Have you checked to see that the exhaust is not blocked in any way? Nothing fell in front of it outside or anything? Nothing underneath the right side of the machine under the edge blocking the intake?
You can try pointing a fan at the intake on the right side of the machine and see if it moves some cool air in there.
Whoops, never mind - just went back and read your first post.
If you are etching on a lot of tile - is it creating a lot of dust? If so, I’d try applying a vacuum cleaner with a brush on it to the back of the exhaust fan to make sure it’s not clogged up and moving freely. If that grid gets clogged it will block the air flow and overheat the machine more quickly.
(And i apologize if this has already been suggested - I just caught the latest post.)
I’ve got two fans on the intake side (nothing blocking either intake or exhaust).
It’s nice and cool in the room with all of this air circulation and the probe thermometer is currently reading 74.2. I know I’m close to the threshold so maybe I’m too close for comfort?
I knew you would have a BBQ/meat probe when you said you were from Texas - hence the suggestion
Since the jobs completed, you could log into the forge and download the logs and check the reported coolant temps. I’m sure it’s frustrating seems like either running hot or thinking it’s running hot which could be a few things but no reason for me to speculate. Either way, they’ll get ya taken care of.
Edit to add: is it possible to bump the air down a few degrees temporarily to test that end of it?
Only thing left to check if you haven’t done it is to remove the exhaust hose and check that grill over the exhaust fan - they can clog up solid if you cut a lot of draftboard or do a lot of heavy engraving.
@jbmanning5 and @scott.wiederhold Thanks for helping me understand how to access log data. I followed these steps and have what appears to be evidence that my pump is failing and also that my print head is sometimes failing to communicate with the Glowforge.
Here are the relevant logs:
2018-03-29_00:28:09.32469 630489 ERROR: hw: Possible coolant flow error (src/hw_task_errors.cpp:120)
2018-03-29_00:28:09.32470 630489 INFO: hw: error flag set: fault:coolant_flow_alert:set (44)
2018-03-29_00:28:15.31104 636482 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Entering pump state 4
2018-03-29_00:28:15.32424 636488 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Pump on
2018-03-29_00:29:09.31871 690489 ERROR: hw: Coolant flow failure (broken pump) (src/hw_task_messages.cpp:112)
2018-03-29_00:29:09.31876 690489 INFO: hw: error flag set: fault:coolant_flow_fault:set (45)
2018-03-29_00:29:09.33609 690496 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Entering pump state 1
2018-03-29_00:29:09.33614 690499 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Pump on
2018-03-29_00:29:41.32728 722498 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Entering pump state 3
2018-03-29_00:29:41.34533 722506 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Pump off
2018-03-29_00:29:41.34538 722508 ERROR: hw: Possible coolant flow error (src/hw_task_errors.cpp:120)
2018-03-29_00:29:47.32862 728500 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Entering pump state 4
2018-03-29_00:29:47.34388 728506 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Pump on
2018-03-29_00:30:41.33856 782509 ERROR: hw: Coolant flow failure (broken pump) (src/hw_task_messages.cpp:112)
2018-03-29_00:30:41.35624 782515 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Entering pump state 1
2018-03-29_00:30:41.35629 782516 INFO: coolant_flow_controller_peripheral: Pump on
2018-03-29_00:31:00.09196 801260 DEBUG: hw: switch event #0/4 value 0 code 1
2018-03-29_00:39:02.81886 1283584 ERROR: hw: Coolant monitor temperature alert (src/hw_task_errors.cpp:120)
I also see a number of errors that mention possible loss of communication with the printer head:
2018-03-29_00:39:02.26782 1283386 ERROR: head_accel_axes: Reading of flags failed with error: ffffffff (src/accelerometer_axes.tpp:114)
2018-03-29_00:39:02.26784 1283387 ERROR: Head I2C communication alert (src/hw_task_messages.cpp:220)
2018-03-29_00:39:02.26786 1283430 ERROR: i2c_transfer: ioctl failed (5: Input/output error, src/i2c.cpp:26)
2018-03-29_00:39:02.26788 1283431 ERROR: failed to get head interrupt flag state (possible decapitation) (src/laser_head_peripheral.cpp:76)
2018-03-29_00:39:02.26789 1283431 ERROR: hw: Head is missing (src/hw_task_errors.cpp:120)
Awaiting a response from Glowforge Support on my email thread opened last week.
Your Glowforge Basic features a closed-loop liquid cooling system that uses the air from the room to remove heat. It is designed to be used between 60 degrees Fahrenheit (16 Celsius) and 75 degrees Fahrenheit (24 Celsius). Learn more about the operating environment here. Printing outside these ranges may cause your unit to pause before starting, or to pause periodically during the print for cooling. This isn’t harmful, but it can make your print take a little longer.
You can try any of these things to improve warm-weather performance:
Try printing with no material on the bed (so as not to generate smoke and fumes) and no exhaust hose attached. If this works, then the problem may be that your exhaust hose is constricting the flow of air out of the unit, preventing cooling.
Examine the bottom-right side of your Glowforge. There are air intake vents, and if they become obstructed, it could make cooling less effective.
Try pointing your fans at the right side of your Glowforge. If there is warm air around the intake, this could help it cool off.
Power off your Glowforge and allow it to cool, then power it on and print immediately. When it sits idle, the fans are off, so heat can build up.
Just wait. Your print may take a little longer when it’s warm, but your Glowforge will protect itself and make sure it cools enough to prevent any loss of power or damage. And it’s clever enough to pick up from exactly where it left off, even if it loses Wi-Fi during the print!
Since your Glowforge is vented to the outdoors, it’s very possible the heat is coming in through the hose. Has the temperature outside been within the operating environment during these prints?
Thank you for taking the time to respond to my inquiry. I have tested every one of your warm-weather performance suggestions and have received inconsistent results. Today’s results were very interesting to me, and I thought I would share them as I feel that they explain my situation better than I can.
At 12:30pm today, it was significantly warmer in my house. I don’t run my central A/C unit during the day and the thermostat read 77 degrees Fahrenheit when I decided to test the Glowforge. I didn’t think I would be able to do much, however to my surprise, I was able to run 4 separate engravings (each about 13 minutes) in a row, without receiving a single cooling error. I was elated, and chalked it up to a thorough cleaning of the exhaust prior to running the job.
I ended up following through with another test tonight though, and am stuck with the same inconsistent results. My home thermostat is currently reading 71 degrees F and I waited until 11:00pm to run a 50 second cut file on some draftboard before I went to bed just to make sure everything was running smoothly again. The job started, then immediately stopped 4 seconds into the cut and has been “Cooling” for 30 minutes now. I’m at a loss. Please help me solve this issue.
I have not checked the logged files yet, as I haven’t had time to run any jobs since the last time I ran the Glowforge. I will try to download them tonight.
Thank you for trying those tips. I’d like to take a look at your exhaust setup. Would you mind taking a few photos of your setup from different angles? Please include the entire hose from end to end in each photo. You can post the photos here or email them to me directly at support@glowforge.com if you’d prefer.
I have sent a few pictures of my setup to support@glowforge.com, I hope those help. I also opened my log file using Wordpad, and after doing a quick search through the document, I found some interesting errors spread throughout the log file. Here are some that caught my attention: