Now that this is shipping, I'm hoping it gets more exposure and reviews online:
this post was submitted on 20 Jan 2025
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I'm kinda surprised there haven't been hands on reviews yet. I'm also kinda glad cause it means they aren't sending out special review units to everyone just to get good stories out.
I want a Core One, but am holding out for the kit version, which I haven't seen anything announcing a release date. I can't really blame them, I'm guessing 75% or more of their printers are sold prebuilt, but I enjoy getting my hands dirty and knowing exactly how my printers work.
I also think there might be few changes happening as they start mass producing them, tweaking a few things there and there.
Rather than updating 10 times the kit assembly instruction it's better to fine tune the assembly process in house and once the process is settled down and not changing anymore they start shipping kits with extremely clear instructions.
Unfortunately an heir apparent isn't readily... Apparent in my eyes. All have tradeoffs. To be fair, Bambu did too but hid it better from most consumers.
Qidi isn't terrible, and they have a decent track record. Their use of klipper is a big plus as well. But multi material is still a promise with no release or reviews, and they have had some duds in their history.
Prusa is an obvious option, and previously wore the crown. They're a good bit more expensive, but perhaps that's the cost of a highly ethical company that is deeply invested in the community. MMU is well understood and works great, but isn't integrated in their latest printers yet.
Voron is amazing but absolutely still not for beginners. Besides that they lack for absolutely nothing. Some kits are approaching the user friendliness of pre built, but care and feeding is generally a more technical endeavor.
Creality is a good place to start generally, but lacks for features.
Long story short, if a friend approached me and demanded a recommendation, I'd push a casual user to Qidi, a demanding user to a Prusa, and a tinkerer to a Creality with the understanding I'll be printing voron parts in a year or two
I’ve been wanting to build a Voron for ages, I’ve modified an i3 clone from anycubic to such an extent it’s not reflective of it’s original quality at all. But I find the cost and technical challenge a little too high. Recently Sovol brought out an inspired by and using open source basis copy of the Voron 2.4. Sovol SV08. It’s looks quite reasonably priced, but it’s still a big chunk of what I would have spent on the Voron budget, and only needs reassembly out of the box not a full build. I’m just not hearing enough of how they run to be inspired yet. SV08
Having gone through the Voron build, I would call it long vs hard. I am mechanically inclined and have crimped wiring before though.
Mechanically, if you're not intimidated by IKEA furniture you'll be fine. You do need a largeish flat surface to get the 2020 rails to all be flat when you snug them up, but a kitchen counter will do if you don't have anything else.
Wiring wise, if you're willing to spring for a ratcheting crimper with the correct die size for your terminal and wire gauge it becomes foolproof. If you use a non-ratcheting type grab some extra wire and terminals to practice on. Too lose = poor connection. Too tight = you'll break the wires.
The Voron docs are pretty easy to follow and their forums are pretty solid for help. They also have a discord, but I'm old and prefer BBS style posts.
I've built my first Voron self-sourced, then got a good deal on an unused V0.2 kit, I've got to say that the LDO kit was like child's play, so I have to recommend them.
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I'm about to start building the CNC version of the 0.2. All my parts are in, and it will be my first build.
Was going to do the 350mm 2.4, but when I realized how fast the 0.2 heats up and prints, and that most of the things I make fit on it, I decided to start there first.
On that basis I have been squinting at the LDO micron. Similar prices for kits as the 0.2 but with a 180x180 print bed. Micron ‘mini 2.4’
I have a Qidi X-Plus 4. There are a lot of reviews online raving about its reliability, how it's the first production-ready printer that's also affordable for hobbyists. It's also got Klipper firmware, which is open, so it can't be locked down the way the Bambu ones are.
My old printer is a 10 year old prusa clone kit, which I wrestled with the whole time I had it. Compared to that, the Qidi is a dream.
If you're on 110v power, make sure you get the fixed relay board. The original one can't handle the higher amperage of the lower voltage power.
There are a lot of reviews online raving about its reliability,
The way you set up this sentence, I was expecting a huge BUT at the end
Lol, I just didn't want to attest to it myself since I'm not really qualified, but it does seem very reliable.
Seconding Qidi, I've been very happy with my q1 pro. They also have chamber heaters which makes it much easier to print large ABS or nylon prints.
A friend of mine has been gifted an x smart 3, he's having quite some trouble with it.. Granted, it's his first printer...
You could extract the private keys from your printer
https://wiki.rossmanngroup.com/wiki/Reverse_Engineering_Bambu_Connect
For completeness it's worth mentioning that they posted a response to a lot of the more extreme allegations
https://blog.bambulab.com/updates-and-third-party-integration-with-bambu-connect/
None of which are all that reassuring.
