Macbook Air M1 running Ventura 13.1 cannot connect to LB, cannot even see laser

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
1

I purchased an Omtech 80W CO2 laser (Ruida 6442), trying to connect with my Macbook using the USB cable is a serious PITA. I don’t want to have to buy another connector to attach an ethernet cable if I don’t have to. I just purchased an additional USB a to C cable not knowing these issues. I can if necessary but because of the Mac’s BS only two USB-C ports, it just means another bloody connection in the line from mac to laser. I tried following the steps at the bottom of this article (as most articles I could find suggested), but in the end it said “No such file or directory” when I attempted to temporarily disable System Integrity Protection.

Based on the comments at the bottom of this article, I feel like there is something else going on, the last two comments were that they were running M1 and there were no problems.

I tried manually adding the laser in LB, no difference.

I’m not very computer savy like a lot of people on here, I try to go as deep as I can without bugging people on here, but I’m stumped for now and I don’t want to wait a week or two for Omtech to help me with this.

Please anyone! I don’t know how we’d get through this stuff without all the people who always help on here… some of us just have no right in doing these things I suppose.

Thanks - Craig

2

First let me state I’m not a Mac person, but I run Linux, a close cousin.

If you tried /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/ then it just means that file isn’t there…

You should be able to look at your USB connections with lsusb from the command line. You should see a list of what’s plugged into the usb ports. If it’s plugged in and the OS makes a connection you should see it.

There is also a system log file that you can look at the end of to see what device was plugged in and if it found a driver.
The command that I use is sudo dmsg | tail

jack@Kilo:~$ sudo dmesg | tail
[102621.511629] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 988e13433939524753
[102621.518854] cdc_acm 3-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
[102627.073908] usb 3-2: USB disconnect, device number 10
[102628.011919] usb 3-2: new high-speed USB device number 11 using xhci_hcd
[102628.166820] usb 3-2: New USB device found, idVendor=04e8, idProduct=6860, bcdDevice= 4.00
[102628.166823] usb 3-2: New USB device strings: Mfr=7, Product=8, SerialNumber=9
[102628.166825] usb 3-2: Product: SAMSUNG_Android
[102628.166826] usb 3-2: Manufacturer: SAMSUNG
[102628.166827] usb 3-2: SerialNumber: 988e13433939524753
[102628.171967] cdc_acm 3-2:1.1: ttyACM0: USB ACM device
jack@Kilo:~$

It might ask you for a password… for using sudo

Generally it tells you what device it’s associated … In this case ttyACM0… it’s my phone… In my os it lives at /dev/ttyACM0

Is your local network anywhere near you can connect via your Ethernet?

If you’re on-line, you must have some kind of networking available, wifi?

I dumped the usb like a hot potato, what a pain… I purchased a $12 (at the time) t-link wireless bridge and used it until the Lightburn PI came about… It’s on the local network… no drivers to deal with…

I was sitting on the couch with my wifes laptop sending stuff to the laser…

USB really, well, I can’t post my real feelings about it … although it is better than transferring files via paper tape or punched cards…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

3

Lots of great info here, thank you for taking the time, as ever.

  1. Here are the messages from each of those commands. So, from this it looks like I did not load the driver properly is what you are suggesting? I just tried it again and it said “Success”

craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ % /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/
zsh: no such file or directory: /System/Library/Extensions/FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext/
craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ % [200~lsusb~
zsh: bad pattern: [200~lsusb~
craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ % lsusb
zsh: command not found: lsusb
craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ % sudo dmesg | tail
Password:

[18401.388064]: LQM-WIFI: WME RX MPDUs (rxPER 0 %) in tids 0:34, 1:0, 2:0, 3:0, 4:0, 5:0, 6:0, 7:0

[18401.391636]: LQM-WIFI: WiFi Latency: TxLat-hist [4(100 %) / 0(0 %) / 0(0 %) / 0(0 %)] RxLat-hist [0(0 %) / 0(0 %) / 0(0 %) / 0(0 %)] intermittent-state = 0

