Left / Right Movement Issue - Looking for Community Input

[todd.hassell]

It’s been a long while since I’ve posted on the forum, and unfortunately, have a major issue with my Pre-Ordered Glowforge Basic. After not using it for a while, it was stuck on centering / homing / etc. - so I ordered replacement Black and white ribbon cables, which got stuck in transit and were re-shipped after two weeks. I also received many “head not found” and “bumped” messages.

Of course, I went through all of the standard trubleshooting, did a deep cleaning, removed the carriage plate, etc, - but that didn’t fix anything.

While waiting on the new cables, I had various calls with support, which resulted in various folks from support suggesting various actions, and was able to get past centering / homing etc. a couple of times out of 20-30 by moving (power off) the print head to under the camera.

When that happened, and tried to run a test print, left / right movement was way off - too far or not far enough, and needed to stop the print in order to prevent a fire from laser cutting without L/R movement.

Support told me I needed a new carriage plate because the wheels were missing bumpers (even though I was mostly sure that original did not have the “bumpers” (and there were no parts in the bed, and it worked fine last time) - but I went ahead and ordered the carriage plate - which resulted in no change - same issues.

When the white and black ribbon cables arrived, I tried the white cable first, and it did not resolve the issue. Did the black one, and also no change. One support person told me I needed to run the printer head setup (but I declined - given the issues with left/right movement and the fact that it might create a fire, whcih I suspected given the Gift of Good Measure test print I did AFTER the new cables were installed (with Support on the phone).

If you see the heavy burn dot under the printhead, that’s where it was burning without motion - just like the first time I tried it. This time was after all of the replaced parts (white and black ribbon cables and the brand new carriage plate.)

After more time with a supervisor troubleshooting, I was told I’d get a follow up after digging into the logs, and of course, the next day (yesterday) was told that they could not diagnose the issue remotely and suggested buying an new GF Pro (with a discount) - or reaching out to Wiregrass for further assistance. Can anyone share their experience with Wiregrass, either as a reply or via a private message?

I’m really hoping to resuscitate the machine since this seems like only a L/R movement issue. I have not replaced the Pulley wheel(s) - but wonder if this could be the issue. When I took pictures, the GF Support Team did not suggest this might be the issue.

I’m hoping that someone here has dealt with the same or similar issue and had a successful resolution. Given some of the recent issues and challenges that Glowforge has faced, while I am a big fan of the product and how it introduced me to Laser Crafting, if I have to buy a new machine, I will have to seriously consider alternatives. (And one may be just to rent time locally, given how infrequently I’ve ended up using the machine recently.)

One last question - I have seen on one of the Facebook groups a company called Buds Printing Supply who offers glowforge service in Northern Illinois. Does anyone here have any experience with them, positive of negative? (If you wish to message me rather than a public respones, that would be fine.)

Thank you very much for any insight, suggestions, ideas, or feedback.

Best regards,

Todd

[davidgal2]

I used Wiregrass to fix my glowforge and was extremely happy with their work. They are located in Dothan Al. I live close enough to be able to drive to their facility. They are very professional and thorough with their troubleshooting and calibration procedures. The prices were not bad either.

[rbtdanforth]

Normally, if left/right movement is off then recalibration is where to go, but not moving at all is either the drive belt or the drive pulleys. Since you just replaced the belt, the gantry pullys might be the issue. The belt also can mess up by being too tight or too loose.
With the machine, and belt off, you could try to feel if working the pullys with your fingers to check for wobble or rough turning.

[lmk]

If you replaced the belt or reinstalled it with the new head, check to see that is isn’t twisted. When I replaced mine I was getting left/right issues. Turned out to be a twisted belt. Use a small mirror to look for the twist.

[davidgal2]

I recently has a similar problem with the laser cuts that were inaccurate. It appeared to be working except circles that were large weren’t completely round and finger joints wouldn’t fit together. When I moved the head from left to right it moved easily but there was some intermittent slight resistance. Wiregrass found out that the groves in the left pully had rust and some kind of gunk in them. I talked to the technician that fixed it and he told me that it was extremely hard to clean it all out. I live in Florida and my laser is always connected to the outside through my vent hose. My shop is air-conditioned so that is how we think the moisture got in. I

put a blast gate in line now.

[todd.hassell]

Update: I communicated with the folks at Wiregrass, and they have suggested that it may be an issue with the X-axis wire.

