Cannot connect to Ruida 6445g over Ethernet

sumguy51 · March 6, 2025, 4:32am

I’ve just swapped the controller out on an FSL Pro 20x12 laser from the original BeagleBone to a Ruida 6445g controller (RDC-V26.01.22). It seems to work, in that I can control the laser head in the X, Y, and Z directions with the controller. I still need to tune the config settings because I unfortunately could not figure out how to pull the old ones off of the original controller. I am hoping Lightburn will be able to do at least some of that configuration for me, but… I can’t get it to connect at all.

I’ve tried connecting my Windows 11 laptop to the controller with a direct ethernet line (both from the laptop’s ethernet port and with a USB ethernet adaptor), directly to the ethernet port on the controller. I have tried two separate ethernet cords just to be sure. I have also tried connecting over USB to USB with the Packet/USB option just to see. None of these worked. The IP I’ve set on the controller is 192.168.1.123 and ipconfig shows my laptop is set to 192.168.1.X so as far as I can tell, everything is configured properly.

When I connect the ethernet cable, the LAN symbol in the bottom right shows it is connected. The moment I disconnect the ethernet, a red X appears. So hardware seems to be working.

Saw a post about the lights on the back indicating water protection triggered. Mine does not show this. My link light (12) is on, my run light (14) is blinking, my +5v (15) light is on. This all seems as it should be.

In Control Panel > Network and Sharing center, I see an Unknown Network entry alongside my wifi when I have the ethernet cable plugged in. This is not the adaptor creating this, because if I leave the adaptor in but unplug the ethernet from it, this network disappears.

When I try to ping the controller via command prompt, it says destination host unreachable.

Looking for some help here. I really don’t know what’s going wrong and what to try or change. I’m wondering if I need to do something special to setup this laptop to talk directly to the controller, without a router in between. I don’t have the ability to wire this laser into a LAN port on the router, I need a direct connection.

jkwilborn · March 6, 2025, 4:44am

The Ruida is a great controller, but they didn’t spend any time on it’s communications – it’s kind of disappointing.

The led’s you have on seem to be correct. As is the lan indicator, which only tells you the hardware is working, not that it’s actually communicating with anything.

The Ruida speaks UDP and is static, if you haven’t found that out yet.

You can direct connect any Ethernet if you configure both ends correctly. There isn’t much you can do with the Ruida, except it’s ip and maybe the gateway.

I set the gateway to my pc’s Ethernet address and configured Lightburn with the ip of the Ruida.

The most simple way is to connect it to your lan, either directly or wireless. Doesn’t appear you can do that…

I configured my Ubuntu Linux box for a direct connection, but I am not a windows person. You need to have an extra Ethernet port you’re not using and configure it for the sub net that the Ruida is programmed. You have to tell your PC it’s address on that port as normal tcp/ip usually has a dhcp server for addresses.

Plug them in and it should work.

If it doesn’t, then you’re PC configuration is likely incorrect. There isn’t much you can do with the Ruida.

Sing out if you can’t get it to work.

sumguy51 · March 26, 2025, 1:36am

I know its been a bit, was working on other projects and have recently come back to this. Still having issues getting Lightburn software to connect, even though I can ping the device and see the UDP port…

Ruida IP is 192.168.0.123 (I changed it since last post)
Lightburn Software version is 17.0.7

On Linux

I’ve plugged in a USB ethernet adaptor and set up the interface as follows
ip addr add 192.168.0.1 dev eth0
The route appears correctly

$ ip route     
192.168.0.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.0.1

I am able to ping the controller

$ ping 192.168.0.123
PING 192.168.0.123 (192.168.0.123) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 192.168.0.123: icmp_seq=1 ttl=128 time=1.03 ms

I am able to see the Ruida UDP port 50200

$ sudo nmap -sU 192.168.0.123 -p50200
Starting Nmap 7.94SVN ( https://nmap.org ) at 2025-03-26 01:04 UTC
Nmap scan report for 192.168.0.123
Host is up (0.00058s latency).

PORT      STATE         SERVICE
50200/udp open|filtered unknown

On Windows

I’ve plugged in a USB ethernet adapter, and set the route such that this IP routes through the USB adapter
route -p add 129.168.0.123 MASK 255.255.255.255 0.0.0.0 METRIC 1 IF 9
The route shows in route PRINT
I can ping the device

> ping 192.168.0.123
Pinging 192.168.0.123 with 32 bytes of data:
Reply from 192.168.0.123: bytes=32 time=1ms TTL=128

I have gone into firewall settings and created rules that allow inbound and outbound traffic on all ports and protocols for the program, just to make sure nothing is blocking, and restarted my computer.
I STILL cannot connect with Lightburn. I tried Ethernet/USB, as well as Packet/USB and Serial/USB after ensuring I have the FTDI driver installed and connecting to the controller with a USB port. No device found. Everything is pointing to there being some sort of issue with Lightburn software. I don’t know why it wouldn’t be able to find the device when I can hit it with ping on both systems and with nmap on Linux.

Forgot the software I downloaded last month was a 30 day trial. Had to extend it today when starting to troubleshoot this again, and I have another 15 days. To add some context, I am trying to set this up for my dad. He is not technical so I really need to be able to have the connection process as simple as him walking up to the laser and plugging an ethernet adapter into his PC, and starting the laser. Hoping I can get this working so he can at least try the Lightburn software out for a little while before the trial ends.

thelmuth · March 26, 2025, 3:00am

This might help. It’s discussing a direct connection using RD Works, but the procedure on the computer and laser should be the same. Pay particular attention to the Subnet Mask and Default Gateway. I think that might be your issue. I connect through my LAN, so the process is a clittle different.

sumguy51 · March 26, 2025, 4:56am

Thanks, I can try the ethernet connection again later. I was actually able to get lightburn to connect using a USB cable, with both packet and serial options. Turns out my issue was I was connecting to the udisk port on the Ruida using a USB-B to USB-B cable, when I needed to use a USB-B to USB-A cable (commonly known as a printer cable) to connect to the USB/PC port on the Ruida. Doing that allowed me to connect over USB at least, and start configuring the laser.

