Off line

Tried restarting GF and rebooting PC. GF will not initialize, No teal. As of 1:11 PST 4-7-18 we get this error.
"
We’re sorry, an unexpected error has occurred.
If the issue persists, please contact us at support@glowforge.com with details about what’s causing this error to occur.
"

The wording is a little unclear on your post. Were you trying to totally reinitialize or changing the wifi connection or just powering up the GF and rebooting the PC? If just restarting the GF you would not see a teal light nor would you want to.

rpegg, thanks for the reply.
Yes never know how to ask for help. To much info and people don’t read the details, to little people don’t respond. So do I make a list of the 10 thing’s I did to get glowforge on-line? Or just say, my glowforge is off-line and play 20 question with people. Did you try this, yes, did you try that, yes. Are you dissipated in glowforge, yes. oops know I went and said to much.

GF sat for a week. Went to use it and will not come on-line. only got this message:
"
We’re sorry, an unexpected error has occurred.
If the issue persists, please contact us at support@glowforge.com with details about what’s causing this error to occur.
"

Well it never hurts to give the basic info and if more is needed then more questions will be asked. Support may take a day or a week to get back to you. If it gets to be too much for the folks helping then nothing wasted on your end.

There can be lots of reasons for the error you are seeing. Since I can’t remember everyone and you didn’t give any info I went back and looked at your forum activity. From that I can see that you have had other problems but have been able to print since then. BTW: I see Support closed your last problem report because they saw through logs that you were printing.
Always helpful to let Support know when a problem is fixed, unless you did it in an email.

I have had the error you quote for a number of reasons. Sometimes it is because of conflicting logins, sometimes it is that the file has errors, sometimes it is because the WiFi kicked me off. Don’t know under what conditions you are receiving that error.

If you turn on the GF and don’t do anything else does it go through calibration within a few minutes? If not probably got kicked off the wifi.

If it goes through calibration, can you start app.glowforge.com and click on your GF name in the upper right to see if it is online?

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rpegg,

Oh I’m sure it’s GF wifi. But how to fix it is the question.
Wifi router is 2ft away, all other wifi clients are off in the room including phones, other closest wifi routers is 20ft away. I see glowforge in PC connections menu so it’s broadcasting ssid, but that doesn’t mean much. Great up and down internet speeds, The PC were running app.glowforge.com from surfs just fine,

Glowforge does not calibrate, No teal lit button after turning glowforge on. I wonder were the wifi board is in the glowforge, is there an antenna?

I’ll try putting the wifi router right next to the glowforge.

The GF button does not turn teal unless you are trying to completely redo the wifi setup. That requires you to press the button for 10+ seconds and follow setup.glowforge.com.

Normally no light at all. Under normal circumstances it only blinks or glows white when the head is moving or after it has prepared and waiting to print. The GF should reconnect to your wifi every power up without having to do anything.

2 Likes

Oh, thanks that’s good to know. I think maybe we’ve seen the calibration 3 or 4 time out of turning the machine on and of 30 times We’ve has so much trouble with it we don’t have an understanding of what’s normal. In the 4 prints we’ve done, each setup has been different in getting an “on-line” status. Other projects were aborted due to “app” not being able to process a .svg from Ai, Inkscape or gimp. I wounder how many people design and cut there own, or just buy something off the store?

My goal when accessing tech support is to give enough relevant troubleshooting so when the technician reviews the notes, the first thing I hear is “Please wait a moment while I review your issue”

Demonstrating that you have performed the basic troubleshooting in logical order will avoid the “Have you tried rebooting?” types of questions, and will likely get your problem resolved without having them talk down to you, or run you through unnecessary hoops.

3 Likes

I have not even used my catalog credits to purchase a design. I roll my own almost exclusively. I did spent a good year understanding how to make SVGs customized for the Glowforge before I even got a my first pre-release. Even then I had a few things to fix in terms of compound shapes and file sizes.

I’m sorry you are having so much trouble turning the Glowforge on and just starting a print. You are right, there are so many issues that could be at play here. The information is on the forum but it isn’t always concise or applicable at any time. Some type of troubleshooting step-by step would be helpful, and error messages that gave you an indication of where to look for trouble.

This should only be happening if the Glowforge is still trying to connect to your wifi, if I am understanding correctly. Once it is connected, you can examine your router status page an assure yourself that it is indeed connected to the wifi correctly.

Issues with Illustrator and good SVGs can often be traced to incorrect default save settings. I’m online tonight so if you see this and want to do some troubleshooting, let me know and I’ll do my best.

1 Like

marmak,

thanks all great info and your kind offer to help. We are back on-line with out doing anything and that’s the frustration.

On the SVG, is there a cheat sheet for setting for inkscape or gimp. I’ve an other machine that doesn’t have a problem with the same SVG files. I would love to know what GF is looking for.

This is the link to the tips and tricks that have assembled for working with 2D design apps. One thing you may want to do is ensure that your file is saved as a plain svg.

Also, make your document preset 20x12 for best placement options with repeatability. If you embed a raster graphic in an svg, make sure it isn’t too complicated and that it is well-formed.

One way of seeing if you are doing everything right is just make a file and post it on the forum. We can check it out and see if there is something in it that is causing a problem. You could also PM me if you wish to keep the file private.

As to GIMP, I save the files as PNGs and am careful about size and resolution. I don’t use them very often at all. I do as much as I can as an SVG so as to be able to resize and customize as I need.

3 Likes

Thank you @marmak3261 and @rpegg! @tomparker, we are here to help (whether you write long questions or short), so please post a new thread if you have another question.

If you have trouble with your Glowforge showing Offline again, the first thing to check is your Wi-Fi. There’s a troubleshooter here, and if you let us know what you’ve done and what did/didn’t work, that will help us with our investigation.