They offered to replace it if I shipped to them (and their pricing for round trip + the repair was reasonable, all things considered.)

They also, however, suggested trying to reseat that cable and offered to ship one (used but known good) to me as well, also for a reasonable price.

Since this requires removing the left cover, and since the machine is dead in the water, I’ve taken them up on the replacement X-axis wire, and ordered it from them. Even if just reseating the existing one temporarily fixes it, i decided to go ahead and order the replacement since it was barely more than Glowforge charges just for shipping anything.

If that doesn’t work, then I may ship the GF to them for a potential repair, even though if it’s actually the stepper motor, it could be unfixable.

If that’s the case, I’ll definitely have to consider all my options.

I’ll provide updates when I get a chance to open everything up and reseat the existing cable and / or replace it.

[eflyguy]

Looking forward to hearing your results.

The left side cover is a breeze to remove. An automotive trim removal tool works great for releasing the little clips, after the foil tape is removed. It’s been a long time, but I think there are also just a couple of screws holding it near the lid.

[todd.hassell]

Well, the new cable arrived very quickly from Wiregrass, and I was able to remove the left side top without too muhc difficulty.

Located the existing x-axis wire / cable, and was able to work it out of the belt space, and rather than a string for pulling the new cable back through, I used some speaker wire.- and it was a TIGHT fit getting the cable out.

Unfortunately, when I went to pull the new x-axis wire / cable through, the speaker wire broke - and I don’t quite know how I would manage to the replacement pulled / pushed through without something to fish it through.

So… It looks like Geordi (my 'Forge) may be finally be dead.

Seriously considering pulling the trigger on an Xtool P2S at this point, especially given how much easier they seem to me for servicing.

Sigh

I do have to say that the folks at Wiregrass were great for offering suggestions, shipping the wire quickly, and even providing suggestions over the phone for how to work the cable through.

It just seems like it was not meant to be.

[eflyguy]

If you can elaborate a little more, I can’t see how this couldn’t be remedied. Can you take pics as well? If it was able to be pushed thru, it should be able to be pulled back out..

[todd.hassell]

Out to dinner, but will post pics and more when I get back.

[todd.hassell]

OK. Here are the pics, and an explanaton of what has to be done to fix (replace) the x-axis wire.

Note that I don’t have the “before” pictures, but the instructions are to pull the existing wire (either from bottom to top, or top-to-bottom) through the “serpentine belt” (im sure that’s not the right name for it - but that’s what I’ll call it. and to either attache the new cable to the old one, or attach a string , wire, etc, so you can then pull the new cable through.

Because there are a number of other wires / cables, its a REALLY tight fit - and I didn;t realize just how challenging it would be.

I have used a pen in the pictures to try to show the path that the cable / wire follows.

It plugs into the PCB board where the open white spot is at the right side of the pictured board and then follows the path indicated by the pen.

Thenit follows the pen’s path INTO the belt (which moves as the gantry goes front to back / back to front

The wire then has to go through the entire serpintine belt, up the “u” bend so it then faces toward the back, and come OUT of the belt.

Once it exits the belt, you then wrap it under the tube (from the hole) and it goes where the pen it, and then under the "bridge holding up the (wide) white ribbon cable that goes to the stepper motor (the silver metal block at the right of the third picture.

Then, it connects to the stepper motor where the white connector is show in photo #4.

The first and last steps are easy. I did not realize I was going to have to run it / pull it / etc. through the serpentine belt, When I was pulling the existing cable thhrough, i was not able to get the old +new cables through (hooked together with masking / painters tape), so I decided to use speaker wire to attach to the old cable, and successfully pulled that through to use as a “fish tape” to pull the replacement wire through. Problem was, the run through the serpentire belt was so tight that the speaker wire itself broke.

And because there are several other key wires in the belt, I do not want to risk breaking those or potentially doing something to create a short.

So that’s why I think Geordi the Forge is done.

Any thoughts?

(Btw, I did decide to hold off on buying the Xtool at this time - given how little I have used the Glowforge in the past year, at least for now.)

[eflyguy]

OK, here are my initial thoughts. I can’t easily fiddle with mine right now, for multiple reasons otherwise I’d pop my cover off and check. Perhaps someone else who’s had theirs off could..

