Glowforge not connecting

I am working with a replacement Glowforge and it is a bit of a nightmare. First sometimes it will power on start to calibrate then turn off and on again and begin calibrating all over again. I was connected today it stood idle for bit and when I went to set up the file to print it turned off line again. I have switched it on and off (waiting in between) and just could not get it to calibrate at all. Went through setup process got it online then it went off line again. Something is wrong with this machine it should not be turning itself on and off again during calibration and it should not be dropping off once it has connected. I think this pro needs to go back.

Is the staple in the back of the machine seated correctly? (Pushed all the way in?) It shouldn’t be losing power and turning completely off and then on again. (You might also want to make sure the power cord is snug.)

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I have unplugged and plugged all of the usual suspects. I had mentioned this issue to support, they said send a video except that it did not do it every time so I would miss recording it…now it just will not calibrate. I am convinced that the on and off was a sign of things to come…hard to tell what issues it had prior since this is a replacement unit. The last unit I had had a electrical issue but support never told me what was wrong they just sent this faulty unit.

There are many things that can cause similar-looking errors with these machines. You can still help them to pinpoint what the problem is. Some things can be fixed with a spare part, and that’s a heck of a lot better (and quicker) than having the whole thing replaced.

The times that my machine has gotten stuck in calibration or going offline it was always caused by a sketchy WiFi connection, and before you protest that yours is fine, understand that anyone’s Wifi can go through a bad spot somewhere along the line if your ISP has issues, and you’ll never know it. (Dropped packets can occur anywhere.) Usually the problem can be corrected by rebooting the router and machine a couple hours later and you will not see the problem again for months.

You can’t do anything about that except reboot. That’s the first thing to try…if it works, great. If not try again a couple hours later.

You might also want to check your cables. There has been a handful of issues recently relating to damaged lid cables from a too snug installation.

Are all of the connectors at the red circles closed? If you can, take a closeup picture of the cable where it’s circled in green…particularly if it looks worn or if there is a bend or kink in it.

cable-checks

(That can also cause a “getting stuck in calibration” condition, and it’s an easy fix that you can do yourself.)

If support needs to see something else, they’ll ask for it. But they haven’t got an analysis of your situation with that machine yet…give it a bit of time. :slightly_smiling_face:
(And the quicker you can get what they need to see to them, the quicker it gets resolved.)

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Thanks Jules for your insight. I had to walk away from the machine and get some work done. My Dremel does not engrave as well but at least I can make some progress.

Thank you for your patience, and I apologize for the trouble. I extracted the logs from your Glowforge from Friday, 5/24, and it appears that throughout the day the uploads your Glowforge was making to the cloud were expiring. This occurred during almost every attempt the Glowforge made to calibrate. Expired uploads suggest that the connection was unstable at the time, so I also checked the logs of your unit’s connection to our servers. It looks like your Glowforge was unable to maintain a connection for very long throughout the day on Friday, and sometimes reconnected several times within the span of ten minutes. This led to issues calibrating.

This may be caused by trouble with your ISP, router firmware that needs updating, or something else. However, there is a test you can try that will help us narrow down the issue.

First, some background: your Glowforge needs internet access. However, it does not need to be connected to the same network as the computer, phone, or tablet you are using to print.

For example, you can create a hotspot on your cell phone and use that network to connect your Glowforge to Wi-Fi. This is a good way to rule out cellular interference, since you can set your phone right on top of your Glowforge!

You can find instructions online to help you create a Wi-Fi hotspot from your cell phone. Make sure that you set it up to be a 2.4 GHz hotspot, since that is the frequency your Glowforge uses.

Once the Wi-Fi hotspot is broadcasting, you can connect to it by following these steps:

  1. Turn on your Glowforge.
  2. Wait 30 seconds. Then hold down the button for ten seconds until it glows teal.
  3. Navigate to setup.glowforge.com and follow the instructions on-screen. When prompted to connect your Glowforge to Wi-Fi, choose the hotspot you created.
  4. Once Wi-Fi setup is complete, go to app.glowforge.com and try a few prints.

Let us know how it goes.

It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.