Glowforge Stopping, No Light, Timer Keeps Ticking

Question: What is the real problem?

So, went through the entire diagnostic thing with Glowforge customer service. They say to come here as it is the material I am using, that I must only use Glowforge Proofgrade at the designated speed. It will print some of the design on the screen and then stop. NO WARNING LIGHT. Timer keeps ticking. Machine does not send head back. Opening the lid does not send the head back. ALL lenses are clean. ALL fans are clean. I run it a AC Infinity. I use regular/glitter acrylics, printed acrylics, as well as printed mdf from companies such as CMB, Smokey Hill, and Houston Acrylics.

For clarity, I run three Glowforges and have for 5 years now. I have run all sorts of Glowforgable acrylics and woods at all sorts of speeds in all of my machines these past 5 years. Doesn’t mean I know everything, but it means I’ve been there, done that, so to speak.

**It is not the Wi-Fi as it receives all the information. It is, in fact, the machine closest to the router.
**It is not the fans or the tube. What it manages to cut before stopping, it cuts perfectly. There are no flames.
**It is not the temp in the office. I have a mini-split running at a constant 70 degrees.

I would call support again and get a different rep. It’s clearly not in material

The fact that it won’t return the head to the starting position even when you open the door seems to indicate some sort of a hardware/software hangup issue. I think it’s a strange enough problem that you’ll need support help.

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One thing you can check on your own is the white ribbon cable that connects the print head to the machine. I’ve experienced that becoming disconnected then the job stopped and sat like you described. It may wiggle its way out of the connector to the print head if it’s loose, which is easy enough to check. Check for broke or bent pins, or dust or debris in the connector. Also check the length of the cable for cracks, creases or exposed copper where the insulation can have rubbed through causing a short after years of use.

Somewhere on this forum should be instructions for pulling the logs from the machine. If I were stuck on this problem I’d also download those and see if there’s any clues there at the time the job mysteriously stopped.

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I called back because it stopped once again on the Proofgrade, so I got that cancelled out. They are doing what they call “looking further into it” because they’ve just NEVER heard of this problem before. No joke.

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Yeah it’s a weird one for sure. It’s almost like your internal hardware is freezing. Never heard of it in the forum either. Maybe someone else has?

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I have but no resolution I can recall.

This is the precise behavior you get if the interlock is removed - it simply freezes the machine, and only a power-cycle will restore function.

I seriously doubt that is your problem as the machine would not function when you power it on if the interlock was not connected.

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Would a momentary disruption in the connection of the interlock cause that? Or does reinstalling the interlock kick things back into gear?

I ask because the machine does have moving parts and it’s possible if you’re running a high speed you could be vibrating a weak connection in the interlock.

Correct me if I’m wrong but I think this would only apply if this were a pro model.

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I do run as fast as possible simply because I hate flashback and overly-melty acrylic. Less heat in one place 'cause it’s booking it.

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And is it a pro?

Also you might like this.

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I’ve experienced it several times, on two different Glowforge Pro machines, but haven’t posted about it, as it’s never been more than a rare glitch.

Just a few days ago I had one of these situations. I sent the print, hit the big white button, the fans spun up and things began moving and I walked away. I came back a minute or two later to check on the progress and saw that the print head was sitting above where the first cut was supposed to begin, but doing nothing. It was as if I had pressed the pause button, doing nothing, but the app showed the print was still running.

I powered off the machine, reseated the white cable, gave the print head pins and pads on the carriage plate a wipe with alcohol, restarted it and it’s been fine since.

The previous time it froze up was probably a month or two ago. It stopped mid-job that time, not at the start. Did the same thing, cleaned and power cycled and it was working again.

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And when it froze up you had the same thing where even opening the lid wouldn’t reset the head?

Yes, that’s happened. The fans keep going full speed and the head doesn’t home when opening the lid.

That was also the case with my original Glowforge Pro which didn’t freeze up but did get very confused when the red HV wire presumably shorted. Flash of light and puff of smoke from behind the tube, but the printer didn’t freeze, it kept running, going through the motions with no tube output and a purple big button. That one stayed messed up after power cycling: continued purple buttons, no tube output, and opening the lid did not cancel jobs. After a few failed test prints I went to customer service and got it replaced.

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Josh at Glowforge is now telling me that it is stopping because of an alignment issue. I have promptly messaged him back that it is not an alignment issue.

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No - a momentary break completely freezes the machine until it is rebooted (power cycle). I believe it’s tied to the CPU HALT signal in some way, but that’s just a guess as it emulates what HALT is supposed to do. I’ve built computers from scratch (as in from bare CPU, RAM chips, logic decoders, etc.)

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You are correct. That is totally inaccurate.

I suggest trying to record it (video) and reproducing it, then put the video on YouTube and send to them.

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So, for good measure, I cleaned the pins on the head this morning and fired her back up. Still the same. The kicker is that you can get engraves all day apparently. Just no cutting. See Cheer pic in next comment.

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For reference. Today’s attempt on the Cheer pieces on Proofgrade. Also attaching yesterday morning’s video taken while on the phone with Glowforge Support.

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And now, Josh at Glowforge suggests it is my pulley and belt tension.

You need to ask to speak to someone else. Josh is obviously just reading from a script.

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Sadly, he’s the third. Technically the second. Ray wasn’t helpful and Rhea is the one who told me it was my material and said go to Beyond the Manual. I don’t know how to get someone who knows the machines.

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