Can you show us some proof that thousands of GFs are being prepared for shipment?

Please @dan, give us more likes! :hearts::hearts: - Rich

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Seen it! ROFL!

I used to last until at least 8 pm though, before I completely got blocked by Discourse. Not 10 am.

Activity on the forum is really booming! :smiley:

(No wonder I can’t get anything else done.)

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My wife asked me the other day… “You keep coming home from work with new Glowforge information or a new beta image to show me. Do you, like, have a screen open all day with the Glowforge website on it?” I said “Ummm… Well… Not a screen. But it’s always one of my open tabs.”

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That would be good. One of the downsides of the Pro is that it’s got a longer warranty so I either do non-invasive hacks or wait a year when it won’t matter anymore.

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hahaha the same here. My girlfriend know more of you guys than my real coworkers :stuck_out_tongue:

and if i show her something the first answer is " I know, I know, you will able to do that with your Glowforge" :stuck_out_tongue_closed_eyes:

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New STATUS UPDATE in the ANNOUNCEMENTS section!

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:squee:

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Is that sort of the technological equivalent of a wife finding lipstick on your collar? :smile:

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Heh, heh, heh. - Rich

I suspect a lot of people here will find the Glowforge much less hackable than they are anticipating. It seems like a lot of thought has gone into the design of the machine (exactly how much we won’t know until it’s delivered, of course), and most limitations are probably there for a good reason. For example, the people expecting to increase pass through depth will probably find that it isn’t as simple as just pulling out their rotary tool. If it was, Glowforge would have made it larger to start with!

Most maker tools are cheap (compared to their industrial counterparts) and haven’t had the same amount of effort put into their design. You can compensate by using your valuable time to “hack” improvements into them. I don’t think Glowforge is going to suffer from this problem as much as many other tools

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Meanwhile… I have a die grinder and cut-off wheels ready.

You and I should work out a trade. You figure out a rotary axis. I will develop a case mod that will allow a 10" diameter object to be lasered. :slight_smile: I’m a fan of go big or go home. “For you are lukewarm and I shall spit you out.” LOL

I am not afraid… says the guy building his own electric powered concept car from scratch, in his garage.

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Well, I’m no way going to cut up my beautiful machine…but I look forward to seeing how you make it happen!

It might go on to become…shhhhhhhhhh…Glowie v-2-point-oh. :wink:

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Cool. I’m doing a conversion of a 1986 Pontiac Fiero to a 144V AC electric while I wait for my GF but I have to take the winter off (no heat).

What are you using for your controller? Are you doing a supercharger design a la’ the Tesla or standard smart chargers? I have to start finalizing some of the battery alternative s.

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Any particular reason you chose ac for your motor? I have never worked on electric cars but have designed and built conversion units for trains so I always find stuff like this fascinating.

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I’m using an HPEVS.com AC-15 motor with a 650 Amp Curtis controller. It’s a lightweight car, target weight 800lbs. Battery pack is only 6kwh since the car is so light, and I’m using a Thunderstruck Motors charger that will charge the pack in 2 hours from any Level 2 charging station or about 3.5 hours from a 120V 15 amp home circuit. I can add a second charger and cut the charge time but I dont think that’s needed with this setup. Motor controller, charger, charge controller, BMS, and Andromeda EVIC display all communicate via CANbus so things are integrated nicely.

I’m using AC primarily for the amount of adjustment to motor parameters that the AC controllers offer, brushless operation for reduced maintenance, and to a small extent regenerative braking.

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Love the experience on this forum. Have you been following the USS Zumwalt story? A few issues with the propulsion. It has some amazing power requirements.

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No I have not but your post caused me to look it up. That is an incredible machine. A definite leap forward for our navy if/when they get it fully and reliably functional.

I hope everything works out smoothly for you. Sounds like an incredible project to work on and like I said I am always fascinated by this kind of stuff. Most people do not realize that a train is actually electric and the diesel motor is only used to turn a generator to supply the power for the electric motors. I would love to see some pictures or have progress reports on your car if you don’t mind.

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Some of it was for economics - the motors and inverters are cheaper than DC. But they’re also a bit simpler in vehicle uses in their ability to use regenerative braking without a lot of extra electronics and it’s easier to balance losses (magnetic & conduction) with bigger motors so you get better performance than DC at the high end for a given efficiency level. Mating an AC motor to a standard car transmission is simple as pie and lets it be driven like a “real car” :slight_smile: It didn’t hurt that the EV-1 (I just loved that car - sad to see GM kill it :disappointed: ) and the Tesla Roadster were AC propelled.

But, no arguing that almost every commercial car is now being built using DC.

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What kind of system are you using for acceleration? What size of inverter did you settle on? And did you purchase an electric car conversion kit or decide to go all original?