Hopefully the ethernet issue is caused by something equally small

jkwilborn · March 26, 2025, 2:50pm

I’ve used USB and Ethernet. Ethernet, even without the Lightburn PI bridge, works much, much better than usb.

I use an Amazon wifi bridge with the Ruida plugged directly into it.

I use a Ubuntu machine, but I have also accessed it via Ethernet from a Windows machine also, I hate to admit.

I have my Ruida set to 192.168.1.115, and it’s marked as a static address within the router blocking the router from using this address.

If I look at my local network, using arp-scan, I can see the Ruida. It doesn’t know what it is, but I can see it on the network.

jack@Cat:~/mnt/dev-test/cnc/laser/fiber/documents$ sudo arp-scan 192.168.1.0/24
Interface: enp3s0, type: EN10MB, MAC: d8:43:ae:9e:9b:48, IPv4: 192.168.1.117
Starting arp-scan 1.9.7 with 256 hosts (https://github.com/royhills/arp-scan)
192.168.1.1	c4:41:1e:ae:7a:e6	Belkin International Inc.
192.168.1.114	00:21:b7:8e:15:2b	LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.
192.168.1.115	e6:c3:2a:0c:1a:ed	(Unknown: locally administered)
.
.
.
192.168.1.200	e6:c3:2a:0c:1a:ed	(Unknown: locally administered)
192.168.1.184	38:00:25:e5:0a:d3	Intel Corporate
192.168.1.207	a4:38:cc:90:e1:ab	Nintendo Co.,Ltd

14 packets received by filter, 0 packets dropped by kernel
Ending arp-scan 1.9.7: 256 hosts scanned in 1.853 seconds (138.15 hosts/sec). 14 responded
---
jack@Cat:~/mnt/dev-test/cnc/laser/fiber/documents$ sudo arp-scan 192.168.1.0/24
Interface: enp3s0, type: EN10MB, MAC: d8:43:ae:9e:9b:48, IPv4: 192.168.1.117
Starting arp-scan 1.9.7 with 256 hosts (https://github.com/royhills/arp-scan)
192.168.1.1	c4:41:1e:ae:7a:e6	Belkin International Inc.
192.168.1.114	00:21:b7:8e:15:2b	LEXMARK INTERNATIONAL, INC.
192.168.1.123	90:d0:92:20:01:40	(Unknown)
.
.
.
192.168.1.184	38:00:25:e5:0a:d3	Intel Corporate
192.168.1.207	a4:38:cc:90:e1:ab	Nintendo Co.,Ltd

12 packets received by filter, 0 packets dropped by kernel
Ending arp-scan 1.9.7: 256 hosts scanned in 1.852 seconds (138.23 hosts/sec). 12 responded
jack@Cat:~/mnt/dev-test/cnc/laser/fiber/documents$

You’ll notice address 115 is there with the Ruida powered up, but in the next scan, it’s missing, as it’s powered down.. I know it’s the Ruida.

Then just configure the proper IP in the device setup of Lightburn… I put the IP in the device name, makes for easy reference.

If you don’t block the router from giving away the Ruida IP to another device, that could be an issue.

I think you’re over complicating this IMHO, I’d expect this to be the closest to plug and play.

sumguy51 · April 10, 2025, 3:02am

Yeah, my issue was I wasn’t using a router between the laser and PC. Was trying to do a direct Windows ↔ Ruida connection and I just couldn’t figure out how to get windows to talk to an IP directly plugged in. At least not without some middleware to act as some sort of bridge, which would be too much for my dad to have to mess with imo.

In the end, I just unscrewed the eth jack from where it was mounted to the laser (was an extension cable - female end exposed on machine chasis, male in plugged into controller). I plugged the printer cable into the controller and drew the USB through the hole, so my dad can just plug the USB into the laptop. Like an extendable cord from the machine. Works well enough and the important thing is it’s easy.

I do have a quick question about laser power though. This is a 45w CO2 laser. I believe there are controller settings which specify how strong the laser should be commanded to run? How can I best figure those values out, to tune the laser such that there’s no chance he cranks the power too high and burns it out? Is that even a possibility? We ran the laser on 30% and the wood turned pretty dark. It was moving slow but I’m just a little worried setting it to 100% power might cause issues.

jkwilborn · April 13, 2025, 5:31pm

I’ve found this table to be a good reference.

Base it on the tube length, not what the supplier states… it should be close. My 50W from OMTech was 880mm in length and generated 43W. About right considering a 40W tube is ~850mm.

You can set the machine to 50% power at the console and pulse to continuous. Measure the laser power supply (lps) current and set it to 1/2 the desired maximum.

This is where the hole to get to the current adjustment is located on my machine. From the back of the machine looking up and forward… in my case it would help if I were a contortionist.

If you had a 60W tube and wanted a limit at 22mA, running the machine at 1/2 power should read 11mA. This will also provide 100% current when Lightburn (or any other software) asks for 100% power.

You can set the pwm upper/lower limits within the Ruida.

Mine won’t lase below about 9%, but I have a 45W tube, I’d like to be able to use it, so the upper limit is 99%… Never checked the controllers output at 99%…?

Once I got feed up with USB (less than a week) I did a direct connection from my Linux box to the Ruida.

When you do this with Ethernet, you are dealing with a separate network or domain. The PC expects the router to give it an address, no router, no address… no talkie…

The most simple way is to make it a part of your network.