The new Beambox Pro arrived yesterday. It has been a long time coming: I thought that it was to be shipped in June, but it didn’t leave the factory until August. The manufacturers advised that there were some difficulties getting parts to make the 230V version that I wanted. The journey from Taiwan was fast, via Singapore and Sydney, and then it got held up in Customs clearance for several days. Customs had opened the box to inspect it. I guess that they must have found a laser cutter inside and not been very interested. Then another two days passed while the importation fees were processed before TNT would send it on via a different freight company. And then, on the day I was expecting delivery, it was delayed yet again because of an airfreight overload. Finally the delivery came three days later. As soon as they got out of their van, the couriers drivers heard a hiss from under the vehicle. It turned out that they’d punctured a tyre on a loose roofing screw on the way here.

Since the Beambox arrived weeks after the time I had planned to get started with it, I haven’t had a lot of time to work on it, and unfortunately it hasn’t had a lot of time for me, either. So far, I haven’t been able to get it to do even the initial calibration.

It took a long time to get the protective film off the window. Eventually I figured out that I had released only the paper layer, and the paper was peeling off in frustrating little pieces while leaving the film behind. Once the plastic film came up, things went much faster. There are a couple of tiny disc magnets that Flux instructs us to stick to the door, but I can’t tell what they’re for. The adhesive on them is too weak to actually stick so, when the door is opened and closed, they often jump off the door and onto the base.

The machine came with a power cord for a different country. It looks like a US 120V plug to me. I already had some international plug adaptors and it seems to be working satisfactorily this way.

Switching the interface into English was easy enough (though might be a little daunting if you’re unfamiliar with Chinese), and the Beambox connected to our home wi-fi with no complications. No problems at all getting the software installed on my computer, and communicating with the Beambox. A view from the camera came through with no problems.

One of the LED strips was lying at an odd angle. One end had come off its screw, so the LED strip was flopping down onto the case below. I eased it back into place but the support sleeve is curved (maybe from having been slumped during shipping?) so it doesn’t quite reach as far as it needs to for the screw to hold it secure. A little bit of glue or double-sided tape behind the sleeve should fix that later on.

But so far I’m getting a “door opened” error message when I try to calibrate the camera. There appears to be a reed switch but it has a magnet of its own, completely separate from the disc magnets that migrate around when the door opens and closes.

And I think I’m also getting a water alert. I haven’t found out how to get the cooling water to circulate yet. The laser tube’s cooling sleeve is filled with air plus a few residual water drops that must have been left over from testing at the factory. I can see a little movement in the feeder tubes but it moves only a couple of millimetres, not enough to bring water up to the laser tube.

So I have no cuts to report.

I’ve sent in some calls for advice. Let’s see what Flux suggests I do next.