Turning the laser on in LightBurn

Resources Getting Started With LightBurn
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1

OK, new at this so if this is a stupid question please be gentle. I have a Chinese BenBox Laser. The software that came with it is not very good. I loaded LightBurn, Got it recognize using GRBL-LPC. I can get the machine to run but the laser does not come on. Is there a button on LightBurn that will turn the laser on?

2

The ā€œChinese BenBox Laserā€ will not run with GRBL-LPC. If you try to stream anything itā€™ll overload the buffer. Try using ā€˜GRBL-M3ā€™.

Have you flashed your board with grbl? What version? If you have flashed with latest grbl, select ā€˜GRBLā€™ in devices.

3

Thanks for the quick answer. The primary reason I purchased this is that I want to create portraits with grayscale. I know that lazor engravers can do that but I figured how to do it. Iā€™ll flash new firmware tomorrow and see what happens.

4

Boy, I must have been asleep when I wrote that reply. LASER!

1 Like
5

Rick, could you point me in the right direction to get the GRBL firmware and brief instructions on how to do it? I donā€™t want to screw up my controller.

Thanks

6

Sorry but not really John. I know very little about your system or how to get that sorted. I would be starting as you are. Maybe someone else might chime in here or you could ask in one of the support groups for your BenBox setup.

7

I think youā€™ve misunderstood. You donā€™t need to change the firmware on your controller, you just change the setting in Lightburn from grbl-plc to grbl-m3

8

No, I did understand but Iā€™m not sure what the firmware is on this machine. grbl-m3 doesnā€™t work. I canā€™t get it to link to the board.

Is there a way to determine what the firmware is on this board.

10

BenBox is not supported but you could try entering ā€œ$$ā€ into he console to see if it returns useful information but it is just a guess on my part.

If you can flash with latest grbl then use the ā€œGRBLā€ device.

11

John, this might be helpful in your journey.