I am very new to lasers and just put together my first Universal Engraver 3000 mW. I was not comfortable with the Ben box software and came across yours and it has great reviews. I downloaded it and am on the second day of my trial. I could not get the software to recognize my laser! I imagine it is a grbl but I am not sure since I am so new to this!
I am pretty sure I am doing something wrong and would appreciate some help in getting it set up and working! Any help would be appreciated!
I am having the same exact issue. I cannot figure out how to get LightBurn to communicate with my laser. When I click devices the âfind my laserâ, it does not find it, even with USB cable connected. I was advised to âcreate manuallyâ, and I have tried every different variation of GRBL and entered in my dimensions, no matter what, I continue to get the error message, âThere was a problem sending data to the laser. The machine may be busy or pausedâ. I have purchased lightburn already. This is my very first laser as well. Not even being able to figure out the basics at this point is very disheartening. Please help.
Thereâs your problem. The machine probably has itâs own version of grbl. Re-flash it with grbl 1.1f. and go through the setup to configure it for laser.
Donât forget to grab all your settings beforehand ($$ - save to file), otherwise you will have to go through stepper calibration, etc.
I know this probably sounds like a very dumb question, but how do I âre-flashâ it with grbl 1.1?
I am also using a universal engraver 30w 60" Ă 60". It is a Chinese system that comes with all instructions in Chinese unfortunately. It included a program called master engraver that wonât even open completely so I feel like Iâm going on absolutely blind with any settings or specs more than Iâve said. Totally willing to pay $$ at this point to get help with this. Very frustrating.
Ok
I have reflashed as the video showed me how to do. Now when I come back to lightburn⌠NOTHING happens. It wont move or anything. I am at my wits end here.
At least before it would move to the corner and then I would have to pull it back out by hand but now it wont move at all. I have re installed the lightburn software and same issue.
Did you create a profile for this new firmware? You need to. You have flashed this controller with new firmware and you need to tell LightBurn what you have. This is effectively a new device requiring you to define it to LightBurn following these steps again: Redirecting...
Yes I have⌠at least I think I have. I did it manually because it would not recognize it by searching.
I can get the laser to move using the controller now. but when I put in a simple design (right in the middle) the laser only moves to the top right of my workspace. The laser wonât even fire. I can hit the fire button and it turns on but I cannot get it to follow a simple design.
Did you adjust the defaults in this newly flashed firmware to match that of your system? You will need to. Working with these DIY laser systems requires a strong emphasis the âYâ part to get it working as youâd expect.
Ok, so itâs connecting but not homing. Thatâs a start. Move the laser head manually to the front-left position before powering up, then turn it on. Set the âStart Fromâ setting in the Laser window (lower-right) to âAbsolute Coordsâ, then draw a rectangle about 10mm from the bottom left of the screen, and hit the Frame button. Does it seem to go where it should? Is it the right size?
no
it does what it did before⌠it moves to the top right of my work area and does not stop⌠it acts like it wants to keep going. I had to stop it manually
Please type $$ into the console and hit Enter / Return, then copy and paste the entirety of what gets spit back here, so we can review these firmware settings.
You are welcome. We want to help but you are also going to need to learn more about grbl to fully understand what your laser can do and how best to tune it for your desired usage. Here is a list of what each of these setting are for: https://github.com/gnea/grbl/wiki/Grbl-v1.1-Configuration
Post back as you continue down the lasing journey, and we will offer what we can along the way.
