Glowforge stuck on Focusing step - Solid yellow light

Community Support
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@support… I turned on my glowforge tonight and it is stuck on the focusing step with a solid yellow light. I’ve tried unplugging and restarting it, resetup the wifi, reset my entire wifi network, cleaned the laser windows and nothing has worked. Wifi is solid when running a speed test next to the unit. Not sure what to try next…

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This happened to me a couple of days ago and turns out the cable on the head was loose. Once I unplugged and replugged it everything started working fine.

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Thanks Amy! I tried that to but no luck.

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Yellow is the default can’t communicate colour. The most common is temperature. Are you within the temp ranges for your laser? If you’re venting outside, is the outside within range?

Are you getting any error in the GFUI?

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Did you clean the gamera lens in the head, and the two windows on each side of the bottom? It is those two windows the set the focus height. If you can see the the place that set focus happens when you use Set Focus you should see the red laser hitting the spot and it should be sharp.

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I’m not getting an error in the UI other than it just continually says “Focusing” and temperatures seem fine. It was a little warm last night but tried again this morning when it was cooler and nothing different.

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I tried cleaning the lens this morning and still the same result. I turn it on it makes the whirling noise like its starting up and then the constant yellow light. I don’t hear the normal clicking sounds when its firing up.

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Quick Update: After speaking with support on the phone they determined that it couldn’t be fixed remotely. Since i’m out of warranty they provide a “deal” to purchase a refurbished model so they can send a refurbished machine and can fix the machine after to get me up and running quicker. I suppose this is better than have a broken machine paperweight but not super happy that a machine around 5 years old can’t be fixed without sending it back. Its $700 for shipping there and back alone.

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You always have the option of trying to repair it yourself. The white ribbon cable that connects the head (the thing that “focuses”) to the rest of the machine can be purchased on Etsy for $60-70. If you see any crimps or exposed copper along the length of yours, that’s a good sign the cable has a short that’s causing this.

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Thanks Dan! Thats good info to know. I didn’t see any crimps or issues with the cable or connector but the cryptic email i received from support did reference the “head” so i think there was a connectivity issue for sure.

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The head is like a $600 part if that’s broken, which is probably a large part of the repair cost if they think that might need replacing as well.

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