Back in the SLA Zone.

You said it runs on Repetier.  Are there any resin profiles that go along with that?  Can you modify the profile to suit the resin?

There is a thread on the FormLabs forum where some folks have started look into the various properties of 3rd party resins, and how they can modify the resin profile to match them.  However, that requires a Form 1+ with the OpenFL firmware.

From personal experience, I only tried MakerJuice, the cheapest of the lot, and it was terrible, not one successful print.  Some people tried mixing the Makerjuice with FormLabs Clear, and that seems to work better.  At least you can buy the MakerJuice in smaller bottles to try, and you won't break the bank.

There are some other resins out there like MakeSolid, B9 Creator, Fun to Do and PhotoCentric.  Most of those are either in Europe, or like the B9, are as expensive as FormLabs.

Autodesk has created a resin formulation called PR48 to work on their Ember SLA printer, and released the formulation in OpenSource for those that want to make their own.  Ember resins cost about $120/liter.  I don't know how well it works.

As for me, I'm sticking with what works, FormLabs.  Even their resins have issues.  For example, their latest Grey v3, doesn't work at all in my printer, but the previous versions (v1 & 2) worked perfectly.  Their Clear v2 is probably the most consistent of all their resins (at least for me), probably because of the lack of pigmentation.

Yeah, that's going to be interesting to see how it's done in Repetier. 

On the FormLabs, in PreForm, each resin has it's own profile, built into the program.  And they really are different, If you were to look at the profiles, there are lots of different parameters like number of passes for the perimeters, infill, laser strength, exposure time.  Then there's the peel process, how quickly or slowly the tray moves, and how long it waits between layers.

And while some of these may be common from resin to resin, some are quite different.  Some of the peel processes are immediately obvious from the behavior of the printer.  The xposure time is also observable by simply selecting a resin, checking the estimated print time, then selecting a different resin.

Anyway, let us know how Repetier works.

BTW, the early versions of the CTC Riverside used to come with a clone or copy of the Form 1/1+ firmware, which let them use PreForm.  Then something happened (they got sued maybe?), that they started using their own firmware and Repetier.  I wonder if the old firmwares are still around?? 

On a side note, just because the FL Clear was the go to resin on a FormLabs printer, it doesn't mean it holds true for the CTC.  Only hands on experience can tell you that (or feedback from other users).

carl_m Where did you find it for such a deal? I might want one at that price.

Oh man... that could get ugly.  I hope you get your printer.

Carl, Check out the Proniks KDL. It has a small print area but users are posting a ton of successful results on opensla. Its a bit more expensive but the xy resolution is much better then a laser based system. You can also connect a RaspberryPi and run Nanodlp.

Aliexpress has a ton of offerings for this printer. I have never used this machine but it seems to be worth it for the price unless you want to build your own system. Building one is pretty simple and you can add stuff like a tilt axis. I Have printed large solid objects and with a slow tilt peel system/FEP vat the results are great.

Well I got my D7 and now it seems to be playing nice with my laptop. I had to disable the laptops LCD and connect an external monitor and tell the laptop to use it as the main monitor. Then it used the LCD in the D& as a secondary and centered the image as it should with no issues. Now just need to get it tweaked.

Mark, could you post screen shots of your Slicer and Machine configs from Creation Workshop?

One thing I do like about SLA printers is you can let them run unattended with much less fear of a fire since there is really nothing hot being used other than the lamp or laser and they have about the same risk as leaving a light one.