Rumors about the Full Spectrum Muse Laser

I got the pro for the pass through because I don’t have room for a bigger laser but at the time I needed to cut acrylic bigger than 12", now 11.5".

I also want to cut 10mm thick Delrin, so need the doubled sided cuts. If those are still years away or leave ugly seam lines I might downgrade to the basic. I would need to see those things demonstrated before committing to shipment because I don’t have blind faith. It would be a bad move to lose the ability of a refund before seeing all the advertised features working. Since my order is supposed to be shipped by July I just can’t see it happening.

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I have no doubt the team has finalized the requirements for the pro.
Usually to claim that you have completed the detailed design it means you can prove that you have met your requirements. To say that you have completed the detailed design but don’t know if changes are coming means you have not completed your design (because how else would you prove you are meeting your requirements?)

Things like reliability, and gauge R&R to prove out your manufacturability could come after, and you may find something there that requires a design change, but if that is the case, it means you did not understand your sources of variability (be it electrical or mechanical), and you had gaps in your design implementation.

But like all discussions of this nature in this forum, they are all speculation given that the updates we get are very light on specifics that get you a feel good that something huge isn’t lurking still in the deep waiting to bite you.

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@palmercr, I would want to see the same given what you wanted to use the unit for. Its a waiting game for everyone, and it is troublesome that 1 1/2 years into the announcement of sales none of those features have been demonstrated.

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The continuing lack of Pro level feature demos might be a little less troublesome if you remember a couple of key facts that can be deduced from reading Dan’s earlier posts throughout the forums.
First off, we know they were concentrating on basic functionality first, since that is common to both types. This means that they have at best only recently started developing and testing the Pro – specific features. It is logically clear that these Pro specific features will depend heavily on the head camera for their accuracy, and no doubt some of the basic functionality needs that too. If they have not got the software for the head camera dialed in perfectly yet, it stands to reason that the Pro functionality will not work properly yet either.
Secondly, Dan has repeatedly referred to their reluctance to show pictures of testing that is nowhere near ready for prime time, due to the permanence of the Internet and the likelihood that these early testing photos would be cited years from now as proof that it does not work.
While these two facts by no means prove that the Glowforge team are already developing and testing the Pro features, they do explain why none of those Pro features have been demonstrated to us yet even if they are already being tested.

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So if GF offer to ship you a pro in July, with no evidence it does any more than the basic, would you say yes?

Exactly correct.

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The points you make are all valid. Without knowing how close it actually is, it could be another 6-12 months of software development to get the Pro completed after the basic is done, or it could be 2 weeks.

If it was closer to weeks in orders of magnitude for completion, I am sure we would have seen some demos by now.

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While I can’t imagine we still won’t have any evidence 6 months hence, it would definitely make me think about it a bit. And @dan and crew are no doubt keenly aware that potentially thousands of pro buyers would reconsider without any evidence, so my money’s on the pro features getting serious attention by the developers very soon.

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I have a strong suspicion that the developers are paying serious attention to the Pro right now, and are perhaps panicking a bit too. /speculation

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I am going to back to the muse topic. I order the GF Pro cant wait to get it. But i am thanking about getting the Muse just because of the rotary attachment. One of my problems I have with the muse is the lack of information/ forums for the muse laser. I cant seem to find any videos or examples besides their promo video and the tested video for this laser cutter.

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@jamesdhatch they have said that they are shipping at the same time, however they have not shown any units openly that have the features of the Pro. They had beta basic units on the forums and still announced two delays (June moved to December, and Dec moved to July). Since there have not been any open posts about Pro features/units, it leads me to develop some scepticism about both basic and pro units shipping concurrently. @Dan has the benefit of my doubt, but some comments/evidence about Pro features/units in their office or in the wild would be nice. I am on the same page as @MikeH.

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If they are having problems with the Pro or are just not ready to actually make the unit itself, perhaps they will decide to release just the Basic unit at first and try to finish up the Pro later. If so, I hope they will alert us Pro buyers to the possibility when it becomes likely and not just wait for the July deadline.

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I’ve been looking for an actual review for the Muse for awhile. It does not appear like anyone has a Muse yet.

From what I’ve read online, it seems like FSL makes good machines. IMHO, it looks like the Muse is just a repackage version of there Hobby Laser with a camera and LCD touchscreen. Which isn’t a bad thing at all. There Hobby Lasers have good reviews. The biggest complaint about the company that I saw was there customer service was horrible, but it seems like they fixed that.

My biggest grip with the Muse is that it needs an external water chiller and air line. I don’t have the space to have extra equipment or a water bucket.

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It seems a little strange that there aren’t some Muse user reviews on YouTube yet - I think Tested has the only video, aside from FSL themselves. There doesn’t seem to be any mention of of a review on the 3rd party forums either, other than derision that the E-stop button is on a touch screen.

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You & me both. I hate it when it’s shipping time that they announce the delay vs. in advance. But a 3rd delay would say an awful lot about how well they can project the work (not well if there is another one) and whether they understand the scope of what work remains or if they’re subject to unknown unknowns in addition to the known unknowns that I’d expect contingency plans had been made to alleviate. I honestly don’t believe July is the date. It could be earlier although I don’t expect so. It just feels like “add another 6 months” and although they’re making some really great strides in the software and we’re seeing good things from the pre-release folks, I don’t know enough about the details to feel confident that it’s not going to be later.

I believe that Dan thinks it’s going to be July-Aug but I expect he thought June and December were going to be the dates too.

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^THIS! This, so very much.

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There is a photo of many boxed Muse’s in the back of a truck… Have you seen the page on the FSL website offering significant discounts if you cancel an order from another vendor! Must have large margins if they can offer that…

GF for me as for personal use but could understand people who switch if they need for a business. Especially with Muse features such as the rotational engraving and extra depth.

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Or are they only empty boxes, if they where shipping them by the truck load they should have hit YouTube by now

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Seems a very underhand business technique to me. Looks deliberate to steal some of the GF orders, which is a bit rich since they seem to be very late hitting their own deliveries dates.

I don’t see why GF can’t be fitted with a forward pointing head to allow a rotary attachment to be placed in front of the gantry. It should be nearly 7" deep there, plenty of room for a full sized rotary table.

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That is s great idea @palmercr! Hope @dan is working on it or will add it to the Hopper! Maybe the magnetic head have two sets of pins so the head can be rotated 90 degrees!!! Or maybe I will get out my drill and add them once my warranty expires!!! :-)))

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