Glowforge release

[John Lifer]

Not even an apology this time.....
They are still stuck on day 4 of the basic and day 11 of the Pro where they have been for about a month now.
If the remaining folks don't ask for refund NOW, they are totally koolaid drinkers and won't believe it when the DO go bankrupt. Two years and now counting. Gee how pathetic.

[Scott Shepherd]

But if you read their updates, they are breaking records shipping units and people are absolutely thrilled with their machines. I read through their problem section every so often and the problems are insane. For example, files big enough for the bed have to be broken up into a number of smaller files so the software can put it all together. Then there's the thing where you can't actually use the full engraving area of the machine. It's supposed to be 12" in the Y and it only goes something like 10.9". What the heck is that? It's just riddled with so many issues.

It would be interesting to go back and do a point by point and see how many predictions came true. It certainly isn't the "groundbreaking" piece of technology that some had told us it would be.

[John Lifer]

If they were being HONEST with their customers, they would post the quantity of machines that have been shipped, not day blank of preorders. This is a way of disguising really how many have shipped. Records? They don't exist.

[Dave Sheldrake]

The delay is being sent direct to customers rather than being publicly posted...so not only are there delays, they are also doing a good job of trying to hide the fact there are more delays....

[Matt McCoy]

It certainly isn't the "groundbreaking" piece of technology that some had told us it would be.

I think new, different, or unique would be the way to accurately sum up the original sentiment. Not as dramatic as groundbreaking, though, but it plays better.

It's been said here, by folks in-the-know, that "hardware is hard", or some similar expression. The fact that there have been numerous delays (too many IMHO), would indicate that they are indeed trying something new, different, or unique and not building a machine pieced together with off-the-shelf parts or shilling a rebadged K40 laser, as many originally thought. You might include that in your point-by-point prognostication spreadsheet.

The delay is being sent direct to customers rather than being publicly posted...so not only are there delays, they are also doing a good job of trying to hide the fact there are more delays....

I agree. One of the gripes of those on the owner's forum, is that GF has not been transparent with shipping details. This will not help that sentiment. Some of their forum members are involved with hardware/software development and understand the challenges of making technology. They have raised concerns about not having any insight into an accurate timeline and know what should be known at this point. It must be very hard for their international backers. GF hasn't obtained certification in any country outside the U.S., that I'm aware of.

Not hitting the lastest deadline will be pretty bad for them. There will likely be more cancellations. There's a good read from a non-associated VC on their forum, that offers an off-the-cuff analysis on GF's funding. You can find it in the comments on the October update.

If there is a positive (I'm a glass-is-half-full kinda guy), is that those that have received their long-awaited GF seem to really like it.

[Scott Shepherd]

I think new, different, or unique would be the way to accurately sum up the original sentiment. Not as dramatic as groundbreaking, though, but it plays better.

It's been said here, by folks in-the-know, that "hardware is hard", or some similar expression. The fact that there have been numerous delays (too many IMHO), would indicate that they are indeed trying something new, different, or unique and not building a machine pieced together with off-the-shelf parts or shilling a rebadged K40 laser, as many originally thought. You might include that in your point-by-point prognostication spreadsheet.

If there is a positive (I'm a glass-is-half-full kinda guy), is that those that have received their long-awaited GF seem to really like it.

So their statements about graphics software being too complicated for people to learn, so it was going to cut that out of the process and make it all just so simple is happening where? Like where their support team tell people to take an image into Photoshop or GIMP and cut it into 4 different files? Yeah, because that's so much easier than just opening a file in Corel and hitting "Print". Or like when the 3D mapping doesn't work at all? Or when their software takes 20 minutes to prepare the file to send to the laser? That's the "cutting edge"????? Come on Matt, you can't put that much lip stick on a pig.

"those that have received their long-awaited GF seem to really like it".

