Just getting started with Ruida and Lightburn

Hello Everyone,

I just replaced the card that came with my 60W Chinese laser with a Ruida rdc6442s-b(ec) card. I’m trying to get the system to work with Lightburn. I’ve got everything set up, but it’s not talking/working as it does with the K40 I have. I do have the Lightburn DSP, which has Ruida selected. I’m using a USB cable to connect.

I can get the system to respond, frame and go home, but none of my Lightburn files will work when I try to use them. I get an error message, “There was trouble sending data to the machine…”

I don’t know if it’s my hardware setup or software. I have been using Lightburn with K40 for some time and haven’t had any issues - but there is also a ton of videos out there when I do have a problem.

For the 60k and with the Ruiba card, I am struggling to find anything that will help me get closer to the solution.

Anyone have any ideas pls? They’d be greatly appreciated. Thank you.!

There are two USB connection methods in LightBurn:

  • Packet/USB - Uses a built-in driver, similar to RDWorks. Works on most systems, but has been fussy on some.

  • Serial/USB - Uses an external “virtual serial port” driver. This one is usually installed on systems already, but not always. You can download the driver from FTDI’s site here: https://ftdichip.com/Drivers/VCP.htm

Thank you OZ. I replaced the cable and the talking is better.

One thing I noticed - I think I have narrowed the issue down. I replaced the USB cable and that seems to have helped. In doing so, I think I spotted what the issue may be - on the Ruida display, it is showing the X and Y axis as both being 10000mm in distance, when the dimensions are 700mm x 500mm. I’m thinking I have to set the Ruida to 700mm x 500mm, just like I set it up in Lightburn. I’m researching how to do that now.

The laser head goes to the bottom left corner and just rattles until I hit ESC on the control panel. I also noticed the laser head sensor and rail sensor are on the Right and upper right, where on the K40 they are on the left of the gantry and railing.

I’m thinking this 10000mm is the real issue right now. I am researching on how to set the Ruida to 700 x 500.

This sounds like your motors are running reversed, or the vendor settings are incorrect - the machine should be seeking the corner with the limit switches at the rear right when it starts up, and since it’s not finding them it’s defaulting to 10000, 10000.

There’s a setting in the X and Y axis config in the Machine Settings, I believe called “Limiter Polarity” that controls the homing direction. Write down anything you change so you can reset it if necessary, but I would try changing those.