Make TL410c with raspberry network compatible?

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
1

hey we wondering if we can bring our TL410c into the network.
main goal would be to send files to it. So we dont have to carry usb stick or be near the device to do so

we actually have a raspberry attached nearby to enable/disable laser - so we have something like a access control.

so main question: what exactly does a ip connection to a controller do (lightburn -> controller)

alternativly we would do a socat - network tunneling of the serial connection. And then use this to control it remotely. This may be a bit hacky and heavily depend on the setup on the maschines using it, we would prefer to “simply” connect to it (and have the hacky stuff only on the raspberry)

somebody may have thought about this before, we are happy to here from you.

here is how tl-410c is noticed in system when plugged in

root@laser:~# lsusb -d 0403:6001 -v

Bus 001 Device 006: ID 0403:6001 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd FT232 Serial (UART) IC
Device Descriptor:
  bLength                18
  bDescriptorType         1
  bcdUSB               1.10
  bDeviceClass            0 
  bDeviceSubClass         0 
  bDeviceProtocol         0 
  bMaxPacketSize0         8
  idVendor           0x0403 Future Technology Devices International, Ltd
  idProduct          0x6001 FT232 Serial (UART) IC
  bcdDevice            4.00
  iManufacturer           1 FTDI
  iProduct                2 VNC1-A As Slave
  iSerial                 0 
  bNumConfigurations      1
  Configuration Descriptor:
    bLength                 9
    bDescriptorType         2
    wTotalLength       0x0020
    bNumInterfaces          1
    bConfigurationValue     1
    iConfiguration          2 VNC1-A As Slave
    bmAttributes         0x20
      (Missing must-be-set bit!)
      (Bus Powered)
      Remote Wakeup
    MaxPower               60mA
    Interface Descriptor:
      bLength                 9
      bDescriptorType         4
      bInterfaceNumber        0
      bAlternateSetting       0
      bNumEndpoints           2
      bInterfaceClass       255 Vendor Specific Class
      bInterfaceSubClass    255 Vendor Specific Subclass
      bInterfaceProtocol    255 Vendor Specific Protocol
      iInterface              2 VNC1-A As Slave
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x81  EP 1 IN
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
      Endpoint Descriptor:
        bLength                 7
        bDescriptorType         5
        bEndpointAddress     0x02  EP 2 OUT
        bmAttributes            2
          Transfer Type            Bulk
          Synch Type               None
          Usage Type               Data
        wMaxPacketSize     0x0040  1x 64 bytes
        bInterval               0
can't get debug descriptor: Resource temporarily unavailable
Device Status:     0x0000
  (Bus Powered)
2

I don’t think the TL-410C has the ability to connect over Ethernet, but the TL-403CB does. (LightBurn does not support IP connections for TopWisdom yet though).

3

thanks so far, do you have any insights in how to setup a connection like in autolaser - we think of something like using socat/netcat to forward the ft232 serial connection via network
we were succesfully able to initiate connection with old autolaser software (2.3.5) on port 222 with netcat running. Lower Baudrates fit better. But after the “connection success” we werent able to do anything.
Autolaser sends the string “ccEccU” - which is at this point totally meaningless to us.

is there any source to get more information how “this” or a possible network connection in lightburn will work with a similar forwarded serial connection

4

I honestly can’t say if that will work. If you have a USB to Ethernet converter device on each end of the connection it could work, but I can’t say for certain.

5

well, we want it “simple” - so it seems the autolaser “feature” of network connection is at the end also only a socat(similar) approach.

at this point we got successfull with this setup

  • rasperry pi on lasercutter builtin:usb-ftdi232 (normal connection) directly, there we use the /dev/ttyUSB0
  • run on raspberry socat -d -u -s tcp-listen:222,fork,reuseaddr /dev/ttyUSB0,raw
  • autolaser can now connect to whatever ip is set to the raspberry (it uses port 222 tcp behind the scenes)

so far we can move the head with the up left right down dial , no luck with sending content so far.

(you may view incoming commands with netcat -k -l 222 < /dev/ttyUSB0 )
so we have a established connection so far, do you have any insights of what kind of paramaters are used - like baudrate, stopbit - or in which direction we might think of getting the file transfer done? How is it done if lightburn is “real” connected to the laserdevice?

this is send by autolaser for sending a file

...
2020/07/21 15:59:24 socat[13269] N listening on AF=2 0.0.0.0:222
2020/07/21 15:59:24 socat[19054] N opening character device "/dev/ttyUSB0" for reading and writing
2020/07/21 15:59:24 socat[19054] N starting data transfer loop with FDs [8,8] and [7,7]
> 2020/07/21 15:59:25.122229  length=54 from=0 to=53
 00 01 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 01 00 00 00  ................
 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 04 00  ................
 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  ................
 00 00 b7 63 66 1c                                ...cf.
--
< 2020/07/21 15:59:25.136182  length=61 from=0 to=60
 d4 01 05 7f 56 2e 4c 30 31 37 2e 31 30 35 ff ff  ....V.L017.105..
 ff ff ff ff 54 5a 44 5f 4c 30 31 37 2e 54 46 4c  ....TZD_L017.TFL
 ff ff ff ff 56 2e 4c 30 31 37 2e 31 30 35 ff ff  ....V.L017.105..
 ff ff ff ff 54 5a 44 5f 4c 30 31 37 2e           ....TZD_L017.
--
< 2020/07/21 15:59:25.196046  length=8 from=61 to=68
 54 46 4c ff ff ff ff 00                          TFL.....
--
6

The bitrate is likely 3mbps (about 300 kb/sec) though FTDI can do full speed USB (12mbps), 8/N/1.

I’m not sure exactly what you’re asking here. Sending a file to the laser involves encoding it appropriately then pushing the data over the serial connection. The protocol is less complicated than most of the other machines we support - they don’t use checksums or anything else, just the USB connection and hardware handshaking for flow control, which might be the part you’re missing.

7

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