Not a hobby for beginners, if new please reconsider

I can understand some of your frustrations ... However from a 3D companies perspective the typical person that buys a 3D printer is a maker in some way shape or form. The companies that honestly frustrate me are the ones that have a closed system that makes it difficult for the user to upgrade/fix/modify. The Robo is definitely not the best printer out there (middle of the pack) but it gets the job done ... It's relatively quit.... And it's not expensive at all.
I can take the Robo apart in about 10-12 min down to the extruder.
If you take the time to get to know the printer you'll become a more educated consumer. Trust me it's worth the learning curve.

 

You haven't actually looked at the marketing 3d printer companies like Robo have been doing, have you?

 

I guess I don't hold much stock in most company's marketing focus. Just like I don't expect my burger from 'Jack n The box' to look like the one in the commercial... I don't really get caught up in the hype a company wants to create.
I bought the Robo after reading a lot of reviews and taking a brief look at this forum. Having said that ... I will admit the learning curve is somewhat steep, but nothing I couldn't handle when adequate time was dedicated. If you're really serious about 3D printing you'll at least consider the Robo as a good starting unit... It's preassembled, Has a glass heated bed, auto level (sort of) and can use the e3dv6 nozzles. Anyhow not trying to change your mind per say... Just wanting to show you a different perspective.

 

I never had a 3d printer before buying my Robo3d R1, I had a clog once, cleaned it and looked to the forum for a solution to reduce the likely hood of a clog and found many were suggesting to print an oiler to use with PLA, haven't had any trouble since.

My printer works great and is easy to use. I had inkjet printers that used to clog all the time, stuff happens learn how to deal with things when they act up or do without, I prefer to try and learn rather than whine about stuff.

 

If someone wants to learn, they should buy a kit and build the printer. But if a printer is being marketed as a machine that allows the user to "plug and print", it should be supported properly when it fails to do that. I've never had an inkjet printer clog, either. But that's a bad comparison to draw because inkjets have been reliable for a long time now in terms of consumer-level technology.

I'm not talking about a nozzle clog either. Literally every single electrical and mechanical component on my original Robo has been replaced because it died within the first 48 hours of printing time (which stretched until the warranty was voided due to waiting two weeks or more for every replacement part, even parts that were paid for instead of going through the warranty replacement process that would take two weeks out to four weeks or more).

My "FrankenRobo" is running on a Rambo control board with a combination of parts I had to order on 3dHubs (to replace a cracked carriage) and third party electronics and various hardware bought at McMaster-Carr because my replacement parts order for the X-axis neglected to include any bearings for the smooth rods or screws for assembling the newer "quick release" version of the carriage (the stock R1 screws are too short), an e3d v6 hotend (because the replacement Hexagon they sent had a bad heater cartridge that tested no resistance on the wires, and one of the wires on the thermistor that they had rubber-banded to the side of the hotend when packaging was broken).

I've been through two glass beds because the glass in both beds have had flaws in them that resulted in cracks after about a dozen warmup cycles. The second glass bed is temporarily reinforced with steel flat-bar running down the sides on the bottom and a sheet of PEI glued to the glass, but that's just to keep it half-ass running (no heated bed any more, so basically PLA-only) until my second printer from another manufacturer comes in and I can move on to something better.

Oh, and did I mention that the glass bed isn't covered by the warranty unless it was broken in shipment? Yeah, I got a "deal" to get a replacement for $50 that I had to attach magnets to myself when I got it two weeks after ordering it, but that was back in June for a printer I bought in April.

I've learned a lot about how this particular style of 3d printer works, and how it should have been built better (the original stock configuration for the R1 tearing the wires out of the extruder stepper the first time it homed out should have been a clue to send the printer back though).

Yeah, for every story of someone having trouble similar to me there's someone that got a printer that worked just fine out of the box, but that just tells me that Robo should probably spend some time identifying who put the successful printers together vs. who put the failures together and firing some folks.

Also, the staff at Robo's warehouse needs to pay a little bit more attention when filling parts orders, because that replacement X-axis assembly order I mentioned above was supposed to be everything that makes up the X-axis from the hotend to the mounts that go on the Z-axis rods and I got about 75% of the parts required to actually build that (and had to cobble the rest together myself because at this point it would take more of my time to put together a documented response to get the missing parts than just put everything together with what I have on hand).

When the stars align and the Robo doesn't fail to print, I get some decent looking prints (you can look at my Show and Tell thread to see some of them), but at this point there is very little currently on the machine that is actually "Robo".

I'm thinking about dropping the money on the cheapo Monoprice printer that is basically the same thing that the Robo3D offers (just with a weaker hotend and a questionable parts fan shroud). It's only $349 and already comes with the LCD controller people add as the first mod to the Robo and houses the electronics in a box separate from the actual printing frame (so, easier to build an insulating box around and keep at a warm temperature for those of us that live in areas that experience anything that approaches a winter without making the control board harder to cool).

The E3D BigBox I've already got on pre-order can't get here fast enough.

 

Pretty much every car manufacturer in the US does the same thing (with final assembly of sub-assemblies in a US plant).

Maybe Robo should think about doing that, it would certainly allow for an improved QC process before a printer is boxed up for shipping out to Amazon or direct from their storefront.

 

At the price point the Robo is selling for, it really isn't providing enough added value to justify the price difference between it and the printers it compares to at cheaper prices.

The out-of-the-box printer you get is only worth that $800 if you don't have to spend additional money buying more parts just to get it to print, because you certainly aren't paying for $800 worth of hardware and labor if it comes to you incorrectly assembled or poorly calibrated.

The marketing has shifted to targeting people that expect the 3d printer to function the same way their current ink/laserjet printers work. That is, send a print job and it prints successfully.

If I spend $800 for a consumer level wide-format inkjet printer (easily done if you buy a good one), that printer will actually work out of the box the way it's marketed to work, and that's the exact attitude that is coming to 3d printing as it shifts out of the hobbyist market and into the general consumer market with displays at Best Buy and other stores.

The Robo right now is like someone buying that $850 wide-format inkjet printer and firing up their test print, but having it shut off and refuse to print due to a bad power supply, or continually jam the paper feed because of a bad feeding mechanism, or have a poorly calibrated ink system that doesn't function properly.

The consumer isn't going to give a shit about "good enough for a hobbyist" because it's $800+ dollars. Anything marketed "plug and print" damn well better be plug and print.

 

That's why I picked an inkjet printer.

 

You should probably actually read my posts in this thread where I've complained about how the marketing is misleading to people.