Troubleshooting

WARNING: BEFORE making ANY of the changes below, be sure to make a backup of you settings file(s). See the page Software Installation for information on backing up your files.

A. Issues With Specific Error Messages.

  1. Cooler Error 1 Worked Paused - This error occurs when the chiller isn't on or water is not flowing through the water sensor connected to the Ruida panel.

  2. X Slop over - This error occurs when there isn't enough room for the design to fit on the bed starting from the origin. It may also occur if the design is larger than the bed. Click here for more information.

  3. Y Slop over - This error occurs when there isn't enough room for the design to fit on the bed starting from the origin. It may also occur if the design is larger than the bed. Click here for more information.

  4. NOT ENOUGH EXTEND SPACE - This error occurs when the design is too close to an edge of the bed to allow room for the head to stop and reverse.

  5. Need more overshotting or larger acceleration (grammatical error intended) - Like the NOT ENOUGH EXTEND SPACE error, this error occurs when the design is too close to an edge of the bed. This error message refers to Overscanning or Overshoot. When the laser is engraving, it may require extra space on the sides to get up to speed before the engraving starts, and to slow down and reverse after the engraving is finished. If the design is too close to the sides of the machine, the overshoot distance may result in crashing the machine. Increasing the acceleration or reducing the speed will both reduce the amount of overshoot space required. Depending on the design, the error may not always occur immediately.

  6. MACHINE PROTECTED WORK PAUSED - This error can be caused by a faulty lid sensor or wiring.

  7. Jog Distance is 0, please reset - This error appears to be a bug in the KT332N Ryxon/Ruida Controllers running DSP firmware 23.01.06. When the Move Mode is placed in Manual, the X, Y, and Z jog controls no longer operate and this error is generated. The work-around is to toggle the Move Mode to Continuous (this is done by pressing the Jog/Continuous button, which is the large circle between the arrow keys).

  8. X Frame over size Work Paused - The design is too large or too close to the left or right edge of the bed. Try centering the design on the bed or reducing the size of the design.

  9. Y Frame over size Work Paused - The design is too large or too close to the front or rear edge of the bed. Try centering the design on the bed or reducing the size of the design.

B. Issues Without Error Messages (Non-Rotary).

  1. LightBurn or RDWorks cannot "find" laser - With USB, the most common issue is that the USB drivers were not installed with the software. They are NOT installed by default. To resolve this issue, reinstall the software, and when the window pops up near the end of the install, check to box for the drivers, and finish the install. Reboot both the laser and PC after reinstalling. Another common issue is that the USB cable is plugged into the wrong port. Be sure the cable is plugged into the PC port and not the UDISK port. While they look the same and the cable will fit, the UDISK port will not work. Lastly, try another USB cable. The USB cable that comes with the laser is special, but you can use a standard printer system cable for testing. If you open the door where the electronics are located, on the top of the controller you will see a port labeled PC-USB. Unplug this cable and you can plug the printer USB cable into this jack.

  2. Can't cut through my material, but others with the same exact laser can - Bed alignment, mirror alignment, material, speed, and power can all be culprits, but I have run across situations where someone was using settings in inches and their friends were using mm.

  3. Can't cut through any material, but my mirrors and bed are aligned correctly - If you're positive your mirrors and bed are aligned properly, but you're still getting bad cuts, do a ramp test to check your focal point. This is a step that is often overlooked. Also, check to confirm that your lens is belly side up (sometimes the factory installs them upside down). Lastly, don't rule out your material. The glues in some material can make it problematic to cut.

  4. Engraving is mirrored and/or upside down - Usually this is due to a software set up issue. When you first install LightBurn, it asks where your Origin is. Usually this is the corner where your machine Homes to when you first turn it on. If you click on the Devices button on the bottom right in LightBurn, you can find your device and make the change your Origin.

  5. Squares are rectangles and my circles are ovals - When cutting flat items, if you find your squares are rectangles, and out circles are ovals, here is a great video that shows how to Calibrate your XY Axis. Be sure to back up your settings BEFORE recalibration!

  6. Skewed or slanted engraving - This can be caused by your motor pulse step polarity being set incorrectly. This setting can cause the motor to skip or add a step when the head changes directions. Try toggling the setting PWM Rising Edge Valid in LightBurn, for the axis having the issue.

