Neje Master 2 Plus is moving very slow

[Olli]

Hello and happy new year (despite that Corona thingy).

since this is my first post, let me introduce myself real quick. I am completely new to laser engraving/cutting. Since I like to do some woodworking in my spare time, I got intrigued by the cheap prices of those entry level lasers and bought one as a Christmas present to myself. The Neje Master 2 Plus (30W input power version) arrived a couple of days ago and I am currently playing around with it. Of course, the first thing I tried was using the software provided by Neje. It worked out of the box (iOS) and I was able to engrave a test image on some plywood (cottonwood). The iOS app, however, is quite limited - to be polite :). Next step was the MacOS version of Neje’s software. Although it has more options to fiddle with, the current version has a bug for me where the image is completely distorted. That’s how I stummbled across LightBurn while researching for alternatives.

I switched the firmware to GRBL 1.1f (faster baud rate one) and installed the 30 day trial of LightBurn. Everything is working right out of the box (e.g., homing) and I am able to engrave some pictures. The thing, which is bothering me, however, is how slow the laser moves. By this I do not mean the overall laser time (which I can control with the mm/s setting), but the movement to reach a certain X/Y position (e.g., home position). It is painfully slow. Controlled by the Neje software, it moves way faster.

Is there a setting I need to adjust (or something in the device configuration) which needs tweaking? I wouldn’t ask this question, in case only returning to the home position was slow (which of course only happens once per laser job), but also moving between two (far apart) laser points is very slow. Resulting in a very long laser time.

Since I am new with LightBurn as well as laser engraving/cutting, it is absolutely possible that I overlooked something elementary. If that is the case, I am happy for any pointer into the right direction.

[Olli]

After going through all settings and config files, I can answer the question myself. In case someone else encounters the same problem, here is my solution:

You have to adjust the machine settings. In order to do so, go to Edit->Machine Settings and export the current configuration. Open the file in a texteditor and edit these lines:

{
    "Desc": "X Max rate (mm/min) ($110)",
    "ID": "0x6e",
    "Value": 4000
},
{
    "Desc": "X Accleration (mm/sec^2) ($120)",
    "ID": "0x78",
    "Value": 200
},

{
    "Desc": "Y Max rate (mm/min) ($111)",
    "ID": "0x6f",
    "Value": 4000
},
{
    "Desc": "Y Accleration (mm/sec^2) ($121)",
    "ID": "0x79",
    "Value": 200
},

Change the values for X & Y rate to 4000 and the Acceleration to 200. Save your modification and back in LightBurn use the Load function to load your modified settings. Make sure to write them to the controller as well before closing the machine settings.