We had a Windows 10 laptop connected WIFI to our network, and a Thunder laser (Ruida) connected to the router with an Ethernet cable. We were getting the failed to transerfer error, so we installed a Lightburn Bridge on the Thunder (now connect to the network via the RasPi’s WIFI), and the transfer errors went away. Now the Bridge will lose WIFI connection sometimes, and we have to reboot everything multiple times to get it back online. I SSH’d into the Bridge and hard-coded the wifi.txt file and confirimed it was working (by observing the wifi.txt.successful). It happens less now, but the Pi still loses WIFI at times.
I’d like to forsake the WIFI, and just use the Pi to convert Ethernet-to-Ethernet. Can I add a USB-to-Ethernet adapter to my Pi, and turn the Bridge into a wired-only Bridge? I need the UDP/protocol conversion that the Bridge provides because our client machines are laptops (WIFI to router); but I really don’t need the laser to be on WIFI (Ethernet to router). Obviously I have issues with my WIFI that I need to work out, but if I can use the Bridge Eth-to-Eth, it would solve my heartache right now…
The bridge was specifically designed to be wifi → Ethernet for the Ruida. I know there is only an ‘image’ for the Lightburn addition not an ‘install-able package’ …
Someone like @JohnJohn could probably answer this more precisely.
Unless there’s some way to fool (or tell) Linux (on the Pi) the input is coming from the usb … I think you’re out of luck… I think it really depends on how the Lightburn ‘layer’ of code deals with i/o.
Knowing what a headache it is dealing with usb, I would have totally avoided it… but I didn’t write it…
The Ruida requires UDP communication. It’s a very early protocol and it doesn’t do any error correction. It’s great for ignoring errors and finishing tasks urgently at the expense of precision.
The Pi Bridge spoon-feeds the Ruida controller as steadily as possible, while using more current error correction when communicating with your network and with LightBurn.
The Pi Bridge was not intended to be anything more than a stop-gap appliance to overcome a mac communication issue. The Win 7 and Win 10 folks wanted to use it and they do. The source isn’t open and there are no emerging feature sets in the foreseeable future. (I want a camera!) We’ve been out of stock for more than a year. I have heard that we’re on a ‘delivery list’ and we’ll be updating pricing and delivery when we’re able to.
With the client machines being Laptops (WIFI to Router) their IP addresses may be reassigned by your router and may be colliding with the IP address assigned to the Bridge.
I’m not fluent in network topology, I’m outside my skill-set but that’s where I’d be looking first.
If what you really want is to make your laser wireless, a simple solution is a Raspberry PI and Virtualhere. You can have one device for free, and pay $49 for more. Works well, give it a try. It works differently than Lightbridge since it is connected to the USP PC port on the laser, not ethernet. https://www.virtualhere.com/
He wants to include is the Lightburn ‘code’ layer that works to take advantage of UDP protocol with the Ruida. UDP is not what we generally expect with Ethernet connections… As I’ve said before, the Ruida seems great at controlling the laser, but has terrible communications skills.
I ran mine wireless with a $12 t-link bridge from Amazon .
Ultimately the light burn bridge solves the problem of packet collision and loss, most often seen when the UDP protocol is used over some leg of wireless communication. That is the same problem in Mac/Win/Lin… Light burn bridge can be a solution for anyone that has a Wi-Fi link anywhere between their computer and their laser…
For me, I don’t need my laser wirelessly connected. I just need to convert its’ garbage UDP, to a more reliable TCP. I’m assuming the Bridge does some sort of network translation between network adapters… All I’m looking for is to replace the Wi-Fi adapter target with a wired adapter. To make an Eth-to-Eth bridge. I can search around and try different USB ethernet dongles until I find one that works on the RasPi… But I don’t know how to tell the bridge to point towards the other wired ethernet, as opposed to the Wi-Fi…
Unless the Bridge software has specific provisions against it or is somehow very tightly integrated into the network side of things I suspect you could get this to work.
However, this would take some familiarity with networking concepts on Linux if you wanted to accomplish this in a transparent way without cooperation from the software.
I’d encourage you to give it a shot and pave the way for others.
I suspect it might just be easier to sort out your wifi problems though unless you’re looking for a new area to learn.
To contribute to this topic. I have tried, primarily on a Mac, these “connection methods” from WiFi on my Mac through my AT&T Pace 5268 modem/router:
WiFi with the Ruida 6442 controller ethernet to ethernet to the router with wires.
Lightburn Bridge with rPI4 and WiFi to the rPi4, ethernet to the Ruida.
Vonets IIG device, WiFi>ethernet to Ruida
Virtualhere WiFi client on Mac to rPI4 ethernet to USB to Ruida.
None of them works as reliably as a direct USB cable to the Ruida controller. What happens with network connections is an almost constant “Must be busy” type of error. If I click “Stop” then “Start” it almost always works. It’s interesting that my Mac has a more reliable USB connection than seems the norm for Mac users on the forum!?
I don’t want to use a wired connection! I frequently forget to unplug the USB cable when I take my laptop out of the laser room.
So I have concluded, it must be something in my network, and I am not going to blame any of the solutions 1 through 4.
It seems like there must be a “keep alive” or “TimeToLive” signal that could keep the Ruida awake to a new “Start” of job without that aggravating “Busy” signal.
As you say, your Mac is working reliably on USB. This must surely mean that the USB issue for others is something that can be fixed and not something inherent to the platform
That ethernet seems to be notably less reliable.
How often are you getting the “busy” errors on ethernet? When you say almost constant are you saying pretty much every time you attempt it? If so, that would make troubleshooting easier. One commonality I see in your setup is that the router is always in the picture.
Have you attempted to connect directly from computer to Ruida through ethernet? That would rule out any issues potentially introduced with the router. If that works then you’d need to just sort out the network conflict. I use a dodgy cobbled together ethernet-to-wifi bridge running open source FreshTomato firmware and I think I’ve only ever had one issue I would attribute to network issues. So I’d expect a proper solution to be at least similarly reliable.
The issue I’m having at the moment is that I am unable to get the Lightburn Bridge to stay connected to the wifi. I had a similar issue the other day, and was able to get it to connect after rebooting the Wifi router and then rebooting the Bridge. However today that is not doing the trick. I enter our wifi password, hit apply, and it seems to be working. But the it just pops back up casting its wifi. I haven’t had any transfer issues since we installed the bridge, just these connective issues. But I’m not sure what else to try since is a pretty basic interface. Any insight would be much appreciated.
I have indeed tried a direct Ethernet cable connection to the controller; it has no “Busy or paused” errors.
I checked to see if anything unusual showed up in my system that may allow USB to work reliably and I found this:
com.apple.DriverKit-AppleUSBFTDI.dext Driver Extension/System/Librarv/DriverExtensions
The date shows 10/28/22, which I believe was the last time I updated my Mac OS system to 13.0.1.
So, as I have said, something makes all the WiFi connections to frequently while laser ing to encounter the “Busy or paused” popup in Lightburn.
I hope these little data points I have collected helps somebody.
