You sound like a heavy printer if you are seeing that much on the wear and tear of the cabling. Are you running it 24x7?
I disabled my filament sensor as well for similar issues.
I’m surprised you are having issues with the hot end fan. Mine is stock, and I actually have to reduce the power when running PETG (245 C) because at 100%, the hot end can’t keep up. They really should have put a 40w or 50w heater cartridge in the hot end. I print in an enclosure with the original stock hot end, and I never have ran into any issue with cooling, though I am planning to go to the new r3 design but haven’t gotten around to it yet. It is a major pain taking that hot end apart.
Robox seems to be an interesting machine. One of the nice things about going with a Prusa or other main stream printer is that there is a lot of community support available. How is Robox in that regard? I saw they had a forum after doing a quick google, but it looks like a small/niche community.
Kinda late to the discussion, but I bought a Dremel 3D45 earlier this year. I didn’t have any experience with 3D printing, and wanted something that would work right out of the box. The 3D40 is probably in your price range. Seems like tons of upvotes for the Prusa, so that looks like a great option. If you have any questions on the dremel, please let me know.
Something to keep in mind is overall cost of ownership. The Prusa uses printed parts which means there is more possibility for users to take on the problems that Prusa leaves in their designs. I have a new cable management system that works very well, someone else has solved the filament detection instability, and there are other bits and bobs you can print to add on as you choose. The Robox uses manufactured parts.
From my view, the Robox has these pros over the Prusa:
Enclosed build volume. Allows a higher range of materials, including nylon, ABS, PMMA, etc.
No stringing. Even on TPU and other materials that like to string, the Robox valved nozzles do not string if they are kept clean and are in good working order.
PEI bed sheet is nearly maintenance free. Extras and replacements are reasonably priced and you can get additional surfaces if you want them.
Extruder filament sensors are nearly perfectly reliable as they are contact sensors. Only some TPU filaments give them issues and you can bypass easily.
Much faster US based official support.
Single material head has two nozzles, one large and one small, that can be used without manually swapping the nozzles. Just choose the setting in the software.
Robox uses a physical touch bed mapping sensor that is accurate, even when hot. Prusa uses a remote sensor that isn’t as accurate and the accuracy changes with temperature. This goes for the MK3 also, though the new PINDA is more reliable.
The Prusa has these advantages:
Cheaper overall cost of ownership. The Robox print heads wear out over time due to their moving parts.
Larger build volume.
Nozzles can be changed. The Robox print heads do not allow changing the nozzles, but they have a new head that works pretty much just like the Prusa hot end that you can change the nozzles if you want, but this print head does string a little.
Can be modified to take up to four materials.
Quieter. The Prusa uses specialized stepper drivers that make it really quiet.
You are spot on with this review. I like my CR-10S mainly for the large print volume and it was under $500. It needs more attention and is a bit less precise. Having the Bowden isn’t my favorite thing, but I am getting used to it. Definitely needs upgrades.
As to the thermal runaway, I need to flash my board. Just haven’t gotten around to it. Octopi is cautioning me. I have been using it so much that I don’t want to risk any problems and have it out of commission. I am in the middle of printing parts for the MPCNC so I have tweaked it and tightened it and got it running as well as it has and it does just fine.
Thanks for the detailed review. It’s helpful.
And I appreciate your input on this. I had to go and check them out. I’m kicking around the idea of doing an enclosure and am not sure if I will get another printer and build one or get something ready made. I have not done PETG and some of the other technical filaments because both my printers are in the the open. Good food for thought.
When you do the R3 design look into the mod here: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3223513
I just redid mine and used this mod. So far it seems to work, but I haven’t done extensive testing. The bearing is steel though so that should be what the sensor is calibrated for. The funny thing to me is that this mod makes the Prusa closer to the Robox design since it also uses a physical wheel, but the Robox uses an IR optical sensor with a notched wheel and puts it away from any dust source so even after years of printing the sensor doesn’t have to be cleaned.
I will also share my cable management mod if you are interested. It needs to be printed with nylon or stiff TPU. I prefer Taulman Alloy 910.
Multiple printer user here - TWO Ender 3’s, a TEVO Tornado and TWO Prusa I3 Mk3’s.
I’m a big fan of the Prusas over the others, but the TEVO gives me more print volume.