    Article: How do I fix skewed or slanted engraving?

  7. Rows are shifting and/or squares are trapezoidal (usually when repeating a design) - Similar to Skewed or slanted engraving, try toggling the setting PWM Rising Edge Valid in LightBurn, for the axis having the issue. This setting can cause the motor to skip or add a step when the head changes directions, which adds up up over a longer job.

    If your circles are oval and your squares are rectangles, try changing your Step Length. You can adjust this by engraving a 60mm or so square, measuring it, and adjusting the Y-axis Step Length up or down until the height and length of the square are equal.

  8. Line Shift, Jagged Text, or Jagged Design. Similar to Skewed or slanted engraving, try toggling the setting PWM Rising Edge Valid in LightBurn, for the axis having the issue. This setting can cause the motor to skip or add a step when the head changes directions. If this doesn't work, laser firing speed and belt tension can cause a shift in the engraving as the laser moves from side-to-side, and it typically becomes more noticeable at high speeds. Check to make sure your belts are not loose. If the issue persists, to compensate for the Backlash, you can adjust the Scanning Offset Adjustment in LightBurn or the Reverse Offset in RDWorks.

Video: Improve Engraving Quality (Correct Scan Offset)

  1. Line Wobble - If your lines are not straight, try lowering your Y-Axis acceleration.

  2. Dots in design where laser stops/starts - Untick Optimize Cut Path.

  3. When engraving multiple designs, laser works on one side and then comes back to finish and is way off - Untick Optimize Cut Path. This will force the laser to go item by item.

  4. Loud grinding sound when I turn on the laser - There are several things that can cause this. One is Rotary Setup was left on (in LightBurn) and needs to be turned off and the laser power cycled. The other is a proximity sensor (limit switch) is out of alignment or has failed. Your proximity switch is likely red, blue or green and there is one for the x-axis and one for the y-axis. If it is at an angle other than 90-degrees, it likely was knocked out of alignment and needs to be adjusted. You can test the sensor by placing a metal object on the top (opposite end of where the wire comes in) of it. It should light up if working correctly. If not, you need to replace the sensor. Next, check the sensor wiring by going into the Ruida controller panel menu (usually using Z/U, Fn, or Menu button) and selecting the Diagnoses option (wording will vary by model). Again, place the metal object over the sensor. The panel should show a checkbox corresponding to the sensor you are testing. If not, you have an issue with the wiring going from the controller to the sensor. Lastly, if you're still having a grinding sound, you're X and Y-axis calibration could be off. You can check this by moving your laser head to the Home position (this is the corner your laser goes to when you first turn it on). It should read X=0, Y=0, if not it likely needs to be reset. To do this, double-check to make sure your laser head is in the Home position, go into the Ruida controller panel menu and select Axis Reset (or Axes Reset), and then select XY Axis Reset. X and Y should now read 0.

  5. Pulse and Test buttons work, but LightBurn does not - It's possible the Min Power is too low. Change the Power Min (%) setting in the layer to at least 10%, and make sure the Power Max (%) is 10% or higher, then run a test.

  6. Pulse button on Ruida and designs from LightBurn do not work, but Test button on laser power supply does - Observe the P terminal on the laser power supply (it's usually the larger, black one). Most units will have a jumper that goes from the P terminal to the G terminal. Check to see that it is not loose. In some cases, it may be connected to a pressure or flow sensor. If it is, it's possible that that your chiller or water pump is off, the sensor is defective, there is an air bubble in the sensor tube, your water pump is defective, or the water level is low. Inspect these items for abnormalities. If it all checks out, trace the wires from the P and G terminal back to the sensor or chiller and make sure the connections are good.

  7. I have water in the space between the water jacket and outer tube - Only the inner water jacket around the center tube should have water. The space between the outside of the water jacket and the outer tube is where the gas is located. The tube is defective.