Q: Do you plan to do this bad thing?
A: Definitely not...Yet
Yeah the fact that it's definitely even come up as a discussion topic isn't reassuring. Just wanted to add it to the discussion.
I saw this coming a mile away. i made the right choice of printer :/
Really tho their software has already been broken into, it's on repair.wiki. You can fix your printer
Get a Prusa. I too made the error buing chinese crap (Ender 3 v2 in my case). I didn't have the cloud problem but i had to tinker soo much till it actually worked.
You pay more for a Prusa, but then you actually have tested and open hard- and software that works and can't be taken away from you.
I think calling Ender "Chinese Crap" a bit harsh. I'm using an Ender 5 Plus, and I love it. Didn't even had to tinker a tiny bit to get it working right (Except for Leveling of course). It's reliable as hell, and not even 2% of my prints fail. Only improvement I would recommend is a a smaller nozzle.
Getting an ender is lottery, i got mine with a chip unsupported by upstream marlin and the ender prebuilt binaries do not support bl-touch and a fillament runout sensor at the same time.
Also I had feeding problems from day one, not even the included example gcode file with the included filament did print out even once.
I just read a bit through some forum posts, and the 3 v2 seems to be one of the worst printers in Enders whole lineup. That's probably why our experiences are so different.
like i said: it's lottery and for the extrusion problems the ender 3 v1 must have the same as it's using the exact same extruder and exact same hotend
Or if you want to tinker: get a voron kit
The sad reality is that we are going to see more and more printer companies building up walled gardens. There is money in models and the end goal is going to be one model site per slicer per manufacturer. There will still be the open source build your own printers but... there is a reason everyone recommended a Bambu over one of those.
As of right now? Qidi are pretty awesome in the semi-proprietary space and have a good track record of releasing the g-code macros required to interface with their printers (e.g. chamber temperature controls). Time will tell what they do with their multi-material solution though.
I don't think we will reach the point of walled gardens for finding/downloading STLs. A lot of us are massive nerds and someone will stand up another STL host. There's also GitHub, but without a STL aggregator it does kind of stink.
Most of the STLs are also developed by the community and are generally free themselves, although some are trying to create a revenue stream for themselves on places like Cults. I don't think that's a walled gardens though - creators are choosing to post their content there and ask $$ for it. Unless someone like Bambu pays top dollar for models, I don't think they'll be able to take over the STL market.
Wait I missed something. What happened with bambulabs?
X1plus on an isolated network + pandaprint for an orcaslicer without any Bambu network plugins. (https://github.com/pandaprint-dev/pandaprint/tree/master)
The way forward is to enjoy printing cool stuff.
I have an order for a P1S that hasn't shipped yet but am now considering cancelling it and buying a Creality K1C. Anyone have thoughts on that as an alternative? It seems their multi material thing is coming out soon
TBH I'd cancel independently of what printer you get as replacement. Only way to reach these companies is by cutting into their revenue.
I've been very happy with my Qidi printer. I havr a q1 pro but it's not compatible with their multi material system, although one of their other models is. It does have a chamber heater if you are interested in printing more exotic filaments. I haven't gotten into it quite yet but apparently it prints large ABS and nylon prints very easily.
I'd probably cancel if it were me. Regretting not doing more research into bambu before buying my A1. I just heard they print well and not much fiddling. Bought it to replace my ender3
I ended up canceling my order and in the form let them know the reason. They refunded me my money and didn't respond.
Now I'm trying to figure out what two actually get to replace my ender 3, currently trying to do research on the K1C and the Sovol SV08. I'm fine with tinkering, but I really want multiple color support
If you don't care about multi-material, go off the deep end and build a Voron!
Oh, I've been tempted. It does seem like a little bit more than I want to take on right now, and I am really interested in multi material.
There's no denying that the build will take you a while - especially if you have a family and/or demanding job. There also isn't a great MMU option, which is a good reason to look elsewhere given your interest. I am vaguely interested in a MMU, but more so from a dual extruder perspective so I can print a pair like ASA and PETG for removable supports. Their printing temperature needs aren't compatible enough for a single extruder to make much sense.
If you're looking to do multimaterial creality just announced the kits to upgrade all the k1 machines to be compatible with their cfs. Last I checked the only viable mmu for the sv08 was coprint which is less than ideal imo.
Is X1Plus available for the P1S? If it is, that's what you should switch to in LAN only mode. Can slice with anything and feed it over to the printer.
It's what I did with mine, even though it was in LAN only mode already. Switch over before they disable that option. Already working on selling it though so I can get a Prusa CORE.
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