So I was planning on putting the GF on a smart outlet that I can control remotely. Any issues with this kind of power solution? I’d simply power on the outlet and the GF should come to life enabling the time preview and other features. Then I could turn it off when done. Anyone else do this? I assume there wouldn’t be any issues with power control in this manner since it ‘should’ be the same as toggling the switch next to the IEC power input. This is the type of smart switch I’ve ordered. https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01NBI0A6R It will get here in a few days, just wanted to see if anyone else has done anything similar.
Why would I want to do this? Well, I do some design and layout during lunch. Problem is that the GFUI doesn’t show print time estimates unless the machine is online. I used to simply generate the CAM toolpath for my other laser machine and get the estimate from there, but no options for similar in the GFUI. I have some fairly large/intricate designs I used to cut on my K40 that I’m importing to the GF. I want to get an idea for how much time I need to allocate but right now I can’t do that before I sit down in front of the machine at night. And if it ends up being a 2 hour cut, I don’t want to start that at 11pm.
You can load the file and put in all your setting, but you can’t prepare the print until the Glowforge is on. I believe this is because it has to scan the material.
Thanks for all the replies. I think that the this will be a very handy way to get time estimates until this feature is added to the GFUI. I’d even be fine with a rough estimate on time. is it less than a minute? 5-10 minutes, 15-30 minutes, etc.
I would think taking a few minutes to write a little script or Excel spreadsheet would be even faster than waiting for processing and time estimates, so long as you’re looking for a ballpark and not to the second accuracy.
Just need the inches of cut/score (I know it’s available in Illustrator).
And/or area of engrave with desired LPI.
Use the spreadsheet they made available to convert speed settings.
Would love to dip into home automation. I’d give control to someone else who would be able to force me to go to bed at night at a decent hour through some type of routine and maybe wake me up just a little bit earlier in the morning. And to control my espresso machine remotely. And of course, be able to turn my Glowforge on without walking downstairs. I guess it’s pretty simple.
There are several basic things in the GFUI I’d like to see changed and this would be good. It sounds like you do some complicated stuff with one design different from another. For me, I’ve found that I have a pretty good idea of the time a design will take. It helps if you’re mainly rearranging the same basic patterns of tasks.
My internet was down for a few days. (It seems a garbage truck took out my fiber line.) I have more than 50 smart lights that were rather inconvenient to deal with during that time.
You have to be slightly careful with the “smart plug” you get. I probably have 5 dozen or so plugs / switches / etc.
Some do a “soft” turn on (think a dimmer turning a light on) even though they are labeled as just on / off switches. As you can imagine, this is wicked hard on a power supply.
I really like the aeon labs z-wave plug in modules. Not only do you get remote on / off. They even track power consumption (both instantaneous and over time)
The only issue I have with it is a very bright blue LED that stays on all the time. Why do companies feel obligated to put useless LEDs on everything? It doesn’t change state with the outlet. It is just blue. I guess it lets you know if the is a power outage.
I do like the Zooz you posted. I’ll have to give it a try for non-permanent uses. What hub are you using? It looks like the Wink hubs only support the on/off functionality.
