First Impressions

Yes, it looks every bit as pretty in person. I know this is a Kickstarter machine, so I am going to highlight all the issues I have had in an attempt to crowdsource solutions for future users. I am only here to pass info to users and the Robo3D community about a printer I've been excited to get for a long time. I'm going to use this thing into the ground, and I think it can take it.

I purchased it off Kickstarter as #26 in October IIRC. I waited, sometimes patiently and always in quiet, until it got here yesterday afternoon, on the first day of June. I ran a 3D printer shop at Gonzaga University for more than a year and had 3 R1s (Not the Plus) running very well. I've got thousands of usually happy hours with my Robos and have high hopes for this machine.

Out of the box: There is packaging placed on the inside of the build envelope with no screen protecting film on the inside (there was some on the outside). As a result, my door, my beautiful door was marred during shipping in three distinct and very large lines. Not a good start.

On to setup. www.robo3d.com/manual is given as the link for the manual on the R2 Quick Setup Guide. That link only provides C3 info... Only partly useful. The rest of the QSG is not very useful because there are so many issues that I have had setting up my printer that someone with any less experience and similar problems will absolutely have to call customer support. Or read this post.

DO THE UPDATE!!!! Before the update, the UI was clunky and sort of terrible. Post-update I am pleased to say that the UI is a bit more user friendly and incorporates some of the items I was missing before. Best example, manual bed levelling. Before that feature, the extruder nozzle did a wonderful job of damaging the heck out of the print bed. Scratches in the form of a R2_Print_Test_Spiral... This is the first print I attempted and yes it was after I had set the Z Offset and the machine ran the auto-leveling function at the beginning of the print.

TOUCH SCREEN: My touch screen must be busy somewhere else because when I touch it there are usually long pauses before it decides to react (if it reacts at all). I have specific difficulty with the upper left corner "Files" tab.

PRINTER BED: The bed is not glass. It has a coating on it that scratches very easily and from what I gather is not supposed to be removed prior to use. Thus, beware your scraper tool. It probably won't be necessary. Once the bed cools, the object is very easy to remove even with a sizeable raft.

The printer bed is very slow to travel and I think the bed is a bit slow to heat. In between functions, the bed travels to the bottom, then to the top, then to the bottom, then in position... I've timed it as long as 2.5 minutes of just Z travel. I like the build height, so I won't complain, just be prepared. I am willing to sacrifice a bit of my time to save on linear bearing wear.

It is also very easy to confuse even when being a patient human. DO NOT ATTEMPT to cancel functions. It may force you to power cycle it to clear the confusion, and you'll be stuck restarting whatever you were trying to do.

PRINTER OUT OF FILAMENT: My prints would start and stop, always oozing and exclaiming there was no filament. I opted to change the port thru which my filament runs in the back of the machine and I haven't had a problem since. Not sure how dual extrusion will pan out when I upgrade.

EXTRUDER WIRE BUNDLE: I also had problems with it jamming in the upper left corner. I pulled the bundle out of the dogpile after the head and gantry started to convulse. I have not had problems since, but watching the wire bundle to make sure it stays clear.

PRINT QUALITY: I have yet to get it on the OGP, but I'm gonna inspect the heck out of my first part because it did as good if not better than the R1s I used to have even after all my mods and a machined lead screw upgrade. I printed the USB stick's Phone_Holder and it did a great job of everything with the exception of the undercut radii. I imagine a bit of tuning for bed/extruder temp will shore that up nicely.

I'm printing more now after running all the wizards. I'll update as necessary.

 

@Bulldog3D did you by chance run the filament through the left hole? (looking at the block from the back) it seems the printer is set for the right hole for extruder 1 (and I guess the left hole for extruder 2 eventually), mine was doing the same thing (but looked at the picture in the QSG and found it seemed to work after)

 

Yep. If you look at the picture, there is a tiny line that shows it going thru the right side No explanation. I don't see anywhere else on the QSG that covers what the second hole is for, so your idea sounds correct.