LightBurn - Raspberry Pi Trick for a Wireless Laser Cutter

I followed the instructions for LightBurn Bridge on a Pi 3b+ today and it worked exactly as expected. I ran into one small snag that was my fault that may help others. Just to test things out before buying a new Pi, I used a Pi that I normally use for my 3D printers. In order to access the printers from outside my local network, I have that Pi set with a static ip on my router and LightBridge was looking for a different ip when it first tried to connect. I manually changed the ip when setting up the device in LightBurn (there’s a step to do this in the setup if necessary) and it connected immediately.

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This is the main reason I will be using my Pi. My laptop switches IP’s occasionally and it’s been a hassle to redo all the subnetting.

FWIW, I’ll enable Avahi/mDNS on my rPi’s and access them with hostname.local

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The avahi daemon service has been installed and enabled by default on Raspbian since the Buster release mid-2019. You’ll be able to use lightburnbridge.local out of the box.
You can change the hostname with raspi-config if you want.

However, please note: this is meant to be an appliance. Modification of the operating system effectively voids the warranty (though we’ll give you a pass for changing the hostname :slight_smile: - I’m just talking about installing new services/software/etc.)

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So the IP of the Pi changed? That would suggest it’s not actually static

The router looks at the MAC address and assigns the same reserved ip each time that Pi connects to the network. That was set by me on my router for the Pi’s normal role.

But you said you had to change the IP in LightBurn - this would imply that the IP changed and what you’ve stated here was not working. Or am I missing something?

When going through the instructions, right after entering my WiFi info, the installation setup program sent my browser to an IP address. The address that the setup program sent me to was not the address of my pi. I entered the actual address of my pi in the browsers address bar from my router’s host list and it connected immediately.
My post about this was only to bring attention of a potential snag to those who are using pi’s that they have used before on their network with a reserved specific ip address they set up on their router. Most of my pi’s get repurposed several times in their life on my network. Many of their roles require port forwarding, static ip’s or reserved addresses like this one.
LightBurn Bridge works great for me and I’m certain a brand new pi that has never been on my network will set up without a hitch.

So you set up a static IP on your router which I assume means telling the router the MAC address of the Pi and then assigning it an IP address?

If you used a different Pi for testing then of course the Lightburn Bridge wont use the same IP address because it has a different MAC address than the other one. So the router ain’t gonna give it the same IP address you reserved for the other one.
Or maybe I’m misunderstanding what you’re doing… (wouldn’t be a first)

@Hank, I am also confused.

I have my wifi set to check for mac numbers as part of the security of the router, however I am unaware of how to associate the mac address with an ip address within or via the router. Doesn’t mean it can’t be done, I’m just unaware.

My understanding of an initiation sequence… If you have a device with a static IP, it will communicate with the router just like it would if it were not static, except it doesn’t send the originating packet with a 255 octet to indicate that it needs an ip address issued. Since it’s ‘static’ it’s already got an ip. The router will just ‘assumes’ it’s there.

When I unpack my ‘pi’ I’m going to try this and may end up in the same boat, as it’s not a new ‘pi.’ It’s nice to hear about issues.

:smiley_cat:

In all of my routers you can bind an IP address to a specific MAC address. It’s on the page with the DHCP server settings.
You tell it a devices MAC address and give it an IP address that’s outside the DHCP servers IP pool so that address can’t accidentally get assigned to anyone else in the absence of the desired device.

Every time that device connects it always gets that IP address.

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I guess it must not be configured as static. Definition of ‘static’ is the address doesn’t change. I guess that was my problem.

Thanks for the info about binding the ip to the mac. Next time I’m in the router, I’ll look.

:smiley_cat:

The problem I see with assigning the device itself a static address is that it’s still possible for multiple devices to fight over an address. If the pi is offline and the router unwittingly assigns the pi’s seat on the bus to some other device and then the pi comes along and wants to connect… problem.
My preference is to let the router perform all the seating assignments with the understanding that certain devices get specific addresses based on their MAC address.

And I guess I find it easier to manage it all in one place (the router) instead of having to set each device that wants a static address.

You just need to set your DHCP scope accordingly. Static IPs should not be within that scope.

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My router is set to deliver addresses starting at 100. Any device that I want static is below that number, or out of scope. The router will never assign addresses below 100. Sometimes called the ‘static pool.’
My laser printer for the house, china blue and many other devices on my lan are static.

The Ruida isn’t smart enough to use DHCP, so you must set it to a static address.

How do you talk to your controller?

:smiley_cat:

Works as a charm on Raspbian, exacly as you said. To things. when connected sometimes the stream stops. Don’t know why , i wil find out. And the second is you need a license $48 if you want to run it as a service. But autorun is also possible in the 'old ‘startup’ map ":slight_smile:

thanks for the idee!

Any other ‘informational’ paths available via the browser?
Don’t remember seeing this anywhere, but thanks.

:smiley_cat:

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