Don’t know how else to describe it. I was working with my Glowforge for several days and hours before this happened, so it’s not like it was idle prior to the behavior. I’d turned it off for about 1/2 hour while I modified a design. When I went to turn it back on, after about 6 seconds, the lights around the lid went off, then on again in a few seconds. This cycle repeated itself perhaps 8-10 times, then the lights went off permanently, and something inside began a grinding sound, almost like a small car trying to restart when flooded. So, I shut it off for a while, then tried again. Cycle repeated; in fact, several times.
So, I called Glowforge and, after suffering through one of the minions of untrained and unskilled techs, got someone who seemed to know what he was doing. We tried the obvious things, like unplugging and plugging the system in. Right, like that was going to make a difference. Then he said he was going to take this to senior techs. The next day, after prompting from me he came back and said it was the black cable taped to the underside of the lid. Right. I state my skepticism, and he insisted that they had seen this before and it was definitely the cable (no active components on this one). He was going to send me one at no charge, but they were out of stock.
Two weeks later, the new able arrived and I installed it. Gues what? No change. Symptoms exactly as they were with the old cable. No surprise there. So, I called back, and he took this new information back up the ladder. I have some technical background, though not in lasers, and expressed that it had to be something with active components, the switching power supply or one of the circuit boards. He finally got back to me to say that they could not troubleshoot it remotely anymore and that should send it back for repair.
And, oh, BTW, the Glowforge repair facility was closed while they moved it back from Mexico. Great! So, he gave me my two options: 1) Send it to one of the third-party repair companies or trade it in on the brand-new HD system, for a mere $6,999 less $1000 discount.
So, my challenge to you, my Glowforge brethren and sistren (is there such a word?), is have you seen this before? If so, what was the fix. I’m not inclined to send it back to a third-party repair company who has no better access to spare parts than I do, and on whose website is the disclaimer that the repairs are not backed up by Glowforge, and, oh BTW, it will cost me about $700 for the repair + $500 RT for shipping this beast (I’m in Hawaii, they’re somewhere on the east coast.
Thoughts???