Quite the contrary, I’m desperate to figure out what’s causing this, but haven’t been able to reproduce it even once in house.
For 0.9.21 I changed how the connection to the laser is managed - It used to be that LightBurn would connect to the laser on startup, and release the connection when you quit. That meant if you ran a 2nd copy of LightBurn you couldn’t send to the machine with that copy, because the 1st one was holding the connection to the machine, and only one can talk to it at a time.
People complained about this constantly, so it was changed to open the connection when you do something that interacts with the machine, then closes the connection when it’s not needed any more. For some reason, for a small handful of users, this is causing intermittent issues like you’re seeing. I haven’t been able to figure out why.
Apologies, - I wasn’t having a dig when I said it wasn’t a priority. I should have worded that better.
I actually did have the issue of not being able to connect the 2nd instance of LB to the machine (hence why I got into the habit of saving one of the files, then closing LB and opening the saved file to run it).
If it’s any use, I can send the lbrn2 file that had the issues if it helps you replicate it. It was an imported svg, not created from scratch in LB.
As I mentioned, it’s the first time I used this format and had the issue so I’ve reverted to the old format so I’ve only encountered it once.
Send it to support@lightburnsoftware.com and include a link to this thread - I’ll try running it here. What controller model are you using? (not just “Ruida”, but the actual model number?)
Hi Oz, I sent the files along with my info to the listed address about a week ago and included this thread but haven’t heard anything. I’ll resend right now.
I did - we’re just still getting set up in the new space so there are a lot of other demands on my time at the moment. Might take me a bit to dig through this.
I will confirm this issue as well. Very intermittent for me almost rare. However it has ruined expensive jobs. It is not a usb cable issue at all. I will say it shows up more for me on jobs that took a while to send the entire data packet. I sometimes use the ramp option on complex artwork as I pour epoxy in to engraved wood and having the edges ramped helps to not have air bubbles along the edge. However I get this issue very often when ramp is used. Generally never see it otherwise. To me it seems to be related to large files and having lb run before the entire packet is transmitted. Actually over four years anytime I have seen weird failures in engraving it was with large files that took up to 30 seconds to transmit along with having lb start the run immediately verses waiting for the entire file to transmit. That’s what I have seen so it is a bug…I get the same random lines.
I had issues with the Ruidas handling of the usb port, and different computers and sneakernet. Finally I went with Ethernet and I’ve had no more worries or issues. I’d suggest you try that. My Linux box is in my computer room and China Blue is in the garage, opposite ends of the house. If it’s happening with large files, Ethernet will assure that it’s not a communications issue.
I originally plugged the laptop directly into the Ethernet of the machine and ran it that way. No Ethernet out there so bought a bridge for 25 bucks and it runs wirelessly through the local network. So far it’s been very reliable.
You can also right click on the ‘device’ button and it will try and re-establish communications on either port.
I’m hoping so, yes - I’ve never been able to reproduce this issue myself, which makes it incredibly hard to troubleshoot, but a lot of under the hood things have changed for 1.0.
I did some more testing with the latest version and have boiled the errors down to running the job from the PC.
If I run the job from the PC I get random lines and/or shifts… If I run the same job from the controller its perfect…
My cable is original with the chokes and the PC is more than capable. Not sure where the error happens.
I haven’t downloaded the new version because I’m having some trouble accessing my lightburn account on my new laptop. I gotta get it off the old laptop first. As soon as i get it together I will try the new version!
We have an update patch that I’ll be trying to release in the next couple of days that may help all of this. I discovered a bug in MacOS / Big Sur (possibly others) that breaks what’s called ‘flow control’ between the computer and the Ruida.
If the computer sends data too fast, the Ruida can send a signal to make the PC pause the sending while it catches up. On the Mac, this signal was being ignored. Recent changes to the serial code in LightBurn have made it more efficient, and therefore faster, making it more likely that this will be a problem. I’ve added some internal rate throttling to make sure that the transmission rate stays within a safe limit for the Ruida USB, and it’s working on all the machines I have available to test, as well as a few users who’ve reported back so far.
I’m hoping to release this tomorrow or Tuesday, assuming the incoming storm doesn’t knock out our power.
I just had this happen last night with the latest version….using windows 10 on a ruida controller. Very rarely occurs but when it does it can ruin a job. I see it happen mostly on large files and if the laser runs as soon as enough buffer has occurred. Definitely still happening.
Now correct me if I am wrong but wasn’t there a way to send it and not have the laser start on its own until the entire file is sent. Not talking about send as that requires then going to the ruida to start and choose the file.
