Monitor LightBurn while it's minimised, with LightBurn's API

Screen, API or both

Beacon can read LightBurn in three ways — choose under Settings › Detection › Read LightBurn's status from:

• Screen — works with every LightBurn version. Beacon reads the Laser panel with on-device text recognition (Windows OCR, or Apple's Vision on a Mac). LightBurn's window must stay open, not minimised.
• API (2.2+) — asks LightBurn directly: exact state, exact progress and the open file's name. LightBurn can be minimised or behind other windows.
• Both — reads the screen and the API together. Each change is dated from whichever saw it first, and if one source drops out (for example LightBurn gets minimised), the other carries on.

Connect Beacon to LightBurn's API

1. Make sure LightBurn 2.2 or newer is open. Its API runs on your own computer only.
2. In Beacon, open Settings › Detection and choose API (2.2+) or Both.
3. Under LightBurn API, press Connect.
4. LightBurn shows a pop-up asking whether to allow Beacon. Click Allow within 30 seconds.
5. Beacon shows "Connected to LightBurn" and starts reading the API.

You only do this once. Beacon asks for two permissions: state (job state, progress, connection) and project, which it uses only to read the open file's name for the job title. You can revoke access in LightBurn at any time; Beacon will then ask you to connect again.

If you connected an older Beacon before it asked for the file name, Settings says "Press Connect again" — reconnect once to see job names from the API.

Ruida controllers: use Screen mode

A Ruida controller runs the job on its own once LightBurn has sent the file, and LightBurn doesn't track it. LightBurn's own API documentation notes that on Ruida the job state is always reported as idle — so the API can't see a running job. Use Screen mode with Ruida controllers.

Galvo and fiber lasers: framing vs. jobs

On galvo lasers, LightBurn's API reports red-dot framing as "running", just like a real job. Beacon tells them apart from the progress pattern — framing hovers near the end and loops, while a job climbs from the start — so framing shows as Framing, not Running. This was tuned on a JCZ fiber galvo with LightBurn 2.2.

If it doesn't connect

• "LightBurn's API isn't answering" — LightBurn is closed, or older than 2.2. Beacon says which version it found.
• "LightBurn didn't allow it" — the pop-up was declined or not answered within 30 seconds. Press Connect again.
• "LightBurn no longer accepts Beacon's key" — access was revoked or LightBurn was reinstalled. Press Connect again.
• Two copies of LightBurn open — the API is served by the one you used most recently.