I have just purchased a Gweike Cloud RF laser, using with Lightburn. The supplied USB cable works fine but it’s very short. So I bought a nice long one, 5 metres length. USB C to USB A, I use Macs. It’s a good quality cable, but I don’t seem to be able to make a connection when I plug in to the laser and to my Mac? Any suggestions/fixes most welcomed. I came across a really useful post by @BillieRuben who seems to have knowledge of these machines and setting up, any idea Billie ? tia 
Although that’s at the upper limit for a USB 2 cable, which is what the laser uses internally, it’s never going to work with the underpowered circuitry on the laser end of the cable.
You may get better results with a powered extension cable, ideally with power injected from a wall wart at the laser end of the cable.
In addition to that, Apple seems to introduce its own USB jank, particularly with regard to USB 3 ports connected to USB 2 devices. The usual solution involves inserting the dumbest possible USB 2 hub to prevent the Mac from falling over while (trying to) negotiate a USB 3 connection (or something like that).
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@ednisley thanks for the reply 
. Yes using the short supplied USB A cable through a hub is working fine. I may try a longer cable through the hub I have, it’s worth a try 
These being Ruida controllers, it’s sad you can’t Ethernet to them.
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Is there reason to believe that ethernet is not available? As far as I know Gweike Cloud RF machines typically do have ethernet connections.
Having said that, if USB is the only option then here are some other options outside of a powered USB hub:
- Active USB extension cable. This may function similarly to a powered USB hub.
- USB over ethernet extender
- USB repeater
I have no experience with these in relation to laser control but these are typical methods of extending USB length.
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@BillieRuben has a post that will help clarify some of the Gweike quirks.
From what I understand, you can connect via Ethernet if you use the Gweike Cloud services. It won’t allow it over your local lan from your computer. Obviously to make users use their services or usb.
I have ordered an active USB cable, if it works I will confirm here , thanks for the input
Yes there is an Ethernet port on the back of the machine, I have been chatting with their engineer support team and they said it’s not possible to connect Lightburn this way. They only recommend using a USB 3 cable of 1.5 metres length too. It’s just frustrating to be restrained by such a short cable. I’ve only had the machine a week and done limited testing and dialling it in, it does have a few quirks but I must say I’m quite impressed with what I think can be achieved once I fully set it up and chuck some heavy designs at it
Too bad you didn’t ask what it’s for, since you paid for it.
If it will talk over the network to their cloud, then they spent money and time to prevent you from using the best communication mode the Ruida has.
Is Wifi not an option in case a long USB doesn’t work?
@ednisley @berainlb @jkwilborn @BillieRuben I can confirm that a pretty standard active USB 3, 5 metre length makes a good connection between the Gweike RF and Lightburn, using a Mac here. No more tied next to the machine 
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This is from the USB Wikipedia.
The USB 3.0 standard does not directly specify a maximum cable length, requiring only that all cables meet an electrical specification: for copper cabling with AWG 26 wires the maximum practical length is 3 meters (9 ft 10 in).
Seems you’re operating at it’s limits, have better wires .. 
I’m not sure about that deep techy stuff about USB protocols 
. Gweike cloud engineers also said not to exceed 1.5m as connection might not work, I’d already ordered the active cable anyways. It works fine, both from my MBP and my MacMini M4pro. Seems crazy to be tied that close to a machine in the year 2025, anyways I’m happy with the solution and maybe it might point others in the right direction
Bear in mind the USB 2 spec was released in 2000. Things have progressed since then, but not nearly far enough to expect common controller chipsets to implement USB 3. 
Specifying a short USB 3 cable with a USB 2 controller is basically admitting the OEM cable was junk.
Hi, I asked the Gweike support engineers if it was USB 2 or 3, they said 3 . The active cable I purchased was USB 3. The cables supplied look good, ugreen, and I am still using their cable to link to the active cable(theirs are male-male connections, it’s quite common for Chinese manufacturers to work like this I believe). USB tech knowledge is certainly not my strong point, I just went about solving my problem and it’s worked nicely.
Great, in the end, that’s all that matters
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It’s worth noting OSX onwards (from tiger essentially) uses the strictest form of USB standards when trying to perform a USB x > USB y, the “jank” is simply the OS being strict, when you get devices that ship with legacy USB 2.0 (as in, not 2.1 upwards, which is mind boggling in 2025) trying to manhandle USB A to USB C… a standard that is literally not supported by the USB 2.0 protocol the board uses, because it didn’t exist until it was superseded - that is when you get jank. They are cobbled together… it’s a miracle half of them work with modern devices
They happily work on windows because it will let you plug any old thing in without much scrutiny and hope it works
I’d add “half the time” to that, sliced into 30 second increments with a 50% failure rate during each slice.
Nowadays, it’s not whether you’re cynical. It’s whether you’re cynical enough.