Solidoodle Support Academy / Questions (Page 1 of 2)

For instance, we changed the maximum bed temperature to about 87o. For a few weeks folks were being told in various places that this was an error on our end. Nope! All of the bed heaters are that way now.

This is an understandable mistakes as we did not make this clear to the community. This would be one reason to compile everything into a cogent set of advice.

In firmware? Starting with what serial number?

Well that's a bummer. What's the serial number of the first unit shipped with the 87C limit?

We've been shipping them for about a month. I don't know the S/N off the top of my head.

That might also help internally as well, and maybe should be linked somehow in the spare parts store.  I think some people have been surprised when their replacement hot end was different from the original.

It sounds like they don't build these machines in exact serial number order. Therefore, serial number 1001 might have some revisions that 1002 doesn't have. I understand where you guys are coming from but also understand the problems from a manufacturing process perspective. My company builds instrument panels for the automotive industry and we have to track part revision changes on our line. We build the panels in the same order they are built on the assembly line. They are not in Vin number order, they maintain a seperate process order number for their build sequence. Vin numbers are assigned when the order is placed not vehicles ship in an entirely different order. Unless Solidoodle builds exactly in serial number order, they can not guarantee that starting at a specific serial number will include the upgrade.

Is there a reason for the change other than "everybody's doing it?"  It seems to me that one of the most common complaints with Solidoodles is that parts aren't sticking to the bed during printing.  One of the most common solutions to this problem is increasing bed temp above 90 C (in addition to printing on glass and using hairspray).  Now that it is hardware limited to 87 C, that solution isn't feasible.  Do you have a new solution to offer?  If not, you are just setting yourself up for more support work.

hem.... that was not the goal of the sd wiki to track this things?

+1

Knowing where my printer fits into the scheme of upgrades, whether it is worth upgrading now and what issue it resolves would be invaluable.

If you want some honest feedback on your customer service, here is some.  Stop ignoring good questions, and stop blaming your customers for your own shortcomings.  Your response above completely ignores Danny's question (and the fact that the question has been asked 3 times already in this thread) of WHY ARE YOU LIMITING THE BED TEMPERATURE TO 87C?  You shouldn't be telling people on the forums to stop providing "mis-information" that the bed temperature should be increased above 90 C to fix sticking issues.  You should be far more concerned that the design/assembly team at your company has crippled the machine so that it will not work properly.

Also, in the Solidoodle Support Issues thread, you continually blame the customers for your own lapse in service.  When the same questions are asked multiple times in form letters from support, you say that "sometimes users change their answers when we ask the same question twice."  I have a feeling that their original answer was never documented, or the email chain was lost, so you have no idea what their original answer to the question was. 

Here is a black and white question for you to ignore.  Do you, or do you not, have a document or database at Solidoodle that includes the serial number of each printer produced by your company along with the exact parts installed on it?  If not, that is stupid and poor management of the company.  If so, post that database in the Academy, Wiki, or somewhere it is publicly accessible.

my point wasn't that they had to respond to that particular query, my point was that sometimes the truth may be uncomfortable for the product that they make.

To be honest, the particular issue of the heat bed isn't going to affect all people. it's going to be heavily dependant on the ambient temperatures, also, as I said, there are other factors like how clean the kapton is etc.

for what it's worth, the reprap site says that ABS parts should be able to stick at temperatures of 70 degrees and above.

I do actually agree that having a gold source of information is a good idea,

on another forum that I go to (where I moderate also) -though it's not my forum I just voulenteer there, (PC based)
We have a section where you can find guides and how to's.

But users are not allowed to post there, the subforum is locked to new threads (replies are allowed for providing update/changes), instead users submit their guides to a submissions area, where they are then evaluated by the forum staff and anybody interested.
bad guides are deleted, good guides get moved to the section where they are clear to see that the site team agree that these are good information and are highlighted as such.

There are quite a lot of how-to guides on this forum, some are buried. as the forum grows a lot of the information will end up getting lost. questions get asked and re-asked.

It might be possible to organise the forum differently to make information more accessible, or easier to search.
(so help and repair might be expanded with sub forums to have, hot end issues, extruder issues, axis issues, bed issues, electronics issues, and power supply issues) where discussion about individual parts may be better discussed, AND better information may be given. -I know that I've been guilty of a rushed reply basically paraphrasing advice that I knew that I'd given just days before...

rather than making some members more special than others, or introducing reputation systems, or custom titles, (as these do favour people who have been around longer), I'd rather see a guide section where only vetted good information was placed.

I'd be really interested to know exactly what solidoodle did to you?! you seem to really have it in for them!