Laser Stops/Stutters During Jobs

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Atomstack
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So, I really am pulling my hair out over this one. First, the stats.
Laser: Atomstack A5, v3.4 driver
Control: GRBL
Computer: Lenovo Yoga, Win 11
Lightburn: v1.7.08

I am attempting to cut silhouette shapes in 3mm plywood. When I run the job, inevitably the laser will stop and… stutter, is all I can call it. Rather than stopping altogether, it makes tiny movements, accompanied by a flash of laser; about 1 per second. (THK…THK…THK…THK…) The fan on the laser head also stops.

No error shows in the Lightburn console.

This sometimes happens after two minutes, sometimes twelve, but usually around five. It SEEMS to nearly always happen when completing the final pass on one shape, before moving on to the next. Not always, but nearly always.
The only way to recover is to hit [Stop], manually move the laser head to its starting position, reset the coordinates to 0,0 in the application console, and start again from the correct place in the Preview window. Every once in a while, this doesn’t work, and I have to disconnect/reconnect with the “Devices” dropdown, or even close and reopen Lightburn. As you can imagine, completing a 90-minute job takes frustrating hours.

I have already tried:
-Updating Windows, Lightburn, and Atomstack software
-Making sure USB ports do not sleep
-Replacing USC cable (twice) with a high-speed, high-quality, gold-tip, 18-inch, shielded cable.
-Adding ferrite cores to each end of the USB cable
-Switching USB ports
-Switching to another laptop
-Changing the wall plug used to power the Atomstack
-Cleaning every square inch of the Atomstack, including port connectors
-Weeping and begging on my knees

None of this has made any difference.

Since I first posted, I have also tried:

-Downgrading the CH340 (Serial/USB) driver from 3.4 to 3.3
-Upgrading the laser’s firmware from 1.1f to 1.1h

I burned this exact pattern many times in November. The only change since then is having kept up with Windows Update. I am at my wits’ end. Please help.

2

Given the description and everything you’ve ruled out, my guess is the power supply is failing.

It’s possible there’s a bad connection between the power supply and the controller, but that would tend to produce a longer-lasting outage. You’ve already unplugged & replugged that connector, which would change the symptoms / timing, to no avail.

If it’s still within warranty, expect to go through the tedious tech support debugging script, but eventually a new power supply should be forthcoming.

If it’s not under warranty, regard this as an opportunity to buy a power supply with the same output voltage rating and maybe twice the output current rating, as the OEM supplies seem to be rated for the bare minimum current.

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3

I concur with Edinsley about a possibly failing power supply.

You said you changed it already. Does the new one provide enough power?

You could try rerunning the same job with 0% power or even unplugging the laser diode completely.
If it runs through, this would be a stronger indication of a weak power supply.

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