MacOS El Capitan - SculpFun S9 Laser Engraver - GRBL - USB Connection not working

LightBurn Software Questions OS Specific
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I have two Macs and only have an issue on one of them when connecting to the Sculpfun S9 laser engraver (GRBL device). The laser engraver will no longer connect as a USB connected GRBL device. Initially, it did connect as a USB connected GRBL device, but now it only presents the option to connect as a bluetooth device as seen on the home page. Choosing a USB connection is not an option.

Equipment Specs:
MacBook Late 2008, MacOS, El Capitan v 10.11.6, Lightburn v 1.0.06, Laser SculpFun S9.

Troubleshooting Steps:
I turned off bluetooth and rebooted the computer. I restarted Lightburn and removed the device. I manually recreated the device, picking USB/Serial for the connection. I stopped Lightburn and restarted Lightburn. No change. I re-installed Lightburn (I suspect this did not do any cleanup/removal of old/existing device files ?). I rebooted. I started Lightburn and again, removed and manually recreated the device. Always, the connection type shows as bluetooth and not USB.

I also, copied the device file from the working computer and imported it into the non-working computer. That did not solve the problem, with home page still only offering bluetooth connection

Other computer specs:
On the other computer that does connect properly, it shows the device as a USB connection. The working computer is a MacBook Pro, MacOS, Catalina v 10.15.7. But, as noted above, connecting from the other computer did work initially.

How to proceed?:
Is there a way to fully uninstall all installed files, created device files, etc.? What is the process?

I do not know if this is a MacOS configuration issue, or a logic gap in the Lightburn SW, or a combination of both?

I look forward to your reply. Thank you for the gift of your time and best ideas.
Respectfully, Norm

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If a USB port type is not showing up in LightBurn it’s almost certainly not going to be an issue with LightBurn itself. It’s going to be an OS issue where for some reason the USB device is not being identified, loaded, and presented as a USB serial device.

Key should be to focus on why MacOS is not connecting to the device correctly. Typically this would be a driver issue. Rather a matter of not having the driver. However, since you said this used to work there’s likely something else going on.

Has anything recently changed on the computer? Any OS updates or perhaps did you install yet another device onto the computer recently?

I believe the Sculpfun lasers use CH34X USB Serial chipset.

Check this post for context and a link to how to check and reinstall the driver as necessary:

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Hi Berainlb, Thank you for the reply. After I left the post I kept reading other post and found this one that talks about the driver for older versions of MacOS.

I have to restate my recollection of what happened regarding it initially working on the older computer. That may not have been the case, as I may have become confused about which computer was in use, as I did quickly swap out the old for the new computer to get on with the job at the time. I apologize for the confusion. I will install the drivers, as noted in your reply and follow-up here with how it play out. Thank you for replying, your guidance is very helpful. Again, sorry for the confusion I presented in the original post.
Respectfully, Norm

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If you can account for the difference in behavior even better. Then it’s more logically consistent. Let us know how it works out.

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Hi Berainlb,

All is well thanks to your guidance and advice. I now have a working MacOS X, Catalina version 10.15.7

Thank you for the gift of your time and guidance. It is very much appreciated!

Details:
I was able to download and perform the steps located at the GitHub link you provided above and I provide here: GitHub - adrianmihalko/ch340g-ch34g-ch34x-mac-os-x-driver: CH340G CH34G CH34X Mac OS X driver

I followed the installation steps verbatim with one exception. On step 5, out of habit, I did reboot the computer. Once it came back to life I continued with step 6 and 7 as prescribed.

When I plugged the laser into the usb port, started Lightburn, and on the home page I was now able to select the usb connection. At that moment, I heard the stepper motors twitch. That was an encouraging sound. I was able to move the laser position and fire the laser. It works!

I hope your guidance and my experience will help others.

Again, thank you!

Respectfully, Norm

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That’s brilliant and a nice ending. Appreciate your closing the loop and documenting what you finally did to resolve it.

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Hi,

Here are a few more details related to the driver installation:
The downloaded zip file contained 3 packages: CH34x_Install_V1.3.pkg, CH34x_Install_V1.4.pkg, and CH34x_Install_V1.5.pkg.

I only installed CH34x_Install_V1.5.pkg.

The device found in my /dev directory is named: tty.wchusbserial620

The usb connection on the Lightburn home page is named: cu.wchusbserial620

All the best to those that follow!

-Norm

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And another device in the /dev direct is cu.wchusbserial620. It being the one chosen within Lightburn as noted above.

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Hi, Just an update. The problem and solution noted above is for MacOS X El Capitan and not Catalina as stated. Catalina worked well form the get go.

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