If you want to talk about Pogs, come to my discord or let’s hang out on twitter. I have some ideas about that the Pog stuff. But this post is going to be all about the P3.
If you were paying attention to the video, you might have noticed that the Maker Pi P3 Pro didn’t get a very good comparative grade. This was mostly due to the ease of use score taking several hits. However, that score is a combination of Ease of Use, Capability, and Price. And if you get the P3 right now on kickstarter, it’s price is actually a lot less, so how’s that effect the score? Well, right now the barebones system is on Early Bird for $399 (down from the $599 it was calculated at in the video) which bring it’s overall score from 30.9 (which puts it in “F” territory) to 34.8… which is still an “F”. However, the premium, instead of being the $955 it’s score was calculated at is right now only $619, which takes it’s score from 40.28 (Solid “D” territory) to 44.7, which is right on the edge of being a “C”, though still in “D” territory for now, until the lines are redrawn for the next March MadMess tier list.
Numbers can be cruel sometimes.
If Ease of Use is ignored, the premium package is one of the most capable 3D printers I’ve seen at a great price. If you can put up with it’s quirks this machine will enable you to make things nothing else can. But…
You know what, I’m just going to share with you what I shared with Maker Pi:
I’m impressed at the engineering that went into this machine. It’s well built and solid. I don’t think anyone will make the mistake of thinking this machine wasn’t well engineered. I truly believe this machine is a step towards the future. Only, in some ways it’s also two steps back, to the early days of 3D printing when slicers were not as developed as they are now, and the technology was still very experimental. It took a special type of maker to make use of these machines, and I feel that this machine is very much a throwback to that time. Yes, it works, but it feels half-baked, and by putting this out like this it’s like you’re expecting the community to make up your slack. And maybe that will happen, but I feel with so many inexperienced who are doing great things with their starter 3D printers that they might look at this and think they could do cool things with it, when really they’re not equipped to do so.Most of my criticisms for the machine could be fixed with a new firmware or by writing some software, with one exception. I’m sure you’ve heard this before, but there are quick change solutions for the tool heads that have already been developed that don’t require the loosening and re-tightening of 4 bolts every time. This is such a frustrating process that it makes me less inclined to use the machine for anything other than what I’ve got it set up for at the moment.
It’s also very, very slow. I feel like that was the greatest hinderance to using this machine. A firmware update could fix this.The inclusion of the “standard” extrusion head seems odd to me, since the high temp or flexible heads can do PLA as well, why even have the standard head at all? I understand that’s the baseline option, but one upgrade and it’s completely unnecessary. I haven’t even unpacked mine.When printing in IDEX mode, I noticed that there’s no nozzle priming included in the nozzle change procedure, hence why a prime tower is necessary. But if you would just do a quick extrusion into the bucket your printer has on it before printing with a new nozzle, that prime tower would be unnecessary for regular IDEX printing. Again, this could be fixed with a firmware update.You know what a prime tower is good for? When you have potentially 2 colors of filament coming out of a single nozzle, like your color mixing head. A color mixing head could potentially work like an IDEX setup, outputting one filament, then purging, then outputting the next filament. In fact a color mixing head could be programmed with a discreet gradient of colors, allowing for 3 or 4 pre-programed color mixes that are switched between with a purge to create multi-material-like prints.
Except your color mixing head doesn’t even have the option of working like an IDEX with a nozzle purge between. Again, a simple firmware change could make this option available, OR if wrote your own slicer and encoded what mode you’re using into the gCode.In fact, this brings up a very interesting idea. If you had your own slicer, you could choose the mode for your project, embed that in the GCode (or some other encoding that you could write) with what mode that gocde was written for, and the 3D printer then reads that and says “This project requires this and that head attached”. Even better, if it could sense what heads it has attached, and react accordingly. No chance to mess it up or print with the wrong mode.It could even include a mode for preparing laser cuts, which was by far the most complicated thing to do in the current setup. While I am capable of modifying inkscape with plugins and editing my GCode by hand, why is that all necessary? Why, when this machine is put into laser cutting mode does it not respond to standard gCode like any other laser cutter? I’ve used other combination machines like this where when in laser mode they had the focal distance (z height) set in the menu, so you didn’t have to add a G01 Z25 command to your GCode. This allowed for engraving thicker or thinner materials without needing to edit the gocde.Also, I would love, if this ever happened, for it to include a perimeter trace before starting a laser job so you can get an idea where on the build plate you need to place your material. Again, maybe this could include a special gCode section so that it could be repeated as needed, which is not something gCode generally does.Also, there’s a number of safety features that you should really consider including with the laser head like: a bed that you can change out that won’t be damaged by the laser but also won’t reflect the laser into the room, Safety glasses, putting some tinted plastic around the head to limit exposure to the laser, or, even better, a tinted enclosure for the whole print area. And some warnings about ventilation and about being careful what materials you’re cutting with it would not be amiss.Overall, while I am impressed with what you’re trying to do, I cannot generally recommend this machine. It’s hardware is almost good, but it’s toolchain is underdeveloped and it needs a lot of work in the software and firmware side before it will be ready for general consumption.