I’m a fiddler, technician by background, so none of the issues others have mentioned are a problem for me, but I will tell you that the Prusas gave me the least issues from Day One.
As for the issue of BUILDING, you can sidestep that by ordering a complete unit, but that puts you at the $1000 mark. Seriously, though, the kits comes with the needed tools and the instruction manual is the best of any of almost a dozen kits I’ve built, and is backed up by even better instructions on their website. The website instructions also benefit by including user comments that can be invaluable to get you past confusion.
So which one would you choose?
I have been reading every post over and over, watching videos.
Leaning towards the prusi (sp)…with their upgrade kit. They are behind on filling orders but thats not a problem.
The enclosed ones read almost like they are “plug and play”… and that was attractive (possibly probably not true).
After my experience with the Prusa, I will not purchase from them again.
If I had do choose a printer today based on what I know, I would still choose the Robox over any other. If the Robox didn’t meet my needs for size I would be at a loss to recommend one.
I’ve only used the Dremel, and have no experience with anything else, so I can’t make any comparisons. I just know that the Dremel has been a great machine for me to learn on, and not have to worry about if it’s going to work or not. It’s been very good with my prints, as I also upgraded to Simplify3D. I rarely have a mis-print now that I know what I’m doing.
When my second printer (a FlashForge Makerbot clone) died last year I needed an affordable stopgap that prints ABS until I move to something higher-end at some point down the road, I got one of these:
It was 399 at the time and I can honestly say its been pretty great (especially considering the cost, and its 50 cheaper now). Sure, its heavy, kind of slow, a bit noisy, and has a limited build volume, but I’m happy with the quality and the very few problems I’ve had with it. Support (the one time I’ve needed it) was quick and quite helpful. It also came with a ton of replacement parts (which sort of worried me) that can fix most common issues and get you back up and running quickly without having to wait for shipments of parts.
Its not the latest, or the greatest, but I’d say its worth considering as an entry level printer for not a lot of dough (also Prime shipping, and if you hate it you could always return it without much hassle).
The Robox that I looked at on Amazon was $1500…I could possibly stretch to that amount for the right reasons if it ended up being the best option for me. Would you send me a link to the one you have? There are way to many out there with the same name but different numbers/prices.
I really appreciate your participation in helping me choose one!
This was the one I chose to begin with before I realized I had no real experience to compare printers. You mentioned had a flashforge? What do you think about this one??
I have six of them. Three are the RBX01 and three are the RBX02. The only difference is that the RBX02 has dual material capability from the factory and silver instead of black side trim.
Dual material upgrade for the RBX01: https://www.circuitspecialists.com/robox_dual_material_head_kit_rbx01-dm_kit.html
The upgrade kit can be installed yourself or the offer includes professional installation. This kit turns the RBX01 into an RBX02 with the exception of the color.
All Robox printers are inter-operable with all Robox print heads.
It was decent, the support was nice. The heated build plate died on it twice and they no longer had that same configuration available so I bailed on it. I didn’t ever really use the dual extruders otherwise I probably would have gone for the one you mentioned.
You can use any filament spool you want. The machine will only mount the SmartReels directly on it, but if you use a turntable or a spool holder you can load any filament you want. If you are using a filament that is sold on a SmartReel, meaning it has been tested, the settings are in the library in the software and you just choose them from a drop-down menu. You can also create and store as many custom material settings as you want. I use a lot of ColorFabb materials, which are in their database, so I just buy directly from ColorFabb and select the filament I am using from the database. For Taulman I have all my own profiles set up.
You do need to keep one SmartReel for each nozzle in the rare cases you have to calibrate; calibrations are best done with PLA and do require a SmartReel. Calibration is needed once when you start using the printer and then usually not again until you have to replace the print head. The calibration really just matches the print head to the printer and it is stored on the print head itself, so if you swap print heads between printers you don’t usually have to calibrate.
Guess what I had to do today? Replace heat bed thermistor. Yes, if you buy one you have to be ready to tweak, adjust, fix, and mess with. So easy enough to replace the thermistor but then recalibrating it all and getting that nozzle height dialed in. It took me a while to figure out all these things. So yes, if you are a tinkerer and get a good feeling when you don’t spend a lot of money and then you can fix whatever you need to, Prusas and cheaper printers are good. If you are all about reliability and no downtime, I’d say you need to spend some more dollars.`
