I just sent this to Epilog. I am very happy with the laser, but I sure wish I could use Lightburn with it. I hope this helps wake someone up at Epilog.
My company recently purchased an Epilog Mini 24, and we are happy with it, but we have some questions because we believe some things could be improved.
Is there plans to make a Mac driver for the Mini 24 like you did for the Fusion series?
Are there any plans to allow Lightburn Software to be compatible with your system since the last update to your job manager was in 2016. We used Lightburn with our previous BossLaser and it is an amazing piece of software that always comes out with new and improved features.
Is there plans to be able to add a positioning camera for the Mini? I ask because Lightburn supports this for most machine controllers regardless of the bed size.
My friend owns an Epilog and I tease him that he is stuck using Corel Draw. Your RF Laser may last forever, but at least I can use LightBurn (and buy 10 replacement glass tubes if needed) .
That’s how I put it I think. He also has the Mini 24 @ 30W.
I have an Epilog for a specific reason. I am a manufacturer, and I only use lasers for barcoding and cutting out parts that fit inside highly precise machined parts. The BossLaser was only capable of repeatable positioning to 0.002in (0.0508mm), which was not good enough for our new product. Additionally, we found no Chinese made laser that kept a precise beam diameter across the cutting area. The Epilog is capable of 0.0005" (0.0127mm) repeatability. That might as well be a magnitude more significant than the width of the Grand Canyon. The Epilog also maintains a precise beam diameter across the cutting area.
Additionally, your friend is not stuck with Corel Draw. We use Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, and Fusion 360, all of which work perfectly with the Epilog. If we were decorating cutting boards or any of the other awesome things you can do with a laser, I would not have bought an Epilog as the BossLaser would have done all of that just fine. Lightburn is not a requirement for what we do, and honestly, the Epilog interface works fine due to the software mentioned above.
However, my employees like Lightburn, and so do I. I sent that email to Epilog because I am sure others would like to see the cross-platform capability. So I get it. You can buy lots of replacement tubes, but for us, that is a trivial overhead consideration. As for the BossLaser, it did an excellent job for us until we moved into parts that it was not capable of making as precisely as we needed.
@MetalDawg, I want you to know I agree with you and understand the necessity of the higher precision and consistency. It is only in fun that I tease my friend and was just sharing that with you.
There are a few things I would love to have that Epilog brings to the table (like their RF Lasers).
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