Robo3D Not Ready for Prime Time

I'd like to ask everyone, in particular those who are not inclined to tear apart their machine or do mods: How many of you have printed successfully and can you do so on a regular basis?

My answers-Once and no.

I am not inclined to tear apart my extruder head, replace hobbed bolts, or buy temperature sensors. While I have enough technical experience to get away with most things, I bought Robo with the expectations I have with anything I buy-it should work-not just for the folks who like to tear things apart and put in their own fixes. Why do I have to tighten my belts, make sure the screws are tight on the steppers, or even print out my own end cap so the filament roll doesn't fly off the shaft?

If anyone looking for a printer read the forums, they'd run away screaming. I know, this was a kickstarter project, but kickstarter shouldn't mean a machine that needs to be rebuilt by the user to maybe get it to work and a kickstarter backer shouldn't mean being a guinnea pig either. To be a success, Robo needs to be at least somewhat accessible to the masses. I have no experience with the other brands out there, but I find it hard to believe that the well known MakerBots of the world would have been as successful if their users had to do as many tweaks as we have to just to get something to print once.

Needless to say, I'm pretty disappointed.

 

Sorry to hear your frustrations, I have had a few myself, but worked through them. I was more fortunate than some who had shippers destroy the printer, or as you said, belts that need tightening, screws that need loosening, or plastic pieces that need to be added in order to get a better print.

I got one of the first run units, the heatbed was "taped" to the surface of the wood and no Borocillicate glass. The second incarnation was a 4 bracket assembly with securing hand tightened clips that kept the Borocilliacate glass adhered to the heat bed. After some minor tweaks I had my printer pumping out print jobs on a regular basis.

I can understand how frustrating it is to buy something and expect it to work out of the box with no setup or calibration. This printer requires a little patience when first using it, expecially for people new to the 3D printing family.

For you, (and others reading this just getting your printer) please go through with a fine toothed comb, the instructions listed on the getting started page, accessed from the home page of Robo3D.

Make sure the voltage for your country is set right on the power supply, that you don't use a hub for communicating to the printer, that the Arduino drivers for USB to Serial are installed and the printer hardware is showing up in Device Manager.

Use the custom Repetier setup values that come with Repetier, and a 250000 baud rate.

Inspect the printer to make sure there isn't any physical damage done to the unit. Make sure the manual controls on the printer do what they are supposed to do. Level your Z-Axis screw so it hits the microswitch when the Extruder hits the glass.

Hopefully your first and subsequent print jobs come out looking great.

 

You've stated my point exactly-"a steep learning curve and the vast number of things that need to be adjusted correctly". The reason Walmart toasters sell is because you put in a piece of bread and it comes out toasted. Robo and maybe all 3D printers are not for those who want to try 50 different things to get a print to come out properly. Is the problem the software settings? No, those are correct. Is it the temperature? Try adjusting it 5 degrees up or down. Didn't work? Are your belts and screws tight? I'll get back to you after I tear the machine apart, hoping I put everything back in the right place. Tesseract, you and others got the savy AND the interest to do it and I applaud and appreciate your efforts to help the rest of us Bozo's. The problem is, there are alot more Bozo's out there who don't feel the effort is worth the results.

 

Cosber, can I ask if you have purchased/received a printer?
When you say you are disappointed after reading your 2 comments I feel like you were expecting that this printer would work without fail, maybe expecting a quality of product that is only found after several product life cycles and even then. Maybe you even expected at worse flipping a few switches and a few minutes of software troubleshooting. I do not have my printer yet. I purchased mine on their website after the kickstarter finished, I am expecting something that will take a certain level of commitment and enthusiasm, and time that I don't have but will find it none the less, to make operational, so if it works with little effort out of the box I'm ahead in my mind. Again it sounds like you were expecting a sound base product that isn't available yet due to technology/price, and it is unfortunate that you were given those expectations.

I agree with your statement that the Robo is not ready for "Prime Time" and there are many people who this product isn't for. But when it is ready for the lime light I know this. That everyone who has a printer and has made comments on this forum, to the company, and told their friends or coworkers about this product will feel some pride. Pride in assisting with taking a product idea that didn't really exist in the first place and creating a highly successful product. I will be shocked if this printer falls into the cracks and is forgotten in a few years. Well time to get off my soap box. Good luck Cosber, I hope you find what you are looking for.

 

i'm just going to say If you don't like to fix, tweak, adjust anything you work on, don't get a 3D printer
it is not your hp printer you plug and just print the S**t out of

you have to put filament, change filament color, clean clogs, replace parts broken/clogged/burnt, clean, oil...etc

 

No one seems to be getting my point. If a company is going to succeed, they need to provide a machine for the masses, not just a few who like to fix, tweak or adjust to get it to work EVERY time they want to print something. I knew that when I purchased it consumer 3D printing was in it's infant stage. I never expected to plug it in and print out the Eiffel tower without some tweaking here and there. But just read the forums-people can't even get the test cubes to print properly. My 2nd test print of the stacked cubes turned out near perfect. It's been downhill ever since.