[18401.391669]: LQM-WIFI-CT: rssi=-44(0 0) snr=32 bcn=49(49) txFrames=240 txRetry=6 txRate=780000 rxFrames=242 rxRetry=3 rxRate=866667 rxToss=16
[18401.440699]: LQM-WIFI-CT: ofdmDesense=0 bphyDesense=0 reason=0x0
[18402.329086]: IOConsoleUsers: time(0) 0->0, lin 1, llk 0,
[18402.329116]: IOConsoleUsers: gIOScreenLockState 1, hs 0, bs 0, now 0, sm 0x0

  1. Doesn’t look like your list, no mention of USB…

  2. [quote=“jkwilborn, post:2, topic:89073”]
    Is your local network anywhere near you can connect via your Ethernet?
    [/quote]
    No, these bloody Mac’s only have two thunderbolt/USB-C ports and that’s it grrrr… I just ordered a new Mac mini which will come with Ehternet ports among a few others, but that won’t be until mid-Feb

  3. [quote=“jkwilborn, post:2, topic:89073”]
    If you’re on-line, you must have some kind of networking available, wifi?
    [/quote]
    Yes I have wifi

  4. [quote=“jkwilborn, post:2, topic:89073”]
    I purchased a $12 (at the time) t-link wireless bridge and used it until the Lightburn PI came about… It’s on the local network… no drivers to deal with…
    [/quote]

With the new Mac coming I’m thinking I will likely just connect with Ethernet, although this is intriguing. Wireless bridge, is this just a wifi router being used in an unconventional way? Any articles you can point me to? This seems like a good option, but I’m pretty inept when it comes to some of this stuff unfortunately. I’m also running a Google mesh system so there would be extra steps there to connect… could I use a mesh wifi point instead?

lol, nice. Never realized just how bad this is to use USB. I might even get a different hub for now to connect USB C to ethernet to get me running again until the new Mac comes in.

Again, many thanks, I’m always amazed at your and many other’s willingness and ability to help in so many area.

4

When the response is ‘no such file or directory’ that’s what it means.

It expects this command line syntax to be a command of some type. I think the link you have earlier indicated they removed the file…

Your lsusb command isn’t on your machine, you have to install it… I found a quick link to do that…

It a simple command…

brew install lsusb

Good luck

:smile_cat:

5

So I think I finally got it to work

:beer: /opt/homebrew/Cellar/lsusb/1.0: 4 files, 12.9KB

==> Running brew cleanup lsusb…

Disable this behaviour by setting HOMEBREW_NO_INSTALL_CLEANUP.

Hide these hints with HOMEBREW_NO_ENV_HINTS (see man brew).

craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ % lsusb

Bus 000 Device 002: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 4-Port USB 3.0 Hub

Bus 000 Device 001: ID 0bda:5411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. 4-Port USB 2.0 Hub

Bus 000 Device 004: ID 30fa:0400 30fa USB OPTICAL MOUSE

Bus 000 Device 005: ID 2222:0045 2222 Macally ACEKEY Series USB Keyboard

Bus 000 Device 000: ID 0bda:0411 Realtek Semiconductor Corp. USB 3.1 Bus

Bus 000 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0003 Linux Foundation 3.0 root hub

craigsmacbook@craigs-air ~ %

6

I don’t see the Laser out there … a “4-Port USB 3.0 Hub” is the hardware that connects a block of USB ports, eventually to the system buss.

This was my pre-pi bridge - bridge…

pre-pi-bridge
pre-pi-bridge1500×2000 174 KB

Shouldn’t be… it’s just another ‘device’ hanging out on your local network… I mention the only problems with this is a static address.

These bridges are in effect a router, but it’s configured as a bridge.

