Dear Fellow Lightburn users!
Essence of my problem is that Lightburn (and other similar software, like UGS) fails to communicate with Arduino.
I am building my own laser cutting machine, which is controlled by Arduino. The setup so far looks like this:
- Arduino communicates through COM3
- GRBL 1.1 installed
- CNC Shield on top of Arduino board
- a single A4988 on slots X of the CNC shield - NEMA 17 stepper motor connected
The above is tested and working fine.
I wanted to test the correct installation and setup of Lightburn (UGS also tried). I wanted to see the stepper motor moving - to see if “at least something” is happening. I experimented with Machine Settings, but received the message: “Communication with controller failed”.
When I klicked on the “Start” button just to provocate the software to do some motion, the error message was “There was a problem sending data to the laser. The machine may be busy or paused”.
I discovered that I do not have CH340 driver and I suspect this is indispensable for the communication between Lightburn and Arduino. (Is it really indispensable?)
I downloaded the driver and tried to install it as shown in many youtube videos. The results were as follows:
After klicking on the “Install” button, the below message appears - as if the driver was already(?!) installed. NO it was not. I checked in Device Manager and it did not appear there. (see two screenshots below)
I tried to “uninstall” it and install it again, but after klicking on the uninstall button, I receive the following message:
It seems as if there was no driver to be uninstalled! This is a self contradiction!!
I checked on my device manager to see what I have. It looks like this:
As I said: Arduino communicates on COM3 - so far so good. But where is CH340 then? If it is successfully “Pre-installed in advance” as the first dialog window says, then why do I not see it under Arduino Uno (COM3)?
I have tried several times, but it seems to me as if the new to-be-installed driver “sees” as if a CH340 was already working on my computer and then fails to install “again”.
COM3 and GRBL are configured in Lightburn like this:
How can I make Lightburn be able to communicate with Arduino? Please advise!
Thank you in advance!