I’ve submitted a request to LightBurn support, but I’ll post it here, too for anyone who may have some info that could help.
I’m on LightBurn 1.7.08 running on a M2 Mac Mini, using a OneLaser XRF, and I’ve assembled my own LightBurn Bridge on a Raspberry Pi.
Like many others using a Mac, if I have the OneLaser (Ruida controller) attached directly to my Mac, LightBurn will crash when trying to start a job directly from LightBurn. I can send the file to the OneLaser XRF successfully, but any attempt to start a job from LightBurn will cause the software to lock up and crash.
In addition, I cannot align my camera because LB will also crash when trying to burn the test image.
When my LightBurn is running the Bridge Discovery Wizard, LB can see the Bridge but under “Device info” I get the message “No Laser Connected”.
Is there a uDisk port and a USB port on the OneLaser? It sounds too simple to be true, but sometimes we see users plug in to the wrong USB port on their laser. It sounds like you’ve had some success, but I just want to rule that out.
Here are the ports on the OneLaser (see attached). When the OneLaser is connected directly to the Mac Mini, Lightburn still crashes under the circumstances above.
When the OneLaser’s ethernet is connected to the Bridge, I continue to get the “No Laser Connected” message–even though LightBurn can obviously see the Bridge.
How exactly are you starting a job? Is this with the “Start” button?
What happens when it crashes. Please detail as much as you can.
Please attach a full screenshot of LightBurn right before attempting to start the job.
What is your history with LightBurn? Is this something that used to work and these are new symptoms or this is your first time with LightBurn and this hardware?
Can you take a photo the Ruida panel showing this?
Also, can you confirm that you have an ethernet cable between the Pi and Ruida? Do you see indicator lights on both sides of that connection? What do they show?
@berainlb: When I have my Mac and OneLaser connected to one another:
OneLaser Ethernet → Mac Ethernet
OneLaser Camera (USB) → Mac USB
OneLaser “Computer” Port (USB) → Mac USB
In this configuration, LighBurn sees the laser. I can control the laser head fine via the “Move” window. The failure comes when I use the “Laser” LightBurn Window. All functions of the LB “Laser” Window work correctly except the “Start” button. If I click the “Start” button to start a job, LightBurn locks up. (Spinning beachball of death.). See images below. The “Send” function of the “Laser” window works just fine.
Since this setup crashes, I put a LightBurn Bridge in place to see if I could successfully “Start” a job on the laser.
Bridge Setup:
OneLaser Ethernet → LightBurn Bridge Ethernet
OneLaser Camera (USB) → Mac USB
OneLaser “Computer” Port (USB) → EMPTY/NOTHING
In this configuration, LightBurn on the Mac can see the Bridge over the network, but the Bridge reports back: “No Laser Connected”. I have tried multiple Ethernet cables to be sure that was not a failure point.
You needn’t have both of these connected. Just one or the other. This should not cause an issue in itself as only one will be used so not likely related to actual issue.
Having said that, it’s not obvious to me what would be causing your symptoms. Things that come to mind:
some sort of USB driver conflict
issue with rosetta translation
OneLaser XRF Ruida compatibility issue - I’m not familiar with OneLaser XRF and whether the controller used is an off the shelf component or a some new variant. Based on what I’ve seen this should be compatible but…
I’d suggest taking USB out of the equation by running Ethernet only. Can you do the following:
Manually configure ethernet on your computer in the range of 10.0.3.x other than 10.0.3.3. Subnet must be 255.255.255.0.
Unplug USB to laser
Change Device configuration in LightBurn: Push Devices button in Laser window, then select your device, then Edit, then Ethernet. Specify 10.0.3.3 for Laser address.
Retest after making these changes. Make sure that Move controls continue to work. Do you still get beachball behavior with Start button?
Can you confirm if you get LED indicator behavior on both sides of the cable when plugged in?
First, I took USB out of the equation. I followed your instructions to connect directly via Ethernet and configured LightBurn to look for the device. This resulted in LightBurn not being able to find or attach to the device.
