I don’t doubt it’s been discussed, but still comes as a surprise to me. As a consumer/prosumer type of product it just never occurred to me that it would be that sensitive to ambient temp, particular after decades of running tons of big computers, monitors, cameras, printers, etc in rooms that sometimes were waaaaaaaay above 72-75 degrees. I’m sure I’ll find a solution but it still throws me for a small loop that I even need to think about it.
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sure, i wasn’t trying to imply anything; i agree i’m a little taken aback at how strict the new update seems. fortunately i’m lucky enough that discounts let me put the money down for the pro. lasers are a bit of a delicate ecosystem; i wonder if they’re clamping down to really maximize tube life.
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Seems totally impractical to me to require 72C since because even in an office with AC it would be set higher than that. Where I used to work it was set to 23C.
It is odd that the machine refuses to even start as it the temperature of the cooling fluid that is important. Surely that must have a much higher limit than 72C, so one would expect the machine to run until it hit the limit for the tube and then pause, not refuse to start when ambient is at normal room temperature.
That’s what my office is set at right now. It varies a bit from 74.2 to 74.6 (23-24C) throughout the day. We don’t send people home though until the office goes over 85F and I think there’s a workplace regulation (either state or federal) that requires we send them at 90F. So requiring a normal ambient operating temperature in the low-mid 70sF may be an issue for a lot of people.
It’s not a first world issue, it’s an American-centric view of the world that assumes 72F is a normal ambient indoor temp. We’re obsessed about keeping ourselves in a little bubble either heating or cooling to something around that temp. The rest of the world tolerates far more extremes even when using central heat/cooling.
I think it’s just a block under the button on the right side of the GF. One of those packs might sit there (haven’t looked or measured so don’t know for certain) and it would be in the airflow path so condensation shouldn’t be a problem. But, I haven’t dug into this at all since it wasn’t until yesterday I had the problem that made me fire up the Redsail (it’s been lonely) 
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I for one find air temp to be the od mark and wonder why its not water temp instead
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Well, we don’t know it’s not using the fluid temp. But in a (relatively) passive cooled system like the Basic with just ambient air flowing across a heat exchanger, the air temp is a direct marker on the fluid temp because it’ll never get colder than the ambient air. That’s also a temp that the user will (or can) know and influence.
The Pro uses a Peltier cooler which removes heat from one side (the tube cooling fluid) and moves it to the other side (the heat sink side) to be dispersed into the ambient air. Typcial consumer grade stuff can reasonably create a temperature differential of 15-20C (35F). Limits on this are based on size & power consumption (they’re very power inefficient) so I don’t know what the GF’s Peltier cooler will do, but it should be dropping the tube coolant temp under ambient air temps.
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office temps always vary wildly, our lab was inevitably 68 degrees all summer long and i’d keep a sweater at my bench.
A thought just occurred to me that I can’t do anything about now but I’ll take a look tonight after class.
I believe the incoming air for the GF comes in under the front right corner and then it goes up and over/around the coolant heat sink(?), across the machine and out the back left corner for exhaust.
If that’s true, cooling the inbound air stream should then help drop the coolant temp inside the GF as the cool/cold air becomes “ambient” for it. So, a small USB powered muffin fan (PC type) blowing air across an ice pack and exhausting next to the machine’s intake should be able to provide cooling air. Mount the fan on a small plastic box (like a Ziplock or Rubbermaid container from the grocery store), put in a piece of towel or other absorbent material and cut a hole opposite the fan. Put an ice block in the container and place it next to the front right corner and presto. Those blue ice block things work for a fair amount of time. We’re not talking hours of lasering capacity (it’s not a 5 gallon bucket of ice like I use for my K40 ) but if I get a half-hour from it, then I can just keep popping the used up block in the freezer & grabbing a new one. We have a dozen or more - use them in coolers for the beach and because we had kids who took lunches to school and even though the kids are gone, the freezer packs are still here 
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I’d be curious to hear where the air intake areas are on the unit. I’m imagining creating a nice little platform with a sliding tray that could accommodate a cooling medium like those ice packs that can send cold air up and into the GF while doing longer cuts.
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I know it would be inefficient, but if I were going to point a fan into the intake, I might go with the cold side of a peltier cooler. Hmm, I wonder how well it would work to freeze the hot-side fins in a block of ice.
Well, if you are looking to slice and dice ham, you will need to check with @takitus for advice, not GF Support.
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That’d be cool (pun included at no charge ) but my table surface is a solid inch thick and on top of a rolling cabinet so I’d be doing some major mods. For me it’s only until my Pro comes (or when I bring it somewhere that overwhelms the cooling - like a tent at a Maker Faire ) so I may hack together the little cooling fan & box option just to see.
My luck will be that as soon as I finish that either the temps will plummet or GF will change the temperature limit and I’ll have a USB powered ice box with a fan sitting around
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Ugh. Nothing really new to add here but this is potentially really disappointing news. Living in Oklahoma it is extremely hot for many months at a time and my AC struggles to get below 78 right now - I would keep it at 68 if I could. Anything above 75 in an office makes me nauseous. Bleh.
I purchased the filter specifically because my office doesn’t have any way to vent the GF easily, so if temps have to be as low as it sounds like they have to be, I’ll either have to move it home for a few months every year or not use it much at all during those times - both of which will be disappointing to say the least.
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Well TBF i think it is more country/culture based.
I grew up in Adelaide, Australia. A ‘hot’ day there is 40C (104F for all you Liberians and Burmese). I don’t know anyone in Adelaide who would want it as cold as 24C even in summer. When it is 36C-40C every day you don’t want to make it seem worse by wandering out from such a cool environment.
In North Germany or England 24C (74F) would be considered a warm or even hot day. People die in Europe from heat stress at 28C+
I think (from my 2 short years there) Americans are just used to Air Con… just like Germans and English are used to their Central Heating. They use it because it is everywhere and they base their temperature expectations around it.
Although it is getting that way in Australia our relatively stinking-hot summers and not-so-cold winters mean we have a lower expectation of how cool it should be.
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Thanks for the great update @Dan and team!
LOVE the first look at a passthrough cut!! Do you plan on offering Proofgrade or Draftboard in lengths longer than what can fit in the Glowforge without the passthrough?
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Sooooo, what are the chances I can ship you back just my box so that you guys ship me one of the spiffy new (smaller) boxes in return. THEN, I’ll have a spiffy, smaller box to store that I hang onto for the next time I need to ship you guys a box (THAT ONE containing my Glowforge when the tube dies)… Unless, of course, you have certified 
techs in the area by then who can just come to my house and fix it for me.
Also, haven’t heard anything on this one yet, but for those of us that recieved our before you started shipping black crumbtrays: any chance we can purchase one someday? Wasn’t exactly planning on the image of a unicorn head being permenently burned into my crumb tray after making my daughter’s day… “Emmet” feels so embarrassed now.
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i am medium sure dan mentioned eventually being able to buy them, but presumably that may not happen until after the orders are filled.
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Sweet. I missed that. Thanks!
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Emmet shoulda thought twice before flying his “brony” flag. 
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Trust me…after a few months of use - you won’t see the unicorn any more. 
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