Our Glowforge Pro is having trouble with the LEDs on the lid. When closed, they are dim and flicker a little, but they are bright when opened. The result is that the material shows up very dimly on screen.
We’ve tried power cycling the machine several times, but that hasn’t had any noticeable effect. We’ve also tried lightly pushing the ribbon cables into their sockets, also to no effect.
I experienced that exact same issue the other day and just dismissed it as maybe my eyes playing tricks on me. It looks like it might be a real issue.
I’d love to her GF’s input as to why this might be happening… is it a software update issue or something deeper.
Alex
Double check all your ribbon connections to the lid, might help support if you post pictures of them.
I think it’s supposed to do that. 
Currently, the image on the screen remains a bit dim until you enter the correct thickness information for the material…then the machine focuses and the display gets brighter. Same thing for the Snapping function if you happen to have that installed.
It’s a visual indicator that you need to do something.
Wrong material thickness listed…the display is dim:
Correct material thickness listed…the display brightens:
It’s subtle, but it also happens if you refresh the bed image.
What @jules said, but the flicker part is not normal. If they are flickering all the way off, that’s maybe a problem.
This is not the usual dimness because the artwork doesn’t have settings inputted or the artwork isn’t in the workable area. I probably should’ve mentioned that I’ve probably done or supervised over 100 hours of work on this machine and this is out of the ordinary.
I’ll try to get a screenshot to clarify next time I’m by the machine.
I had issues with my LEDs last night and I thought I was imagining it! In particular, the LEDs at the top/far edge were so dim I couldn’t see well enough to place my file on the material. I thought something was physically wrong with the LEDs up there. I did not experience any flickering though.
I’m also having this problem. The display in the app is very dark, but when I walk over to the machine, the LEDs are quite bright. I can cut and engrave, but it makes it very difficult to place the artwork.
Thanks for letting us know about this. I’ve investigated the logs and sensor readings from your Glowforge, and it appears that there has been some buildup of dust and residue on the camera. When the camera lens is dirty or obstructed in this way, the images you see in the app may be noticeably darker.
Could you please follow the steps located on our support page here for “Things That Need Wiping”? After thoroughly cleaning, please try again and let me know how it goes.
As others have mentioned here, the LED lights on the lid of your Glowforge should not flicker. If possible, could you please capture a video of the flickering LEDs? You can send the video to us at support@glowforge.com, and we’ll be glad to take a closer look.
Thanks, I’ll give it a clean next time I’m by the space, though it does get pretty regularly cleaned (every couple of weeks).
Earlier this morning, the lid lights also completely shut off for a few seconds while I was running a cut. That’s not a camera issue. The laser continued to cut just fine. These sort of transient events, as well as the flickering, are a bit tough to capture on camera, but I’ll give it another try either tonight or tomorrow morning.
kinda funny cause mine does the opposite, mine gets brighter when I close the lid
All right, so I gave all of the lenses, cameras, and mirror a pretty deep clean last night and the issue appeared to go away, but it’s back this morning. Another user reported that the machine wasn’t detecting that the lid was closed.
When I went to use it this morning, I experienced the same “Lid Open” error before the machine calibrated, despite definitely having a closed lid. I wiggled the lid and it started to calibrate. While calibrating, the lid LEDs were practically off. I got a video of that and emailed it to support@glowforge.com.
When I touch the ribbon cable at the back the lights flicker and before that a cut terminated because the lid was open when the lid was not open or even bumped open. Is it possible to get a new lid ribbon cable?
I say again.
You probably have a janky connection, rather than a janky cable. Cables themselves tend to be the last issue.
Here are pictures of the three ribbon cable connectors:
I’m sure you can understand that I don’t want to mess with the actual connections until the actual staff has suggested that. I don’t want to risk voiding the warranty.
There’s an actual photo here that’s been posted by actual staff showing the 5 connections to check when this problem occurs…let me go see if I can find it for you.
While I’m hunting that down, there’s also this:
Here it is:
Thanks for that, all of the connectors mentioned there are closed and appear to be properly aligned.
