Connecting the machine

Supported hardware

  • The JCZ (BJJCZ) LMCV4-FIBER-M controller — an EzCad 2 family board (USB VID 0x9588 / PID 0x9899).
  • The machine class is galvo markers with a fiber laser, including MOPA sources with pulse width control.
  • Zenom talks to the board directly over USB — no vendor DLLs and no 32-bit shims.
  • Other controllers (including DSP boards: Ruida, Trocen) and CO2/UV sources are not supported; EzCad Lite boards have not been confirmed on real hardware.

The WinUSB driver

To work with Zenom the controller needs the WinUSB driver. The EzCad driver and WinUSB are mutually exclusive: with one board, only one of them is active on a machine at a time. Driver installation is built into the program; no third-party tools (Zadig) are needed.

  • At startup: if a controller is detected but its driver is incompatible, the program offers to open Driver Setup.
  • Manually: Hardware Settings (F3) → Connection → USB Driver → “Driver Setup…”.
  • Install WinUSB Driver installs the driver with step-by-step progress and restarts the device.
  • Restore Original Driver brings back the stock driver for when you need EzCad on the same machine again; Zenom will not see the board until WinUSB is reinstalled.
  • Administrator rights are required — otherwise the dialog offers to restart the program as administrator.

Connecting and status

  • Laser → Connect USB / Laser → Disconnect — manual connect and disconnect; the same commands are available in the command palette (Ctrl+K).
  • Auto-connect: marking (F2) and the red light (F1) connect on their own if the laser is disconnected.
  • The status bar shows the state with a colored dot and text: “Disconnected”, “Connected (SN: …)”, and so on. On connect the program reads the board type, firmware, and serial number — all visible on the Connection tab of Hardware Settings.
  • If the device is not found, the status text lists the likely causes — from the cable to a missing WinUSB driver.

Connection modes

Selected in Hardware Settings (F3) → Connection → Mode:

Mode Behavior
Auto (default) Connects to the real machine over USB; if no device is present, the connection fails with a hint to open Driver Setup. There is no silent swap of the machine for the emulator.
Hardware Real USB only; without a device the connection fails.
Emulator The built-in software controller emulator: it accepts the same commands as the machine and keeps a trajectory log. Prepare layouts, “mark”, and watch the simulation without hardware.

Whenever the active connection is emulated, the bottom panel shows the [EMU] badge — the emulator never pretends to be the machine.

Limitations

  • One device class: the JCZ galvo controller of the EzCad 2 family.
  • Board capabilities and settings drive the UI: for example, the rotary and cylinder icons appear on the right panel only after the corresponding settings (Axis / Cylinder) are enabled.