Found this at Amazon, I think it will work… it states it can be a bridge. It’s <$20.

https://www.amazon.com/TP-Link-TL-WA801N-Supports-Multi-SSID-Extender/dp/B09JZPXSBJ/

If you have a Raspberry PI, you can download the image from Lightburn and run it on that… Mine is that way… The PI has a layer of code to deal with the problems of UDP with the Ruida…

There is one issue with a Ruida on a local network that you should be aware of, that being it’s a static device.

Most computers call a router or some other device to get an IP address, this is DHCP. The Ruida isn’t that smart. You might have to go into your router and set the Laser’s ip up as a static device. On my Linksys, I just click the laser icon with the mouse and say it’s static. This prevents DHCP from issuing the lasers address to some other DHCP device.

Good luck

:smile_cat:

7

Well, I think I have to throw in the towel. I’m in Canada, that same router is a couple weeks out and is $80 here. Might as well just wait until the new Mac with the Ethernet port comes in. Even if I bought a router or tried to use my mesh, I’m not well versed enough to do any of the things you are suggesting.

I know when I’m licked.

Thanks a lot for trying anyway, it was much appreciated.

8

I’m missing how having an Ethernet connection on your new machine is going to help you much… ? You have a wifi network connection on your machine now…

If the laser isn’t close to a lan connection what’s that going to buy you?

Looked all over the place for the bridge in the photo… I’m sure I didn’t pitch it… I thought I’d just ship it to you if I can find it.

Isn’t there any wireless routers in Canada? All of my Linksys routers can be configured as wireless bridges… You may find something local to use…

:smile_cat:

9

Oh, I was thinking it was Ethernet on laser to Ethernet on Mac… So it would need to come from a router then, the Laptop being connected to wifi would have to be configured to send info back through the wifi and over to the laser then I assume.

Thank you for the offer, but not necessary to send me something. Very kind of you!
Yes, I’m sure I can pick up a cheap router, I really am not certain as to what to do at that point though.

I’m going to attempt this again, realized I messed something up:

Can I ask, in this part of the instruction, would I enter all five of those lines exactly as he has it there? Or do I enter one line then hit enter and then another and enter or should it be prompting me with those last four after I enter the first one? When I enter that first line “cd /system/library/extensions”. it just gives me the same command prompt as if nothing happened

image

Also, do you have Patreon or something? I feel like I at least owe you a beer or two for all this help…

10

Each line is a command by itself.

You can directly connect to the Ruida with an Ethernet cable, but your computer probably couldn’t find it or it couldn’t find your Mac.

I did this a while after getting fed up with the usb headache.

The simple way is to set your Mac Ethernet port to a known IP address, change the Ruida Gateway to your machines address. The subnets must be the same…

When you connect via an Ethernet connection you expect a connection. What really goes on is the machine you plugged in has no IP, so it send a packet that has a specific address requesting an IP to use.

If my lan was 192.168.1.1 then it would send a packet to 192.168.1.255 and wait for a return packet from a DHCP server (usually your router). It’s recognized as a request for an IP address… The DHCP server will assign an IP to the device from it’s ‘pool’ of ip addresses.

A static device, like the Ruida has it’s IP set by the user or factory. If the DHCP server assigns the same address to another device, that violates the IP protocol and both devices may respond.

On the Mac, if you want to read about the command you are using, Unix has made a standard command of ‘man’ for manual.

If you want to know what chgrp is then type “man chgrp” and the machine should display the documentation on that command. Use q to quit out of man.

Hopefully you’ll hear this enough times that it will eventually sink in…

If it’s on your lan, which is accessed by your wifi, you should see it just like any other device. There should be minimal configuration via a router, only assigning the device as static.

Big advantage of a network is no drivers or other ‘specialized’ software needed. Everything is already loaded and working if you can access the web or other things on your lan.

Don’t worry about payment… if you have any other questions, pipe up…

:smile_cat:

1 Like
11

Thank you for your continued patience and I’m sorry, I really have a tough time with all the jargon.

