I have been having consistent problems with glitches when running Lightburn for laser cut operations when doing projects with multiple objects. The laser will start running the job, beginning with the graphics images and small line engravings that outline the images - with no problems. When the cut operations on the objects are started, the laser starts out running fine but will at some point stop movement and turn off the laser. Then, in most cases, after a short delay, it will begin doing a dance that involves short movements with the laser on (bursts) then stop, laser off, delay again, then do the burst movement-stop-delay dance again. Usually, after dancing like this for a few iterations, the laser will then jog to an incorrect location and start cutting another object. I end up with a jumbled mess, with cuts in places that they donāt belong causing good objects to be ruined by the stray cuts. I have tried 3 different USB cables, switched the usb ports, reloaded the file, restarted Lightburn, restarted the laptop - none of which fixes the problem. This doesnāt happen on smaller jobs with only a few objects that are close to the origin, As the objects get further away from the origin, the problem shows up. My Ortur Laser Master 2 always operated flawlessly when using Laser GRBL, but Iām now having critical problems with Lightburn. Also, I use a Neje Master 2 mini with itās own proprietary software thatās not compatible with Lightburn, and it functions flawlessly as well. Given that they both work perfectly with other software systems, I doubt that this is any kind of coommunications problem over the USB ports/cables.
To get a job finished, I have resorted to observing the laser operations, stopping it when a glitch occurs, homing the laser, deleting the objects that have been done correctly from the job, then restarting the revised job. I usually end up needing to do this after the laser has cut one or at most two more of the objects. This is tedious and ridiculous! Whatās going on here???
I have attached the file I recently had problems with. Perhaps analyzing this file will help? All the objects are joined, and there are no open shapes or other issues that I can detect, so Iām baffled by all this! Quacks Box parts.lbrn2 (203.7 KB)
I figured out what is causing the problems I am having, but donāt know how to fix it.I decided to run the job on some cardboard using lower power so that it wouldnāt burn things up, and afte the job ran with the glitches, I was going to take photos to show what it did. I also planned to take video to show the erratic behavior. When I did this, the laser did not glitch up, it all ran perfectly. I have determined that my laser unit is turning off the laser as some kind of safety feature to prevent the laser head from overheating. Lightburn doesnāt know itās doing this, so keeps on sending code to the laser, which then resumes activity once the head is safely cooled a bit and ends up resuimg at the wrong starting point. After a few minutes, it again shuts down, etc. etc. etc.
Laser GRBL has a biult in feature that allows the user to set a timed auto-cooling pause that will occur for a given time after a job has been running for a time - both the run time and pause time. Iām not seeing this in lightburn - is it there somewhere where I am not finding it? If itās not, then I recommend adding this feature. If itās there, please let me know how to find the settings so I can add an automatic pause to allow for cooling during a longer job. Thank you!
John, I posted a second message after the first one about figuring out what caused this. It was not a software problem, but happened because the later head shut down to protect from overheating. I need to be able to program in a cooling pause for a few minutes after a cut job has run for about 5 minutes or so. Laser GRBL has this feature. I couldnāt find it in Lightburn. Is there a setting cleverly hidden somewhere that allows me to do that?
I read the description
For my major understanding, and i might have missed something
Sounds more as a power issue than a software issue
12v power adapter might need replacing
ALso Lightburn has no cooling sequence, nor does firmware support this
(lasergrbl has this software side)
I would recomend
a) run a job at 1%, will it run flawlessly,
Run it again
b) run a job at high power, will it drop?
Then is for sure power adapter failing
This means. laser demands 12v 3amps.
power adapter will try the best to give 3amps, if its faulty voltage will drop
12ā¦ 11ā¦ 10ā¦ 9V At this points motherboard mosfet is unable to correct voltage and motherboard MCU crashes.
What you might be experiencing is, after letting machine steady, power adpter recovers and is able, for a while to give 3amps again but then fails
I replaced the ortur laser head which was losing power and quit working for laser cutting with a Sculpfun S10 head. Probably the upgraded head needs more power (it wants an 80W input vs. the ortur at 20W) should I upgrade the power adapter? If so, what does would you recommend?
The Scupfun lasers use 12V 5A for power supply. Personally, I use 12V 10A just to have some backup and the ability to add additional items like LED strips.
Yes, thatās kind of overkill, but the wires wonāt care. The power supply only sends as much power as the attached devices pull. You can attach a single small LED to a 100A power supply. It will get its 30mA current, not more.
