I would like to see Solidoodle beta test a new way to beta test. Or just realize the solicommunity has already done most of the work for them already.
The beauty of open source design (and this particular community) is that, regardless of official company support, the development of new and better things for the solidoodle continues. In this environment, you have hundreds of designers/hackers/tinkerers/engineers going at from all sorts of different angles. Even big companies that make 50,000 dollar printers may only have a few engineers on staff dedicated to improving their machines, maybe even less.
The first thing solidoodle could do to improve their machines right from the factory is to simply adopt the many awesome and essential mods already on the forum. I would hope some of their "beta" parts would include what I write about below. The spirit behind a company's beta testing program is to, eventually, improve their product. I would submit that not all improvements will need to go through much beta testing at all, and some can be adopted immediately, having already gone through the "beta" process.
Here is my list of mods that should be on your machines right now, and in no particular order of importance.
1. 40mm fan shroud for controller. Use any design out there, they all work the same. They all work awesome. This mod is essential. If you're not going to add this to your machine, at least tell your customers to mount a Lasko to the rear end of your machine!
2. y-axis idler brackets. Don't use mine, use smitty50500's. He added bearings to my design and made them even better. (a great example of open source design's continuous improvement). Your brackets are weak, have poor alignment, flex, etc. Using a better design would get rid of hose clamps too, and save you money. And look better.
3. 30 to 40mm fan shroud for x-axis stepper motor. I'm using nlancaster's. Any will work great. This fan doesn't need to have a lot of cfm, just a bit is all it needs.
4. y-axis jack shaft bearings . The bushings are too hard to grease in this application, and bearings are only a dollar or two more than bushings. See the many posts on this forum. I know Smitty50500 was involved in this, but there were others too. I also think Smitty's rear pillow block bearing is essential for preventing the jack shaft from bending when you tighten the drive belt, which you need to do to completely get rid of the belt's backlash. On a related note, I think stepping up your y-axis drive pulleys to a larger diameter (more teeth) would make getting rid of backlash easier (requiring less belt tension too), and make the belts last longer. Not a must have, just a nice to have.
5. new extruder. Seems like eveybody and their mother-in-law is working on this one, including myself. Recent posts by meshmosh, lawsy, nlancaster, and others have highlighted areas of improvement in all aspects of the x-carriage and extruder assembly, as a whole. My advice for Solidoodle is take all the current design's "opportunities", and throw them into a completely new assembly, including x-carriage.
That said, my design is derivative. It simply builds onto the existing x axis carriage and basic dimensions of the old unit. My design was specifically drawn to make it easy for almost anybody to upgrade their existing machine, and it accomplishes the four basic goals that were important to me.
a) easily remove hot end with filament still attached, but also includes a clamp to keep it rock solid,
b) has built in fan for cooling filament,
v )has built in fan for active cooling of PEEK barrel, and
d) has a rock solid mounting system for attaching accessories.
6. Include a small tube of white lithium grease with every unit you sell. And by the way, why not use white lithium at your factory during assembly?
7. higher amp heater bed. Enough said.
8. glass bed. This is what, 2 bucks at the craft store? Mine is a mirror and it looks really cool. Also include three paper binding clips to attach to bed. Low tech, works great. You wiill save money on the kapton. Your customers will no longer need to use acetone washes. Tell users to buy some Aquanet.
9. A list of steps each customer must follow before expecting a good print. This could be a single sheet of paper that directs them to your website and wiki. Make it a check box instruction manual. Calibrate extruder flow, check! Grease rods, check!. Adjust belt tension, check! Set baud right in RH, Check! Level bed, Check! Etc, Check!
The total hit to your machine's cost of goods sold for these improvements might total 50 bucks, and most of this cost would be for a better bed heater (20 to 30 bucks). I have no doubt customers will pay just a little bit more for your machine. Even after each and everyone of these changes your machine will remain affordable, and be truly "out of the box" ready for printing.
More importantly, the better your printer is, out of the box, the more we can all focus on improving the little things that go into making awesome 3d prints. I for one would like to read more about what cool things people are doing with their printers (like printing a full scale DB4!!!!), and focus less on getting my printer to work. Right now the forum is heavily focused on getting your machine up and running, because it needs to be. That's just where we're at in this moment in time.
I think Solidoodle has a great opportunity before them to make their machines much better. The strength of their brand is their willingness to remain open source in design, and executing better designs in a timely manner.
id love to be a beta tester, i got nothing else to do so why not!?