My Focus Keep coming up that I have to thick material :

Please help ?
I seem to no longer be able to cut anything now ?

I cannot get past this error that started a few days ago , it takes me 50 tries to get it to work ?

how thick is the material? Are you using Set Focus or let it auto focus when you go to print? More details please. Pictures always help too. :slight_smile:

I have cutting the same material for 3 Years 0.3 mm
I normally use print and now I am using Focus and its not going well at all.

This just started happening a few days ago and its getting it worse .

Thank you.

Curious, what else have you done to troubleshoot?

Keep cleaning the lens but its not really dirty were only cutting thin foam.
Its really now impossible for it to recogize BLACK Material i keep shinning lights into the machine but its still hit and miss .

I hate the updates that I cannot control everything has worked perfect for so long.
I just got another new machine so have Two , I always know when they snuck in the update.

I had a focusing issue yesterday and several bumping issues. I found some tiny pieces of blue mask that I often use on the lens. Also, the roller jumped off track and apparently that’s what caused the bumping issue. Have you tried a thorough cleaning?

I am having the exact same problem. It takes 20 tries to get anything to work and it doesn’t seem to be able to focus. Tech support said it was a physical problem but it definitely seems like software.

when you say you’ve cleaned the lens, does that mean the laser lens or the camera lens(es)? I’d make sure the top camera lens is clean, and the one on the bottom of the head as well.

Tech here is pretty basic at first,
Than they catch on pretty fast.

I have cleaned the lens , bot the top and side and bottom of the head unit .
all is good.

This is happening on both my Machines , one of them is brand new ;
There was some kind of change in the update as i remember the day both machines started going off on there own making centering moves.

After that the struggle began , The materail was black and 0.5 which is the limit but i have been cutting it fine for years , I started cutting back to 0.3 material and today was tough in Black .
Black material is really hard to get a focus on .

I have a bright lamp but I dont think that is the issue.
What lens is most responsible for FOCUS ?

Yes indeed. I use a small piece of masking tape (or a scrap of PG masking) on the material and use that as the set focus target. It helps the rangefinding system find the material.

Hi @coalakida . I’m sorry to hear that you’ve been running into some recent issues with the focusing stage of print attempts on your Glowforge. I’ll be happy to help you get this sorted out.

I extracted and reviewed the log files from your Glowforge and have some requests and suggestions to try.

FIRST:

Can try a test print to help us gather more print data for troubleshooting?

  • Print the Gift of Good Measure on Proofgrade material, using Proofgrade settings. Please use the default autofocuser settings for this test print as well.

  • When the print finishes, leave the lid closed and wait until the fans stop and the picture updates.

Check the completed print:

  • If the Gift of Good Measure fails to cut through, take a photo of the front and back of the print and attach these photos to your reply.

SECOND:

I noticed some prints failing to focus correctly due to trouble with the red dot that is used to focus on the material. This usually indicates that one or more of the following is the cause:

  • The material is the outside of the supported height range: The measured thickness of the material can be thrown off by any reflective or textured material (unmasked acrylics, dark images, voids in material, or issues with the material or crumb try not laying completely flat)
  • The red dot used for focusing landed on the edge/curve/side of the material.
  • The printer head is not sitting properly on the carriage plate, or the carriage plate itself needs to be reinstalled. To check this, I’ve included some links to our support pages that include detailed steps for reinstalling the printer head and carriage plate.

Let me know if you run into any trouble with the requests above, and I’ll look forward to your response. Thank you!

These are the areas responsible for focus.

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Hi @coalakida. It sounds like @wilsonpf was able to help resolve this, so I’ll go ahead and close this thread. Feel free to start a new thread, or write us at support@glowforge.com, if you run into any other trouble and we’ll be happy to help. Happy printing!