Folks are starting to assume again. Certainly not going to read the announcement as if it specificed a particular month for Production units even if you feel the Announcement is 100% accurate.
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I don’t think they’ve claimed that shipping will start before July - just production. I don’t think anyone should assume they’ll see anything before July and to help set expectations, be prepared for another delay of some, possibly fewer than 6, number of months. If they do honestly hit July then you’ll be pleasantly surprised and if they delay again, you’ll already have dealt with the disappointment.
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I’m assuming nothing. From the December update…[quote=“dan, post:1, topic:3657”]
Depending on your order date, your Glowforge will arrive between March and August.
[/quote]
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Well, if that’s the case, why hasn’t a Pro made it into a public video or photo somewhere? I agree that the Peltier cooler should be pretty simple, possibly off the shelf, technology but GF is not willing to disclose even an approximation of the capacity for that device. I’m not sure there is a need for anything about that to be proprietary or business sensitive. A more likely scenario is that they haven’t actually finalized the detailed design and hardware specs for the Pro yet. That would probably mean a shipping delay, though.
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Not arguing. Just pointing out it says between March and August. Not March, April, May, or June.
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LOL… Good point. But I think you’re pointing out semantics, not intent.
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Possibly.
Not a skeptic. Have never thought that any of the schedule slips were pre-planned. But I also believe the latest Announcement language is intentionally worded to leave a lot of wiggle room.
It’s not at all surprising to think that the Glowforge would take a couple years to develop. But given what we know now, the degree to which seemingly experienced engineers misjudged the original schedule is very surprising. I’ve seen project managers that learned after one mistake and those that never learned and had to be reassigned. Not going to assume I know which built the latest schedule.
I’ll hope with you for shipping as soon as possible.
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I think the most likely scenario is they’re a small company that is really, really busy on a new product. I just released stage 1 of my project Monday. It’s essentially a basic version of what the device will become. The first unit left the shipping dock today. I’ll have my first weekend off in 18 months. Starting the upgraded version Monday. I haven’t been nearly as polite as Dan to people asking about anything not 100% necessary to the first revision the last couple of months. I have no idea how he does it. My apologies if I am still in that mode.
Dan has said that from a software standpoint the top-level feature set of the Pro and Basic are nearly identical and they’ll work on the Pro features once the Basic features are complete. We’ve seen the Basics and it’s clear they’re not complete. To me at least, it is also clear they’re getting closer.
I’m being serious here, I’m not being my normal sarcastic self so apologies if it comes off that way. What precisely are you interested in seeing? I ordered a Pro and all I can think of is the software feature of tracking material through the pass through slot. With the more fundamental features still being finished up I wouldn’t expect this to be in demo-able state. I’m not sure how they would demo the 45W tube. All I recall them saying about the cooling is that it will be better than the Basic.
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And I with you, as I know our orders are hours/minutes apart…
I agree that it’s intentionally worded that way. However I believe the intention at the time of writing was that if things went to plan then units would begin to arrive in March. If it was written with the intention for units to start arriving in April/May or June then I would view that as deceptively worded, and I personally have never seen anything from Glowforge that was deliberately deceptive. With all that being said I was just trying to point out that that I believe we may be slipping past the possibility of seeing the pass through software working on any pre-release units for at least a few months
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For what it’s worth… You would be very safe in assuming that the detailed design and hardware specs for the Pro were finalized quite some time ago.
I will say this as strongly as I can. The most incompetent engineering team on the face of the planet would have long ago completed detailed design. If you believe it is still being worked, RUN FOR THE HILLS NOW!
edit: I might have taken your comment not as you intended. It is possible you were talking about detailed design outside of how a product development team thinks of it. Dan is an engineer by degree and the Glowforge H/W and S/W team are mostly technical folks so they would think of detailed design as something you complete reasonably early in the development process. For the artist, creative types or general consumer, design might be thought of quite differently.
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Fair enough.
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I’ve always been surprised that no one on the Glowforge team has Project Manager / Scrum Master or the like in their title. Doesn’t mean someone isn’t acting in that roll though.
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July is between March and August.
As is August.
As is June 2018…Between March and August. Of 2018 
It’s going to be what it is going to be. Wishing and hoping won’t make it arrive faster. I learned that as a kid waiting on Christmas.
Time is perceived differently depending on which side of the bathroom door you’re at. In this case we’re outside. 
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ROFL! And we’ve got to GO!
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That’s possible. I’m not trying to say what the design status is so much as to work out what might be given what is known. The Basic seems pretty well fixed so far as hardware goes and I would have assumed the same for the Pro. Then why not throw out some sort of proof as to its existence or divulge non-proprietary aspects of the design or hardware?
Maybe I’m using the terms wrong, but by design and spec, I mean that both specs for the feature functions (how much laser power, cooling, etc) and the hardware or component part numbers (the Peltier manufacturer and model number for example) are known and preferably tested to some degree or another. Is that an incorrect way of looking at the situation or counter to the common use?
One of the problems with delays is that it leaves lots of time for pondering and questions.
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No, I certainly don’t take your comments as sarcastic. As to what I’d like to see? Well a video of a Pro cutting, even in Basic mode, would be reassuring but even a static picture of a Basic and Pro side by side showing some of the hardware differences would be good. Something to show that the Pro is still on track to ship the same time that the Basic does. I understand that not all (or maybe none) of the Pro features may be working at ship time, but the Pro hardware should all be in place.
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Agree. The stuff you mentioned is a mix of design and implementation but all are fairly low risk this far into the project. Could there be real reasons why the physical Pro hasn’t been shown? Sure. I can think of dozens of reasons. Some that don’t affect delivery at all or might be purely marketing, some that would be technically worrisome. Not too concerned about the physical, electrical or mechanical status of the Pro. So am expecting them to be offered concurrent with the Basic. However the S/W is a big unknown to all of us. If you need the pass thru capabilities immediately then your concern might be real. 90% of everything I plan could be done without the pass thru.
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Let’s hope the “between March and August” is inclusive. Otherwise between March and August would mean April, May, June and July rather than March 1 thru August 31. 
either way… I’m sure I’ll get mine eventually - and it will be worth it ! 
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Or two-sided cutting. Or precise alignment of artwork via the camera.
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also not too surprising you don’t see much in re pro since they decided early on that the beta / pre-release models would be basic units. that may change at some point.
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