Hi everyone, I’m having a frustrating issue with a friend’s fiber laser machine and I can’t figure out what’s causing it.
Machine specs:
Laser source: Raycus RFL-P30QS 30W (Q-Switch, fixed pulse width 154ns, frequency range 40–60 kHz)
Controller: BJJCZ
Software: LightBurn 2.0.05 (trial)
The problem:
Vector engraving works perfectly — good focus, good results on stainless steel and cylindrical surfaces. However, image engraving (photo engraving) does not work at all in any dithering mode (Stucki, Jarvis, Floyd-Steinberg, etc.).
On stainless steel it does absolutely nothing. On painted cylindrical surfaces, it only starts producing very faint marks at 70%+ power, and only on the brightest white areas of the image, with no midtones whatsoever.
What we tested:
Multiple different images — same result every time
Multiple frequencies across the full range (40–80 kHz) — no difference
Multiple power levels — only starts doing something above 70%, and even then no grayscale, just a threshold-like result
“Passthrough” mode — works fine on stainless steel but not on painted cylindrical surfaces
Key observation:
My own machine uses an IPG YLP source with the same BJJCZ controller and LightBurn 2.0.05, and photo engraving works perfectly with the same parameters. The only hardware difference is the laser source (IPG vs Raycus).
My suspicion:
The issue seems to be in how LightBurn 2.0.05 generates and sends the image data to the BJJCZ controller specifically for dithering modes. Since Passthrough bypasses LightBurn’s image processing and vector works fine, the machine itself seems healthy.
Has anyone experienced this with LightBurn 2.x and BJJCZ? Could this be a bug in 2.0.05? Would downgrading to 1.7.x likely fix it?
Thanks in advance.