The whole 100% vs Full Power thing is why, when I got mine I assumed that 100% was 100% and at full power they were overpowering. Turns out that’s not the case. Just wacky designers making the thing go to 11. 
It’s like in school when you could get more than 100% by doing extra credit. 
I think what’s confusing everyone is that you’re assuming the 100 is a percentage. It doesn’t say “%” anywhere. It’s 100 units of power, not 100% power.
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IIRC, 100 is “calibrated to be 100 units of power, same units across all models” where as “full” is “full power available to the tube without blowing it up regardless of calibration”.
I.e. “full” on a basic may likely be more than “100” because the “calibrated 100” value is limited to the maximum output that any basic machine can produce.
That is, tubes differ. One tube will have more pews than another, even if same model and configuration.
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and while i do kinda get why they did “100 units” and made them equal on all machines…
i still hate the fact that “60 units” has no real, discernible meaning outside of the GFUI. there’s no accurate way to compare it to any other machine, which means there’s no way to talk to, say, a vendor who has power/speed recommendations for their materials. because their recommendations are built on what non-GF users use.
… except then all the PG settings that use FULL would not work consistently from one machine to another (of the same model).
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Not without jumping through the hoops of the Conversion Spreadsheet - which is the result of so many people going “…What?”
Have you verified the speed is the same across all models?
I bet it differs.
It is different for the different models (at least, Pro vs. Basic), that’s why I said “of the same model”…
It will be different for the same model, I bet. Laser tubes perform differently from instance to instance. And I bet there is a bit of slop for tube decay.
The difference between two basics on full is likely a few percent, assuredly.
i mean, maybe? and you’ll find slight differences based on how clean your machine is, too. but i don’t think they’ll be significant unless you’re really dialed in tightly.
They appear to be the same for the same model. It’s been asked a few times when settings appeared to be corrupted.
I would expect them to calibrate each machine so 60 is 60 is 60 within a certain tolerance. They can throttle back a stronger tube.
I’ve wondered how they handle this over time. They know how much it has been used and at what power. Do they all fall at a predictable enough rate that that information is enough to keep internally adjusting 60 to stay 60? Or is there another sensor integrated somewhere? I’d like to think openglow would have found a sensor for this and I don’t recall it being mentioned.
Old topic but I didn’t see Pro settings for this material anywhere else, so posting here to keep them together.
I settled on 200/FULL. It will cut some parts all the way up to 215/FULL but you can tell some of the pieces are snagging just a little in places at 205 and up, and there’s no discernible difference in the char. My machine is not “freshly cleaned” - I rarely clean it, probably been a couple of months.
This stuff is not flat, even though it comes sandwiched together in a nice box. Worse than anything else I’ve used from any source. Easy enough to pin down.
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So… in conclusion… Full Power on the basic model would be equivalent to ______ Power on the Pro??? Lol
There is no equivelent, because 100 on all models is supposed to be the same.
If it was percentages (which it isn’t), it would probably be something like 110% for the Basic and 140% for the Pro.
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HA! Okay! Thank-you! I read this whole thread and just got all kinds of confused. I even started drawing a graph just to understand some of the comments! I am by NO (none, zero, zilch, negative) means a mathematical person! Actually if “not a mathematical person” = 0, then I would be a negative 20!!!
That is what drew me to computers in the first place, letting them do all the math (oh and the typing, If I had to type on the old machines that a misspelling or wrong key meant you had to start again, I would still be on some page I started years ago)
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Honestly, that won’t help. The scale is made up (there are no known units that the #s map to as far as any non-Glowforge employee is aware). It’s also not linear. So 100 is not 10 times the power of 10. Nor is it 2 times more than 50. It’s just 100. Full power is some power difference between whatever 100 means and the max for the GF - either 40 or 45W. Since there’s a gap between 100 & Full on a Basic because we know it does burn hotter, that means 100 does not equal 40W (which if it did, then the gap between 100 & Full for the Pro would be easy to calculate as it would be 5W more power).
But the gap between 100 & Full on a Pro is going to be more than the gap in power between 100 & Full on a Basic.
Fortunately, we can adjust the speed (also no known units either - it’s not something like inches or mm per second or anything understandable like that). If you have something that’s up to 100 power you can use the same speed on either machine because 0-100 is the same on any machine as @eflyguy noted above.
So if you’re trying to replicate someone’s settings for a Pro that is using Full power on a Basic - then you’d just have to use a slower speed (and Full power) on the Basic. How much slower is something you need to experiment with but it does mean you’re not locked out just because someone was using a Pro on Full power. Chances are there’s a slower speed that will yield the same results with the Full on a Basic.
Had a thought reading the post from @jamesdhatch …
Many of the default settings for PG materials are FULL power, but speed obviously differs between the Basic and other models.
So you could use that as somewhat of a guide for non-PG material.
Med Maple Ply 168, Med Draftboard, White Acrylic 183, Black acrylic 163, Med Cherry Hardwood 210, …
Now compare to the speeds for a Basic.
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