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Has Robo closed up shop?

Discussion in 'General Questions' started by wthierry, Jun 4, 2019.

  1. wthierry

    wthierry Active Member

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    It looks like you cant buy replacment parts in the store, also, no printers can be purchased there anymore... Whats going on?
     
  2. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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  3. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    Betting what's left of the company on the education market, only printer left is a rebrand they are calling the E3.
     
  4. AlienBeans

    AlienBeans Active Member

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    Even that one is no longer being sold on robo3d.com. They've got some 3rd party selling it. The way they are handling this "shut down" is extremely unprofessional. Especially for those of us in this community. They (well its really just HE now) ignores everything from support requests to whatever else. Grow a set and come here and tell us what is going on with your company. It's extremely obvious what is happening here. Why not just come out and tell us you are shutting down?
     
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  5. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    It is pretty much one main person left (who is paying for this forum out of pocket) and maybe a few others -- everyone else is gone.
    I admire the fact that Braydon opted to keep the forum alive while he tried to sort out what was left :) In all fairness I expected this place to go dark months ago.

    The R2/C2 was too little*, too late to save them I suspect.



    *and too expensive given the market
     
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  6. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    So they have a 3rd party selling a 3rd party printer :)
    They did not build the E3, they just rebranded it...
     
  7. AlienBeans

    AlienBeans Active Member

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    I know. and at an insane price too. No wonder they shut down.
     
  8. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    They were including a good bit more than just the printer, but that was probably not clear.
    @Geof can talk about that -- he actually bought one :)
     
  9. albert3d

    albert3d Member

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    That 3rd party, MyStemKits.com, is actually owned by Robo. They bought them a while back. Or their parent company did. But it's all "in the family".
     
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  10. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    I did ! The E3 is a flash forge adventurer 3 with spare bed and hot end included, 2 hour online training and a trial to my stem kits (and a 2 year warranty). Neat little printer but limited

    Great for classroom setting though
     
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  11. teachingalex123

    teachingalex123 New Member

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    My school is looking at printers for our makerspace. I have really enjoyed the R2, but when I saw how ROBO seemed to be closing up, I was hesitant to recommend the E3. Is there enough support around to still purchase them? It seems like they were a really passionate company who were excited about their products. Do you think they will be around in 6 months?
     
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  12. WheresWaldo

    WheresWaldo Volunteer ( ͠° ͟ʖ ͡°)
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    @teachingalex123 There isn't anyone here that can give you that answer with respect to how much longer Robo will be around. Many of us are surprised they still have any web presence at all. But no one here has any inside information.

    Personally, if you asked me to put money on whether or not I thought Robo would be here in 6 months, I would definitely pass on that bet. But I have been surprised before.
     
  13. Braydon ROBO 3D

    Braydon ROBO 3D Administrator
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    Hey Alex,

    This is Braydon from Robo. We are not closing up shop. We just have pivoted the business towards a strong education focus. We are doing quite well in the education space with our Robo E3 and MSK solution and are working on a remodel of the Robo R2 for education as well. We are here to support and will stick to education as our primary focus for the years ahead. Reach out if you need anything braydon@mystemkits.com.
     
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  14. teachingalex123

    teachingalex123 New Member

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    Thank you, Braydon. I'm glad to hear ROBO is still going. I will follow up with you via email.
     
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  15. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    Hey sorry for the delay, I see you’ve got multiple answers already, apologies for the delay. Hit me up if you have any questions still
     
  16. Warp Norman

    Warp Norman Member

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    I think Robo R2 would have been a much better product if they would have opened up ALL their code to the enthusiast, it would have been a better machine. Let the enthusiast help make it a better machine. The Robo had some great ideas for the R2 but implemented them poorly.

    You know, if you look right now at Robos website for the R2, they still claim you can add a second extruder. Maybe the modders out there can.
     
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  17. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I have an entire thread in the C2 section showing how I added one to the C2 (pretty much exact same thing for R2 since the guts are almost identical).

    :)
     
  18. mark tomlinson

    mark tomlinson ༼ つ ◕_ ◕ ༽つ
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    I think the real problem with the dual extrusion kit is that it was never going to be enough in demand to justify the cost. They would have had to sell it below cost to recoup anything (volume was the problem I imagine). Lots of folks may think that it is an easy and major value upgrade, but once you have played with dual extrusion ... you realize that getting it working right is difficult even if the hardware supports it. The modeling and slicing side are ... difficult to get good results :) Not impossible certainly, but the complexity goes up a lot. Some of the true dual-extrusion machines like the Sigma (where it has independent extruders) can do a much better job, but they cost a lot more (so really not going to be worth it).

    Since I started in 2013 I had wanted dual extrusion*, but I always managed to model around it :) You can create models that are in sections that print single extrusion and then assemble into a multi-filament object much easier and cheaper.


    *turns out once I had it I really don't use it often
     
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  19. Geof

    Geof Volunteer Moderator
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    This
     
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  20. tkoco

    tkoco - -.- --- -.-. ---
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    I've used that store and their customer service is top notch.
     
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