Recently I was making some laser cuts of relatively simple shapes - parts of a box with all square shapes, finger joints etc. Several shapes were selected to output to the laser. All started just fine, but when it got to some of the objects at the right side of the project, the laser began misbehaving. After staring a cut pattern on one of the objects, it stopped normal operation and then made very minute movements with short bursts of laser several times, with about a 1 second pause between each burst / movement. Then it moved to a different, incorrect location not where anything was placed and started another shape, and glitched again. It resulted in several areas with partial object cuts, erratically placed lines / cuts and just a tangled up mess.
I had read another post about this type of issue and the answer that was given was that it was likely a communication error. My experience with trying to solve the problem gives that answer the lie!
One of the objects did not cut at all. I deleted everything else and attempted to re-cut it in the same location where it should have been done. The laser correctly framed the object location. When I started the laser, it immediately began doing the mini cut -burst - delay - repeat dance. I stopped it, exited Lightburn, reopened it and re-loaded the original file, deleted the unwanted shapes and tried again. Same result. I then selected the object and broke it apart (if had been Auto-joined). Tried the cut again, and lo and behold, it worked flawlessly. If this were a communication error, adjusting the image by breaking apart the joined object would not have solved the problem. This sounds like a strange software glitch, not communications. I’ve had similar glitches with laser cuts using other files as well, but this time I seem to have hit upon a possible solution. However, this solution should not have been needed - it should work whether an object path is joined or separated.