I have read several other posts here about this new problem and shot an email to GF support last night. Hoping that some others might be able to offer some tips or pointers that might have experienced the issue and found a resolution.
GF was running fine last night and performing a cut only on some medium leather. Cut time was 4:28 and the machine had not run that long. Was running in an airconditioned room at a cool 60. I saw the cooling alert on the screen and the orange light on the machine. Nothing seemed hot but I shut it off, unplugged for 20 minutes… Issue remained. Let it cool for hours and even overnight.
I cleaned GF really good and inspected white plug to the laser head. I did not see any visible issues.
Thoughts or ideas are appreciated while I wait for tech help.
Have you tried turning it back on yet? The yellow light just means “something’s wrong,” so it’s hard for us to pinpoint without Support input, but I had a yellow light one time that seemed to resolve itself after I turned the machine off and back on again.
Support should be along soon, since posting in this section also opens a support ticket. We won’t get to find out what was wrong unless you tell us, though, because the’ll close this one to eliminate the duplicate from their system, and go back to your email ticket to finish up.
Thanks for the reply. Indeed, I have tried several times and still orange. On a positive note having the machine down has prompted me to be very close to ordering a second unit. I am sure that GF will take care of me as I am still within the 12 months but it will be nice to have two machines for both production and as a backup.
For future reference, turning it off if it overheats is the wrong thing to do, not that it will permanently damage it - or has any impact on you still having an issue the next day.
The cooling system depends on fluid flow, which obviously can’t happen without power.
Thanks for that. In my case, the machine actually sits behind my computer work station. I did not notice the error until I thought to myself, “It sure seems like longer than 4 minutes” - So I am pretty sure that the issue happened and remained while on for 6 or more minutes before I turned it off.
Yeah, but with an ambient temp of 60ºF, it would still cool down pretty quickly even without that. I’d be more worried about it being too cold to operate!
I’m so sorry to hear that you’re running into trouble!
I extracted the logs from your Glowforge to investigate, and it looks like the orange button is appearing because the Glowforge is having trouble communicating with the printer head. There are two key connections I’d like you to check for me.
Could you please do the following?
Turn off your Glowforge.
Holding only the finished black surfaces, grasp the printer head as shown. Pull gently up and back to disengage the magnets and remove the head. ​
There is a small tab in the center of the wire ribbon. Push down fully on the tab to release it, and gently pull the wire ribbon plug from the printer head.
Pick up the printer head and wire ribbon. Make sure the tab on the wire ribbon is facing up. Slide the ribbon back into the head until it clicks.
As shown, lower the printer head over the metal plate so that it rests next to the two round posts. Then push it gently away from you – you’ll feel a “click” as magnets pull the printer head until it sits snugly atop the metal plate.
Great question. I checked and indeed, the rubbing location on the ribbon and where it lines up most predominately on the black metal strip is when the head is centered. This is where much of my work starts as the camera seems more accurate in lining stuff up.
Unfortunately, it looks like your unit is experiencing an issue that we can’t resolve remotely. I want you to have a reliable unit, so I’m recommending we replace this one. I’ve sent you additional information via email to sort out the details and I’m going to close this thread. I’m so sorry about the bad news.
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