Really? That's not evident in their support section. If so, then they must be content with waiting 20 minutes for the file to process. If that's their level of acceptance, then I suspect they'd be pretty happy with most anything. If you dropped that on my doorstep and I had to sit 20 minutes and wait for the file to process or take files into Photoshop and slice them into 4 different images, you'd be getting it back and I'd be getting a refund. There's no way to say this thing is a great success story from the end user stand point. From the company standpoint. Sure. End user. Not so much.

[Dave Sheldrake]

It must be very hard for their international backers. GF hasn't obtained certification in any country outside the U.S.

Having to get CE certification as part of my day job for products THAT is going to be a massive problem for delays

It takes AGES to get anything even remotely close to finished inside 4 to 6 months for even simple things, I asked an HSE inspector who is a friend if he could see any problems from videos and pictures of the GF, he laughed

[Kev Williams]

-sounds like they're using this to run the thing?
SystemConcepts.jpg
40-ish years ago this System Concepts Quantum VI Character Generator and its DCO-1 Digital Cassette Memory unit were 'groundbreaking' pieces of equipment...
As much as I've tried not to be too harsh on the GF, something is very wrong if it's taking 20 minutes to process engraving data...

[William Adams]

Are they still having jobs submitted to "the cloud" for processing?

[Lee DeRaud]

...and its DCO-1 Digital Cassette Memory unit...

What kind of new-fangled cruft is this?!?

If you're not punching ASCII characters into paper tape by hand, you're not really in touch with your data. Not to mention lazy.

[Bill George]

I can remember the fun interfacing my Model 33 Teletype to my ham radio and then later on to my TRS-80 Model One. It sounded so nice when it was printing... for some reason my wife hated it?

[Matt McCoy]

So...

Hope you're having a nice weekend Steve. Feel free to pass along anything I've posted that has been incorrect.

Having to get CE certification as part of my day job for products THAT is going to be a massive problem for delays

It takes AGES to get anything even remotely close to finished inside 4 to 6 months for even simple things, I asked an HSE inspector who is a friend if he could see any problems from videos and pictures of the GF, he laughed

I would like to hear more about that, if you get a chance. It's my understanding that CE compliance is self-certified and you only need to keep documentation available if someone decides they need to verify it. What did your friend object to during his eyeball inspection of internet photos and videos?

Out of curiosity, I looked through a couple manuals of a well-respected western manufacturer. There is documentation for CE certification, and it also appears on the engraved badge on the units, but could not find UL or NRTL certification. So I'm not sure if these units or manufacturer goes through this process. I believe I've read that GF was going for all three certifications on the machine as well as some proprietary components, such as the power supply. Don't know of that's still the case. My very basic experience with UL labels required testing and final assembly by a UL-certified inspector.

Thanks Dave.

[Matt McCoy]

Are they still having jobs submitted to "the cloud" for processing?

Yes.

This has been a contentious design choice on SMC. There was a fairly vocal member here that apparently was not much of a fan of this implementation. Initially, it was that this could not be accomplished and then turned to calling the machine a "brick" and "boat anchor" when/if GF folded. Surprisingly, I noticed that he is a backer of a popular desktop water jet (manufactured in China - gasp!) on Kickstarter that uses (gasp!) the cloud to process cut files. Go figure. They were due to start shipping this past August, but don't believe they have yet.

For the record, I thought this was a cool project and hope it's successful.

[Lee DeRaud]

...some proprietary components, such as the power supply.

Huh?!? We're not talking about a bleeding-edge aerospace or medical device here. Why did the phrase "reinventing the wheel" just jump into my head? (Certainly not for the first time in this context, but so it goes.) If that's the kind of thinking that went into the design process, it may very well explain a lot of the difficulty they're having getting this beast out the door.

[Matt McCoy]

Huh?!? We're not talking about a bleeding-edge aerospace or medical device here. Why did the phrase "reinventing the wheel" just jump into my head? (Certainly not for the first time in this context, but so it goes.) If that's the kind of thinking that went into the design process, it may very well explain a lot of the difficulty they're having getting this beast out the door.

Not sure what your point is.