I’m looking for creative ways to use a timer to shut off my air filter. I have the stand-up air filter, eg. if I run a 2 hour job started when I go to bed but don’t want the filter to run all night, what are some methods you are using to do this? I’m thinking a lamp timer or something. Thanks in advance.
R.L. Hamm
I think going to sleep while your laser is running is a terrible idea. But if you are going to do it anyway there are a lot of options for control if you search into the hydroponics light control world.
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I’m going to move this post out of the P&S section as you are not looking for help from glowforge customer support and they will not be able to help you with this issue. Moving to “Everything else” so you can get support from the community.
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I have a halon dump system right above it so all is well.
Seriously, though. Prepare for an onslaught of people telling you you’re going to burn your house down. Because they’re right.
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Well, the good news is they’ll likely die from smoke inhalation in their sleep before the flames get to them.
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Like people have said going to sleep with the laser on isnt the best idea. However I use Alexa enabled smart plugs to control my inline fan (the fan is in my attic and I don’t want to go up into it every time I want to turn it on and off) so maybe smart plugs would work for what ever situation you are talking about. I sometimes leave the inline fan running for a bit after the Glowforge has stopped to remove the smell so I can just set a timer for it to turn off 30 mins later or something, that’s quite a nice feature.
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i also have my fan on a WEMO plug which is controllable by things like Alexa or their own app as the switch is not easily accessible. I have only forgotten to turn it on once and that did not last long. Thinking about using a vibration sensor and an arduino with a power tail to have it come on automatically when vibrations are sensed at the machine.
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I have been with this Glowforge project from almost the beginning. I had a very early pre-release. I have read every topic, although not every post. Nothing in this time has convinced me that I can be safe to leave my laser unattended. In fact as time goes on, I am less inclined to even go upstairs during a job to fetch something and come right back.
That said, any timer would work as long as you match amps/power requirements. If you are really interested, a raspberry pi setup with a camera would be excellent. You can control one of these IOT relays and get some good use out of it. and learn a new skill.
Fancy would be getting an IOT system going in the house.
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One thing I got for my Tormach to do stuff like that (in a more constrained and reliable manner) is their IO kit, which attaches to the controller via USB and gives you 4 inputs and 4 relay outputs (110V/10A) from your G-code. So having these kinds of actions happen is part of your CAM program, not some external thing. One of things I’m going to do to facilitate lights-out walk-away machining for bulk jobs is to have a little sweeper arm brush the drain plate for the coolant to prevent clogging with chips. Seems like GF could add some sort of time based hooks that would fire a possible action.
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