Not great news on the operating temp. Front

Interesting, because when i asked in another thread (Pro Heat Limits - #11 by dan) i was told by Dan they did not have solid limits yet

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So the difference in temperature between the Pro & Basic is:

Pro = 27C max (81F)
Basic = 24C max (75F)
this is from Glowforge User Manual V2.1.4

Not sure that 3C (6F) is a big enough difference to warrant buying the Pro for its cooling capability.

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Really makes me love living in Venice. We’re probably 15 miles apart and a 25+ degree difference. (crazy humid out there so it still feels nasty)

Yeah the SFV is always 10-15F hotter than you guys, but I do prefer the dry heat. I lived in Cincinnati for a while, there it could be 55 F and really humid, and it was miserable! You would have a jacket on, and because of the humidity feel hot/sweaty and as soon you would unzip your jacket you would feel cold. So it was very uncomfortable…

It’s not so much (imo) about the max temp in which it can operate as about what happens with pauses as you get near or at max temp. We don’t have field data about that, but if you’re trying to keep your coolant at or below 75F while pumping 75F air through the heat sink, that sounds like it could have a lot of pauses to get the coolant back down to operating temperature. So for long heavy jobs the effective max temp for the basic could be lower, while the pro, more overall capacity for pumping heat out of the machine, would just keep zapping along.

(I’m sure GF has internal models and tests that make this very specific, and I also expect that their liability people are unlikely to release those because someone will figure out an underspecified edge case.)

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That reply was July 30 and I don’t remember the limits being published when I got my pre email on Aug 2. A week or two later they came up with those pro temp limits quoted above.

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Frankly my expectation for what a Peltier cooler can do is quite low, so I’m not surprised. But I start pausing at around 74°F, which is why the basement is air conditioned, so it was not a concern I had.

At work we had a FSL and to use it you had to fill (and empty) a bucket of water with an aquarium pump in it. Spills and leaks were inevitable, and on a long job the water would get warm and the power would fade. No warning, no pause, just ruin your job. And presumably hurt the tube. So as far as I’m concerned, having it take care of itself as long as the room is reasonably cool is just magic.

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So what you’re saying, is you had to size the water bucket to the length of the job :grin:

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75F is a lot lower than I expected. I wanted to put it in my garage, but even my house air conditioner is only set down to ~77F during the summer.

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I think it may be too early to assume this is the final answer. The complete quote from dan was:

It’s the ‘One we get Pro units in more hands’ part that I think is pertinent. At this point they still don’t have a lot of pro units up and running, and certainly not in the hottest part of summer where the issue with basics was so pronounced. As with the basic currently, they just might end up letting it run hotter than what the manual says.

One of the advantages of a peltier device is that you can probably switch the one in the GF out for a more powerful one. But that would also require a dedicated power supply since these things take a lot of amps. I think that post-warranty I’m just going to replace it with a copper block that has chilled water running through it. The location of the peltier makes it convenient to run some copper tubing out the back to hook the water chiller up to.

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If you’re talking about the makerspace at Google’s Mountain View office, then that very same laser is the first one I ever used. It’s where I prototyped the Robot Turtles 3D edition.

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Cool! The one I was referring to was actually the NYC office, but I have been to The Garage in my meanderings.

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My understanding from other discussions is that the operating temp of the coolant is higher than 75F. The rate of passive heat dissipation via a heat sync is a function of the difference in temperature between the coolant and the air. If the operating temp is 90F* then they seem to be saying they need at least a 15F differential to dissipate the waste heat from the laser.

If you only have 10F differential, you can still run the laser, but the temperature would tend to rise to 95F or so before reaching equilibrium. Therefore, it would need to pause when the temp exceeds 90 and wait for it to cool to something lower before restarting.

*90F is a temp suggested in this post: Non-Pro Performance in warmer climates - #21 by PFI-Guy

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IMHO good to see that @dan is across this thread, but disappointing that the only contribution to the conversation was about a Maker Space!

Some important issues are being raised here about GF operating environment and it would be good to have some official comments / reassurance…

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they’re not going to comment on anything like that in the beyond the manual section, i don’t think.

I just changed the title because it’s not really “bad” per say. I mean, I ran a continuous score for 45 minutes in an 84°F room without the machine pausing due to heat.
Yes, people were hoping for more but considering this unit comes self contained and is completely plug and play I’m not sure this is a huge disappointment.
And as discussed in this thread, Heat Issues? Basic and Pro comparison?
It seems as though modification of the cooling is possible.
Unless my wife forces a move to the garage it’s certainly not an issue for me. Even then it would be a period of about 3 months out of the year where it may present an issue.r

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Never seen an over temp warning. But we’re pushing that time of year in the WV mountains where I will be able to check if there is a new under temp setting. Operated for months early this year 10F to 15F below their minimum stated temp.

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In my experience that’s the limit, I have wait to get around 78F to get going and sometimes after a long job I still hit the “cooling” message.

Oz = KS or Oz = Australia? …from one Oz…

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Australia.

As the Emerald City was Washington DC, would that make Oz = Northern Virginia???

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