Did the Glowforge 'buffer' get bigger?

My Glowforge yesterday did the “reboot after power up” that usually means the firmware updated. Curious, I tried sending a “big” print job to the GF that I’ve had to cut into four jobs in sequence to cover a full sheet, which is my only real ‘pain point’ with using the Glowforge. One big job didn’t work, but I was able to cover the full design in only two jobs, instead of four, which is much less work (and waiting, and clicking). So the buffer limit is still there, but as far as I can tell it’s a bigger limit than before.

Or perhaps I just got lucky? Has anyone else noticed this?

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How long were the jobs? The buffer limit seems to be a little over 3.5 hours.

120 minutes and 160 minutes, roughly. But previously I had to chop the design into more jobs, running 90 minutes or so. All well under the 3.5 hour limit you’ve described, now that you mention it.

So perhaps the errors were not the buffer size, but a limitation in some other aspect of “processing”? I can’t really tell from the outside, but the jobs are lots of detailed engraves all over the sheet, with just a few minutes of cutting at the end.

The jobs are also “processing” dramatically faster than before. Each of those roughly 90 minute jobs was taking 25 minutes of “processing” first, so one sheet took around 8 hours to print (total of processing and printing time, and time for me to notice each job finishing and click things on/off and start the next job, which is time consuming), while this time the jobs are bigger, I have half as many “click things on and off” steps, and the jobs are processing so quickly I didn’t think to time it - perhaps ten minutes? - so it was perhaps 5 hours all-in. Huge improvement in productivity.

Hmm, perhaps I’m just getting lucky and hitting the servers when they are lightly loaded? Whatever the reason, I’m getting a lot more produced with less time and effort, so I hope it continues. :slight_smile:

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Last firmware release was on Jan 9th.

I track them here.

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Do I understand that the cutting data is stored on a 4gb chip? I know memory is a moving target but as I just added a 512GB chip on my phone.

Last firmware release was on Jan 9th.
I track them here.

There’s some good reading! Thanks!

Now I’m wondering if my GF has been on since before Jan 9? :slight_smile:

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There is 4GB of flash storage on the device, but only 512MB of RAM.

The cutting data is stored in RAM, not flash, and there is only a tad more than 100MB of free RAM.

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Hmm, it seems I’m giving up too soon on one particular project I really want to try. Maybe tonight I’ll just let it process while I watch a movie. This is where the beep to say it’s done processing would be nice.

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This is where the beep to say it’s done processing would be nice.

I’ll second this. It’d be great for the computer to ‘beep’ when processing is done and the laser is ready to start, and again when the job is finished. Perhaps I’m unusual, but my computer and laser aren’t in the same room, and the web page often ends up in the background while I’m waiting, so an audible prompt for when to go to the laser to press the button, or to remove the results, would be useful.

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Mayhaps a “zap” would be more appropriate.

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I’d even settle for the tab to just change color or the GLOWFORGE symbol would indicate that it is waiting on me to do something.

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