A couple of posts here on the forum have piqued my curiousity, in the “introducing Glowforge” video one of the items that they show is a macbook being engraved and “detected” by the glowforge. Since then the auto-detection feature seems to have been whittled down to proofgrade materials only, Is that the case? Has everything else been eliminated? If not, then what else besides proofgrade materials does it include? On another post there was much discussion about GF not providing settings for non-proofgrade materials, without the autodetection on Electronics we will have to purchase hollow mac cases or dead phones to discover the settings before we risk live electronics. Or if designs for engraving Macs is on the GF design catalog, will the settings be included?
Nothing is in place at this time but I do hope it will show up. Even proofgrade detection is far from finished.
Thanks
interesting concept/solution/proposal…
This list is from November, but iPhone and Macbook recognition is still on the list. That being said, engravings on iPhone’s and Macbook’s work so well because they have anodized aluminum. The Glowforge can’t cut through that, all you are doing is ablating the die in the anodization. There is minimal risk to the electronics.
well… assuming your design does not extend over the illuminated Apple™ logo.
Good point
The solve would be to first scan the MacBook and trace the apple logo. Cut it out of wood or something, and tape it over the apple logo on the MacBook… then engrave without worry! 
I wonder what happens to aluminized tape in the laser? Is that a laser-impenetrable material, or not at all? If it is “laser-proof” that would be a nice quick solution to those types of fears.
Or just don’t put design elements on non-metal areas of your electronics, and observe the pre-flight motion path carefully.
You can get other anodized aluminum pieces to experiment with settings. Inventables has 3"x3" anodized blanks, and laserbits has anodized gift items.
Yeah, there’s lots of anodized stuff around – the local makerspace was doing anodized dog tags by the gross at parties.
We plan to support, at a minimum, Apple products since we included those in the video. We have lots more ideas in the hopper. (I’m an Android guy!)
also, easier to support a smaller number of hyperpopular models
Plus, at the rate of new item releases, it’s tough to keep up with all brands.
LMAO! I just started doing those in my laser ops classes. Quick and easy and tangible results.
I also use aluminum blanks to make wristbands - flat stock with a simple bending form. Helps them start to move from thinking about 2D flat things to using lasers to make 3D and composite things.
Mind: BLOWN
I’ve misjudged you! I think it came from a combination of things like frequent references to Apple products in videos combined with the fact that you remind me so much of a friend of mine in every single way (appearance, voice, mannerisms, everything) and he’s a real Apple guy.
+15 Respect attribute.
he uses a surface!
Used to work at Microsoft and Google. Old habits.
Dan, if I can make a feature suggestion…
Image recognition is cool, but I would be more than happy to TELL the Glowforge what it is looking at. Then, it could look up specs and off we go. You guys would still build the “blessed” settings library.
(Users could even devise their own settings and share them as XML, or whatever. We could possibly upload user-created settings to the site for others to use – with appropriate disclaimers, and a voting system, and a user comments feature so we weed out the bad stuff.)
I worry that image recognition is solving the wrong end of the problem. It makes identifying the object a breeze, but the tradeoff is the number of objects it can recognize will be really small. Anyone who can operate the GF will also be capable of looking up the model number of a device and checking to see if it is in the automagical list of etch settings.
In this case, simpler may be better.
Nice idea. I like it.