Machine getting stuck in either the "centering" or "homing" function between prints

About 2 weeks ago I started having an issue where the Glowforge would enter a “homing” or “centering” function in between prints and would get stuck there endlessly. It happens every single time and the only way that we have found to solve it is to turn the machine off and then back on in between prints.

This only sometimes fixes it, sometimes we need to restart it multiple times to get it to work. I thought that maybe it was an update issue that would solve itself, but it isn’t getting any better.

The print quality is normal, when we can get it to print. It is very cumbersome and tasks that should take a few minutes are taking over an hour.

Please advise

Have you cleaned your lenses, mirrors, and the logo on top of the print head recently? If the camera can’t see clearly it will have a hard time with centering.

https://glowforge.com/support/topic/cleaning-service-and-moving/cleaning#things-that-need-wiping

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What’s it actually doing when it is centering or homing - the behavior of the machine?

I feel we have the same problem, and they said the problem is from the FPC cable connect the lid and the unit. They recommend me to mail the machine back and they will fix it. But when I asked what is the exact the mailing procedure, they did not reply my email.

The machine is clean, I do a full clean including the vent every 2 weeks and spot clean the lenses, camera, etc. in between.

Hopefully its not this.

It registers the lid opening and closing as the LED lights brighten when this is done.

Sometimes the head moves to the first position, like its starting the procedure but then nothing after that. I have waited as long as ten minutes to see if it would work itself through it but it just displays “Centering” or “homing” on the screen and there is no additional movement. Sometimes it doesn’t move at all from the top right corner and just gets stuck right away.

That sounds like WiFi signal dropping. If it happens during a command that is being sent back and forth from the cloud, the machine can get hung up, and then it won’t resume automatically.

There are a few things you can do to improve the WiFi signal on your own…the instructions are listed here:

It comes down to how much interference you’re seeing from other devices in your area while your machine is sending or receiving information. (That happens during startup, calibration, scanning and after the file preparation stages. Try to not interrupt those processes and it cuts way down on the times you’ll see hangups with the machine. Wait a minute or so after a print finishes before you open the lid too. Give the machine time to take and send the post print shot.)

I see you already emailed us about this and we’re working on it there, so I’m going to close this topic.