Getting hit by the dreaded centering

So… started up this afternoon and was struck with the dreaded centering bug.

rebooted router. restarted browser and cleared temp/cookies. restarted GF with the head centered under the camera.

The head doesn’t move when the machine starts, regardless of where i put it (leave it top left or move it under the camera).

I checked the black cable at the back. doesn’t look damaged. doesn’t look like the connections are bad. checked all the other cables and none of them seems loose, but i reset most of them.

tried to change to my phone as a hot spot. the machine’s wifi spot showed up and i connected to it. but it never made it off of the “waiting for you to connect to the Glowforge wi-fi…” page. so i’m getting stuck trying to connect to another device (even sitting right next the machine).

does this sound like the black cable? or something more serious.

sigh

If it helps any.

If all 5 connections are secure, it’s likely the cable, from what seems to be posted here.

that’s what i was thinking. and saddened by. and hoping it’s not something more.

i had grand plans of engraving 3 guitars today and a few hundred mask clips tomorrow. :cry:

Oh, nooooo! Let me know if you need help with your ear saver orders.

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thanks. right now, i’m technically making for one of our company’s local hospital clients. i’m probably going to head into the office tomorrow and use the universal for a few hours. i can’t do it every day in between calls like i can do during the week, but hopefully i can crank out a crapload tomorrow on the big machine. i think we’re about halfway to the 1800 we committed to making them. but will let you know if I need help.

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I do not open the top lid of my Glowforge except to take out the crumb tray. I figure my cable should last a along time. I may be wrong of course.

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I rarely open it all the way. And when I got my replacement, I put a couple of layers of gorilla tape underneath it as well. I guess that Amat not have been enough.

If that’s what it is, I’m going to ask to buy two.

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So if the cable breakage / failure occurs due to lid open / closing cycles, which is likely, I would speculate that it could be because of one of the following: pulling the cable tight, which stresses it in tension, bending which would cause conductor breakage inside the insulated wire, or chafing the insulation which could short the cable.

I suspect that the tension of opening the lid too far with a shorter version of the cable and bending fatigue are the two most likely causes of failure. Others have pointed out that the cable type is probably not the most ideal for repeated bending cycles.

Looking at it another way, it is reasonable to me that if the lid was never opened and closed the cable would never fail. Corrosion of the contacts could still occur though.

i can buy that, i just don’t find material placement, magnet/pin placement, etc. works very well if you don’t lift the lid. especially with larger pieces.

Yes I agree with you on that. Especially when the machine is used a lot.

I imagine that the design engineers who selected the cable that was chosen would possibly not use the same again. But then that is how products get improved.

I’m so sorry to hear that you are stuck centering. Thank you for letting us know what else you’ve already checked.

I extracted the logs from your unit and agree that replacing the black lid cable is the correct next step to get this fixed.

I just reached out by email with the next steps to order the replacement cable. We’re going to continue to work on this with you there, so I’m going to close this thread.

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