Not a problem you have to fix…this is some well deserved feedback.
I was taking a stab at my first major passthrough project - there are multiple lines that have to meet up exactly or it isn’t going to work, and the sizing also has to be exact within a mm.
I spent a heck of a lot of time coming up with a method to get things to align, set it up and started processing the interior cuts. Everything was running along perfectly - until one of those sudden Texas thunderstorms popped up.
Nothing more panic inducing - the likelihood of power failure runs about 80% and I’d only gotten the first and half of the second of the triple pass cut. So I rushed the third cut and didn’t align the last one quite right. It was off by a mm. I decided I could shift the material just a hair and recut it, I set it up, sent the job to print…and the power cut out the first time.
We have a Generac, so it came back on in a few seconds - long enough to cancel that print and wait for a bit. The unit recalibrated. I waited a little longer, and sure enough - power switched back on and recalibrated. Then I think it went off again and switched - recalibrated. Came back on - recalibrated.
I don’t know how many times it switched on and off over the next ten minutes or so - I’d gone out to the garage to check on some things, but eventually it settled down long enough for me to actually queue up the print and run it. It worked. Just as the fan was doing it’s final blow out, we lost power again.
Holy moly that was some spectacular engineering! I thought the print was toast. My hat’s off to you guys…big thank you to the engineering team.
The documentation says not to use a UPS but I’ve been in IT for 30 years. I don’t see a reason not to - if it’s a good quality one. The FAQ says that the unit uses about 800 wats (like a PC or computer server) when running - there are several good UPS that can run that for ~5 minutes… I think that would help the machine so it does not “drop power” before a cooling cycle…
Just lawyer stuff. They cannot vouch for every UPS setup so they don’t recommend one. Easier just to say they recommend you not use it. Same reason they don’t recommend you use magnets to flatten materials even though the crumbtray was specifically designed to allow their use. Even touted the ferrous material early in the design process.
I did the math… a 1500 VA will run 800 watts for ~5 minutes. And protect from surges and line voltage bumps. So we ordered one today. Weather in GA is pretty unpredictable too. Cheap insurance for a 3k toy…
We went a little overboard…I run my computer on an Opti-UPS with a Zero Surge behind it, and a whole house Generac behind that. (My computer is actually significantly more expensive than the Glowie - losing that would be kind of bad from a business standpoint, so short of a direct nuclear strike or house burning down, I’ve got it covered.)
All we use on the Glowforge is an outlet extender. It’s on a dedicated circuit. It might have some surge protection in it, but I’m not sure.
Anyway, it held up to a lot of switching the other day without missing a beat. And strangely enough, we had a power drop while I was typing this up…the fun never ends.
I’ve 7 computers in the house… I’m replacing one or another UPS battery every year… The suggestion to use UPS is to avoid the lag where the power is out and the generac is kicking in.
I do want to get a generator for the house…
So far, we’re down to about 2500$/per outage. (Hubs joked that the day we installed it would be the last power failure in the neighborhood. He wasn’t far off.)
Even some UPS’ will tell you that they will not work with active PFC power supplies; or ones that don’t specifically mention active PFC should not be used with those power supplies. I only use PFC sinewave UPS’ which support computing components with active power supplies, since you can’t often tell which devices will or will not have them.
absolutely. Cyberpower 1500 and APC should both be fine with active PSU. If you’re really anal about it, Liebert has one, a desk-side unit, that also states that it will.
We went a little overboard…I run my computer on an Opti-UPS with a Zero Surge behind it, and a whole house Generac behind that. (My computer is actually significantly more expensive than the Glowie - losing that would be kind of bad from a business standpoint, so short of a direct nuclear strike or house burning down, I’ve got it covered.)
The suggestion to use UPS is to avoid the lag where the power is out and the generac is kicking in.