I have posted previously about my “looks totally normal so we’re closing this thread” very blurry camera. Today it is failing to recognize proofgrade materials. Attached is a screenshot.
Edit: I’ve finally been able to get it to recognize the proofgrade by closing my tab and reopening it (yes using Chrome). But the camera seems to be having a lot of slowness and trouble today. I should say I used the proofgrade acrylic after it kept failing on a not proofgrade piece of acrylic - the head kept moving to a hole in the material and measuring the material height in a place where there was no material.
What’s happening? Is the camera and bed refresh super slow today? Is there a problem with making cuts to material with holes in it? Please, don’t just close the thread again.
You might want to check to make sure there isn’t glare on the sticker - bright or direct light sources can cause them to misread.
If they do fail to read, you can click on the words Unknown Material at the top of the left column, and type the material name in the search bar, then click and choose the correct material. The settings will be loaded for you just like using the sticker.
From the posted photo, I’m pretty sure this is it. I think Glowforge’s code recognizer algorithm could be improved since, the photo shows a corner of glare on it, but there is still sufficient contrast for it to be figured out.
They probably will improve it at some point, but there are probably higher priorities at the moment. Perhaps by the time they get around to it they’ll have the UV watermarks instead.
Thanks. I guess I will try turning the lights off next time. It is a standard fluorescent light (the kind that go in offices and ceilings) and has always been on with the proofgrade sticker in that corner. It does not make sense to me that things seem to be failing between prints with identical / nearly identical set up, but I guess that is how it goes when software updates itself without a changelist.
I used to find a small difference in where in the corner the sticker was placed could make a difference between it reading or not. Haven’t seen much of that in the past few months though.
One way to check it is if you spin the piece in the GF so the code sticker is in the upper left and see if it reads - they don’t need to be “right side up” to be read.
I’ll try that next time too. It’s one of the 12x24 sheets so it only fits in there one way, if I put it oriented the same it’s always in the same place, and no windows so the light doesn’t change. I don’t know, I will do some more cutting this week and see what happens. Thanks for all your kind and helpful replies. It really has been a frustrating day between this and the same settings failing on the same type of acrylic.
Thanks for following up and for providing your feedback. I’m sorry for my delayed reply.
I’m looking into the issue where the app isn’t recognizing your material, and I’ll be in touch when I have more information.
Regarding the Glowforge scanning your material, when you click Print in the app, the printer head moves to the print area on the material to measure the height of the material. If it misses your material, don’t worry! The app will use the height you entered in each of the steps to focus the laser on your material.
Are you still finding that the camera seems slower than normal?
I can enter settings manually, but I am more concerned that the camera is borked. I was able to get the cut done, it autodetected after I flipped the board around, so it seems it can’t autodetect on the left half of the bed.
Thank you for your patience. When we look at the logs from your Glowforge to investigate reports of Proofgrade not being detected, we’re able to see a specific check that is run by the Glowforge whenever a new image is taken by your lid camera. Anytime a Proofgrade QR code is found and scanned, this check is successful. If a QR code is not found, or if Proofgrade is later chosen manually in the app, this check is not successful. My investigation found that this check was successful in all recent cases except two, in which the Proofgrade QR code was oriented near the top left hand side of the bed. We’ve passed this information on to our developers so we can continue to improve our Proofgrade experience for everyone.
If this happens again, you can always select your material – here’s how:
Click “Unknown” on the left hand side of the Workspace
Type the name of the Proofgrade material in the search bar