Well yes the laser āPullsā from the power adapter the amps it needs yes
However anything over 3-5amps jumps to almost double on price, so being over kill and extra expense might be avoidable.
And there should be some concern on pushing more than 5amps over OLM2 wiring considering the gauge of the wires
Neither of its JST connectors are rated for more than 5amp 12v
Completely agree. 12V 5A is much more common and should be much cheaper. And nobody should attach a module that draws more than 3-5 amps out of the board. But as long as they use the standard components, that wonāt happen, so no issue for the hardware.
I replaced the power supply with a 12v 10A unit. Laser now works flawlessly, no problems with wiring handling the current. Thanks, Gil for helping me identify the problem!
REALLY??? You replaced a 20w laser with an 80w one, and then blamed Lightburn for the failure? You could have mentioned that in the first paragraph. That would have saved a lot of head-scratching by other members. I am disturbed that the blame for an issue goes to Lightburn first. Maybe a little effort researching the issue first would be appropriate.
I am not saying Lightburn is perfect, but it is way ahead of whoever is in second place. It is a well-supported product and does not deserve First Blame.
Iām not going to censor this. Just a friendly reminder to not put other folks on blast when an initial assumption goes awry.
LightBurn is blamed for all kinds of things. We share a transparent, open, community based diagnostic path to address concerns and find directions for continuous improvement. Head scratching, teasing apart technical riddles and sharing sincere inquiry is what makes this fun.
Itās not always LightBurn or a new user or an esoteric workflow, itās a mixture of ideas and āwhat worked last timeā and missing information; itās an obstacle course all around.
Itās all good. Itās just āa day in the lifeā.
An electrician told me to remember two things;
The conductor is sized for the load.
The breaker protects the conductor.
It may be interesting to see if the laser is fed through the Ortur board or through itās own supply and just PWM controlled by the Ortur.
A custom car builder once told me to buy the biggest MIG welder that I ācould afford and turn it all the way down. Itāll be more consistent.ā While the 10 Amp supply is overkill - I imagine itās a matter of how the power supply is rated at 10 Amps (or 5 Amps) that makes the 10 Amp supply more stable at load than the 5 Amp supply.
I am equally uncertain that the 10 Amp supply allows equipment to fail-safe when presented with a hard short circuit. This is modified equipment - understand it and use it at your own peril.
Iāve lost count of the number of times Iāve seen āit worked until I updatedā posts on Facebook, only to discover that the user changed 2 or more things at the same time, but the software update was the last thing, so itās the one they remember.
There are also plenty of cases where itās just coincidental timing - router re-assigns an IP address, Windows update breaks a driver, etc, right around the time someone updates the software. Since we tend to update often, this probably happens to us more than other apps.
As a result, weāre pretty thick skinned here for the most part, and if something hasnāt been reported by more than a couple users, we assume itās a configuration / setting / hardware / firmware issue until we can determine otherwise, but this is a good reminder to include as much potentially relevant detail as possible when troubleshooting.
Wow! Not as harsh as I expected. I may be misguided, but I felt the urge to defend LB. I am not used to seeing a for-profit run like an open source project. I am stunned, and thrilled, to see the variety of machines the LB staff supports. It is like you guys have one of every model made.
So noted that I should not be pointing fingers. I admit I could have voiced my message with more consideration. Maybe this is betterā¦
āYou are my eyes and ears because I cannot see what your seeing. Please give me a detailed history of your problem so I can ask the right questions.ā
I hope this is better. I should have remembered it from my days in I.T. for a blind/low vision software company (1/3 of the employees were blind).
On the power supply conversation, the 10 amp will not shove more power into the load (laser) than the load demands. What it will give you is reserve capacity when the load varies. It is the power surge request that makes the heftier supply attractive. My 5w diode machine has a 24v, 4.75a supply. If I upped the laser to only 10w, I would definately go for the larger supply.
Wiring should be the worry zone. #22 open-air insulated wire (fairly small) is rated for 5 amps. If the wiring is smaller and you are burning at 100% capacity, you may have a problem. Remember, manufacturers only size parts and materials to last thru the warranty pariod.
I may be misguided, but I felt the urge to defend LB. I am not used to seeing a for-profit run like an open source project. I am stunned, and thrilled, to see the variety of machines the LB staff supports. It is like you guys have one of every model made.