I set up the materials test with all default values.
I click run.
The laser etches the x-axis power percent values.
The laser etches the first three y-axis power values.
It stops after 4467. Just stops.
Clicking Frame or any other command in the material test dialog does nothing at the laser.
Back at the Laser window it shows the laser as “Busy”.
If I click the job stop button, it will do Frame and other commands again.
I have power cycled the laser, and everything seems fine but the same problem happens.
The laser has successfully etched a number of simple items and burned a few. Seems to work fine except this test.
Is this a problem with the Aufero hardware? How do I debug this?
Hi Alan - are there any notes in the Console of LightBurn that might give us an indication of what your laser is saying over the comms port LightBurn connects with? It’s on the right side of the screen typically, in a tab.
You can always email us at Support@LightBurnSoftware.com for the fastest, direct response. While we definitely assist on the forum, direct support is much quicker as your issue will be seen by a larger audience and directed to whom is most able to help.
Judging from your output, your laser is about 3 versions behind in the Firmware - firmware is the code that lives on your laser itself. They frequently get updated by the manufacturer to fix bugs and add features.
Your firmware is OLF187, vs OLF191 is the current version. Installing the latest firmware may help with your comms issue, if not at least improve your laser’s software stability.
On the top of Page 13, Step 5 is the operation to copy the .BIN file to the virtual drive presented by the Aufero. This step fail, causing the macOS Finder app to close and produce an error
“The operation can’t be completed because the device disappeared.”
The Aufero Laser 1 appears to turn off at that same moment, both LEDs turn off.
The laser appears to be working fine after turning it back on. LightBurn can talk to it. The console reports the previous firmware version so the update did, indeed, fail.
This forum is not an Ortur support service but, if anyone has experience with this update failure, please share.
The test pattern did not work. This time it burns the top title of the pattern and stops.
I remember a video saying that the laser will stop if the frame is tilted or bumped. Could it be that this is happening as it moves rapidly to write the letters? How do I confirm or deny that aberrant movement is the reason for the stop?
The top title was first because the text settings for the test pattern were set to “Line.” I changed that setting to “Fill” and the pattern burn stops in the exact same place as described at the top of this thread. Sigh.
I submitted a support ticket with Ortur. I got an email response, confirming the ticket. It also included a fairly long description of changes in Ortur company leadership and that support is a voluntary thing. Doesn’t give me confidence the issue will be addressed by Ortur.
If anyone has further thoughts on getting the test pattern to work, please add them here.
The LightBurn Console window will show a cryptic GRBL error message indicating an emergency stop, perhaps `Error 3: Reset while in motion."
The all-too-common USB glitches and power problems, however, typically do not produce an error message, because the controller generally crashes and resets. You can diagnose those by noting that the Console window shows the same set of messages you see when you turn the laser controller on, because it’s doing the same hard reset after the glitch.
Note that all of those errors happen on the laser end of the connection and LightBurn on the PC can only report what it get from the USB driver, which is painfully uninformative.
Thanks for the tips about error evidence. Unfortunately I don’t see any error or reset evidence in the console. I even found the little switch “Show all” in the Console window. No errors or reset sequences show. The Aufero just stops all movement and the laser is shut off.
This can be caused by a small amount of data loss.
The other symptom is that there is no error message reported in the Console window at all, and the engraver reports that the communication stream completes.
Please open the Console window in LightBurn. Scroll back, select and copy some of that text and paste it into a reply here. It will help us understand what’s happening.
OK, I have good, bad news. It’s all working now. I set up to do a nice, clean run from power up and connection, with clear steps so I could get a good log of the console. And it just worked.
Yay! It works!
Darn it! Now I don’t know what fixed it!
I don’t know what more to say. I’ve burned the pattern three times. Power cycles and reconnecting USB between each. It’s working.
