Glowforge release

[Matt McCoy]

Matt - many users are asking if GF could at least post when a software or firmware update has been made and the more pushy users are asking for change logs and status pages showing if the GF cloud is having problems or not. And a few are asking for error message that actually gives you some idea of what happened when something goes bad. The GF KAKs response to those requests seems to be that GF should not bother with fixing those issues now in favor of solving more important issues.

I don't write software for a living so am probably naive but am still really surprised at how far behind GF is on delivering basic features that were promised 2+ years ago and totally astounded that they are still having problems with ProofGrade orders not completing, lack of of error messages, lack of update change logs, and no GF Cloud status page. By comparison, the cloud-based 3D CAD package I've been using lately has no problem providing all of that info, despite releasing significant updates every 2-4 weeks and providing authoritative answers on their forum every day. Small bugs are often fixed within a day or two and sometimes within hours of being reported. Bu then Onshape as a company seems to be far better managed than GF.

I've seen those requests and think they are great ideas.

[Nigel P. Jones]

More than 2 years ago. 2 years ago, they had the campaign and in that campaign, they showed a working machine. They didn't write the code to do that campaign overnight. They spent a lot of time developing that prior to the campaign. My guess is they have 3-4 years on that software at this point.

According to this article, the company was founded in late 2014. So they've been working on it for three years, at the most. That said, I doubt what they showed during their pre-order campaign was a "working machine." It was most likely just a shell and a bunch of cobbled-together code to run a very specific demo. https://www.geekwire.com/2015/glowfo...aser-printers/

[Kev Williams]

-here's the 'original' video. I've visually inspected (big whoop, I know ) the GF machine against these 2, a Muse and an identical Dremel, and these are defintely different than the GF-
muse.jpgdremel.jpg

so-- IF the machine in this video isn't the machine that made the parts in the video, OR, if the machine in the video isn't actually a GF, THEN---

what exactly? Legal issues or ?

[Bill George]

The difference between traditional tools and Glowforge, he said, is efficiency.

“This still requires the same creativity and attention to detail, and the final assembly is still done by hand,” Shapiro explained. “But it’s far faster, it does not require painstaking knowledge, and works across different materials — all with one simple tool.”


Kev, I did not see your video link but I think I have viewed before..... the above was taken from the interview. I am so glad that GF has made it easier and faster for crafts people to do their work!

[Nigel P. Jones]

I believe this is the original campaign video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysCaqh38JVQ

Notice that they only show actual laser-cutting happening from very close-up, and only in a few shots. It seems likely that the shots of it cutting/engraving were done on a very rough prototype. The only times they show the whole machine, it's never running, just sitting there.

They also never explicitly say anywhere in the video that the things you see in the video were actually produced on a Glowforge. I bet most if not all of it was produced using some other machine.

[Nigel P. Jones]

Meanwhile, on Reddit: https://www.reddit.com/r/glowforge/c...d_service_woes

Last couple of days I've really noticed some painful drops in service availability - today after about 7:30PM central it just hit a wall and I could only get my GF to respond after about 50 reboots... we're really feeling the pain of a lack of infrastructure.

This is frustrating as the main plus (for me) is the functionality improvements of having it as a SaaS tool, but without solid service availability it's just an expensive paperweight.

really annoyed by this and I hope they either throw more resources at it or find some folks to help them do predictive scaling.

[Kev Williams]

Nigel, FWIW, both video's are identical

[Bert Kemp]

I also noticed in the video he mentioned using it in a thriving business, so they weren't just pushing it off as a hobby machine. I still laugh every time they say 3D Printer

[Nigel P. Jones]

I figured that Kev, but I can't see any video in your earlier post at all, and from what Bill said, I don't think he can either. I was posting the link so people could see the video you were talking about.

[Kev Williams]

weird, I used the "insert video" option on the page here, and what shows up on my computer is this:
sshot.jpg
Even if pics are turned off in the 'Creek settings, I would think the link would still appear, but maybe not?

[Jerome Stanek]

I saw the video in both posts. I did see where someone was wondering where the BIG RED button was as he had a fire in his unit.

[Matt McCoy]

I saw the video in both posts. I did see where someone was wondering where the BIG RED button was as he had a fire in his unit.

The lid and interlock is the Big Red Button.

[Jerome Stanek]

The lid and interlock is the Big Red Button.

So if you lift the lid and let the smoke and flames out it stops mine has a big red button that shuts the laser down and keeps my fan and water flowing. Is that how the Glowforge works.

[Bill George]

In case of a fire, you want the Lid closed and the Fan off. Laser machine all power off. In case of fire, have 911 on your speed dial, especially if you have a glow forge.

[Matt McCoy]

I would lift the lid (laser turns off), blow out or spritz flame, continue with the project.

If this was the same someone I saw, he was cutting several layers of paper he had taped together.