After this failure, I went back to trying the Bridge. During this attempt I made sure the laser was not connected via USB, so LightBurn could only find the laser via the Bridge. The result was the same as my original complaint: LB can see the Bridge, but the laser does not connect to the Bridge.
Finally, I abandoned Ethernet and Bridging altogether and tried USB only. LightBurn can see the OneLaser via USB. It identifies it as Ruida 644XG1G. Once again, the “Move” commands seem to work perfectly, but when pressing the “Start” button in LightBurn, the software crashes/hangs.
TLDR; All roads lead to the same crashes/failures.
I’m thinking there may be two separate issues:
The OneLaser controller may have networking issues. This would explain why the Bridge can never connect to the Laser.
The OneLaser/M2 Mac combo has some kind of USB driver issue.
I installed FTDI USB drivers separately to see if that made any difference. It did not.
My only other option for now would be to try to run LightBurn in a Windows virtual machine on the Mac. Maybe that would work, but unfortunately I got a LightBurn error when I tried that saying I was restricted from VM use.
As was suggested, its a good idea to test just the ethernet connection (ethernet cable directly beween OneLaser and the mac mini ethernet port) in order to test if ethernet is working at the OneLaser. Can you confirm the bridge was completely removed for this test?
I ask this because I’m wondering how you “configured LightBurn to look for the device”?
Because LightBurn will not find the Ruida device over a direct ethernet connection using the “Find My Laser” tool, or the Bridge Discovery Wizard.
You would need to ‘Manually Create’ a new Ruida device in LightBurn, and configure it to use an ‘Ethernet/UDP’ connection and enter the laser’s static 10.0.3.3 IP address.
If you manually configured the your mac mini’s ethernet connection/adapter to something like 10.0.3.1 then another test when the direct ethernet cable is connected is that you should be able to ping the laser IP from the Mac terminal and get a reply.
Thanks to you two guys for helping me troubleshoot. I admit, after hours of banging my head against this thing, I was nearly ready to give up.
I tried everything you guys suggested: checking LED indicators, configuring Ethernet on the Mac, making sure the Bridge was unplugged/powered off, etc. At no time was I able to get any Ethernet lights to turn on or indicate the presence of network traffic.
In a most unexpected turn of events, I finally solved the problem.
I took the machine covers off to look at the Ethernet routing inside the box. This machine includes a wifi bridge interface. I found a manual toggle switch to switch between wifi and Ethernet. (See images included below.).
I toggled off Wifi, and this had no effect. At that point, I unplugged one of the network cables that was inserted into the toggle switch. Instantaneously, network traffic started flowing and my Mac could see the laser on 10.0.3.3.
I can confirm now that all move commands, camera controls, and the “Start” option in Lightburn work correctly without locking up. I’ll attach photos of my setup here to this thread for any future OneLaser XRF owners who may run into the same problem.
Glad you were able to get things working and that LightBurn no longer is showing the crashing behavior.
Were you able to identify where the 2 cables routed to? I assume one leads to the outward facing port that you had been plugging into. What about the other one?
Have you since tried the LightBurn Bridge? I assume it would work as expected now that ethernet itself works correctly.
Has this also addressed the Camera alignment issue?
Good work!, must be setup a bit like the a Mira 9? - I wonder if the machine was advertising a wifi access point that whole time? That other cable that was unplugged was going to a Vonets device maybe?
Strange that the Wifi/LAN switching button is not available at the outside of the machine? And odd that there is no mention of it in their connection documentation?:
I have seen no reference to the Wifi/LAN switch in any of their documentation so far. Their instructions for using the integrated Wifi didn’t get me connected either.
I’m fully willing to admit I could have overlooked one simple step and screwed up the whole process… Don’t think I did, but it’s possible. Sometimes you need to step away from the problem for a while before you come back and solve it.
I intend to contact OneLaser later on. I didn’t expect it to be an internal network problem. Thought it was a software glitch.
I’ll try the LB Bridge later on, but right now the machine is working great. Not going to look a gift horse in the mouth… Thanks to you both!
