LightBurn and KentokTool rarely work together

LightBurn Software Questions
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I’m tired and discouraged.

I bought a KentokTool laser engraver and they didn’t make their own software for Macs, so I had to buy LightBurn. When it worked, it was nice. But that wasn’t often. This software has given me nothing but issues since the day I bought it. The only thing I can count on it to do regularly is to not work when I need it to and to cause me hours of frustration.

I’ve tried installing it on 3 different Macs (2011 MacBook Pro to 2017 iMac) and none of them see the device automatically through USB. I had to try to add it using GRBL, as the KentokTool manual recommended. But that didn’t work. I went back and forth multiple times trying to add it and it just randomly started working through GRBL-LPC even though I did nothing different the previous times. Since then, some days it connects and some days it doesn’t.

This week, after successfully etching a piece of aluminum, I changed my blank and then tried to run another burn, but I got an error about resetting the device because it was going out of bounds, or something to that effect. No settings had been changed. I opened another LightBurn file and placed my design into it and it ran without any errors. But after 2 runs, I got the error again. I repeated this about 3 times before the laser stopped burning. It was firing, but it was if it was at 0% power. I tried changing settings and deleting the device again and adding it manually, but it didn’t establish a connection with the device on any of my 3 Macs using GRBL or GRBL-LPC.

I went to Kentoktool’s website to see if I needed to install any updated drivers of some kind and there were some on their website, but Google Drive would not let me download them because it said they “violated their terms of service,” if you can believe that.

Both LightBurn and KentokTool have made this process as aggravating as possible. The errors LightBurn reports in the console are full of techno-babble that means nothing to the average user. I can’t say for sure whether the issue is with LightBurn or the laser, but since it worked a few times when I opened an old design. I’m guessing it’s LightBurn. But i could be wrong.

I tried to see if there was an update for LightBurn, but they said my serial number expired and I could continue to use it, but can’t get any updates. The trial of the latest version won’t work on my Macs, so now I would have to pay $99 to upgrade to the new version, which may not even work with the KentokTool any better than the previous one did.

I left out some details knowingly because I’m not really expecting any suggestions that will help resolve this. I don’t really see how there could be a logical solution to issues that seem so random and illogical. I’m on my 6th hour of troubleshooting and researching and am no closer to a solution. This post is more of an opportunity for me to vent and offer suggestions to other new laser engraver users:

  1. If you’re not ready to be totally aggravated, go into 3-D printing instead. As difficult as I’ve heard that is to get into, it can’t possibly be worse than the experience I’ve had with laser printing.

  2. If you’re going to buy a laser, try to find one that makes its own software. Having to deal with 2 different companies when you have issues makes this significantly more complicated than it should be.

  3. If you’re looking to etch metal, you’d spend less time and money paying someone in China to do it professionally.

  4. If you’re looking for a laser machine, I may know of someone who has a KentokTool available … cheap!

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  1. It is extremely rare that ANY software will have bugs that turn on and off.
  2. “Not working” covers about 95% of the infinite possibilities that could be giving you grief. From your text, my first guess is that it is a communications issue.
  3. There are members in this forum that can help clarify that techno-babble.
  4. I see you joined about an hour ago. Without posting any requests for help, it is true “how there could be a logical solution” to your issues.
  5. It is okay to vent if you keep it civil, like you did.
  6. I do not know about KentokTool, but Lightburn has never made my process aggravating on purpose.
  7. “I left out some details knowingly” means you might have left out the one detail that may have provided a solution.

If you are still interested in finding a solution, then follow along and answer questions as they are presented. It appears your laser is basically a 5w module on a belt drive frame system.

  1. Is your laser USB connector a Type-Aor Type-C?
  2. Is your MAC USB connector a Type-A or Type-C?
  3. Does your USB cable have a ferrite (big knot) at one end?

Not a Lightburn Staff member, just another user.

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Hi.

Welcome to the LB forum @Ray-El :slight_smile:

Tldr: The easiest solution would IMO be to purchase a PC dedicated to laser work.
I don’t know the requirements for the 2.x versions, but the 1.x versions run on practically anything that runs Win7 or newer OS and has a few Megs of memory.
So not a dealbreaker moneywise.

+1000 to that.

With a quick glance, they do not have a dedicated own software, but suggest the customer to download LaserGRBL.
That’s an open source software, with the pros and cons that come with anything open source.
I haven’t personally tried it -considered it but jumped straight onto LB trial when XCS failed miserably- but some swear by it, some at it :wink: .
Just as it is with anything open source, Linux included.

With the same quick glance, Kentoktool does not specifically advertise that LB works with their firmware either, just give a download path and a instructions how to configure LB to work with their laser on a PC based system.

I for one can definitely believe that, the far east manufacturers don’t always have the required certificates and such, that most of the browsers do require.
An email to the Kentoktool CS should clear that one up.

The error messages any software barfs are always just that, “techno-babble”.
By posting those babbles, someone more computer-savvy will be able to help You forward.

