I got in relatively early on the first day of pre-orders. As I understand it orders will be filled on a first ordered first shipped basis. At the time I went with the basic model, but the more I think about it I think I’d like to go for the Pro. My question, then, is if I do the upgrade do I keep my place in line?
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Curious as to the answer - this occurred to me too. 
To add to this question, I’m curious if the pro and basic will be following the same time line. Will they be produced along side each other or will the pro models ship or before or after the basic?
To the first question: Yes, your place is safe! You can upgrade without change.
To the second question: We haven’t figured out which units we’ll be manufacturing first, or if we can handle both at the same time. We will announce before we lock down orders for production, though, so you’ll have time to change your mind in case that affects anything.
December is coming fast, and with the amount of unknowns still, and the massive massive amount of preorders I’m really worried that production is going to end up taking a lot longer then planned. I know you were able to meet the demand of lazer turtles but this device is a bit more complex. Im just really worried I’ve spent $4000 on something I might not see till 2017.
Yes, it is a lot more complex than the 65 tons of board games I delivered two years ago! But this time I’m lucky to have an amazing team working on this. Robot Turtles was just me and my family; this is a group that’s built satellites, shipped finished consumer electronics, worked for companies like Apple and Google.
The bottom line is this. We’re going to put our knowledge, our time, our money, and our heart into getting this to you, and getting it awesome for you, and everyone else here. And for our friends, and our parents, and everyone we know that put their money on the line for us.
And after all that - we might have problems. Hardware is hard. We’re working as fast as we can, and it’s possible that won’t be fast enough.
So at any point from now until you give us your address to ship your finished Glowforge out the door, you can cancel. We’ll be sad but we’ll understand - it’s your money, and if we’re not putting it to good use for you, you’re going to get it back.
Whichever way you go, thanks for sharing this dream with us.
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Dan,
Your hearts in it, and that response shows it. And is enough comfort for me to really believe in it too. While having that out feels good, I think I’ll ride the wave. I really look forward to it. And seriously thank you for being so responsive and down right awesome!
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Virtual BBS high-five. I can’t wait to get you your Glowforge!
Dan,
Like many other’s i’ve purchase the basic model, and am on the fence about the pro model. The benefits sound great with the material pass through ability alone.
After pre-order I noticed that the upgrade to the pro was an option for the same difference in cost on the initial order. I was curious - say someone bought and received the basic model, and later either saved the funds to upgrade - is that an option that would be available? Either the consumer mailing you their existing model and you upgrading it, or sending the consumer the upgraded parts?
I think it would put a lot of consumers minds at ease over which model to go with if they are not sure - and also the ability to upgrade your machine would be highly desirable in general.
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We don’t plan to have any future upgrade post-ship, although who knows what our madcap CTO will come up with. Great to know it’s something you’d be interested in though.
@dan I ordered a basic with the filter. I’m toying around getting the pro but because I’m in Australia the price just sky rockets with every US dollar added because of the horrible exchange rate and a 10% import tax. But I am still thinking about it. I do have a question. When is the last day I can change my mind and upgrade to the pro model and still be able to avail of the 50% discount and still keep my line?
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We haven’t decided on pricing after the preorder campaign yet, so I would make the call before it finishes.
@dan Follow up on the pre-order upgrade, I bought a pro model for “work”, but I have been thinking also getting a basic for home use if I upgrade by adding additional basic unit to order, will I still keep place inline. I know you said that the pros and basic ones might ship on separate timelines so I am curious what would happen.
Yes. Each device will ship when available, and your order date will stay the date you ordered.
@dan “We haven’t decided on pricing after the preorder campaign yet, so I would make the call before it finishes.”
My Basic GF was ordered on day 1. But still on the fence with the Basic vs. Pro decision. Don’t need the pass thru slot or the filter and my duty cycle is likely to be relatively low so the Basic seems like the obvious choice. But the design temp for the Basic is 70F. Average home temps might be more like 74F. I’m sure that the Basic will operate safely with some margin but you do not have thermal test data and as an engineer I’m giving thought to whether the Pro with it’s thermoelectric cooling will give me a better design life. My problem is we have 7 days to make the decision to upgrade with a discount. Any advice?
I am running in to the same debate. I was planning on placing a Window AC unit in the room where I am putting my GF. I was going to run a small tube from the AC output and dump that right next to the intake on the GF. I really think this would be enough to keep things cool. That’s not really advice, but perhaps that sparks imagination or maybe gives you some ideas on how to be more ‘active’ with cooling.
Yeah, that occurred to me. I can maintain the temp through external means or by installing in the basement where it’s 65F or below all year round. Still a design of 70F might be a typical lab temperature, not your average home. Haven’t researched Laser tubes but on a lot of equipment there is a correlation between design temp and reliability. A piece of equip that is designed to run for awhile, cool off, then run, etc… It’s worth researching the thermal characteristics but we won’t have that data until long after the the pre-order period.
We will have to finish our thermal profiling before I have better data, but if the coolant overheats, the machine will pause - it won’t be damaged. Cooling the ambient air works too. Since your duty cycle is low, I’d recommend Basic.
Note, though, that you’re now able to upgrade to Pro-sans-filter if you own Basic-sans-filter. It’s in the upgrade options.
Thanks for the response. (Do you ever sleep?) I am pretty sure that I would still upgrade with more time to think about it, (and balance the checkbook). Should we assume that the upgrade price isn’t guaranteed after pre-order completes? Only a 5 days. Can’t find a definitive answer to that anywhere. Thanks, again.
No definitive answer because we’re still hashing out the details - I don’t want to mislead people. Hope to have a major update email out tomorrow (traveling today, and last weekend was the twins’ birthday party, so it’s been a bit madcap!)