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It's not just cloud connected, it's cloud dependent. It requires internet access and their cloud services to function at all. That's kind of disappointing.

lcswi 11y ago
That's why I like to read comments before clicking. Thanks for saving my bandwidth. What a shame.
riebschlager 11y ago
Do you have any details about this? I can't seem to find that on their site. But yeah, if that's true it's a real buzzkill.
- 3dfan 11y ago
  They say so here at 13:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=292&v=0R3mMUsHFvU https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=292&v=0R3mMUsHFvU I said so in a comment half an hour ago, but it immediately got downvoted to oblivion. Meanwhile the comment seems to slowly recover. Nowhere on their website they say so. I would be really pissed if I bought a printer for thousands of dollars, unpack it and then realize I cannot use it. Letting it use my internet connection and being dependant on the services of a company to use it would not be an option for me.
  - cptskippy 11y ago
    Yep, that's where I heard it. I doubt many people listened that far into the video which is why I came back and posted it.
  - deleted 11y ago
    [deleted]
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
marssaxman 11y ago
Ah. Nevermind, moving right along....
monochromatic 11y ago
And if they go out of business, you have an expensive brick?
rellik 11y ago
What a shame... I am in the market for a home laser to replace the Epilog I use (at a makerspace), and this looks amazing. I won't be buying it if it's cloud-only, though. :(
- markvdb 11y ago
  Relik, depending on your needs, you may also want to build one yourself. We built ourselves a lasersaur.
icelancer 11y ago
This is completely ridiculous. What possible justification could they have for this?
- Jonovono 11y ago
  Maybe like DRM?
rsync 11y ago
It's not just disappointing, it's stupefying. Why would my drill (or my compressor or my band saw) need to be on the Internet in order to function ? Also, there's a lot of overlap between people who have the extra space/building/shop to properly run equipment like this and people that have spotty rural Internet.
- quaunaut 11y ago
  Probably has to do with how it analyzes the object it's cutting on, and determines what's suitable from there.
- stbtrax 11y ago
  It probably has to do with how people/VCs don't see selling hardware alone as a super profitable model on it's own, and want a cloud dependence to sell you more stuff or to sell your data.
  - lairdpop 11y ago
    The things that they show (running a web site with lots of UX, slicing, image processing, materials data, catalog of customizable designs, etc.) fit pretty well into a powerful web site/service with a small CPU in the laser cutter. Adding a powerful CPU, etc, would add to cost and complexity - it is much easier to run a web site than to support thousands,of users' local installs, etc. Though i agree that makes the device dependent on their service, that's becoming a pretty common tradeoff these days.
kelvin0 11y ago
Yeah, recently purchased an ePaper dev module(electric imp). The specs looked cool and I wanted to get my hands on this technology for while. Well, surprise surprise the module can only be programmed via a web-based (cloud) IDE that connects to the device ... no other way around it. So basically if the servers are down, so is your device (in the case of ePaper at least). Not for me.
drakenot 11y ago
He has just made a commitment to release the firmware as GPL[0] when the device launches. It is user flashable. [0] http://glowforge.com/gpl-licensed-open-source-firmware-for-glowforge/ http://glowforge.com/gpl-licensed-open-source-firmware-for-g...
- danshapiro 11y ago
  Due to the excellent suggestions here, in large part. Thanks for the feedback, both positive and critical.
  - Niksko 11y ago
    I like this guy. Can we get him to make other things?

lcswi 11y ago

That's why I like to read comments before clicking. Thanks for saving my bandwidth. What a shame.

riebschlager 11y ago

Do you have any details about this? I can't seem to find that on their site. But yeah, if that's true it's a real buzzkill.

3dfan 11y ago
They say so here at 13:40 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=292&v=0R3mMUsHFvU https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=292&v=0R3mMUsHFvU I said so in a comment half an hour ago, but it immediately got downvoted to oblivion. Meanwhile the comment seems to slowly recover. Nowhere on their website they say so. I would be really pissed if I bought a printer for thousands of dollars, unpack it and then realize I cannot use it. Letting it use my internet connection and being dependant on the services of a company to use it would not be an option for me.
- cptskippy 11y ago
  Yep, that's where I heard it. I doubt many people listened that far into the video which is why I came back and posted it.
- deleted 11y ago
  [deleted]
deleted 11y ago
[deleted]

marssaxman 11y ago

Ah. Nevermind, moving right along....

monochromatic 11y ago

And if they go out of business, you have an expensive brick?

rellik 11y ago

What a shame... I am in the market for a home laser to replace the Epilog I use (at a makerspace), and this looks amazing. I won't be buying it if it's cloud-only, though. :(

markvdb 11y ago
Relik, depending on your needs, you may also want to build one yourself. We built ourselves a lasersaur.

icelancer 11y ago

This is completely ridiculous. What possible justification could they have for this?

Jonovono 11y ago
Maybe like DRM?

rsync 11y ago

It's not just disappointing, it's stupefying. Why would my drill (or my compressor or my band saw) need to be on the Internet in order to function ? Also, there's a lot of overlap between people who have the extra space/building/shop to properly run equipment like this and people that have spotty rural Internet.

quaunaut 11y ago
Probably has to do with how it analyzes the object it's cutting on, and determines what's suitable from there.
stbtrax 11y ago
It probably has to do with how people/VCs don't see selling hardware alone as a super profitable model on it's own, and want a cloud dependence to sell you more stuff or to sell your data.
- lairdpop 11y ago
  The things that they show (running a web site with lots of UX, slicing, image processing, materials data, catalog of customizable designs, etc.) fit pretty well into a powerful web site/service with a small CPU in the laser cutter. Adding a powerful CPU, etc, would add to cost and complexity - it is much easier to run a web site than to support thousands,of users' local installs, etc. Though i agree that makes the device dependent on their service, that's becoming a pretty common tradeoff these days.

kelvin0 11y ago

Yeah, recently purchased an ePaper dev module(electric imp). The specs looked cool and I wanted to get my hands on this technology for while. Well, surprise surprise the module can only be programmed via a web-based (cloud) IDE that connects to the device ... no other way around it. So basically if the servers are down, so is your device (in the case of ePaper at least). Not for me.

drakenot 11y ago

He has just made a commitment to release the firmware as GPL[0] when the device launches. It is user flashable. [0] http://glowforge.com/gpl-licensed-open-source-firmware-for-glowforge/ http://glowforge.com/gpl-licensed-open-source-firmware-for-g...

danshapiro 11y ago
Due to the excellent suggestions here, in large part. Thanks for the feedback, both positive and critical.
- Niksko 11y ago
  I like this guy. Can we get him to make other things?