"We’ll release a GPL-licensed firmware for Glowforge"

Everything Else
5

I cant find any reference to that anywhere. Do you have a link?

6

I’d have to go look it up…hang on…

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7

ooo good. thank you.

now can be on record here in the forums for people to find as well.

8

It was never hidden. The original is also in the main forum.

9

I wasnt able to find anything in regards to firmware release. Do you have a link to the announcement or post in the forums where they announced it?

10

Oh hell no…that was a year and a half ago! :smile: (The folks who were interested in it noticed, but after the company launched successfully, the anxiety about it died way down.)

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11

I thoroughly searched the forums for anything related to firmware release, and was only able to find promises in late 17 that they were ‘working on it’.

If anyone happens to find any other relevant forum posts, this would be a great place to centralize related information.

12

I remember when it was announced, but yeah I wasn’t able to easily search it on the forum either, hence why I punted with imprecise language. :slight_smile:

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13

This post didn’t get a lot of traction. Then the closing buries it.

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14

Ahhh! It was Jae. Very good…I knew I’d seen it somewhere here.

15

Definitely a research project to find the critical bits in there.

for those interested in the end it gets you over to https://github.com/Glowforge

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16

Definitely don’t think of this as them actually releasing anything usable. It did satisfy any potential lawsuits that may have arisen from that original statement.

Some things to note:

  • They haven’t maintained any open-software.
  • They did not provide everything required to build a deployable binary.
  • They did not provide any build instructions.
  • They did not provide a way to manually install the firmware on a GlowForge.

Not being political, anyone that’s seen the news will get this, they are less open than Trump’s tax returns. :rofl:

Now the real question here is, can you imagine all the features this community would have if they did release GPL software? Four years of a highly-skilled community with backgrounds in software and CNC working to make a better product that is the dream.

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17

sadly software can’t get me an RJ45 :frowning:

18

Buuut, there’s a USB port on board, and headers for an RJ45, so you could make it happen if you were so inclined =P

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19

The USB was only on early models, to the best of my knowledge.

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20

Well my unit has the USB port but…

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21

Definitely wasn’t enough to replace them as the software/controller. It was a fool’s hope from the start that it might provide an exit ramp in the event we get bricked. But from a marketing position it made a lot of sense. They fulfilled their marketing promise.

We’re going to be better off swapping to a new control board (like a GRBL or something) and having folks build out new software.

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22

That is already happening, although it’s a long way from being generally available. Very limited demand and participation.

23

Yeah, I follow the OpenGlow group myself (insurance for the apocalypse). I expect it would be quite busy if GF were ever to announce a pay for cloud model or a going out of business sale. :slightly_smiling_face:

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