Will Lightburn work with Next Wave CNC’s 20W solid-state laser?

LightBurn Hardware Compatibility
1

I have been using Lightburn, and hope to continue with it. I am getting ready to buy a Next Wave Shark 500 cnc with the 20W laser. Any experience or knowledge regarding compatibility? Thanks!

2

Opinion: Unless you’re planning to use that machine as a CNC router, it seems breathtakingly expensive as a laser machine.

The machine is intended as a CNC machine using Vectric and a pendant, with various options intended for CNC work. Unless you know how G-Code interpreters work and how that machine operates, you will be fighting an uphill battle against a whole bunch of hardware that LightBurn does not support.

Is there a particular reason you want a CNC machine for laser work?

3

Hello. Yes, I am buying the machine primarily as a cnc router, but since I’ve been also learning laser work using Lightburn, I was just curious if Lightburn would be compatible with it. I know they have software for the laser, but I would like to continue with Lightburn, if at all possible. Thanks for your thoughts.

4

Apparently the usual workflow is VCarve → USB Stick → Pendant and a quick glance through the manual doesn’t show the direct serial connection required by LightBurn or any information about the G-Code language it uses.

The information may be there and it may be possible to get LightBurn working with an undocumented (?) serial interface, but AFAICT they do not want you to know any of that.

Also, it appears to be a leadscrew machine, which puts a low limit on the maximum speeds & accelerations. This is not bad, but I am unable to find any information about the maximum speeds, which suggests more things they don’t want you to know. Belt-driven laser machines may overstate their abilities, but at least you have some idea of what you’re getting.

Opinion: It will probably work fine if you use it exactly as they describe, but doing anything else (like, say, using LightBurn) will be difficult-to-impossible for lack of information & support.

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5

I see no mention of the laser in the Sharkwave web page. The advertised price is $2999.99, so I am wondering what the additional cost is for the laser.