The only thing I could tell you at this time, is that I completely sympathise with you.
The Glowforge seemed to be a fantastic futuristic engraver/CNC machine … according to Dan and his marketing team but, after 6 long months of waiting and the delivery being postponed 4 times, I cancelled the order and went for, what I think is its next runner up, Full Spectrum Laser’s « The Muse ». The reason I still can post on this Forum is a mystery to me, mind you.
It is very sad that, after all this wait, I was expecting a fantastic machine ti be mine. I bragged about it to everybody who I met, and, being in the maker business, all my customers were full on expectations. The ONLY thing I regret about this whole ordeal, is that, if I would have known, I would have ordered The Muse back in December, and I would be in business in January.
I really sympathise with you, James … and all of you, Owners out there. Really … to the bottom of my heart, and I wish you the best of luck for all your future ordeals with Glowforge. This was supposed to be a very promising machine, but Glowforge wanted to get it on the market much to soon, taking you as Testers, not Owners.
I’m sorry you decided you couldn’t wait Daniel, that’s too bad.
Well, enjoy your Muse. I’m sure @dan or someone from support will remove your access during the next batch process to remove cancelled orders. They don’t always remove them immediately.
Thanks all for your inputs. When the GF works it works great. My network is fast and reliable for all my other networked devices and equipment. After retirement I became a professional model builder and have spent a lot of money acquiring top notch equipment. Everything else but the GF is always online and ready for immediate use.
A lot of times I just need one or two prototype parts that need to be accurate and reproducable. Unfortunately, the GF in most cases always takes forever to get up and running without going offline, or recalibrating or just having some sort of mild glitch. That is what is frustrating.
Add to this that after nine months I have not seen any software improvement and the alignment is still off yet getting somewhat better. I’m sure lots of work is done behind the scenes but nothing much for the end user improved experience. I purchased the Pro to be able to do long wing ribs and so forth. Still no software for the pass through port. So to me this is just a pretty box that is not anywhere close to what was marketed and alluded to on the videos, press etc.
Yes, in current form it is probably great for many hobbyist to make simple things with. But many of us purchased the Pro based on adds, specs and what Dan marketed has the next generation etc. So far not much changed. All I ever see is its in the hopper. Well, I guess the hopper must have a welded outlet pipe cause nothing is coming out of it.
I’m just very disappointed with lack of improvement even if I found it to be a bit more reliable.
But thats marketing and I should have not been so eager to get it… Oh wait… Yes, it took two years to get it…
My router is in the living room next to the TV and glowforge is in my room about 25ft away. And I have 5G internet! It would pick up my neighbors WiFi whos 100ft away but not mine! Never has it ever showed up once on the screen. Weird!!! So yes I came up with hooking it to my phones hot spot to use it. And it works like a charm! BUT THEN!!! Phone carries don’t give us unlimited free HOT SPOT service!!! And it’s burning it fast!!! You need to fix this thing!!! Also still very disappointing to the fact that I paid $2000 more than 2 and a half years ago to still having problem running this machine! And you can buy the machine at $2500 with two weeks wait time!!! Anyone feel the same way?
I would try moving the router to a more central location as previously suggested. I have a dual band router and have separate SSID (Wifi Network Names) for my 2.4Ghz (BGN) and my 5Ghz (AC) networks to alleviate any confusion (Not_Yours & Not_Yours_5G).
That being said I just upgraded to a MIMO (multiple-in, multiple-out, read: multimedia streaming) router since I do a lot of streaming and media playback. I had a hell of a time getting the GlowForge to appear on my desktop which is no more than 30 feet diagonally from the GlowForge, with no large metal objects in between. I ended up having to use a laptop within about 10 feet of it to get it to pair to the network name, since my desktop couldn’t see the signal.
I think that GF really shot themselves in the foot with the built-in WIFI card they used, mainly with how crummy of a signal it gets and broadcasts, and the fact that they ruled out the possibility of actually PLUGGING the damn thing in. Yeah… because why would we want a reliable dedicated cable for something we paid thousands of dollars for…
Anyways, try moving the router closer. Try moving the GF closer to the router. Try a wifi repeater if all else fails. I have had incredible results at work from adding a TP-Link RE450, which actually CLONES (makes an exact copy) of your wifi network name (e.g. makes it absolutely seamless).
Yes, I think a lot of the issues are in the GF WIFI. My router extender is ten feet away from the GF and I still have these issues. Obviously no one will admit to a weak WiFi issue. Also, when I had a lot of issues it was on a Saturday and that could have been due to a lot of users online and maybe limited capacity. Today everything was going smooth until another offline message popped up then calibrating. The last couple of calibrations have had the head stopping in a random position over the bed yet it is calibrated. Never had that happen before. Strange…
It seems that a lot of people helping always suggest moving the router or the GF around or messing with some type of network setting. MY question is… Why does my TV not have an issue. We have several Macs, iPads , phones etc through out the house along with networked 3-D printers, laser printers and other stuff. None of these devices ever have a problem. The GF is the only device that constantly goes offline. Makes one think?
Here’s a thought - if you have a crap signal to your wireless extender, it’s not going to do any good. Even if you have a device showing that it has a full signal while attached to the network extender, it’s only because it has a good connection to the extender.
Your network extender isn’t doing any good extending a weak signal.
If your extender and Glowforge are only 10 feet apart, and your Glowforge can’t maintain a signal (as I suspected, and Support confirmed) - it means your extender is in the wrong place.
I’m sorry the instructions weren’t clear. If you have a phone that you can use as a hot spot, I’d like to test with your Glowforge connected to that instead of to your home network which will help us narrow down the problem.
If the cell phone has good signal strength, but your Glowforge continues to fall offline, we could investigate that further.
If the Glowforge did not see any connection problems when on the phone hot-spot, that would prove your Glowforge is working correctly.
Here’s how:
Instruct your phone to create a Wi-Fi hotspot (search the internet for instructions specific to your phone)
Place your phone on top of the right glass panel of the unit
Hold down the Glowforge unit’s button for 10 seconds until it glows teal
Thank you for yero reply. It was appreciated. The more I dig, the more I feel I’ve took the good decision by cancelling my Glowforge Engraver/CNC unit. All these complaints about the Unit going constantly off-line, recalibrating for apparently no reason, and the Customer Service not replying in a timely manner, leads me to believe Glowforge can not cope with extinguishing all the fires our there.
Nope! I’m finished with Glowforge. I gave them a running chance, and they blew it … Big Time! I’m sorry to hear all the problem you have and, in fact, it’s very sad, but the product does not live up to what it was advertised by their fantastic marketing department. They made it sound it was THE machine, but …
I am enjoying my Muse. It took me 5 minutes to setup and I’m making things wiht it already. It doen not run off-line all the time, cause it has a HARD CONNECTION to the computer, and runs off a LOCAL Software. NO WAIT TIME! … And is FASTER than the Glowforge … Oh! And MUCH quieter, I might add. Sorry, but al of this is the truth.
Have a nice day, Jules … and good luck, if you’re involved is solving all the problems you gave with the Glowforge Engraver.
