Machine stuck focusing/centering/scanning and I've run out of things to try

Community Support
1

The machine worked fine all day. I stopped for dinner then got back to work and it’s scanning, and scanning, and scanning, and the bed image is showing the last thing I cut from an hour before. I’ve been going through many threads on this forum detailing the same problem and nothing has worked.

Things I’ve done:
Restarted the machine
Restarted my pc
Restarted my modem/router
Reset the wifi settings
Cleaned all mirrors and lenses
Restarted machine with the lid open
Restarted the machine with nothing in it
Restarted the machine with the light off
Restarted the machine while reciting lines from the necronomicon
Restarted the machine after manually moving the head to under the camera
Pressed down on the connectors of the lid cable
Cried a little

I had a few moments where it would show a little progress, then just get stuck again. The head will occasionally move, but very little, and will stay still for 20+ minutes. Most successful run was starting the machine with the lid open and the head under the camera. It took about 30 minutes, but it eventually became ready to print. I set up a job and sent it only to have it get stuck on “preparing your job,” then time out and tell me to restart the machine. It doesn’t seem like a network issue as the web app will show when the lid is open or it’s offline, although not immediately. The only solutions I’ve seen that I’ve yet to try are replacing the lid cable and shipping it back.

Anything else I can try?

2

I dunno, if reciting the necronomicon didn’t do it, you might be out of luck. But just in case, maybe check the white ribbon cable’s connection to the head?

1 Like
3

How on earth can the head be under the camera if the camera is up in the air?

The centering process depends on the GF logo on the head being directly underneath the lid camera. If the lid is open, that obviously can’t happen.

4

Turn machine off
Position head under camera
Open lid
Turn machine back on

That way, the open lid trick is combined with the positioned head trick. Despite my master trickery, it’s a day later and still stuck.

5

That’s pretty nifty to position the head before opening the lid.

In any case, the lid camera has to be able to detect the head directly below it, that’s what “centering” is doing, so that would accomplish nothing.

6

The thought was that the lid being open on startup causes some sort of activation when the machine registers the lid closing, then, once closed, the head is already under the camera to possibly assist with centering. I’m aware that the camera wouldn’t read the head from a foot away at a 45 degree angle.

Regardless, I’m still in the same position as last night. All of the behaviors I’m seeing from the machine seem to be related to a lack of input from the camera, leading me to believe that the infamous black cable might be to blame.

Thanks for the suggestion, all cables I can reach my fingers into seem to be securely seated.

7

Just pop the head off (it attaches magnetically) to check that one.

8

I’m sorry you ran into trouble with your glowforge. Thank you for letting us know what you’ve tried so far. I’ll be in touch via email with next steps.