Just recently in the last week, My laser has turned off and on after I finish a project. No power surge, no outage, just randomly turned off. It’s also been “Offline” when it’s on and is literally next to my router. I turn it off manually and it gets fixed but seems like it’s going downhill.
You’re not talking about the automatic going to sleep feature?
Right after a project? No. I literally just closed the hood on my laser and it shut off on it’s own and restarted on its own.
In the 2 years I’ve owned it I’ve never heard or had an Automatic Sleep Feature? That’s a thing?
That does sound weird if it does it immediately.
They introduced a sleep feature in the spring I think, where after the machine is idle for about 5 min or so, it goes in sleep mode. The lights dim, etc. You press the button up top to wake it up again.
Just once? If it very occasionally restarts, it’s nothing to worry about. You might be getting a software update, or possibly hit a rare crashing bug.
If you’re saying it’s doing it a lot, then you might have something more serious going on. Probably needs Glowforge support to get back to you after they check your logs.
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Nevermind spring. It was in the more recent update:
Scroll down to the bottom.
I keep my laser on frequently for days at a time because I use it alot. The laser is in a “Closet” that we have in our living room; where we spend most of our time. I’ve never had it go to sleep, are the updates automatic or do I have to manually do all that?
@arh2 That’s from 2018. Unless that’s the most recent update?
Haha, you’re right! its a year ago!
All updates are automatic. You do need to power down and back on every now and then for updates to download to take effect.
Then yea my problem still stands. The automatic shutoff makes me nervous and the I don’t like the random offline nonsense. I’m glad it’s automatic updates. Is there a way to see what patch or what software version my laser is currently on and which is the latest to date? It’d help to know these as some machines might not update as planned and/or are having issues with a certain patch/version.
No, it’s all run from Glowforge central. You just need to keep an eye out here for official updates.
Wow, leaving on when not in use (e.g. when you’re sleeping) seems like would add excess hours on the fans (and relatively early failure) and also excess power usage… Even though it may be hard to reach the power button in your “closet” & thus maybe why you are in the habit of not turning it off–I’d consider a way to make it easier to get to the switch, since it’s also for safety reasons you want to reach that power button fairly easily…
Also, you need to shut down the GFUI and restart it to get any updates (though you don’t need to power the unit do that that).
Firmware updates happen when the machine is power cycled, not the UI. The update check is part of the boot-up process. They also sometimes appear to happen after the machine finishes a print. The behavior described happens on my machine every now and then.
So your machine restarts in self too? like Randomly or just after the update?
@bansai8creations It’s fine. It’s not that it’s hard. I just run a business off the machine and need to use it at a moments notice for a sample or something quick. If it’s not part of the issue for it restarting randomly then i’m fine leaving it on.
After power up, which is when updates are applied, but also sometimes after a print, like I said. Perhaps half a dozen times.
The sleep feature takes care of that.
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But, isnt’ the fan still running but perhaps at a slower speed? That and dimming of the lights. I could be wrong, though.
We could start up the old engineer argument about whether the effects of turning a machine on and off repeatedly over time is better or worse for it than the effects of leaving it on all the time (e.g. starting and stopping is harder for a fan than just spinning due to inertia/momentum and all that), but I got tired of that one a long time ago; it’s like politics, everyone has their opinion and nobody ever convinces anyone to change sides. 
I’ve always left my electronics on; that was the side of the argument I came down on back when I was an engineer. And I figure if it’s got a sleep mode, that’s kind of confirmation of sorts that it’s okay to do so. 
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Yea I get all your guys’ concerns or comments or w/e but still would like an employee to help me see whats good, and how to take care of this. 
They’ll be along soon. We’re just keeping you company in the meantime. 
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The next time you see it happen, make note of the time, date, and time zone so you can tell support the approximate time. It helps them to track down the issue from your logs.