Error message with Set Focus

Community Support
1

Every time I try to set focus I get this error message.

Error - An error occurred on your Glowforge. Please refresh your browser before printing. It may also help to turn your Glowforge off and then on again.

I have tried changing wood types but I usually us 1/8" baltic birch or 1/4" baltic birch. I have cleaned the lenses, reset the browser, cleared the catche, restarted the machine. I cannot get it to set focus. Without the set focus I cannot get anything to cut through properly. Can anyone help please? I have looked all over for an answer and cannot find it. I have even resaved files to see if it was a file issue. No luck.

2

What browser are you using and is the version up to date?

1 Like
3

I usually use chrome and its up to date. Also tried in Microsoft Edge and same issues. I have had my GF for a few months now and no issues until now.

4

If you measure your material and enter that as focus height in the settings, you do not need to use set focus. I rarely use it as I am almost always using non-PG materials that I have measured.

The only thing it’s handy for is when you haven’t entered material thickness in the material choice section, and you need to align a print on a piece of scrap.

5

At what point does the error happen? Does the machine try to measure the material at all? Can you see the red dot appearing?

I don’t think set focus depends on your browser or on the file you have loaded, so those are probably red herrings. It needs to be able to project a red dot on the material, take a picture (using the camera on the bottom of the laser head), and send it up to the cloud to be analyzed to determine the material height. You said you’ve cleaned the lenses already, but the most obvious culprits would seem to be anything that interferes with that clear picture. Sometimes this happens with dark or shiny materials, but it should be perfectly fine on baltic birch. (Still, I’d try a few different things just for troubleshooting). It could also be a problem with lighting, so I’d look at that too. But I’d be especially attentive to the windows on the bottom of the print head, since that’s where the magic happens.

6

I was able to get past this by selecting non proof material and then entering the thickness manually. To get the best image of the bed then do I just refresh bed instead of set focus? Sometimes the autofocus when getting ready to print will shift my files around a bit on the edges.

7

If you enter the actual material thickness, then the bed image will adjust automatically. It’s the exact same process as what set focus does.

8

I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.