Glowforge Expert

[Kathleen Kwiatkowski]

Hello,

 

I’m posting on behalf of the Orion Township Public Library in Lake Orion, MI.  We got a Glowforge through a grant a few years ago for our community Maker Space and it’s been so popular!  Unfortunately, something broke on it and Glowforge hasn’t been able to help us troubleshoot the problem over the phone and asked us to ship them our Glowforge for $400 and gave us an estimate of $600-$1000 for the repair it even though they aren’t sure what the issue is.  My husband has used the i3 Maker Space in the past and he actually suggested contacting you to see if you have a Glowforge “expert” there willing to take a look at our machine so we at least have an idea of what the problem is.  Or at least know if it would be worth it for us to send the machine to Glowforge to maybe get fixed.  We might need a new circuit board but Glowforge has been very vague about everything.

 

We are trying to exhaust all possible options before having to send the machine back to Glowforge for a repair we can’t really afford!  My contact information is below if you need any more information and I’m really looking forward to hearing back from you. 

 

Thank you,

 

Kathleen Kwiatkowski

Head of Adult Services

Orion Township Public Library

825 Joslyn Road

Lake Orion, MI 48362

248-693-3000 ext.412

kkwiat...@orionlibrary.org

[Con Vuong]

Can you describe the problem?  It might be something someone knows how to fix even if they don't own a glowforge.  Also a model number and type of machine it is would help.  Is it a 3d printer, laser printer, what?

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

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[Roger S]

It's a 3D laser printer:  https://glowforge.com/our-products

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[Kathleen Kwiatkowski]

We have a Glowforge Basic.  I took a few pictures of the issue and I’ll describe it the best I can.  The first picture is one of the circuit boards in the Glowforge and it should be covered with a black piece of plastic (I believe).  The black piece cracked off and fell down the slot.  We are now getting an error that is saying the Glowforge lid is open when it’s not, no lights are turning on, and we can’t continue to cut or do anything on it.  The second picture I attached is a different part of the machine that is covered with the black plastic piece that the first picture should have. 

 

We haven’t tried to take anything apart but might be willing to try if means we can fix the machine.

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[rdo...@bizserve.com]

It looks like the lock down lever broke off that holds down the ribbon cable and secures it. Those are fragile and usually don't just break unless someone was messing with it.

If that piece is stuck inside and ok then maybe it can be snapped back into place to secure the cable and fix it. If not, those connectors are pretty common on laptops. If you found one the same size then maybe just the lockdown lever could be swapped. Or if soemone has a hot air station swap that connector from a dead laptop.

They can't give you a price on just the board with the broken connector?

-----Original Message-----
From: "Kathleen Kwiatkowski" <kathle...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 3:20pm
To: "i3 Detroit Public" <i3detroi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [i3detroit-public] Glowforge Expert

We have a Glowforge Basic. I took a few pictures of the issue and I’ll
describe it the best I can. The first picture is one of the circuit boards
in the Glowforge and it should be covered with a black piece of plastic (I
believe). The black piece cracked off and fell down the slot. We are now
getting an error that is saying the Glowforge lid is open when it’s not, no
lights are turning on, and we can’t continue to cut or do anything on it.
The second picture I attached is a different part of the machine that is
covered with the black plastic piece that the first picture should have.

We haven’t tried to take anything apart but might be willing to try if
means we can fix the machine.

On Monday, June 15, 2020 at 8:54:08 AM UTC-4, Con Vuong wrote:
>
>
> Can you describe the problem? It might be something someone knows how to
> fix even if they don't own a glowforge. Also a model number and type of
> machine it is would help. Is it a 3d printer, laser printer, what?
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

> <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers&af_wl=ym&af_sub1=Internal&af_sub2=Global_YGrowth&af_sub3=EmailSignature>

> email to i3detroi...@googlegroups.com <javascript:>.

> To view this discussion on the web visit
> https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/i3detroit-public/6b04be83-f595-4ab2-9a0f-5c4c1470f288o%40googlegroups.com

> <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/i3detroit-public/6b04be83-f595-4ab2-9a0f-5c4c1470f288o%40googlegroups.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer>
> .
>
>

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[Con Vuong]

It looks like the last pins on the 40 pin connector towards the right side of picture is broken.  If it is you might just be able to replace the whole strip and see if that fixes the issue.

On Monday, June 15, 2020, 03:30:46 PM EDT, <rdo...@bizserve.com> wrote:

It looks like the lock down lever broke off that holds down the ribbon cable and secures it.  Those are fragile and usually don't just break unless someone was messing with it.

If that piece is stuck inside and ok then maybe it can be snapped back into place to secure the cable and fix it.  If not, those connectors are pretty common on laptops.  If you found one the same size then maybe just the lockdown lever could be swapped.  Or if soemone has a hot air station swap that connector from a dead laptop.

They can't give you a price on just the board with the broken connector?

