Sam asked what they could do to improve the relationship between the company and the customers, and I encouraged to him to be more open about what they are working on to improve the printer in future updates.  They don't have to worry about SEC regulations, and their competitive advantage is more in the, factory, the supply chain, and their ability to produce assembled printers at a low price point than any IP.  Customers are doing a lot to improve their Solidoodles, and by being more open they can work together with their user base.

Sam should utilize the testing page that is available to them on Soliforum.  By engaging a limited (hand picked) user base on this site with potential updates and future changes he should end up with a better product based on user feedback alone.

Sam asked what they could do to improve the relationship between the company and the customers, and I encouraged to him to be more open about what they are working on to improve the printer in future updates.  They don't have to worry about SEC regulations, and their competitive advantage is more in the, factory, the supply chain, and their ability to produce assembled printers at a low price point than any IP.  Customers are doing a lot to improve their Solidoodles, and by being more open they can work together with their user base.

Why doesn't he post the same question here? Seems odd to wait for someone to show up to the factory to open the dialogue. I never understood the secrecy, as a recent grad with a BSME could reverse engineer a SD3 in a weekend with a pair of calipers.

For starters, it would be good to modify Marlin such that CEP errors kill the heaters. If you're to the point where you are getting CEPs, the print is lost anyway. It would also be good to include information with the printers about not letting them run unattended or without a smoke detector overhead.

We could also talk about how the Molex KK series connectors (Sanguinololu, Printrboard revE afaik) are rated for 5A per pin. Pretty sure the heat bed draws nearly double that, which explains why connectors are developing nasty smoking habits:

http://www.soliforum.com/topic/6764/board-connectors/

That of course assumes they are genuine Molex connectors. If they're clones, its even worse.

The Printrboard designer left 4 holes in the PCB, but it seems Solidoodle only had two of them populated meaning the connector can only handle 5A. I also couldn't find a DC barrel jack capable of more than 11A (SD3 draws 12.5A), though I could be wrong on this.

There were glass plates lying around here and there as well, so hopefully that is something they will be able to include in the future.  I didn't see any R&D projects testing in the printer farm, that stuff is literally behind closed doors.  However Sam did mention that they have been working on auto leveling.  Now that it is supported in Marlin, and other companies are beginning to include it, I would consider it mandatory for the next SD.  They are the most interested in upgrades that increase ease of use and the ability to print things, so he was open to the suggestion of adding a nozzle fan.  There are some prints you can't really do without one, unless you waste plastic by printing a throwaway object at the same time to allow small layers to cool.

Sam pulled my old printer off of a shelf.  I originally had a Solidoodle 1, which developed a bent drive rod or something.  Rather than try to fix it, he had let me trade it in for a SD2, which was about to launch.  Turns out my SD1 was printer #6, and the SD2 which replaced it was also #6.  They only sold about 20 of the original Solidoodle before releasing the SD2 6 months later.  They went from 20 printers sold over 6 months which were assembled in a kitchen, to receiving over 1000 orders in a few weeks for the SD2.

Sam asked what they could do to improve the relationship between the company and the customers, and I encouraged to him to be more open about what they are working on to improve the printer in future updates.  They don't have to worry about SEC regulations, and their competitive advantage is more in the, factory, the supply chain, and their ability to produce assembled printers at a low price point than any IP.  Customers are doing a lot to improve their Solidoodles, and by being more open they can work together with their user base.