Frustrated installing ch34x drivers on macbook running monterey

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
1

Hey! I just got an OMTech K40+ 40W CO2 laser engraver for my partner for the holidays. I’m not super familiar with macOS, but my partner’s laptop is a macbook pro running Monterey. The laptop has 4 ports that appear to be USB-c or similar; maybe some kind of thunderbolt, I don’t really know. The laser engraver only has a USB port.

I have a cable that is USB at one end and USB-c at the other end. I turned on the laser engraver (the test button on the engraver works – used it to burn a mark on tape to check mirror alignment; the air assist and vent fan are also running fine) and plug it in to the computer and launch LightBurn and I seem to be unable to connect to the laser.

All of the port options in LightBurn appear to be BlueTooth. When I go to the terminal and check /dev/, there’s nothing that says “usb” and all of the cu. and tty. entries are the BlueTooth options that I already saw in LightBurn.

I tried installing the CH34x driver for Mac; it says it installed successfully. When I check /library/extensions/ and /system/library/extensions/ (or whatever?), I see nothing that matches CH34x or anything that seems to have to do with USB. I also tried downloading and installing the virtual COM port drivers from VCP Drivers - FTDI. I’ve restarted a few times.

It looks to me like the drivers aren’t actually installed, despite the install appearing to happen successfully. Why can’t I see any USB ports in /dev/ or in LightBurn? What am I doing wrong?

2

Some people have found under similar circumstances that introducing a USB hub can get certain lasers to be detected. This is counter to general advice to remove all hubs from the equation.

3

So I didn’t think it could be the cable because the driver doesn’t seem to even exist in the /extensions/ directory – how do I make sure the drivers are even installed correctly?

4

This depends on the driver installed. In most likelihood if you’ve installed the driver and gotten a successful result the driver is likely to be there, but perhaps not with a name that you recognize.

Which specific driver did you install?

5

CH34xVCPDriver is the name of the file I used.

6

Can you post an About This mac picture

also, while connecting to your machine
Open a terminal
And type this command
ioreg -p IOUSB

post output
Repeat it rotating USBc cable 180º on the computer end.

Something you could try, if available too is a USB Dongle/Hub. to dumb down connection to USB 2.0

MacOs specially M1 chips are VERY very picky on usbC port usage and handshakes

7

Screen Shot 2023-12-24 at 3.16.17 PM
Screen Shot 2023-12-24 at 3.16.17 PM1162×662 122 KB

Screenshot (hopefully) attached.

For the terminal command, here’s the output:
$ ioreg -p IOUSB
±o Root <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x100000100, retain 21>
±o AppleUSBVHCIBCE Root Hub Simulation@80000000 <class AppleUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000426, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (3 ms), retain 27>
±o Touch Bar Backlight@80700000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000428, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 11>
±o Apple T2 Controller@80100000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000042c, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o Touch Bar Display@80600000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000436, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)@80200000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000043a, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o Ambient Light Sensor@80300000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000043f, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 11>
±o Headset@80400000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000444, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 11>
±o Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad@80500000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10001e844, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (36 ms), retain 21>

$ ioreg -p IOUSB
±o Root <class IORegistryEntry, id 0x100000100, retain 21>
±o AppleUSBVHCIBCE Root Hub Simulation@80000000 <class AppleUSBRootHubDevice, id 0x100000426, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (3 ms), retain 27>
±o Touch Bar Backlight@80700000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000428, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 11>
±o Apple T2 Controller@80100000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000042c, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o Touch Bar Display@80600000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000436, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o FaceTime HD Camera (Built-in)@80200000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000043a, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (0 ms), retain 13>
±o Ambient Light Sensor@80300000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10000043f, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 11>
±o Headset@80400000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x100000444, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (1 ms), retain 11>
±o Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad@80500000 <class AppleUSBDevice, id 0x10001e844, registered, matched, active, busy 0 (36 ms), retain 21>

The second one is after flipping the cable 180 degrees (upside down, i guess). I tried again with a different port and a different cable and the output was identical to my eye.

8

Definitely not being detected

Must try
a) usb hub
b) different cable

It must be detected on terminal

9

Does Mac have a lsusb command?

I did find it… you have to install Homebrew, then you can install lsusb…

Much more easy on the eyes…

:smile_cat:

10

lsusb wouldn’t fix anything, just make it easier to see what’s what, yeah?

11

and a different cable or a hub would make the thunderbolt3 port appear in the list of usb devices?

12

Yes… the more tools you have to look at things … usually leads to a quicker diagnosis…

I have a Mac, but don’t use it much… I’m used to a Linux type OS… it’s similar… Had a G4 mac around the turn of the century… doesn’t seem much like what I had… I guess two plus decades…?

:smile_cat:

13

it worked! tried a USB hub and it immediately connected. Thanks!

14

Good news
In a way is really a matter or forcing the USB Handshake at 2.0 instead of 3.0
Pain but at times the simplest solution is the best :slight_smile:

15

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