MakerGear Forum

Okay, I've read through those threads and a bunch more on reddit and HackerNews (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10272483). They bring up some valid concerns, but a very large fraction of the noise is complaints about the cloud processing, which I was aware of and doesn't bother me. Apparently, they had a very bad Saturday at the Faire, and a pretty good Sunday.

Oh, and many people don't like having Pettis and Lawson on board in any capacity.

So I see a range of possibilities:

1. MakerBot Gen5 levels of dysfunction (always a chance).
2. Hardware works, but they go out of business. Presumably, people will be working on replacement firmware from day one (including some portion of the cloud functionality; at worst, just simple gcode control), so I'm not too concerned about that scenario.
3. Everything works, more or less, until it becomes obsoleted.

Hoping for the last; still cautiously optimistic.

jsc wrote:Okay, I've read through those threads and a bunch more on reddit and HackerNews (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10272483). They bring up some valid concerns, but a very large fraction of the noise is complaints about the cloud processing, which I was aware of and doesn't bother me. Apparently, they had a very bad Saturday at the Faire, and a pretty good Sunday.

Oh, and many people don't like having Pettis and Lawson on board in any capacity.

So I see a range of possibilities:

1. MakerBot Gen5 levels of dysfunction (always a chance).
2. Hardware works, but they go out of business. Presumably, people will be working on replacement firmware from day one (including some portion of the cloud functionality; at worst, just simple gcode control), so I'm not too concerned about that scenario.
3. Everything works, more or less, until it becomes obsoleted.

Hoping for the last; still cautiously optimistic.

We do have the right to cancel the order with a full refund up until the unit actually ships. And if there is the delay in shipping that I'm expecting, that gives us a chance to check for problems and cancel the order if it becomes necessary.

I will say I did not look at this other than their literature and very briefly at that . That is why I posted it here because I knew you guys and gals would check it out thoroughly and bring up a lot of great info ! I will say just the mention of Bre makes me want to run the other direction ! I am not sure if I was Jules if I would still get one.

jsc wrote:Oh, and many people don't like having Pettis and Lawson on board in any capacity.

It depends on your position along the scale from

Past performance is no guarantee of future results.

to

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

I own Makerbot Thing-O-Matic Serial Number 286.

'Nuf said?

So i guess that's a no-go for you ed?

I am not sure if I was Jules if I would still get one.

I think the difference is that i am going into this fully expecting some of the functionality to be over-hyped with this thing. The idea behind it is still interesting. I am actually counting on a delay in shipping, I don't want the damned thing to arrive in December of 2015....I've got other things that I'm working on now.

The concerns that i do have about it are linked to the exhaust, fumes, and potential fire issues. There are several places in the videos where you can see flame coming off the product, so it is a bit scary. (I did order the filter with it.) And I'm also mindful of the discussions you guys have had about accidental blinding. Plan to run the first several cuts with eye protection of some kind, even though i did not order the Class IV Pro model. (Possibly a full-body metal plate, as i stand by with a fire extinguisher in hand, in an Israeli M15 gas mask. )

But the business in that write-up about how the machines couldn't be calibrated to etch because of the sunlight.....that doesn't concern me at all. The little craft cutters that we use frequently had the same issue in direct sunlight, particularly on shiny materials. And there's no telling how many problems they had at that show because their system relies on an internet connection that might not have been the best at that exact location. Bet they were doing offline cutting and all they had was the one file to display. Shows are a horrible way to demo a product. They are going to have a lot of technical problems there that would not occur at home, with a stable connection.

Having said that, I do wish they had done a demo on the filter. I'm not too thrilled that they had to run a full sized scrubber hidden under the table. Makes me think the fumes from this thing is going to be a lot more of an issue than i had realized.

So we'll see.....I might cancel the order yet. And if they do ship in December, I'll probably sit on it for a while, to let some of the kinks get "shook out".

But there are an awful lot of successful people who acted as angels for this thing, and successful people don't stay that way by throwing their money at junk. So i think I'll hang in there for a while until I see if they develop excessive problems from having this thing blow up too fast on them. If they try to push them out the door too fast, that is not going to be a good sign.

Guess we'll find out how much of a flim-flam man Shapiro is. He looks sincere, but nowadays, who can tell?

It may be just a startup issue, but every time I try to get some information about this product they spout the company line, but when asked for details they clam up tighter than, ----- pick your favorite analogy ------ (mine are not printable )

I have worked with many proprietary products and I understand that at this stage you can't necessarily answer all questions, because by the time you get to market some of your plans change and if you've said too much there's a lot of back peddling to do.

I think this could be a good product. I would like to have someone come out with a laser cutter packaged up nicely, with all the appropriate safety features in place.

I finally got an answer from Glowforge about the "cool features" that they have that is their reason for running in the cloud.

The answer was that they thought I would be happier if I bought one of their competitor's products.

lem wrote:they thought I would be happier if I bought one of their competitor's products

You and me, both... [grin]

Now we know their (potential) customer base: tinkers need not apply. I suppose Glowforge must look beyond the first thousand customers to the next million in order to be a profitable business.

Props for honesty in marketing, too!

I dont get the gripe with cloud processing. They are using Google's cloud, and Google isn't going anywhere. So if they do drop support and go out of business, I would imagine they would break the unlimited cloud service bit and have to charge a rate from then on. Not the best outcomes, but I don't believe you would be left high and dry.

lem wrote:I finally got an answer from Glowforge about the "cool features" that they have that is their reason for running in the cloud.

The answer was that they thought I would be happier if I bought one of their competitor's products.

Ouuuuuuch!

Tension runneth a bit high there, methinks!