Here’s a cheap router I found, it doesn’t mention bridge though.

This one mentions bridge, but seems like something you wouldn’t really want as a stationary device…

Either look ok to you?

1 Like
12

The tp-link N300 is what mine was… It’s in a smaller case with no external antennas but it should work fine although it’s meant for a smaller coverage area. If your wifi is good it should be fine.

When you get it, make sure to read the instructions so you set it up as a wifi bridge.

:smile_cat:

14

You really are a jewel to this community, thank you for your dedication to everyone and helping me personally once again. I wish I possessed a tenth of your knowledge. It’s great that you give so much to everyone. I hope you know how much this means to someone that is relatively computer illiterate (I’m now seeing lol) Thanks

15

Thanks for the compliment… It’s applicable to all the people here that pitch in to help people get going. For something that is so simple in concept, can really be a mind bender…

What was your end decision… ? are you connected and working?

If you have issues, speak up…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

1 Like
16

Yeah I’ve tried to offer help in the things I’ve experienced so far when I can, but 95% of the time I have little to no experience on the subject.

So I ordered the N300 and it will be here tomorrow. In the meantime I’m going to see if I can mess with the FTDI situation so I can hopefully connect at least until I install the bridge. I’d like to get the ramp test done and determine my focal point/set my auto focus.

Actually another quick question for you if you don’t mind, the knurled knob in the picture here allows the nozzle to move up and down. Since the lens is inside of this tube, it moves with the nozzle. I take it this does not affect the focus at all then and this is strictly for clearance? Not sure why they would even make this adjustable if so, why not just make it as small as possible? Is there any advantage to having your nozzle further down? I suppose if you have to reach down inside of something but… that seems dangerous… maybe clearance for a hold down or something?

image
image420×597 93.8 KB

17

From the description, I have to ask where exactly is the lens mounted? To change lenses you need to access it.

Can you remove the tube itself easily?

Your head looks good and I assume the screws allow a Z axes movement for adjusting it to the center of the tube.

I don’t have that type of head, anymore. This is much easier to align.

cropped-head
cropped-head1920×2880 297 KB

:smile_cat:

18

It is down around the blue band that’s in the picture, access is for sure one of the reasons I suppose for using the knob. Just the tube is so long inside. I suppose it’s just to get as far up as it can to protect the beam. Based on this I think my best bet is to push it up as far as it can go anytime I do anything that drops it down.

So when I try one of those lines of code (sudo mv AppleUSBFTDI.kext AppleUSBFTDI.disabled) in recovery mode/terminal, it said something like sudo command not valid. Wondering if it’s just my iOS because it’s like 5 years later. Think, for this method at least, I’m at a dead end.

19

Actually, just don’t waste your time with answering, I’m going to have the router tomorrow, I can wait.

Thanks again for all the help

20

I’m not familiar with recovery mode, except when the machine crashes and can’t completely reboot.

Every machine should have sudo (super user do).

This doesn’t look right… the mv is a move command usually used to rename files, but it can move them also.

I typed the whole path, try it and see what you get… this is my Linux box.

jack@Kilo:~$ /usr/bin/sudo
usage: sudo -h | -K | -k | -V
usage: sudo -v [-ABknS] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-u user]
usage: sudo -l [-ABknS] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-U user] [-u user] [command]
usage: sudo [-ABbEHknPS] [-r role] [-t type] [-C num] [-D directory] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-R directory] [-T timeout] [-u user]
            [VAR=value] [-i|-s] [<command>]
usage: sudo -e [-ABknS] [-r role] [-t type] [-C num] [-D directory] [-g group] [-h host] [-p prompt] [-R directory] [-T timeout] [-u user]
            file ...
jack@Kilo:~$

If it finds sudo, something hosed up the paths on your system…

:smile_cat:

21

Can I ask why mv is in blue?