-----Original Message-----
From: "Kathleen Kwiatkowski" <kathle...@gmail.com>
Sent: Monday, June 15, 2020 3:20pm
To: "i3 Detroit Public" <i3detroi...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [i3detroit-public] Glowforge Expert



We have a Glowforge Basic.  I took a few pictures of the issue and I’ll
describe it the best I can.  The first picture is one of the circuit boards
in the Glowforge and it should be covered with a black piece of plastic (I
believe).  The black piece cracked off and fell down the slot.  We are now
getting an error that is saying the Glowforge lid is open when it’s not, no
lights are turning on, and we can’t continue to cut or do anything on it. 
The second picture I attached is a different part of the machine that is
covered with the black plastic piece that the first picture should have. 



We haven’t tried to take anything apart but might be willing to try if
means we can fix the machine.

On Monday, June 15, 2020 at 8:54:08 AM UTC-4, Con Vuong wrote:
>
>
> Can you describe the problem?  It might be something someone knows how to
> fix even if they don't own a glowforge.  Also a model number and type of
> machine it is would help.  Is it a 3d printer, laser printer, what?
> Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

> <https://go.onelink.me/107872968?pid=InProduct&c=Global_Internal_YGrowth_AndroidEmailSig__AndroidUsers⁡_wl=ym⁡_sub1=Internal⁡_sub2=Global_YGrowth⁡_sub3=EmailSignature>

To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to i3detroit-public+unsub...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/i3detroit-public/8f593bf1-dc82-4bdf-8562-e5c3267f3851o%40googlegroups.com.

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[Nathaniel Bezanson]

It sounds like the problem was zeroed in on very quickly. In addition to the lever missing (Good eye Kathleen, and concurrance by rdoerr) Con's got it -- one of the pins is pushed back, and the whole side of the connector is cracked. Actually it looks like both sides may be cracked; is this area subject to impact if someone closes the lid with something trapped there? Lots of people seem to report trouble with the cable itself, but not with the connector.

The remedy would either be to convince Glowforge to send you a new board (worth a try but don't hold your breath, from reading some forum posts), or desolder the broken connector and solder a new one on. Those connectors are sort of a pain to work with, but sometimes the worst hurdle is just identifying the part. Thankfully, this one was easy to find.

Here's how I found it: Starting with the knowledge that this general class of thing is called a "flat flex cable" or "flat plastic cable", do an image search for "FFC connector" or "FPC connector", and just scroll down until something looks familiar. The broken connector has a very distinctive rectangular "pocket" at either end, so a match jumped right out. The image was a 26-pin version (the broken on has 40), but the page name had the all-important bit of info, a brand name: Molex!

Okay, so go to Molex.com and click "products", then "FFC/FPC connectors" (see even they can't decide which term to use!), click into the connectors-not-cables section, and oh look! Seems the rectangular-pocket style is unique to a particular pin pitch. Thank goodness, because that's hard to deduce from a photo. Click into the 0.50 family, open the "circuits(loaded)" filter, check "40", and there are 18 possible matches. Only two of them look right, and they're variants of the same part, differing only in temperature rating. Cool, that's our quarry. Make a note of that part number, 5051104091.

Hitting the "check distributor inventory" on Molex's own site shows lots of places that have it in stock, but not how much they charge. For that, let's use Octopart. Enter the part number, smack Search, and here's the goods: https://octopart.com/505110-4091-molex-58699862 (Note how a number of distributors claim to have exactly 9000 of them in stock. That must be the quantity on a full reel, which is the increment you'd have to buy if purchasing from Molex directly.)

Pick your poison, but word to the wise, order several. If shipping is $8, it's sane to order at least $5 worth of connectors, (and maybe a Chipquik SMD1 kit) so you have plenty of attempts in case the first try goes poorly. With FPC connectors, several frustrating attempts punctuated by expletives are included with the price of admission!

Incidentally, the PCB with the failed connector on it is one of the few not detailed on this hardware teardown page: https://github.com/ScottW514/GF-Hardware/wiki/01_Hardware-Overview so I don't know how big the PCB is or what else is on it behind the aluminum shroud. (The only components I see appear to be involved in EMI filtering, so I suspect it may be a trivial interposer.) If you can tell Glowforge you're certain you need exactly that part, they might loosen up about giving you a price for it, and you could skip the adventures in surfacemount.

Completely off topic here, but is anyone else aghast at the tortured path taken by the lid camera's MIPI-CSI lanes? Off the camera PCB, take an FPC to the left LED PCB, down the length of the whole board, jump onto the hinge FPC and head back the other way, hang a right at Albuquerque, down through the hinge PCB, over another FPC (with different connectors, mind) through a couple more folds and curves, back to the control PCB... oy! It's a miracle it even works at all. No wonder they needed to make sure the signals near it were nice and quiet.

-Nate-

[Roger S]

Oh geez.  I looked at that before and could not figure out what you folks were talking about.  In my gmail, it's the SECOND picture that shows the broken part with missing cover!  So now that I know what I'm looking for, I can see it, LoL.  And the black plastic cover I think is just a small black plastic strip over the face of the connector.  So for anyone else having trouble seeing the problem, that might help.

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