Information on pre-release units

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122

Will check that now. Not yet any other option than regular.

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123

Was never offline S/W. The promise was for the unitā€™s firmware. In theory if the community had the firmware a third party might be able to develop something to drive it. Not all that useful without a lot of time and some really dedicated developers.

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124

then a great possible idea for them to do so we could use atleast basic commands on the laser
or make it so a 3rd party software could control it

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125

Love this, but also fear it. Could the Glowforge bring about the apocalypse?

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126

Short answer: Yes.
Long answer: Probably not.
:stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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127

@niccoli.joseph: what @rpegg says is correct; weā€™re going to open source the firmware that comes with the laser, and let you load alternate firmware, but donā€™t have any other plans at this time.

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128

So the next question that naturally follows is:

If a linear gradient is used for a 3D engrave, how close will the inclined surface be to perfectly flat if a homogeneous material like acrylic is used? Any experiments performed along these lines?

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129

Are pre-release only available in the US? Iā€™m very keen! but live in Australia :frowning:

130

U.S. only at this time.

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131

My apologies if I missed answers to these in the previous 129 posts:

  1. How many pre-release units will be shipped?
  2. Have all the prospective pre-release candidates been contacted and, if not, when do you expect that process to be completed?
  3. When will you start shipping pre-release units?
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132

You didnā€™t miss the answers - theyā€™re not there :slight_smile:

The only one we know is that at least one person here on the forums (@marmak3261) has been contacted. @Dan made a post earlier telling someone they could still sign up for the beta program to be considered for pre-release which implies that not all of the pre-release candidates have been picked much less contacted.

No clues as to your first question of how many will go out.

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133

I sent in my shipping info (pre-release situation only so donā€™t panic) this afternoon. From what I gather, the Glowforge going to me is getting sent out this week.

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134

Thanks @marmak3261 - looking forward to your initial and subsequent reports. Is there any chance that you will do an unboxing video?

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135

Heading to the store right now to get a phone mount since I donā€™t have a Glowforge to make one. Never did get one and donā€™t have any digital video cameras of quality, just the iPad and iPhone. I had been working on my YouTube channel to get the process down. Nothing fancy though.

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136

The end of the world through competitive crafting will happen or not. Glowforge would simply be the preferred instrument of the warring parties.

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137

Congratulations. Makes all the time you have spent on the forum worthwhile.:grin: :gift: :glowforge:

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138

Send It!:wink:

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139

A post was split to a new topic: Materials that arenā€™t certified laser safe

140

Yes, itā€™s very nonlinear. In the hopper is making this something we account for in software, so a linear gradient engraves a straight line. (We work around it by using curves in Photoshop in the mean time).

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141

Hi @j_d_hastings, there are a lot of materials that are safe for laser use, and several that arenā€™t. @jordanloshinsky put together a great Link Repository that rounds a lot of them up, along with other useful information. (Click on the Materials tab for the safety info.)

But you should be safe if you stick with buying laser-safe materials from a company that sells materials for lasers. (In other words - might want to avoid EBay purchases at first, and stick with Burlane.)

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