Just as @MikeyH there said, those details may well hold the nuggets of information that gets Your issue resolved.
Your machine is so bare-bones simple -and most importantly at least advertised fully GRBL compatible- that there’s IMO a zero chance that You/we wouldn’t get it working.
Providing of course that the controller and the (stepper)drivers are working as they should.

As for Your suggestions:

  1. For entry level machines, both are probably just as difficult to get into.

  2. That won’t necessarily solve anything, take xTool XCS for example, insanely resource hungry, and by design both the machine and the software are tightly tied together so a third party software -like LB- requires a lot of fiddling and fine tuning.

  3. Very, very true, but that’s not how diyholism work :wink:
    OTOH, a visible range laser isn’t the perfect coice for such a task anyway.

  4. :slight_smile:

Regards,
Sam

:finland:

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@Ray-El

That machine runs GRBL 1.1, so it is supported. On macOS the main hurdle is the USB driver — most of these boards use a CH340/CH341 chip, and without the right driver the port won’t appear.

In LightBurn, look at the Laser window on the right side. Next to the Devices button there’s a dropdown — do you see anything listed there? On a Mac it should usually look like cu.usbserial-xxxx. If all you see is something like cu.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port, the Mac isn’t seeing the laser and that points to a missing driver.

Make sure the KentokTool software is fully quit first, then check again.

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Thank you for all the helpful suggestions.

When I wrote my original post, I was ready to quit, but I put a few more hours into trying to troubleshoot the issue. Things went from bad to worse. I decided to try using the laser on one of my older iMacs, but when I went to plug in the USB cable, there was a spark from the cable to the USB port that fried the Mac. It shut down and would not come back on. The Kentoktool would still power on, but I was still unable to get LightBurn to see it on my MacBook Pro (after backing it up as a spark precaution). When it worked in the past, this was the computer I was able to use it with. At one point, the laser fired randomly by itself and started burning a hole in my desk. (I had a metal plate under it, but the laser was at the home position when it started firing. I wound up having to cut off the power. It still turns on, but the laser is now blinking on and off and is giving off a burning smell. It didn’t appear that the smell was from the laser hitting the metal plate. I think it was from the laser itself. The laser, controller, or both may have also been damaged because of the electric spark, so I may not be able to troubleshoot any further. Or it could be haunted. :ghost: I think that’s probably it. I will check with the city tomorrow to see if my house was built on an old cementery. :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

When powered on, it now also blinks a yellow and green light on the top of the laser, which I’m not sure it did before. Kentoktool’s manual and website don’t explain what the blinking lights mean or offer any way to reset the laser to get it to stop firing by itself.

To answer some of the questions posed:

The Kentoktool manual does have instructions for connecting to LightBurn, and it has worked several times before, which makes this current batch of issues so frustrating. From time to time, I would have to switch back and forth between GRBL and GRBL-LPC to get it to connect, but it eventually would.

In the drop-down menu to the right of the “Devices” button, I used to use “Auto” and that worked when it worked. But the other options were BS01, CricutAir, and Bluetooth incoming port. I set up the device as a USB device, rather than a serial device. However, after I deleted the devices and added them again using GRBL and GRBL-LPC, “auto” was no longer an option. “cu.usbserial-xxxx” was also never an option, and my Apple system report shows nothing laser-related connected through USB.

I found a CH340/CH341 installer on Longer’s website. I tried installing that to see if it would help, but it did not. However, that was after the electric spark may have damaged it.

The Mac end of the USB is Type A. The Kentoktool end is Type B. There is a ferrite on the A end.

If I recall, one of the technobabble errors when it was able to connect included something to the effect of a range/bounds warning that asked me to type $H or $S into the console. Neither did anything. Another was asking me to “reset” the device, but I didn’t see any options in LightBurn related to a reset. I opened an old LightBurn layout and tried to burn from there and was able to do so successfully without changing any other settings. That worked about 3 times before the laser would look like it was running, but stopped etching the aluminum. And then LightBurn lost the connection and I couldn’t get it back. That’s when I deleted the device settings and tried to add them again manually, but lost “auto” as an option.

I agree that getting a PC for this would have been a good idea, and I may wind up doing that for more software options, including LaserGRBL, which I don’t believe is available for Macs. However, I opted to buy a refurbished Longer Ray5 for about 50% off, which should be arriving tomorrow. Hopefully, it will give me fewer issues and will be visible to my Mac and LightBurn.

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Good news! After jumping through some hurdles, I was able to get the new Longer laser to connect. It was initially having the same issues connecting to LightBurn as the Kentoktool unit, but it also had the option to connect to through LaserBurn software using wi-fi. Once I figured out I needed to install an SD card in it to get it to work, it connected and started to burn. I still had the USB cable connected while it was burning and launched LightBurn to see if it would connect and I got an error that it could not because the laser was busy. That’s a great sign! At least LightBurn now knows it’s there!

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This is a really bad sign. I would not connect the KentokTool to anything valuable.

I think ordering a new laser was a really good idea.

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