I’m unable to transfer files over about 1mb to my controller from Lightburn via USB. The file simply says “unknown” on the controller display.
After attempting to use Lightburn to transfer files, the controller will no longer accept files from LaserCAD nor from a memory stick.
Lightburn broke my controller. That’s impressive.
That would be unprecedented, honestly - It will occasionally fail to send a file, but I’ve never seen LightBurn cause any sort of controller corruption before. Are you sure this isn’t coincidental timing? (bad USB cable or port, perhaps?)
A bad USB cable would explain LaserCAD being also unable to send files, but it wouldn’t explain the laser controller being unable to pull files from the memory stick.
My guess is that something in the communication protocol from Lightburn borked the USB port controller software on the AWC controller. Both the memory stick port and the USB cable port likely share the same USB controller.
I power cycled the controller and performed a reset, but the issue is persisting. However, I’ve seen software issues persist in the controller between power cycles, and sometimes it just takes a long period of being off for it to resolve. I’ve got no idea why it does that.
I think it’s very unlikely that Lightburn actually managed to break what is largely a solid-state piece of electronics when it didn’t directly control the output voltage or settings. I’m just being a pain because I’m frustrated.
LOL, out of all the thousands of Lightburn users, you’re the first to have his hardware “borked” by LB.
That sounds like some seriously bad karma there. You got any sins you want to confess or skeletons in your closet that need a decent burial…?
Or maybe check the USB connection to the controller and make sure it’s firmly plugged in?
Just for the heck of it. Delete all the files from memory off the controller. Sometimes I have to do that to send files.
I just go through a USB library and treat it like a serial port. The device and library handle all the USB communication details, so again, that seems really unlikely. We’re up to about 18K deployed licenses at this point, and have yet to have a bricked controller. I can’t say it’s impossible, but it is highly unlikely - I don’t send commands to the controller that I haven’t seen its own software send. I’m careful about error checking, and tend to err on the conservative side.
How many files are already on the controller? Russell raises a good point - I know Ruida controllers get really unpredictable if the memory is full, and won’t accept new files. If the file you were uploading was really large and filled the remaining memory, that would explain a lot.
1 Like
I’m going to try clearing all the files off using “delete all” later today. I tried clearing out a number of files, so I know I have enough free space, but as Russell indicated the memory management is sometimes a bit screwy and the controller may not realize it has enough space due to fragmentation or such.
My guess regarding screwing up the USB port controller is more about the upstream processor that listens to it being confused by some of the commands it received rather than the port controller itself having a flaw. I’m guessing they are using an off-the-shelf USB library like you are, and it’s just serial commands coming in on their end, too.
I know Smoothie controllers, for instance, can receive certain command series that cause them to just fatal exception and they require a hard reboot before they can successfully process any more incoming commands.
To be clear, I don’t REALLY think Lightburn broke anything permanently. That’s just very unlikely given it’s almost entirely solid-state. The most likely culprit is bad timing regarding filling up the memory, which then wasn’t fixed by me deleting files because the controllers memory management practices are abominable.
I’m going to try it this evening and I’ll update on the resolution.
1 Like
This did actually work!
1 Like
Yup. Happens often enough. 
This topic was automatically closed 30 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.