Neje Master 2 now working with Lightburn on GRBL 1.1f

[BlackjackDuck (Andy)]

After much trial and error, playing with settings, reading forum discussions, etc., I am now able to directly control my Neje Master 2 laser with Lightburn. I’m posting a new thread here to help folks searching ‘ze Googles’ for a solution.

Things that work:

• Windows and Mac
• PWM / Varying power settings in a single file
• Dithering, greyscale, etc.
• Cameras
• Bouncing back and forth between Lightburn and Neje software
• Pretty much everything except…

Things that don’t work:

• Homing - Maybe the Neje is wired incorrectly. Maybe it’s that z-axis appears to be enabled and a limit error is thrown sometimes. Maybe I needed to give up on homing to retain my sanity. Either way, it returns to origin after each burn completes, so I’m much less likely to destroy my belts when if I forget to reposition on startup.

These steps have been replicated by 3 different folks, so they seem to be repeatable.

Link to the instructions, setup files, etc. available here

[MartinF (Martin)]

Thank you very much for your work! I played around with LaserWeb but will definitely give Lightburn a try!

To Homing: According to the grbl wiki the limit switches are expected at the Arduino UNO Pins 9, 10 and 12 (X,Y,Z). These Pins are connected to the Pins PB1, PB2 and PB4 of the ATmega328P. Unfortunately I can’t see any trace on the “NEJE Master 2” PCB to these Pins.

For reference, here are photos of the “NEJE Master 2” PCB:

[Rob2 (Rob Rietveld)]

Dear Blackjackduck, I have been struggling with connecting my Mac to the Neje Master 2. With the help of your pointers I got to the point where at least some communication is happening between Lightburn and the machine.
Other than that it seems a mess. When I finally got some light I get the console to tell me that benbox laser 3.1© mul 2015.06.06. No GBRL 1.1f.
I can get the laser to do basic things through the console. (like burning a hole in my desk with the M3 command) but through the Lightburn start it seems a mess. It attempts to cut and seems to make the right moves but only uses the laser pointer and it seems to stop halfway and the stream never finishes.
Just for the heck I waited more than an hour on one occasion. I understand that the machine has two controllers of which I only seem to be reaching one.
I cannot update as the updater runs on Win alone, and only macs here.
Any additional pointer (other than finding a win machine somewhere)
Many thanks in advance

[Rob2 (Rob Rietveld)]

Following up on my story. I bought a refurbished HP laptop with Win10 on it.
Story is the same (with the difference I spent another 300Euro:( )
I was able to upgrade the laser contraption to version 7.1 whereas it said the then current one is 7.0,
Still benbox laser 3.1© mul 2015.06.06 same weird behavior and when I try the machine setting file you provided it says no machine settings returned in the dialog window.
Back to the console when I try to cut something (putting the laser in 0,0 position manually) it seems to cut (without laser power though) makes its movements and then console says:
Starting stream
unknow M4
unknow M8
unknow M9
unknow M2
Stream completed in 0:41
ok

When I am lucky the prompt returns, if not Lightburn hangs on tryin to complete the drawing.
Seems to me te wrong controller is selected.
Am I correct to assume that the idea is that one controller is using benbox and the other I cannot select is GRBL 1.1f?

[BlackjackDuck (Andy)]

Hey Rob,

You need to flash GRBL 1.1f over Benbox. Neje has a tool for this that I linked in my instructions. It may require Windows. The two controllers are Neje controller and an alternative, custom controller. The 2nd controller can have either GRBL or Benbox, but not both.

When you flash, be sure you flash to 1.1f. Confirm that it is 1.1f when you connect to Lightburn.

[Rob2 (Rob Rietveld)]

Thanks Andy, this evening I realized there were more than one .exe files and have been toying with those as I now have a win pc.
Voila, I got it working!!!
Homing was a problem(and left was right or left or up or down, pictures and text reversed etc) I finally realized that I could turn the device, duh!, create a virtual home position which worked fine until you restart of course.
From there it was smooth sailing. I would not have gotten there without your pointers, many thanks. I hope this thread will help blundering noobs like me to the solution.
Thanks again and greetings from Holland.

[Rob2 (Rob Rietveld)]

BTW, users with only Mac have no hope to get this sorted. This is misleading by Neje’s statements regarding what they support.
So you can use a Mac with Lightburn as long as you have a win pc to manage the updates and flashing of the device.
Anyway it is better to know than to wander into the woods.
Cheers
Rob