Yes Nick, I have had my printer for over a month. Your statement says you are expecting it to work with "little effort out of the box". I'm saying you might be disappointed-I hope you won't be. But I wonder how many who have purchased it from the flashy website are expecting to plug and play. They are the ones who are going to make or break the company.

After my rant, I read again what people have said-and I understand we are sort of pioneeers. I guess that is the nature of start-ups via Kickstarters. You have to decide whether you want to be a pioneer or come over on the boat after the town is established. I will continue to tweak and adjust and bitch because I own the machine and I am confident that I'll get there someday and I honestly do like the Robo concept, but I do realize I am not the Kickstarter type of consumer.

 

I've had many great prints and probably 100 hours of printing so far.

My friends company has spent 500 on upgrades just to get their replicator 2 to print with any sort of consistency. Increase in cost does not correlate to increase in quality.

I think you can appreciate how a 3d printer is a highly sensitive machine and that a skillful technician behind the wheel is needed for any and all of them. Printers simply aren't plug and play yet

 

I see where he's coming from. The way the product is being advertised, is that all you do is just plug it in, put in filament, load up a model, push a button, and done. I was under a similar expectation (though knowing what I know about models and CNC I knew it would be a bit more than that), and I nearly chucked the thing out the door (and drove it down there). It's been a beast, and only a person who loves to take things apart and put them together again (mechanically, electrically inclined) would be broken in the head enough to stick with it. And a quick look around with even some of the higher end printers have revealed forums similar to ours. But yes, I feel the product does not feel that it delivered what was advertised.

Where this company differs from a lot from the other projects I've seen is that they do want to keep improving upon it. I've stopped by their offices (repeatedly), they are always working on something, both in fixes for this machine, and the next. They want it to be simple, easy, inexpensive, and accessible to all. And the first company(s) to achieve this, win big. So far I've only seen about 3 or 4 companies that want to meet those goals, and this is one of them. I hate to say give it time (believe me, I know it's hard. I'm notorious for having very little patience), but give it a little bit more time, Cosber. And we are all willing to help you.

 

I agree with you once again cosber the ones who do purchase from the website and are expecting to plug and play are the ones who are going to make or break the company in the long run at least, I hope they are able to improve upon the robo in the short run to eventually reach that point. I also hope I won't be disappointed, but I hardly ever am with things that aren't working right (I do enjoy fixing whats not working, ask my wife or maybe you shouldn't).

That really bites that it has been down hill since your 2nd test print. I hope its something that is easily fixed soon, I hate to hear a fellow pioneer having large difficulties and problems, especially when it seems that others are having little problem. Good luck with that man.

 

Have to point out.. That if you expect a "masses" printer that is filament based the Robox kickstarter looks more polished than anything else. The fact they are using custom software with jam detection and auto-restart is a major feature missing that is critical for the soccer moms of the world to use it.

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/robox/robox-desktop-3d-printer-and-micro-manufacturing-p

Note, for reference.. I've done only two mods: Bed leveling by Tesseract, and a different bedclip set I designed as the default ones don't work well with his mod.

I'm wondering if anyone has put together a collective stats as to the problem types, and how many people just printed without much effort. As a 3d printer newbie I feel I've had little real problems printing (other than the ones I've created for myself =) with this setup. Maybe I'm lucky with all the stars aligning.

 

That's a pretty sweet printer, but 210x250x100 is a pretty tiny build volume. I like how they don't compare it against the Robo3D Though I guess they just compare against proprietary printers

 

Seems anything more complex than a test cube, the more I fail to print. The tests I do all print beautifully, the cube, even the step cube. This is where my frustration lies. The calibrations are all great. So am I wrong to expect something other than calibration file to print? The cubes are small. The more it has to move, the more it fails. I've been trying to print a spool holder I found on Thingiverse created for Robo by keraynopoylos. Out of 6 tries, I got one piece to print adequately-not perfect but good enough. The other attempts failed, mostly because of the shifting layers and now, I'm having trouble sticking again. Yesterday I tried tightening the X axis belt, which was a lot of fun. Checked the allen screws to make sure they were tight. Didn't do the Y axis yet. Not looking forward to that much tearing apart. (I figure though that I can always take it down to the Robo Shop and they can put it back together for me!) Because I was bouncing the extruder around, I started over from scratch to get the head the right distance from the table. Printed a cube perfectly. Then tried the spool holder again and the same problems with it not sticking. One thing I noticed. With this file, it creates the skirt, does a couple of layers and infill, which one time fills perfectly, the next time doesn't, then it puts another 2 layers on the skirt. When it moves back to the object, that's when it messes up. I remember reading somewhere about building the skirt along with the object to protect if from the fan or something. I assume somewhere in the g-code it's telling it to do that. I'll have to find that and remove it somehow. I'm also going to try changing the orientation of the piece I'm printing. Have it run along the Y instead of the X and see what happens.

 

Thanks. I'll be in touch.