I thought the motors were the same. Only differences are the tube, optics, pass-through slot (yeah, I realize it’s just a different door and slot in the back), and the cooling system.
Maybe have a different power supply for the higher wattage tube and cooling system?
Does it need additional calibration or checks before leaving the factory since it’s a class 4 laser?
Pro Speed
Glowforge Pro units can already cut about 15% faster than Basic units, thanks to the more powerful laser tube and improved optics. As we sourced parts for production, we made another improvement: we upgraded key components of the linear system of the Pro model. In the future, we’ll update the software to unlock even faster movements. You’ll see the head move more quickly during startup, scores, and engraves, resulting in even speedier prints.
I can’t find any specific mention of motors but what other key components of the linear system would make it go faster? Bigger pulleys? The motion system is only motors plus pulleys, belts, wheels, bearings and rails that I can think of. None of those limit speed.
It cuts faster because of the higher wattage of the tube, not speed of motors.
Dan has said there are more powerful motors in the pro
Now both are out we just need two people to volunteer the part numbers. Higher torque motors of the same frame size are usually longer.
Thanks. I was going by this statement by Dan.
But I guess the higher wattage tube plus cooling system weighs a little more, so need a little more oomph to move?
He said it in one of the announcements somewhere. Dont remember which month though, but I know it was after may
I remember reading the same thing. However, I just did a search of the forum for “motor Pro” and there was no result that popped up in Dan’s postings that said this. Maybe, we mis-remembered or that post was deleted?
He probably did. Things have probably changed here and there as they developed the machine. After all they have had 2+ years to change the planned parts.
So I’m not big on posting, but I thought I would throw in my thoughts. I’m anxiously awaiting my golden email. I’m it’s supposed to be today (Oct 18th order for a pro). I’m hoping that with the recent updates on the dates, I’ll actually get my email today. Fingers crossed!!!
well we just looked. theyre the same motors in pro and basic. guess there must be something else upgraded thats not a motor… hmmm
Could be something or nothing at all. For example the electronic drivers could be more powerful allowing a greater reliable speed with the same motors. But not going to give any value to speculation.
They probably just up the motor current in software and pretend the hardware is different. It would not surprise me if the tubes turn out identical and the pro one is just driven harder with better cooling.
And are the mirrors, windows and lens really better? Not easy to test unless you have both types of machine and a power meter.
What are the physical differences that would be apparent between tubes of different power levels? Would this be a simple comparison of measurements?
The stepper current is set by the control board in software, so they could certainly increase the current through software alone. I suppose it wouldn’t be that hard to increase the speed at which they playback to waveforms to get faster moves.
If its just a case of software imposed limitations, that would make third party firmware start to look attractive.
Normally higher power tubes are longer but in this case I think they have to be the same length as is there isn’t room for a longer one. If the diameter isn’t any bigger I don’t know what the difference could be, another turn in the cooling coil? Bigger mirrors?
In this case the power is only 12% more so it isn’t going to be much different if any.
Interesting thing is that on the spare parts page they only sell one type of optics across the board. There aren’t options for pro or basic optics. That makes me think those are the same too. Now I really am starting to get pretty curious as to what exactly is different between the models.
A slot and some software configuration!
Maybe the different optics are in the tube?
Well I hope it’s not an overdriven 40w tube.
Somewhere in the sales documentation they mentioned better optics. If they are in fact the same, that will be a “Problem”
Or, maybe an under-driven 45W tube.