I have a new Longer B1 40w laser and it has the optional screen attached. While it connects correctly on Ethernet/TCP and shows up in Lightburn I am having problems with it running GCode. I made a simple test file with a few letters of text and selected a line based engraving of 1,000 mm/min and 12% power. The file will fail to run or engrave anything and in the console messages like “error: Gcode modal group violation” or “error: Expected GCodecommand letter” appear. But if I save that same GCode to the micro SD card and run it locally it is engraving fine.
Playing with the GCode by using Save GCode (and Run GCode) it seems to fail most often when the gcode has multiple initialization commands in the same line like “G00 G17 G40 G21” all in one line or when the XY commands don’t have spaces in them. But I suspect this might be a red herring and something else is happening.
It is on a dedicated 2.4ghz Wi-Fi network with a strong signal, its IP address is not changing as it has a reservation in my Ubiquiti Wi-Fi network. I tried to use the Custom GCode entry with GRBL but it seems I can only change a couple of the things that I noticed it was having problems with for my network sends. I can’t prevent the G00 G17 type command line headers or blank lines. Which of course might not be the problem at all.
One thought is maybe I could switch to using the Bridge as I have a Raspberry Pi Nano 2 W that I am using for my remote Longer B1 camera and it could connect to USB but I am not sure about that workflow.
What I guess I am confused by is if others have tried to make the Longer B1 work over Ethernet/TCP and if they are running into all these errors that “feel” like they are communication related and not GCode related – although I am not sure.
i would love to be able to do all the burning across the network and not need to use the USB cable or saving files to the micro SD card but I guess I could live with it if we can’t figure it out but the software engineer in me is dying to understand what is happening.
Thanks for any insight.
Specifically for details:
Lightburn Pro 2.0.05
Longer Laser B1
Board Firmware: 23110801
Screen Firmware: V1.0_20231010
Windows 11 Professional, PC connected via Ethernet, Longer connected to same network on Wifi.
If you’re inclined to share a couple of sample GCode files, particularly one that works and one that fails, I might be able see a troubleshooting step and help this go forward.
I don’t have a Longer B1 on hand but I’m inclined to think the issue may be a firmware customization.
Are you working in inches? Some manufacturers locked out G20 and are striclty metric.
Find a WIFI Analzer app and run it. You will see that signal is not as stable as you might expect. The usual saying is do not use WIFI, use Ethernet instead. Then USB, then WIFI if you have no other choice.
I am sure…
Not sure why you choose WIFI over USB, but Ethernet/TCP and WIFI are not the same thing, Ethernet is wired. I do not know your layout, but operating a laser without direct supervision is a poor (you can burn the house down dangereous) idea.
Which is making me think that even in transfer mode Synchronous that the Longer B1 can’t stream the file to the micro sd card and engrave the file if it is too big and then starts corrupting the data received and gives these random GCode errors. But that feels like something is wrong with Wifi capability of the Longer B1 cause why say it can support Wifi when it can’t support even a very small nc file.
By the way my computer is on the other side of the room but I am in the room with the laser and its in an enclosure with a honeycomb table under the laser. It is just a bit further than I want to run a USB cable.
It is the nature of WIFI itself that is faulty. If you view the signal strength with a WIFI Analyzer app, you will see the signal go from a peak all the way to zero. Not good for streaming.
I looked at your first .NC file, and it looked good. This confirms your suspicion that it is a communications issue.
Maximum recommend USB length is 10’ using a quality cable. You can extend that distance with a powered hub, or USB to Ethernet adaptors and Ethernet cable. I recommend this over that WIFI plan.
Yep it is too bad that wifi doesn’t work and they don’t support an ethernet connection but I suspect the device would be a lot more complex. I have switched to using USB from my laptop and I am getting a good 10 foot data cable for the powered hub that worked so I should be good.
10 foot USB-C cable to my macbook pro with some ferrite cores on wrapped on each end and its working perfectly I actually got a bit more distance using a dock nearby the laser enclosure. So basically to close the thread I gave up trying to use wifi or ethernet control even in the same room.