Stuck on SCANNING after every PRINT

GF gets stuck on Scanning after EVERY print!

SO frustrating.

cleaned everything, reset WiFi no change.
reboot the machine and I get one print, no problems, but will then sit on Scanning forever.

I’m so sorry you’re running into trouble. I took a look at the logs from your Glowforge to investigate your report, and it looks like your post-print calibrations may be stalling due to connectivity problems when your Glowforge is uploading information to our servers. It appears that the Glowforge is losing connection and these attempts are timing out on occasion.

Though network-specific Wi-Fi challenges may occur for a number of different reasons, I have a few suggestions that may help:

  • If your Wi-Fi network includes several access points, it’s possible that your Glowforge needs to re-establish its connection whenever it ‘hops’ from one access point to another. As a test, you could try creating a dedicated access point for the Glowforge to see if that helps.
  • Since Glowforge only uses the 2.4GHz frequency, a connection will be harder to establish and maintain on a crowded 2.4GHz network. Other devices using 2.4GHz, like cordless phones and microwaves, can cause interference and an unstable connection. You can consult your router settings to check the performance and traffic on your 2.4GHz network.
  • In your network settings, check the channel you’re using for the 2.4GHz band. Trying a different channel may provide a more consistent connection.
  • Though less common, DNS or name resolution conflicts may also cause intermittent connectivity problems. If you use a custom DNS configuration on your router, you might want to try default DNS settings to see if that works better.

If you’re still having trouble, there’s a test you can try that will help us narrow down the problem. If possible, could you please create a Wi-Fi hotspot with a cell phone and use that network to connect your Glowforge to Wi-Fi? This is a good way to rule out signal interference, since you can set your phone right on top of your Glowforge!

You can find instructions online to help you create a Wi-Fi hotspot using a cell phone. Make sure that you set it up to be a 2.4 GHz hotspot, since that is the frequency your Glowforge uses.

Once the Wi-Fi hotspot is broadcasting, you can connect to it by following these steps:

  1. Turn on your Glowforge.
  2. Wait 30 seconds. Then hold down the button for ten seconds until it glows teal.
  3. Navigate to setup.glowforge.com and follow the instructions on-screen. When prompted to connect your Glowforge to Wi-Fi, choose the hotspot you created.
  4. Once Wi-Fi setup is complete, go to app.glowforge.com and try a few prints.

Let me know how it goes!

After resetting Everything, and I do mean Everything, multiple times, the GF started to behave better.

I know the GF’s poor WiFi implementation and lack of a modern Wired connection has been discussed as one of the weakest points of the GF. Rendering it 100% useless far too often. However Dan needs to get some engineers to put far more useful information on the GFUI to allow folks to know what is happening with their $5K machine.

If a human can read logs to understand that the GF is failing on its WiFi side, then a UI update could show that information easily!

Thanks for taking the time to share that feedback. I’ll make sure the team gets it.

If you run into any other trouble, please start a new thread, or email us at support@glowforge.com.