Not communicating with laser

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility Ruida controllers
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1

I have an OmTech 60w, bought and operated since December of '22, using LightBurn. After not using the laser for the summer, I have encountered a number of problems.

I cannot connect (via ethernet) to my MacBook. I have reset the IP address and pinged the network and it responds to the ping. The Ruida controller shows LAN ON. I have rebooted the MacBook, and reset, unplugged and plugged in the Laser, with no change.

I connected to the laser via USB and sent a file, only to have it respond with a busy/paused message.

When I press the Ruida control panel start/pause button, the laser starts the last file I was using the spring. I reset the laser (multiple times) and then press the start/pause button, it again restarts the old file. I tried to clear the file list in the controller and it shows no files present, yet when the start/pause button s pressed, it starts the old file, I cannot clear the old file out of controller memory.

I attempted to transfer a new file via Flash Drive to the laser and the controller doesn’t see a file present on the drive, yet on the MacBook, the file is on the Flash Drive.

Any Ideas… Is there a hard reset for the motherboard? I fear I will need to replace the Ruida controller and motherboard.

Thank you

2

…I wouldn’t recommend that, your controller will be empty afterwards, really empty.
You should try to get your lan connection working again with your Laser.
Create a test profile with a new laser and use the standard lan settings, from the manual. Do you have a switch or router between the laser and computer?

3

…can’t see why when there is life in your machine.
Ps. what do you mean by motherboard and controller?

4

Good afternoon, The configuration I’ve been using since getting the machine three years ago is: MacBook connected by ethernet to my net switch and Laser by ethernet to the net switch. I understood that MacBook to Laser by USB was inherently unreliable. System has been working well, I don’t use machine much during the summer. I have checked IP address on both the Ruida controller and Lightburn and they are the same. I pinged the network to see if the MacBook was transmitting and receiving the ping and it show it is:

andy@Andreas-MacBook-Air ~ % Ping -c 10 10.0.1.153

PING 10.0.1.153 (10.0.1.153): 56 data bytes

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=521.127 ms

Request timeout for icmp_seq 1

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=2 ttl=64 time=53.728 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=3 ttl=64 time=3.397 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=4 ttl=64 time=507.099 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=5 ttl=64 time=118.752 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=6 ttl=64 time=3.689 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=7 ttl=64 time=2.621 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=8 ttl=64 time=4.074 ms

64 bytes from 10.0.1.153: icmp_seq=9 ttl=64 time=135.759 ms

-– 10.0.1.153 ping statistics —

10 packets transmitted, 9 packets received, 10.0% packet loss

round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 2.621/150.027/521.127/200.449 ms

I tried a USB connection, and selected USB in Lightburn. When I sent the file to the laser, it responded with laser busy/paused. When I hit the Start/Pause button, It starts the laser cutting the last file I was using in June. I’ve cleared the memory of the Ruida and no files are indicated in memory, yet when I hit Start, it starts the old last file.

I don’t know if there is a way to reboot the Ruida to somehow clear the “stuck” file. I have obviously “reset” the control panel and unplugged the machine for a little while, but the same thing occurs. The control panel shows LAN On.

I really don’t want to replace the Ruida control panel and motherboard ($$$) as I would expect the new one would be -really empty-. I”m not a genius, to have to initialize a blank motherboard… but the laser is unusable currently.

5

Problem Solved for now.

I deleted all devices in Lightburn, then changed the IP address on the Laser (Ruida) and then manually added the Laser back into Lightburn and … Eureka… It seems to be working, till the next thing throws me a curve ball.

Thank you for responding and giving me the motivation to try stuff different.

1 Like
6

It’s great to read that you’re up and running again.
My setup is very similar to yours and I’m not very active in the summer either. I haven’t had any problems with my LAN connection, I also have a switch between router and work computer (Linux to control the laser with) and wireless with my Macbook. I’ve always had to manually create the machine profile for the laser, but it works fine.

7

I did have a problem last year when I started using the laser after the summer off… It seems if a device is inactive for a period of time, the IP address that was automatically assigned to the device can get reassigned to a different new device… I had to reassign a different IP to get it to work. I dread these types of problems because I’m not strong on the background stuff on the computers. Thanks again

8

To prevent that issue, manually assign it an IP address that is outside the range of addresses the router assigns.

9

I assigned it .200. I don’t have a lot of devices on my network… Thanks

10

did you actually hit the reset button on the control panel of the Rudia panel ?

11

sorry i missed the reply that you got it working

12

What @thelmuth was indicating is that you need to assign that I.P. address as a fixed address, and not to be in the DHCP pool. It is a router setting thing.