I think you’ve got to consider what’s required, I certainly would not consider agony with the printer I’ve got while I have had it with a $600 machine.
Bells and whistles of touch screen and WiFi don’t make a better print, even if connection is easier. Those are things that still add to the costs.
It’s easy to run away with spec’s or underestimate what you might need when starting out. Not all needs/desires are equal.
True true. certainly not absolutes. Even $2000 printer can be unreliable crap and thus double agony.
Most print agony come from the fact that cheap machines today print blindfolded and physical machines deviate from the defined machine. Beyond bells and whistles, core control need to evolve.
I think we reach the point of reliable comfort printing when a standard machine kit for $500 does:
Auto calibration and assembly error correction, closed-loop kinematics and extrusion, automatic print failure detection, diagnostics and recovery.
I really appreciate the pointers and suggestions you all have made. I see there is a lot to consider…
I love my Fabrikator Mini (1.0). After adjusting the stepper currents, adding a fan for the electronics and one for the print bed, I get really nice results. It’s small, but it allowed me to play around with all the software, designing, etc.
Quick note: Printrbot is attacking: print quality, repeatability, and ease of use. I believe a touch screen and wifi are not bells and whistles, they are a requirement if printing is to get easier. I think printers need to be OS agnostic, so you can run them on anything w a browser. I am well acquainted w the pain of installing drivers, USB issues and developing for multiple platforms. All are pain points. User interface on a printer has been ignored and “headless” machines do not offer the user to be guided through the printing process or allow the user to give feedback to the manufacturer. Both are advantages to remove pain. Too many nuanced controls can confuse the process and , at worst, distract from the heart of the process: printing. I think we have settled on a plateau of user un- friendliness. Our decisions do add cost but have been incredibly intentional to set the whole experience apart from the competition… From beginning to end.
No doubt, it’s not for everyone. But it is designed first for the new user to get up and running quickly. Second design goal is offering a better experience to experienced users.
Brook
Apologies @Brook_Drumm I’d not intended to knock Printrbot or your development.
I was looking back to the $200 of the original question. Those features just won’t be seen at this price point - at least not for a while!
No worries! I think you have a good point
Monoprice Select Mini 3D Printer is $200, but they are out of stock. You can get them for around $270 off Amazon though.
@Haakim_Allah may I ask if you’ve a view on the size of parts you’ll print, materials and resolution you’d like to achieve?
Have you done any research on features you’d like in a printer?
Considering the “low-cost” printer I picked up I’m limited to a volume of 130150100mm but for my “desk-top” sized robot builds this isn’t particularly limiting.
It doesn’t have a heated bed which can make it more difficult to print some materials and it has manual bed leveling - I get the impression that ease of leveling varies with the machine.
I do have the ability to print direct via USB or off-line via a memory card.
Whilst the electronics came complete with a nice wiring loom, I did have to do the mechanical assembly. I do tend to think I’m competent with hand tools but assembly was much longer than adverts suggest.
I’ve seen all sorts of aftermarket tweaks to my printer. I’ve printed three parts for this - a stand for the controller (design shipped with printer), tri-wing adapters for the leveling thumb screws and a low-profile handle to allow me to fit it into a tool box.
Looking at current adverts, it appears the common price for the CR-7 is $249 but there are what appear to be re-badged versions around $400.