Anyone jump on the Smapmaker U1 Kickstarter? I just heard of it several days ago so I was to late. From the videos I have watched it appears that it will be a decent printer. I like the idea of the tool changer not wasting all the material like the AMS type multicolor printers. The other thing that caught my eye was that because of the separate tool heads it would be much easier to PETG got supports on a PLA print. Using water soluble filament is more practical too as it almost eliminates the waste.
All the videos I have watched so far have been beta testers with prototype units. I’ll wait until some production units get into the wild and see how they far then.
Yeah, I’ve been watching the Snapmaker U1. Also the Bamboo H2C, and the Prusa Core One. All are promising tool changers using different designe, from changing only the hot end to changing the extruder and everything. This is all interesting. But I’m starting to think it might be wise to wait and see. Which approach is going to win out? How reliable will it be? Where will the cost settle? Will any of these new designs be abandoned soon? We truly live in interesting times!
Rumor has it that the Core One will be getting the Bondex tool changer. I haven’t seen it anywhere but could be interesting. I thought about doing the pre-order on the U1 but didn’t like the idea of Snapmaker using my money for 6 months. I do think that the tool/hot end changer is the wave of the future. It just makes so much more sense than the AMS style of multiolor, but the AMS beat the heck out of the IDEX printer I had, could never get the 2 hotends in sync.
I ended up buying a Snapmaker U1 and have had it since March and now have probably close to 300 hours on it. It hasn’t been flawless and some of the issues maybe user created. I have been very happy with it and it prints really well, very little waste at all. I still haven’t emptied the poop catch tray but it’s getting close. The only real waste is the prime tower. So far I have printed PLA, PETG, & TPU without issues. Been using the Snapmaker Orca slicer and have no complaints.
I am using the PAX12 Extended Firmware which fixes the camera and also adds features such as RFID from OpenSpool, Snapmaker has been constantly updating the firmware and slicer. I see people in the forums having issues but I’m not experiencing any of them. I have had any dealing with SM CS but from what I hear they are pretty easy to work with solving the problems.
I recently got a U1 also and have been mostly happy with it. I had a problem with it “going out of bounds” under certain conditions, but entered a ticket and got rapid response (even though it was a weekend) and got it resolved in a couple of days. The reason was due to time zone differences in getting emails back and forth etc. In the end, I was extremely pleased with the tech support.
I don’t have nearly the hours you do, but looks like a great machine so far. I am adding additional heat sinks and cooling fans for the main board and stepper drivers as I feel the temps are getting up there even though it is relatively cool and I expect them to climb significantly as we get into summer and I attempt heated chamber conditions for some engineering plastics. Also do not really like how open the chamber is to the main board area and hope to “contain” that somewhat with an additional shield around the leadscrew.
Right now I’m getting an error about the filament is broken or stuck, only happening on tool head 1. I can press resume and it will continue for it bit then throw the error again. Haven’t troubleshooted it yet. Think I’ll bypass the feeder and see what happens. Hopefully that will give me a hint as to where to look.