  8. When I send large files to the laser, it will randomly skip sections during engraving - Try using Send instead of Start. When sending detailed engravings, especially at higher speeds, the controller has to do a lot of work in a short amount of time. At 500 mmm/sec, 0.1 dots means the controller must process 5,000 commands per second, while managing power output, stepper pulsing, acceleration, and more. If the controller is really busy, while receiving a file, it's possible for it to miss incoming packets, regardless if it is USB or Ethernet. By using Send, the controller is only doing one thing, so it is less likely to drop data packets, and if it does, the job hasn't started, so it can be resent. This issue is true of both LightBurn and RDWorks. Note: You can also hold the Shift Key while clicking Send which will send a command to start the file from the laser as soon as the transfer successfully completes.

  9. Suddenly my machine cannot access the entire Y-axis - Check to see if you left Rotary Setup enabled in LightBurn.

  10. Intermittent dropped connections to laser. If you are using ethernet, check to make sure you do not have a duplicate IP address. Just like every house has a unique address, every device on your network must have a unique address. If the IP address was not reserved when you selected your IP address, this may cause issues later.

    If you are using a newer computer with USB 3.0, there have been some compatibility issues reported with USB 2.0/1.0 devices, like the laser uses. There several things you can try, but a $10-20 USB Isolator is your best bet. You can also try turning off Power Management on your USB ports, or adding a Ferrite Choke to your USB cable to reduce EMI/RFI.

  11. Circles are not completely closing. If you find your circles are not starting and send at the same place, it may be due to backlash (such as a loose belt). In LightBurn, there is a feature called, Hide Backlash, on the Cut Optimization Settings window, which may resolve this issue. This setting changes the exit and entry direction of cuts to match to help mask the issue.

  12. Laser won't fire at slow speeds. Ruida has a feature called Start Speed which may prevent the laser from firing at speeds lower than 10 mm/s. Setting your min and max power to the same value and this should resolve the issue.

  13. Cut circles have two bumps on them. This may be caused by a loose set screw on the Y-axis belt drive gear located on the center spindle (typically this is located in the back center of the machine). Tighten it and this should resolve the issue. Click here for photo.


C. Issues Without Error Messages (Rotary Related).

  1. The first line or lines of my rotary engraving is squished or missing - There is likely play in the motor or motion system (motor slop or backlash) for the rotary. The object doesn’t rotate for the first few lines of the engraving, and they all end up on top of each other giving the appearance of squished or skipped lines. I have seen this issue with Mansfield, Laguna and Chinese rotaries. The workaround is to place a 1-2 mm circle (or a character) in front of the leading edge of the design with a power low enough so that it doesn't engrave. When the laser goes to engrave this element, the slop will be taken up.

  2. Squares are rectangles and my circles are ovals - Steps per rotation for your machine must be adjusted for designs to be properly sized. Each machine and rotary is different. Below are steps to help calculate steps per rotation.

a. In LightBurn, create a rectangle that is 80mm wide x 5mm high.
b. Rotate the design 90-degrees so that the 80mm dimension runs along the round part of the cup.
c. Engrave the design.
d. Measure the rectangle in mm. (For this example, lets say it measured 95mm.)
e. Divide the measurement by 80. (e.g., 95 / 80 = 1.1875)
f. Find your current steps per rotation. (For this example, lets say it is 5000.)
g. Divide your current steps per rotation by the value obtained in step e. (e.g., 5000 / 1.1875 = 4210.53)
h. Test the value calculated in step g as your steps per rotation.

D. Ruida Controller Accidentally Set Back to Factory Defaults (this is different than hitting the Reset button).

Below are some suggestions to help you get up and running if you purchase a new Ruida controller or accidentally reset your Ruida controller back to the stock Ruida defaults (which is not the same as the configuration created by the company that configured your laser). If you made a backup of your controller, the best and quickest process, is to load and write the backup onto your controller (if you followed this guide when setting up your machine, a backup was the first thing you did after installing the laser software).

If a backup is not available, and you use LightBurn, you may be able to find a backup of your Machine Settings in the following folder:

C:\Users\xxxx\AppData\Local\LightBurn\backup

The file name will end in lbset. Find the file with the latest modified date.

If a backup still cannot be located, then below are some documents to get some of the basic configurations back onto your controller. Please note they are not intended to get all settings back onto your controller.

Additional Help Documents for Rebuilding a Controller: