Hi, I’m not very familiar with LightBurn and I’m now in desperate need of some help.
I’ve had my sculpfun s9 since February 2022 and it has worked really well with lighburn. Then last week I tried updating (didn’t realize that my license had expired (it expired in February)).
After the update, Lightburn can’t find my laser. I have reinstalled LightBurn to 1.3.00, I’ve bought a new USB cable, have updated my Sculpfun driver CH340 v 1.5. but nothing works.
• I’m using MAC OS Ventura 13.2.1
• I’ve tried starting the laser before starting lightburn.
• As mentioned, I’ve bought a new USB Cable (I tried both a USB B cable and now a new USB C cable). still won’t work.
• Lightburn can’t find my device. When I start lightburn, it says the laser Is ready but nothing happens when I click “frame”. And yes, I’ve opened and selected a project before clicking “frame”.
• If I open Machine settings, it says “connection with controller failed”. (see image 2)
• I’ve only got two ports available – cu.BLTH and cu.Bluetooth-incoming-port. I think I had a third option earlier but even if I reinstall the driver, it won’t show anything but these two. When I start Lightburn, the setting is set on cu.Bluetooth-incoming-port. At this point, it says the laser is “ready” (see image 1). If I switch to BLTH and then back to Bluetooth-incoming, it says “disconnected”.
Did you change anything at all with the USB Cable, Dock, or hub?
Adapting back from USB-C to the USB-A standard is full of obstacles. To check to see if you’ve got an unlucky cable adapter, unplug the USB-C end, turn it upside down and plug it back in. USB-C is reversible but if one of the signal grounds is weak it will move when installed upside-down.
Do you have any other software in the background that might have already grabbed the USB port that the Sculpfun is on? Please check what might be running in the background. If LaserGRBL is there it could have grabbed it.
The manufacturer of the serial communication offers a v1.8 of the driver. I’m quite certain this is what I used on a Macbook Pro running Ventura to connect to a fairly early 3018.
The one near-gotcha when installing the driver on a Mac is wanting to Click ok when the screen pops up.
Selecting the other (Not OK) option to enter a password or enter system set up is key for success but it’s much too easy to click OK to reflexively knock-down a pop-up window.
I hadn’t made any changes at all with my USB cable. I used the same USB-A cable with hub as I’ve used before. I tried using the same USB-A cable with a different hub. Then tried the new USB-C cable without the hub. I’ve now also tried turning the USB-C end upside down but it’s still not working.
I’ve turned off all other programs so I don’t think there’s anything grabbing the USB.
I’ve downloaded and installed the 1.8 driver. It says it has been installed and I’ve restarted the computer but still no success. When I tried running the laser it says there’s a problem sending data to laser.
Did you reboot after the driver install? I think that caught me.
If you see the word Bluetooth in the name of the Com port - you’re on a port for something other than your engraver. You should see a port with the letters wch in the name - that’s the one you want.
LightBurn may be trying to have a conversation with your headphones.
Here’s how to check if the Mac can see the serial device.
The command may require capital letters for USB in between the asterisks.
The Unix operating system below the GUI is case sensitive.
Hmm, the only alternative I have to “cu.bluetooth-incoming-Port” is “cu.BLTH”. That does’nt work either. I believe I used to have different port but there’s no such option.
Also, I don’t understand why hubs and cables that previously worked, suddenly don’t work anymore. Should I uninstrall Lightburn and then re-install it? And will my old serial number work?
As long as you only have the two Bluetooth ports available, then the driver is not installed correctly or the device not recognized by the driver. At this stage, there is nothing that LightBurn can do about it. Even with an older version. If there is no port to connect to, LightBurn will fail. Are you familiar with the console / terminal on a Mac? Can you show the output of the command “ls /dev/tty.*” Maybe before and after you connected the laser to the Mac.
If there is no tty.usbserial… device, the laser is not recognized. Maybe try this driver then: GitHub - adrianmihalko/ch340g-ch34g-ch34x-mac-os-x-driver: CH340G CH34G CH34X Mac OS X driver This definitely worked for me.
Thanks for helping out. I did as JohnJohn suggested but that didn’t help. I then followed your advice, minsken. I checked with command “IS /dev/tty.*” and got this:
/dev/tty.BLTH
/dev/tty.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port
So I downloaded and installed the driver from the link you shared. (v1.5). Re-started the computer and made the command search again. Still just the bluetooth options. I’ve tried with the laser both connected and on, and without it connected.
I simply can’t seem to get the driver to work and i’ve tried both your suggested drivers. Not sure what I’m doing wrong. I install it and it says “installed”, then I reboot the computer and still nothing.
Did you remove prior drivers before installing the driver as listed on the Github site?
In any case, confirm that your Mac even detects that the hardware is plugged in. With the laser on and plugged in, go to System Report->Hardware->USB. Are you able to identify the hardware there? With no detection there’s likely something fundamentally wrong with the hardware. As long as it’s detected there properly it’s likely that a driver should be able to resolve the issue.
Which version of macOS do you have? On the GitHub page of the second driver, there is a note that on newer macOS versions, you should not install any driver because it conflicts with one that is provided by the OS already. There is also some description on how to resolve that, I think.
I’ve re-installed McOS Ventura - still same result. I’m wondering if I’ve managed to remove the driver properly. Is there any way I can see if an old driver is still on my computer?
