I believe that one of the reasons support closes these threads and replies privately where possible is that there are too many different issues that can cause similar looking behavior in the machines.
They know more about what is going on in individual cases than we can see, because they have their metrics and a lot of tracking information. So if Joe Blow has a problem with his cuts appearing too far to the left, they might tell him to do one thing based on what they can see, and if someone else comes along that also has cuts appearing too far to the left, and sees that and thinks " Wow! Thatâs exactly what mine is doing, Iâll just do what they told Joe to do." without contacting them first and then screws up his machine because his problem was caused by something entirely different, then they have to replace his machine.
Theyâre not likely to post solutions here for anyone to use, they want us to contact them with problems, so they can analyze it first, and make sure they tell us the right thing to do to fix it.
also note that in the december update, dan mentioned that emailing and opening a problems and support thread for the same problem could slow down your response. people should pick one or the other.
There are certain things that we can help with. File related issues, reminding people to enter the thickness, showing them how to use the Trace tools, working with non-PG stuffâŚthat sort of thing.
I do believe that there are some things they are just not going to post the results here though, for the reasons I gave above.
And I wouldnât want them to if I were just getting started with it. Iâd hate to acccidentally damage something on my new toy.
Sure. Normally the laser emits a fairly fat beam (is it 5mm in diam?). The lens in the head focuses it to a point, but ahead of, and after that point, the bundle of rays are fatter.
My thought is that if two lenses are used, the fat beam could initially be converged tighter, then a negative lens could be used to realign those rays to be parallel again, but in a much tighter bundle.
That way, the beam coming out of the head doesnât have to be focused and could potentially be used without setting a focus distance.
Again, this is based on a simplistic physics 101 understanding. Iâd love to learn more about why this wonât work.
On the head assembly, the opening on the left side is basically a window. Itâs there mostly to keep the optics in the head assembly clean. The focusing happens after the main mirror in the head. Then it travels down through the lens that has a stepper/servo to control focus.
Whatâs the point of emailing AND posting in the forum? Unless the issue was a private matter I wouldnât submit an e-mail.
As far as I know, we canât search the resolutions to problems people have e-mailed about, only whatâs here on the forum.
Posting issues only in the forum keeps everyone informed. Closing posts without sharing a brief synopsis of the resolution is more frustrating than it is helpful.
It seems to me that the goal is to âclose ticketsâ rather than âprovide a resolution to an issue.â Which, IMHO, is really the way wrong way to run a support system.
iâm sure when people do that, theyâre hoping that by doing it in both places, it will get noticed faster.
i prefer posting here. mostly because iâll often see responses from other forum members sooner than from staff, so I may get a resolution faster. the only thing iâve used email for is to ask where my inventables code was (because i didnât realize at the time it would come as part of the PG material shipping email).
Whatâs the point of emailing AND posting in the forum? Unless the issue was a private matter I wouldnât submit an e-mail.
The manual says to email. but emails typically take 1-3 days to respond.
The forum usually gets a response faster. And the forum is better for having other people identify possible workarounds.
In my case, the glass from the side window popped out. The initial response I got via email support was that they were replacing it. However, that didnât happen until long after I received replies from the forum.
The forum told me that it wasnât a lens â itâs a window. The forum told me that it is a screw on bolt; it doesnât require replacing the entire head. The forum told me NOT to use it until the replacement part arrives. The forum told me that the purpose is to keep dust out of the head.
Meanwhile, the email support told me that they will let me know when the replacement part has been shipped. Iâm still waiting to hear from them. So far and in my experience, turnaround for the emails is typically 1-3 days.
In my opinion: Doing both (email and forum) is a good thing. The forums will be informative, while the emails are authoritative.
While opinions are always welcome, I donât want anybody to be confused. Glowforge has stated multiple times that one should only do one or the other. Not both. Opening 2 tickets for the same issue has tended to cause confusion and frustration for almost everybody involved. Most of the time, if duplicates exist, it appears theyâll simply close the forum request in favor of the e-mail request.
One benefit one gets by opening a forum request is responses from forum members. Often much sooner than Support can respond.