Topic: Da Vinci 1.0 PRO Unboxing & Impressions
Ok, so tonights the night, the printer arrived and I know a lot of you are wondering if it is right for you. Well, I'll lay out some details and you can make up your own mind.
Unboxing:
This was exceptionally well packed and made ready for shipping. I noted that compared to my other Da Vinci's there was about 3x more packing and shipping materials inside the printer to keep everything nice and snug. Had to cut a lot of shipping straps, peel a ton of the plastic protective sheets off the outside. No damage or scratches. I am actually using the re-assembled box as a temporary printer stand while I get things set up.
First power up:
Came right on, no issues, initialized itself and went to ready mode. I used a XYZ cart for the first filament install and the loading process was very smooth. Dropped the cart in, fed the filament into the extruder and told the printer to LOAD FILAMENT. It actually did load automatically. Only thing I did not like was to verify the load it extruded about 20 inches of filament, seemed like a waste to me.
Once that was accomplished I bypassed the software on the CD and downloaded the latest XYZware for PRO and installed that on the PC. It worked with no issues. Once installed I then connected the USB and allowed XYZware to automatically upload the latest firmware to the printer. Lastly I configured the WIFI connection for my hub and then was able to remove the usb cord. No more wires !
Initial Bed Calibration:
One thing I hated about my older davinci's was calibrating the bed. a Major pain in the ass. This new system is so much better. The printer now measures all 4 corners, then comes back with a screen that tells you exactly how to turn each knob to calibrate the bed. I did this, the first run around it was still off, but the second time it had me only do some very minor tweaks and in less than 3 minutes I got a 'Perfect Calibration' message.
First Test Print:
I applied the tape sheets to the print bed (Its just masking tape, but its what they sent with it) and started the heart print in the demo prints. So far it adhered to the tape just fine and with no peeling, I'm rather impressed, as I did not think simple tape would work this well.
First the extruder is now a Bowden style, which I like and dislike. It does work, but the long tube means I cant use flex filament in it. With the stepper not on the print head, it means that there will be a lot less wear and tear on the x&y steppers moving it around.
There is no more used filament cup and the wiper is gone too. I'm on the fence on this, but neither were ever necessary on no other DaVinci's, but they did keep the interior neater and clean.
The print nozzle itself is now more 'pointy' and longer, which should help a lot with cooling during printing. Still the nozzle is not replaceable by unscrewing, its all one piece with the heater core. I do wish that was different.
The print just finished and it looks awesome, well for the demo anyhow. I've attached a pic, note that the davinci still does that first test line on the right side, but when completed it kept extruding all the way to the start of the object, which is not a big deal, but maybe I can tweak that a bit (retraction possibly?)
1 week Later Update:
Had the SD Card fail at the end of a print, Prolly at the point where it was going to delete the file on the card. I took out the SD card from the back, popped it into my PC and made a copy of the files on it. I then formatted a new SanDisk card and replaced the files and put it back into the printer. Problem solved. Seems they use microSD made by ADATA, which is not a company I would ever buy products from, due to their generally low quality.
I have made many prints to date, only one was disappointing. The rest were really awesome, and the high resolution one I made were just fantastic. The poor print was actually a stand I was printing for my non-xyz spools of filament. I set the fill to only 15% and it should have been like 30%, and it was delaminated in places going upward, making the end result brittle and broke easily. I had been using the same tape sheet since I started, and it was really worn and bumpy, and also I noted that the when I checked after the print, that my bed was out of calibration; prolly because I was pushing on it trying to smooth out the tape. I blame myself for that failure, not the machine.
