.0.3.3. I don’t have your exact controller but I believe you click menu then network or IP settings. Input 10.0.3.3
After several minutes to let the bridge power up I then opened LB and and accomplished the bridge setup.
Sounds like you have everything setup except the bridge is not talking to the laser.
@JohnJohn JohnJohn recommended to connect directly to the controller. The cable from the controller to the side of your laser might be bad.
The only other thing I would recommend is to log into your router and see if the PI bridge has an active IP address. There are also terminal commands you can run from your MAC to list the devices. I do not run a MAC so I can only guess what they are.
This is exactly what the Lightburn Bridge does, it bridges from your lan domain (maybe 192.168.1.x) to the lasers domain (10.0.3.3).
You won’t see the IP of the laser (10.0.3.3), just the bridge IP.
There is also a possibility that a different boot sequence in the network can change the PI IP. On my linksys you can bind the mac address of the bridge to a known IP. Then you don’t have to change anything it will reserve that IP for the bridge.
Heres the picture of my Ruid controller. It has less options than yours and doesn’t have the “LAN ON” words. But it has a picture of 2 computers there.
I appreciate everyone’s help, but I still can’t get this thing to work. Its frustrating to say the least…