I am pretty sure from memory that by moving the gantry forwards and back, the bend in that conduit could be moved around to ease the tension on that connector for the cable in question, to allow you to not only pull it back out, but also get a better “fish wire” option in-place. It’ll be fiddly, but I’d personally take spending time fiddling with something over spending lots of $$ when everything else about the machine is likely good.

[todd.hassell]

Well, exchanged messages with Buds Printing Supply - who does repairs (onsite) in Northern Illinois area, and - assuming I didn’t damage anything else removing the cable - believes he can feed / replace the cable (he’s done these before) in a relatively short period of time.

Even with his (reasonable) service call fee, it will likely be less than half of the cost to ship to Wiregrass. I’m scheduled for mid-October (due to my schedule, not his.)

I’m hoping this will work. Either way, I will report back.

-Todd

[rbtdanforth]

I realized in time how sticky that cable was, and had it placed before removing /he back. But was mentally prepared to have to replace it several times. Two clips did not close properly so I was astonished when it actually worked. If re-replacement is possible, I would try to go there or see if Wireglass would be interested..

[todd.hassell]

Wiregrass was very helpful, and shipped the cable promptly. When my pull cord broke (while trying to thread the replacement) I decided to get third party help.

There is a (somewhat) local repair company who has done this before, and is scheduled for an onsite repair on Tuesday - for a price that is less than what the shipping to Wiregrass would be.

Hopefully that will get the issue resolved.

[todd.hassell]

Bad News, and then some Really Good News:

Jordan, from Buds Printing Supplies, made his service call today. In examining the old (assumed bad) cable that controls the left/right movement, he said the old one looked good, and so he tested both the old and new ones. Both tested fine (from an electrical standpoint).

He disonnected the full gantry, which made it much easier to thread the new cable through, and successfully reconnected. He did, however, warn me not to get my hopes up.

When Geordi (my Forge) restarted, the issue remained. So it wasn’t the cable.

However, he said it seemed like a power issue - and therefore was likely either a motherboard, daughterboard, or Power Supply issue.

He had a Motherboard and Daughterboard with him, and tried the daughterbaord with him, but that ALSO did not fix the issue.

Last and final shot, he tried swapping the motherboard - and lo and behold - it fixed the problem. Successfully ran the Gift of Good Measure.

Now, because the machine is ID’d by the motherboard, Geordi (La Forge) - my original machine is “dead.” But the new motherboard now shows as a new machine - and appears to be working fine!

He did offer a warning, however: SOMETHING caused the issue in the motherboard, so if there is an underlying issue in one of the other parts, then it could re-appear. But for now, I can be Forging again.

Oh, and because the replacement motherboard (for which he did release the ownership to me) was from a Plus, I got the upgrade to a “Plus” - so slightly faster performance.

While I have no guarantees how long this will last, at least I am back up and running for now.

Woo Hoo!

[todd.hassell]

Well… another update.
While the original issue is resolved - and we home, center, and cut, the picture is now skewed and the bed is SUPER bright.

(Gift of Good measure runs fine, and the calibration printing ran fine too).

I tried running calibrationa and it completed, but said there was an error, and then also a message that stated that no improvements were possible.

I’m wondering if there is an incompatibilitiy between the PLUS motherboard that was swapped and my BASIC machine.

Bed Image As Captured from the UI (with no lights on near the forge)

Anyone have any experience here?
thanks,

Todd

[eflyguy]

I can’t say with certainty or experience, but I can not imagine a scenario where there is a motherboard hardware difference between the different models.

I would expect this is something they could fix with some kind of remote “firmware” push..

[todd.hassell]

well, I spent an hour with Tier 2 support and they said there is nothing they can do from a “back end” configuration perspective. I have also discovered that Set Focus doesn’t work - all likely tied to the same issue (my guess, not theirs). Additionally, they DID agree that the LEDs are too bright - and the image is very washed out - unless I wait to take a picture / refresh once the LEDs naturally dim.

Upon my asking about the Black Lid cable (which I did replace as part of the original troubleshooting before the MB swap) - they said that COULD be an issue / cause, and so they (Glowforge Support) are sending a new black lid cable for me to try. I did save the OLD (original black lid cable, and will try that before the new one gets here, as an interim trouble-shooting step.)

The saga continues… but I still feel better than I did two days ago.

[wesleyjames]

Thin masking tape? Just to dim the light a bit.