When you specify the thickness of a material the DOF changes. The example above is not from the homing process. So most likely there is some secret sauce running under the hood in the homing routine. At any rate. It does work. And the homing routine has been changing. Often.
How did you manage to get that shot with the head filling the FOV? I thought the head was out of the way when it grabs the shot of the bed for the GUI.
It is surprisingly in focus and undistorted for something right under the camera. You can tell how close it is to the two lights as it over exposed near the edge and under exposed in the middle.
So is it actually variable focus? I thought I remembered someone commenting that you rotate the lens to focus it.
Any time you change the height of whatever material youāre using, it changes FOV to match that height. So itās got some ability to zoom in/out. I think the focus ring should be locked on the lens, but mine wasnāt. It never has to move. Either way, the images Iāve seen it take of the head are pretty crisp
If the current homing process take 30 or more, that doesnt beat manual homing. I would like to see the whole homing process knock down to 10-15 seconds.
Why would this matter? It only does this once on power up.
Im not planning to have the machine on constantlyā¦ so over time it would get annoyingā¦ reading that it sometime would taking longer if the machine is out of wackā¦ I have use laser machines for a little over 5 years and things that dont run right will get veey annoying quick.
And when Iāve had to reboot it is longā¦
Remember, itās doing a lot more than homing at start-up. The on-board processor is booting/loading, itās connecting to the wi-fi, the cooling system starts circulating, the camera images the bed, etc, etc. Approximately 30 seconds for power-up and homing is pretty reasonable, IMHO. Iāve used other lasers too, and they took longer than that just for the cooling systems to get to temp.
When go into my workshop, I connect the ventilation and kick on the power. By the time Iāve logged into the app, pulled up a design, and selected the material I plan to use, the Glowforge is ready to go. Itās never kept me waiting. 
YMMV of course.
Iāll have to time the Redsail. I have that on a left to right power-up sequence and a right to left power down. I turn the compressor on, then flip the air valve on, then turn on the chiller unit, then turn on the laser then the laptop and the laptopās wireless mouse, log into the laptop and am finally ready to start.
For the GF I have the 'forge and peripherals (laptop power, USB hub, external monitor) all on a power strip. Flip the switch and it all comes alive (I still have to turn the wireless mouse on though). Still log into the laptop, fire up Corel or Inkscape, bring up the GFUI browser window and then I can start - the GF is usually done by then.
Powering up time isnāt a big issue for me.
I totally get that the on board processor has to boot up and etc. Iām a member of Techshop and Iām use to just turn on the machine and ready to go even before I can get my files openā¦
I can boot my big development server which is running 8 VMs in RHEL and has to spin up a large RAID array in way less time than that. It is a pretty slow power up sequence. And since it uses visual homing it is slower than 3D printer homing (even if I have my Z at 300mm and it has to zip all the way up the screw) itās still slowerā¦
Okay- Is that really that big of a deal thou?
Let me rephraseā¦ It doesnāt bother me that the Glowforge takes 30+ sec to boot. Iām impatient by nature, but not that impatient. I acknowledge that some users will feel otherwise.
My issue is the GFUI is essentially frozen during the calibration so you canāt start layout etc. My 3D printer doesnāt freeze my slicer software or Octoprint while itās homingā¦
Have you bugged that? I know @tony has been thinking a lot about layout when the machineās unavailable, and as always customer feedback is invaluable.
My experience at the moment is that I donāt perceive having to wait for homing any more. Donāt know how this compares to other lasers but my workflow from entering the room and starting a print can be as little as 1:15. I can understand that some folks have different needs and expectations.
Many of my devices/machines take a minute or so to boot up. Rarely has it been a ārealā problem. I do hate it when I accidentally click restart instead of shut down on my PC though.
Iām still pretty firmly planted in the āthey should have just used limit switchesā camp, but as long as the logo-based homing routine isnāt visibly wasting time** and gets the job done in a reasonable amount of time***, Iāll be happy.
** for instance, by making counterproductive moves
*** 30 seconds would be nice, 2 minutes would be a little long
Pretty much turn on the laser in the morning then walk upstairs to grab my laptop. 90 seconds from the time I turned it on everything is ready. I leave the unit on until I go to bed at night an never have to deal with a re-home/re-calibration. Donāt see what all the fuss is about.
Most folks donāt turn off their phones, TVs, computers, printers, tablets, etc. All of those things are sitting in standby waiting for you. If you want to save energy or you canāt stand the sound of server style fans running, then turn the laser off and deal with 90 seconds out of your life. If you donāt care, then itās waiting for you.
Only talking about time here. Homing precision and limit switches are a separate subject. I donāt disagree that the current method of object placement has limits.
Does it home autonomously or do you have to open the GFUI somewhere?
It homes (automagically) one time when powered on, then you are good to go until the next time it is power-cycled.