My Omtech CO2 Polar is stopping in mid cut. It sort of pulses with my warning light only very slightly pulsing white every 5 seconds or more, but not a solid color, like red. I had first thought it could be low water level but it wasn’t that low and I did fill it more anyway. It does have a difficult time connecting. I got it going again for a brief amount of time after shutting down, turning off Lightburn, and restarting completely. However, this did not fix the problem for long and it stopped again, doing the same thing. Any thoughts?
You do not specify what computer you are using or how long it takes to get to “mid cut”. If using Windows, look for turning off the USB energy saver switch.
How exactly did these difficulties manifest themselves?
You did three things to restore the connection. It would be interesting to know which of these things solved the connection issue. (My money is on the restart of the laser.)
We have detailed connection troubleshooting steps listed here:
(Including the rightfully recommended part of disabling the USB sleep feature when using Windows.)
I realized, that your version of the Polar comes with a RuiDa controller. LightBurn sends those devices the entire job and the machine processes it. That should complete, even if you unplugged the USB connection while it’s running.
First suggestion is to hook the Polar to your local network using an Ethernet connection. This would likely eliminate most of the communications issues.
This is one of the issues with not having a console. It appears the Ruida detected some kind of anomaly that it decides to halt. A console would display the error. There are yt videos on how to install a Ruida console on a Polar.
I don’t know how you find errors, either software or hardware without a console. An idiot light isn’t really of much use except to tell you it failed.
There are only two inputs to halt a Ruida. Water protection or door protection activation. If it’s not one of those two, then it must be the Ruida being driven out of it’s work area. On mine, I can send it to the machine and run it from the console, unfortunately, you need a console.
Does your controller have leds? This is my Ruida. WP1 on CN5 is usually illuminates led 9 on the controllers leds, when active. Notice the two green circles, they indicate the input state. The red circle is the door protect input, which doesn’t have an associated led.
Make sense?
Is this true with both start and send?
I use send and run it from the machines console, which he doesn’t have.
If he can run the job from the button on the front of the Polar, it might be worth a try to use send instead of start.
I still think an Ethernet connection is the best way.
Thanks for the input. I don’t have a separate Ruida Controller (hopefully someday soon). However, I have had the machine for 2 years and haven’t had this type of problem yet. With the Omtech Polar, once you send the file to the machine, it is stored there until you send another. I can push the start button on the machine, and it doesn’t have anything to do with connection issues or ethernet. My actual ethernet and USB connections are fine.
In this case the machine is just stopping with that brief flashing of white every 5-10 seconds around the start button which is where warning indications are displayed through lights. The machine also makes this slight pulsing sound, almost like it is trying to pump the water tank to cool the laser but not getting through.
Yes, both “Start” and “Send” will send the entire job to the controller.
“Start” just also starts the engraving, while with “Send” you would have to begin the job by selecting it on the console.
I looked through the manual to see what the white flashing light might mean, but couldn’t find any reference to it.
The cooling water flow could definitely be clogged after two years.
If that’s the case, though, I would expect that the laser wouldn’t fire at all.
Can you explain exactly when “mid-cut” the job fails?
From what I understood from other is it can start it before it’s complete. I think you’re likely correct, it’s always been my question of how they could start it and still send data…
Ditto… This is a good use for AI, however, it found nothing either. 
It has to be some kind of indicator, why else would it do that?
I’d think you could see the led on the Ruida if that was an issue. Too bad, there is no console.