Tube running meter?

I can’t remember if this has ever been addressed, but will the Glowforge be equipped with a running meter for the tube? I suppose that could be handled by the cloud app since it has all the data and knows which GF is which. It would also be nice if it kept track of tube power used, like kWhrs.

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There was some discussion here:

This along with other statistics would be very nice to have access to.

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I found this guy’s journey in learning lasers educational.
He explained about overdriving the tubes, and the power percentages that shouldn’t be exceeded on different wattage lasers.
Just because there is a 100% power available, doesn’t mean you should ever use it.
He mounted an amp meter to his machine to avoid killing his tubes. A visual “redline” on recommended power would be very helpful.

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Thanks - I vaguely remember that thread now. Perhaps @dan will chime in soon and comment on what we can expect on release and down the road.

He does have an interesting channel and I’ve viewed many of his videos. With the GF, though, I suspect that the driving (and proprietary) software that GF gives us won’t allow the user to over-drive the laser tube.

As @chevalier_jeanpaul wrote, it would be useful to have some historical control and performance data available. That might actually be useful to GF, too. The data would let them evaluate performance data in aggregate which could lead to better tube lifetimes since they could see how tubes from different lots, designs, or sources vary in performance and time to failure.

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Correct. Even at “100%”, our tubes will be running in the long-life green zone.

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@dan - maybe you could dowloadable historical performance data to the hopper? If nothing else, I’m thinking that being able to check total laser power consumed might be a predictor of when tube replacement might be necessary. That might be good for GF, too - you could email users to remind them that a tube replacement is due soon with a link for reordering. That would be a lot better than to have performance suffer just when you need it most, especially those that are using the GF in a commercial venture.

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In the hopper!

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I know that this is almost needed and it is an excellent idea!!! :grinning:

But as one of the few with technical knowledge in the company and the only one in the family :stuck_out_tongue: I can hear people now complaining about getting a tube replacement indication, like the printers does with low ink that everybody hate even when they are very useful :laughing:

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You just ignore them until you actually do run out, and then the swearing begins. :smile:

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Exactly, and then you get mad of why and how it run out, :v:“without notice”:v:. :joy:

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I wonder if there is some kind of calibration run you could do periodically to get a number for tube power level compared to new.

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How dare it! unbelievable! Right in the middle of this masterpiece?!

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Wait if it’s like a printer can I take the tube out and give it a good shaking to get more mileage?

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or maybe refill it with Light Powder to get more laser? :thinking:

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Like an etch-a-sketch!

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