On my Ruida gantry laser, I’ve got a safety warning light that turns on while the laser is actively running, using the controller’s output. It’s useful for visual awareness — no kids allowed in when the light is on.
I’ve recently added a CO₂ galvo laser, but unfortunately the control board is fully enclosed with no accessible outputs — just a USB connection to the PC running LightBurn. There’s no visible way to tap into TTL signals or job status from the hardware side.
I’m looking for a way to have LightBurn trigger a visual indicator (e.g. RGB LEDs via ESP32) only while a job is running. At least my gantry has a lid, I don’t want to blind anyone. I want it to function like an “in-use” indicator.
I’m avoiding solutions like sensing power draw, as the laser may pause during scanning or be idle while the mirrors move — I’d prefer something tied directly to actual job activity.
Does LightBurn support any kind of external communication (serial, network, API) during job execution that could be bridged to an ESP32 or microcontroller?
You’d likely have to figure out how to get the controller to let you know when it’s operating.
Do you know which controller you have? When your Ruida turns on it’s status lights, it’s the controller not Lightburn..
As far as I know there is little to no feedback from the fiber controller I have, at least to my knowledge. Like the Ruida, most of these galvo control boards have rather large amounts of memory. I don’t think it tells anyone.
It’s a bjjcz as far as I know. Doesn’t have an onboard piezo buzzer. I’ll either void the warranty and play with the control board or use power sensing and a bit of timed logic to get by with something workable! Thanks for the assistance guys, much appreciated
Thanks Jack. Looks like I can either tap pin 18 with a delay when not running or use current sensing on the 48v with similar logic.
I didn’t realize how spoilt I was for accessable connections on the ruida!!
