After hooking up a second engraver to LB. The settings on the two engravers were swapped. I was able to open a second instance of LB and get the settings correct on the first engraver. However, my second one will not move the the motor that the laser is attached to. It just bounces back and forth when I try to move the position of the laser. I have tried setting the origin to all the locations but still get the same result. How do I fix this? Why was this even a possibility? There are no obstructions and the engraver was working properly until I hooked back up my first engraver.
I was able to correct this issue by deleting my new engraver and manually adding it back in. This should not have happened. The code should prevent COM ports and engravers from swapping. A simple fix would be when the program detects a second device, then a message be displayed encouraging the user to open a second instance of LB. Next one should not be able to swap the COM and engraver. One of these needs greyed out if multiple devices are attached.
It turns out Windows renumbers COM ports with gleeful abandon during every boot and whenever you plug in any USB device.
If you have two more-or-less identical laser controllers (*), LightBurn cannot tell them apart by looking at the messages they send when connected. So, when Windows swaps their COM ports, LightBurn cannot know “this” laser just moved to “that” port.
It’s all part of using a consumer-grade OS in what’s basically an industrial process-control application.
You might be able to delete just the offending device and reconfigure it, so that’s worth trying.
The most certain way will be to delete both (all?) the devices from LightBurn and start from scratch with both of them plugged in. Give the devices distinctive names, set up their configurations as needed, and then make sure you pick the proper device on whatever COM port Windows assigns it the next time around.
Ugly, but that’s how it goes.
(*) Essentially all desktop laser controllers run some descendant of GRBL firmware, so visually “different” machines from “different” manufacturers can look identical when seen through their USB ports.
I would agree with your first statement if it were not for the COM ports being the same numbers the whole time. The issue is LB allows the ability to swap the machines without physically swapping the connections. Not a Windows issue.
No need to reply. I see the short-cummings. All programs have them. It’s just ridiculous that I spent half-a-day fixing something that should never be allowed to happen.
Three fixes
Encourage user to open another instance when multiples machines detected.
Don’t allow both COM and machine changes
Create a connection button instead of automatically trying to connect
Please put a check on the spelling.
Lightburn has no control over what Windows offers to it. MS Windows is the operating system, meaning it is in control. It recognizes a USB connection has been made and hands off the information to Lightburn. Only then can Lightburn talk to the laser controller board. Not a perfect system, but it works most of the time.
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