My visit to Robo corporate

I had some business related travel to San Diego, so I contacted Robo through their Twitter account. While I was in SD, I was hoping to get to meet the team, especially Jerry, who had helped me out when I first got my R2. I also wanted to discuss the possibility for some potential future collaboration on a few areas my work is doing. Nick (one of Robo’s social media folks) arranged a meeting with Allen, the VP of Engineering.

After the business talk was over, Allen asked me for candid feedback on the R2, and I gave it to him. I mean, I really gave it to him - not only the negative stuff, but the things I really like about the R2. I also expressed my disappointment with the shipping, and the backlog of parts, and told them to visit the forums and he could see I wasn’t alone in my frustration.

The whole company is quite small, and I really got a good feeling while I toured the place - everyone from the warehouse staff, to the engineers, to the programmers, to the folks who greeted me, were very courteous and kind.

I know not everyone can get behind the scenes like that, so I just wanted to share that experience with you all, and let you know I left with a really good feeling. Robo does care, and are honestly doing their best to get parts in, make 3D printing accessible, and correct any wrongs in the design of the R2 - some of which will be the lighting, no-pogo pin printer bed, and a solution for keeping the heat in for ABS prints.

In the meantime, know that waiting on stuff from China sucks - both for Robo and us. It just sucks worse for us because we laid out our money and don’t have a fully functional printer.





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I've been trying to get over there but phone support sort of laughs at the idea of someone trying to "go to corporate" since there's apparently not much at that address.

 

So what would be the procedure for getting upgrades when they start making improvements? Would they send us new lighting kits, for example?

 

Robo has to be aware of many of the issues you brought up. Any indication that changes are being made? Or do you think these are considered as "outlier" cases?

 

Haven't heard anything about fixes making their way to existing users, though. In fact, haven't heard anything about fixes from Robo themselves; it would be nice for them to proactively reassure their customers. They already know where we hang out.

 

Wouldn't be that hard to set up an announcements section, though :-/

 

Yes, I complained they needed a better presence on the forums.

And yes, kits for sale at a fair price would be my guess.

I can tell you I know they are addressing the pogo /print bed (new design without pogo), lighting, and heat retention...


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You mean the one in "Archive" with the latest post being from 2013?

 

I tend to ignore the R1 section, for what it's worth.

 

You might consider moving it since there are three printers now.

 

Hadn't seen the one in the R1 section, fair enough. Time to split it out of there into its own thing, then. Oh, and actually have Robo post most news, not just start discussions

 

I read it occasionally just to get the troubleshooting tips.