Hi Lisa - This is the FRC Team mentor from Fergus Falls MN. I am very much considering an x-carve to help move the OtterBots to the next level. I was on this forum trying to do some research and saw this from 877. I realize it is almost 3 years old. Are you still active and could you answer some questions on the X-carve for me?
Iām retired and my wife is a retired art teacher. Two daughter I laws teach as does my son. Iāve had the xcarve for little over a year and have done numerous projects for them. The machine canāt be in the school
Hi Phillip - I am just curious to learn more. What were some of the specific reasons it canāt be implemented in their schools? I would imagine mainly it is around the open nature of the machine (some teachers have overcome this by building custom enclosures) but also looking to see if there were other reasons. Thanks!
The biggest reason was the inability to have the internet. My son teaches engineering and autocad and has several 3D printers that the kids use.
Why would they need internet?
Hi Phillip - thanks for your feedback. Do you mean more in terms of students having online accounts for Easel?
They cannot design in easel and then send to the x controller without the internet. Is that correct? Once controller has the file it will carve. Is this correct or am I mistaken??
Iāve never tried it because I always have a strong internet connection
You have to be online to load Easel and your project. After that you should be able to send the job to the machine without being online. You would lose any changes to the project if you changed something while you were offline, plus if you didnāt have homing switches and/or you did not home the machine you loose the starting point, etc. Overall using Easel and X-Carve offline on an ongoing basis would probably not be the most optimal experience for the students.
I agree. That is the biggest problem. The internet that is in the school cannot be accessed by any system outside of the what the school board authorizes. This would not be allowed by the school board unfortunately.
Really?! For what reason? I am a teacher and I get the need to restrict SOME access. Any time I need the district to unblock something for educational purposes, they do.
Not real sure. Iām not the teacher. My son is the one that has given me this information. Sorry I donāt have any better answer