Proofgrade barcode

Everything Else
1

What specific information does the barcode have?

Thanks

3 Likes
2
4 Likes
3

The first 3 letters seem to relate to the type of Proofgrade. The last 3 are different for every piece.

2 Likes
4

Glowforge : barcode version number : random number

The random number is not totally random (I think certain materials have the same first character), but that will likely change to be fully random.

4 Likes
5

Interesting that you went with a random number instead of just pulling from a sequence. I’m sure there is some marketing reason or something behind that. It doesn’t seem like a random number would be too friendly for GF for managing settings, and won’t really distract others from copying as a starting point.

Don’t mind me, this just tweaked my interest.

6

It’s just an identifier that lets us look up the material information in a table in the cloud.

2 Likes
7

Yeah, I figured that since no other reason to barcode anything. It was the randomness of using a random number :grinning: A database obviously won’t care.

I suppose the random number keeps your team from overanalyzing the numbering​ scheme for different flavors of PG though so that is a plus when surrounded by scientists and engineers.

Thanks

8

At least it’s not a GUID :slightly_smiling_face: But it will be fun to see when/if their random number generator spits out a dupe.

2 Likes
10

I’m totally unfamiliar with their backend engineering, but here’s my terrible hot take:

  • using a PRNG for a unique identifier means a user can’t ‘reverse-engineer’ the Proof-Grade QR code in order to generate their own proof-grade labels. Similarly, another vendor wouldn’t be able to offer Proof Grade materials without partnering with GF. (all makes sense to me)
  • whatever process they’re using to generate unique IDs has probably been scrutinized for the probability of collisions; getting a duplicate would be unlikely in that case.
2 Likes
11

You don’t need to generate a PG code in order to use PG settings though - there’s a drop-down that allows you to pick a PG material to tell the machine that’s what’s in there. Of course, that may or may not work with what you’re using if it’s not really PG and you don’t get the value of their ability to tweak the settings to the actual lot or run of material that the PG QR code gives them - from lot to lot or different manufacturers the optimum settings for something like 1/8" maple ply could be different and their database can tell the rendering engine what to us in making the waveform whereas you’d only end up with an approximation based on something that works for a possibly very specific case.

2 Likes
12

Right. I wasn’t listing this as a point of complaint, rather a note that it’s “one-way” in the fashion of a hash.

13

Yep. Part fo their secret sauce :slight_smile:

14

But there probably isn’t anything that would stop you from generating a code to use over and over without choosing in the UI? I doubt GF is keeping track of how many square inches of material are consumed up to the standard sheet size. I have no idea if a “cloned” code would be handy or not and I can see where guessing codes can potentially be dangerous.

I was just kind of surprised they were doing random numbers. In my little engineering mind I would have blocked out numbers for testing and improving PG eg: 1XX series gets this, 2XX that, 3XX etc. and can see where their approach could have benefits over my initial thoughts. If it’s all machine generated and read then it really doesn’t matter. :slight_smile:

2 Likes