Machine Freezes when air assist is on

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Ortur Lasers
1

I have the Ortur LM2 and the latest Lightburn version. I added air assist to this setup and every time I start a job and turn on the air assist compressor the software/machine locks up meaning it stops the burn and does not responds and I have to shut down LB and start it back up without the AA then the laser responds to LB.

I have the frame and laser unit grounded per Orturs instruction. Also have upgraded the controller with latest firmware.

I have the air line zip tied to the wiring harness and the compressor about 5ft away from machine and on a separate circuit than the PC or LM2.

Any guidance would be appreciated!

Thanks

2

A couple options here, it’s getting rfi from the compressor or the voltage is taking a dive, brownout, not long enough to reboot.

Can you move the compressor to a different plug, or breaker.

Could the air tube be vibrating the harness?

The other option maybe to move the wiring harness around a bit.

@OrturTech Gill might be able to help, he knows these machine pretty well…

Good luck

:smile_cat:

1 Like
3

Sounds like you’ve checked for all the right things. I suspect even with your attempts you’re still getting some sort of interference from the compressor.

The 3 things I can think of that would affect the laser in the way you describe:

  1. drop in power - I’m trying to think of a way to even out the power. Do you have access to a UPS that you could put in front of the laser?
  2. electrical noise from the compressor causing signaling issues - I’ve heard of filters you can put in between outlet and plug to suppress noise. It’s possible the UPS does this by default.
  3. static discharge - this one seems the least plausible to me but probably the easiest to rule-out. Ortur doesn’t have you ground the chassis to the ground terminal of an outlet (at least with the official kit). If you haven’t already, trying grounding to an outlet. Normally you connect to the cover plate screw. Else you could use an adapter that allows you to use one of the ground terminals.
1 Like
4

I would agree with both jack and PY

One option would be power the pump prior… let it settle THEN start the job as a test
or… have ortur draw simple squares at low power and turn pump on and off to confirm
EMF might be a problem for sure if the compressor is high power.

5

I want to thank all for your suggestions! I do appreciate it.

I do have a UPS that I can put in the equation and see if that will help.

The AA is already on a dedicated separate circuit, but I could move it and see what happens.

I will re-route the supply hose as well.

I will read back through all the suggestions and perform them one at a time to see what was the cure and report what I find out.

Thanks again and I do appreciate the responders and welcome anyone else’s suggestion.

6

Thank you Gill for your suggestion and will for sure try this!

Thanks again!

7

I would lean towards RFI since you have the items on different circuits. Compressor motor probably has brushes which will create a lot of noise. You may be able to tell by using an AM radio tuned off station and trace the noise. Test with the compressor on then off.