It seems like the conversion chart doesn’t cover 100% of the scale either, @dan did this update unlock more speed options than previously available, or is it just a GUI update? If it’s just a GUI update the excel document needs to be double checked.
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For me there are a lot of issues with this. First there are a lot of settings out there for materials with speed and power settings that we can use as a starting point for cutting non-proofgrade materials. Now we will have to do multiple conversions to try to find an equivalent. If someone doesn’t search and find the link to that spreadsheet, they will have no clue of knowing what actual speed they’re going. When I first got my k40 getting an understanding of speed and power settings was painful. The only thing that made it easier was the info on the web shared by others. They’re essentially taking that out of the equation for everyone who didn’t see that link.
Secondly, the speed of the Pro is supposed to be faster. If the 100% speed on the pro is different than that of the basic that means we won’t even be able to share between the two devices.
Third, I feel this is hiding the actual speed of the glowforge. I’m not sure if preventing speed comparisons by obfuscation is one of the goals here, but it just really seems unnecessary and somewhat silly to do.
Again, I don’t see any issues with power conversion to percentage, but changing the speed isn’t making anything easier, it makes it harder.
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The speed is not different between the Basic and Pro. Just the power which allows you to cut faster. And according to the update…
"First, you have the choice of Full power, which uses the maximum power available to your Pro or Basic Glowforge. This gives you about 20% more power on the Pro than the Basic, so Pro operations at Full power can run about 20% faster.
Second, you have the choice of Precision power. Precision power is the same between Basic and Pro. This gives you extremely detailed control over the level of power produced by the laser, which allows you to dial in incredibly fine details and print on exceptionally delicate materials."
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Did the k40 publish the speed settings on release in a format that allowed for folks to immediately get up and running? I’m ignorant on this one so this is an honest question
Wouldn’t the extra power translate to faster cutting all the way up to the max setting? If you print something on a basic with full power + full speed, and then send that to a pro, the pro’s full power will be higher than the basic, and either faster, or the same speed as basic. Both of which would be inconsistent.
When I was speaking with dan he said the max speed on the pro would be faster, and I was very specific about whether it was movement speed or total cut time. He said the Pro will move faster due to upgraded hardware. How much faster I don’t know.
He also mentioned this in the previous update:
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no, not at all haha. I didnt even get a real software CD, it was a CD-R with a sharpie written title. However, because it uses standard units (mm/sec), I was able to get speeds/power from other k40 users as well as other 40w laser users (and close: 30-50w). Since the majority of the laser world works in mm/sec it makes it very simple to use those settings across different devices and get fairly close results.
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I had already accepted that my basic would not be as powerful as a pro, and I do not admit to any buyers remorse, but… if I DID have buyers remorse it was because of that last sentence.
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Must have been a change. I specifically asked whether the motion speed would be different between the two and he said no. So I interpreted the section you highlighted about upgraded motion related components to be talking about both units. But if he told you personally that there would be a speed difference I trust that.
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It could be that I made an assumption based on the order of conversational topics. That was my understanding at the time, but I guess it wouldnt hurt to ask again to make sure were all on the same page.
…However, it does read “the linear systems of the Pro model”. That removes any ambiguity for me.
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Hey, I’m not going to be one of those folks who parses every sentence. I originally interpreted one way but have no problem with seeing it how you have.
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Hope I wasnt coming off as argumentative! I know it’s easy for me to come off that way on the internet haha.
Can’t say I wouldn’t like to have a reaffirmation from @dan/staff myself on the upgraded pro movement =).
This does beg the question though, that if they are using faster gear on the pro, how will the speed scale work on it as compared to the basic? Does the pro go to 1100? 1111? Haha
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Not at all. But then again I have zero ability to understand when folks are getting testy. Usually people have to yell at me before I notice.
And it’s pretty hard to get me spun up so just take everything I say as if it was said without feeling (and little thought).
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yep, logged in and it was gone. I was really hoping to play with those grayscale/dithering settings. Ive been waiting quite a while for those type of adjustments. I have to say those two particular things are pretty sweet and well beyond expectations. Lets hope they return sooner rather than later. Maybe they decided to revisit the speed settings =).
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The new settings are BACK. Yay!
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We did make a change: we upgraded the linear system of the Pro. In the future (not now), the max Pro speed will be higher. Apologies that my post wasn’t clear.
Our plan is to raise the top speed number so that old numbers still work.
The old max speed was rarely used, but whenever it was, we got complaints (loud noises and vibration), so we lowered it to avoid those problems. We have some work in the hopper to bring it back up.
Also, re: units, we have some work in the hopper to let users switch units.
Finally, if you select a bitmap, there’s some new settings - those should be described in the Software Improvements post but were inadvertently omitted. I’ll see about getting them updated for next week. In the mean time, feel free to experiment.
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Yep I got in a “Map power to grays” engrave done earlier, pretty nice!
If the number conversion is something that can be handled via external spreadsheet, doesnt it make sense to hold off on changing the UI for now and just let the UI do that calculation in the background?
Gotta have some kinda real world units. Even if the units dont have much weight with newbie users since they have to learn everything from scratch anyway, it’s going to be easier for support to deal with questions that relate to a real number.
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Power isn’t a percentage. It is just an arbitrary scale from 1 to 100. We don’t know what wattage 1 or 100 correspond to. 100 certainly isn’t full power.
They haven’t though. The new scales are still linear functions of speed, approximately 90 + 2.6x for cut and 89 + 2.7x for engrave. All they do is offset and rescale so that the minimum and maximum speeds are nice round numbers.
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So… If someone were to have both a basic and a pro, their head is just going to explode trying to use them both?
I don’t have a basic and a pro. But I’m imagining someone does*, and they’re trying to solve for x, cursing themselves for not paying better attention in algebra 2- okay, now I’m just projecting.
*will. This is a future imagining. I suppose only glowforge themselves have both a basic and a pro at the moment.
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