I am willing and able
I have a Basic and a Pro, the later is out of warranty.
Let me know.
Any chance you are still looking for testers??
I have a background in building and maintaining 3d printers, flashing and updating Arduino based control boards. Manipulating and updating Arduino firmware for 3d printers. Basic component level repairs.
In a bit of a holding pattern. Iām working on an RPi variant, and havenāt finished it up yet.
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Please feel free to let me know if you are looking for testers in the future 
I would be interested in boards that may not necessarily work with the stock Software (long story short I got a 2nd hand unit with a broken lid. For the life of me canāt find the camera module and the system will not work with that stock.) so I am trying to find alternatives to repairing the unit without having to gut it entirely and replace everything. It would be great if I could find someone with a camera module and ribbon cable that would be willing to sell it. I have tested everything else as far as I can right now without the camera module. And it all appears to be working perfectly. I wish Glow forge would get back to me on just that unit (and not require me to spend 200 to ship it plus repair fees plus parts on top of thatā¦ )
Whatās the status here? I suggest opening discussion and making an attempt to widen the reach of this project, as it seems that so warranties expire this will becomeā¦ Interesting.
I put this aspect of the project on hold. There was very little interest.
Instead, I turned my efforts to developing firmware that will run on the factory board. My goal there is to ultimately have firmware that will run work with third party laser CNC software like LightBurn.
Once that is accomplished, I may start back up on this part of the project, as the same firmware will work for both (with a little modification).
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Hi Scott,
I finally created an account over here. I bought a second-hand GF Plus around the start of the year, and although itās working well now, I know someday it wonāt. Not my first cutter, Iāve got a couple K40s and a few open frame solid state units that I run from Lightburn. I also do 3D printing and am getting more adept at using my CNC router.
Iām a software/firmware developer with a decent amount of embedded experience, but I also do applications. C/C++ is my main language, but I am fluent in over 4 billion dialectsā¦ or something.
I see that this thread is probably obsolete, but just wanted to say āhiā and let you know that Iām game to help develop some code.
Thanks for creating this cool resource!
I halted progress on the OpenGlow control board for now. Iāve been focusing my efforts on a firmware image for the factory board.
There is a working image over at my Github that has most of the basics to make the thing move. Installation instructions for dual boot are here.
The existing image uses a horribly slow Python based program to control the unit. It currently is able to connect to the Glowforge service and mostly work.
I am in the process of writing control software for it in C. My goal is to provide a REST interface to the unit for third party software.
I went down a rabbit hole, and started developing a full fledged C REST API platform that is driven by OpenAPI v3 schema files. Iām about halfway through that now. Once that is done, Iāll switch back to finishing the control software work.
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This really looks awesome! Iām sure Iāll be able to help out with the coding and testing effort once I get up-to-speed on the basic development environment.
I havenāt taken my machine apart far enough yet to know if it has the USB ports installed or not, but I will start there and maybe add the SD card reader while Iāve got it open. Then Iāll install your firmware image and check it out.
Once I have a working image and am comfortable with the update process Iāll start digging into the code to get familiar with what youāve done. Iām really impressed with everything youāve managed to figure out and document.
Iām really excited by the idea of having a G-code API available. It would be interesting if there was a way to operate the cutter directly from Lightburn without having to go through their proprietary sandbox. Itās unfortunate that they require a wifi connection, let alone solid internet.
Iām interested if still available. Also I have a Glowforge system Iām willing to donate for the cause. Brand spanking newā¦ never even turned on.
Iāve put the development of a replacement control board on hold while I concentrate on developing software for the factory hardware. Iāll add you to the list when work on that project resumes.
In the meantime - you can try out the latest alpha version of the software for the factory board by following the directions here.
Very interested in still available.
Iām interested in testing out new software and hardware implementations on the Glowforge. I have a Glowforge basic unit. As soon as the warranty expired, I began modifying it. So far, I havenāt done anything crazy- just completely removed the fan and added an inline fan to make the machine quiet.
Iām going to have to install the serial port on the board and then test out the restā¦
My coding experience is probably insufficient to help with this project, but keep me on the list for testing a new control board and/ or new software.
I would like to revive this, but with the suggestion, INSTEAD of building a whole new controller, what about just an interface between glowforge motors and laser controllers and a Ruida controller?
it should be a LOT simpler to do, and then we can use lightburn, etc to control the Glowforge āboxā and all it needs is a connector between the two??
what ya think?
Jonathan
I thought about that. There is a bunch of very specific Glowforge hardware in there that doesnāt exactly translate well.
The most useful part would be an adapter to interface with the power supply. Other than that, there isnāt much that could directly translate.
Glowforge went out of their way to be ādifferentā, and they certainly met that goal.
Hi guys. Iām an old (really old) retired c++ programmer and would love to pitch in on creating an interface that āmacgeekā mentioned. Any interest here?
Thank,
Ed Newbold
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INTEREST!!! more interest then an 8.5% APR investment account!!!
Jonathan
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Great. Letās see if we can āget r doneā.
How do you want to do this? - I send you a basic board, you hack it? or I send you a dead board you frankenstien it?
Jonathan
Any progress on this? I am in the progress of trying to install the alpha, script failed to repartition correctly so I am going to attempt it manually