Recently my GF has been doing strange things. It started homing and centering before each cut. It would also occasionally go offline. It would do this 2-3 times before each but taking about 15 mins to start.
Thanks for letting us know about this. I extracted the logs from your unit to investigate, and here’s what I found:
It looks like your Glowforge was able to connect successfully to your network, but it may be having trouble maintaining a stable connection. When this is the case, you won’t need to go through Wi-Fi setup again, but you may see an “Offline” message or experience longer or more frequent calibrations.
The most common solution to Wi-Fi challenges is to restart all the devices involved in connecting to the internet.
- Turn off the computer, phone, or tablet that you’re using
- Turn off your Glowforge
- Unplug your modem
- Unplug your Wi-Fi access point
- Wait one minute, then plug everything back in and turn them back on
If that doesn’t work, we have two more suggestions that often make a big difference:
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Improve the signal path between your Glowforge and your Wi-Fi access point
Wi-Fi signals need a clear path. Remove physical barriers, and move devices closer together:
- Move your Wi-Fi access point up high and make sure it’s in an open space. Avoid locating your Wi-Fi access point on the ground, under a desk, in a cabinet, or in a corner where its signal can be blocked.
- Relocate your Wi-Fi access point closer to your Glowforge
- Move your Glowforge closer to your Wi-Fi access point
- Install a Wi-Fi range extender closer to your Glowforge
- Run an ethernet cable and install a second Wi-Fi access point next to your Glowforge
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Reduce electronic and Wi-Fi interference
If your unit is near other devices that use Wi-Fi or a large number of electronics, temporarily turn off other electronics and devices in the area.
I hope this helps. Please let us know if you have any other questions.
1 Like
I’m having exactly this issue.
The glowforge has direct line-of-sight to the wifi AP about 20 feet away. EVERYTHING else in the house is working properly - phones, tablets, computers, servers. The glowforge is the only client behaving abnormally.
I live in a large apartment building. Adding another wifi access point won’t help - the spectrum is saturated.
So what are we supposed to do? The glowforge has neither ethernet nor 5GHz support (a shortcoming that is unbelievable to me - modern wifi chipsets are CHEAP). In cases like ours where the bottom line issue is that the 2.4GHz bands are rendered unusable due to saturation what are we supposed to do?
I thought it was odd that the gf was doing this as welll, never had an issue up to recently. We were actually using it a lot right before it started this. I have a very large house and 4 access points thoughout the house, which makes really good coverage.
I rebooted every ap in the house and I adjusted the band steering for 5ghz devices to favor 5ghz leaving 2.5ghz for those devices that absolutely need it, like the gf.
I would not recommend adding an extender as those tend to cut your bandwidth in half.
Aaaand I just got the same copy-paste FAQ response as @vee gave above to my email support request.
Can we get an actual solution? I can’t tell my entire building to turn off or upgrade their wifi. Spectrum saturation was a known problem 5 years ago. Why can’t this product deal with it?
because they chose for cost reasons to stick to 2.4GHz radio only no wired connection. Though given the problems making a wired connection not be another exit point for smoke I’m not 100% that the choice while bad for me was a poor tradeoff.
Though network-specific Wi-Fi challenges may occur for a number of different reasons, I have a few suggestions that may help:
- If your Wi-Fi network includes several access points, it’s possible that your Glowforge needs to re-establish its connection whenever it ‘hops’ from one access point to another. As a test, you could try creating a dedicated access point for the Glowforge to see if that helps.
- Since Glowforge only uses the 2.4GHz frequency, a connection will be harder to establish and maintain on a crowded 2.4GHz network. Other devices using 2.4GHz, like cordless phones and microwaves, can cause interference and an unstable connection. You can consult your router settings to check the performance and traffic on your 2.4GHz network.
- In your network settings, check the channel you’re using for the 2.4GHz band. Trying a different channel may provide a more consistent connection.
- Though less common, DNS or name resolution conflicts may also cause intermittent connectivity problems. If you use a custom DNS configuration on your router, you might want to try default DNS settings to see if that works better.
If you’re still having trouble, there’s a test you can try that will help us narrow down the problem. If possible, could you please create a Wi-Fi hotspot with a cell phone and use that network to connect your Glowforge to Wi-Fi? This is a good way to rule out signal 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 using a 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:
- Turn on your Glowforge.
- Wait 30 seconds. Then hold down the button for ten seconds until it glows teal.
- 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.
- 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.