ERIS Early adopter feedback

[Xenocrates]

They are finalizing it, and the people here are all early adopters, to let them know what needs to go in the manual. Not to mention, that at this point, it is very hard to have a truly RTP product, especially for new users. Unless you set up a optical micrometer, and compensation in the firmware, the printer will need the extruder calibrated, and the filament diameter reset fairly often. It's the nature of the beast. Sure, such things could be built, or one could shrug and only buy expensive, consistent filament. But cost goes up rather dramatically.

Perhaps there needs to be an entry in the user manual, and potentially it should be factory tuned (It would be annoying to set up test stands and calibration areas, but it could be done. Maybe pot a thermocouple into something that would screw into the nozzle slot). But that's something that more feedback will help with (After all, thermistor calibration doesn't need to be done if you calibrate your filaments and don't try to share or use shared temp settings)

It's like how, a lot like printers, CNC mills aren't workable for someone with zero knowledge who doesn't work with the manual, even if they have calibration and probing systems. It's not likely to get hugely better soon. There are too many variables that you don't know to tell the machine, unless you know enough to know it needs them. (I am actually rather glad about that, because it means that I have a fall-back career if I don't get through engineering school that I like)

[Eric]

I would have thought being they would have had all the bugs out. This has been on the drawing board for over a year and is supposed be truly RTP™ (ready-to-print) 3D printer. Seems not quite ready for the masses who know nothing of 3d printing. Joe Couchpotato will not know how to do a real extruder calibration or verify the thermistor as Polygonhell suggested.

Remember that anyone who has one at this point is, by definition, an early adopter and agreed to function without proper documentation. You aren't supposed to be Joe Couchpotato.

[Mac The Knife]

Nope, We get to go bug huntin'. and break stuff, and "Hey, What does this button do?"

After I get a Smart display case printed and installed on the Eris, I plan on making a cigarette lighter adapter cord to be able to run it off a 12 volt power port from my car.

[Eric]

Nope, We get to go bug huntin'. and break stuff, and "Hey, What does this button do?"

After I get a Smart display case printed and installed on the Eris, I plan on making a cigarette lighter adapter cord to be able to run it off a 12 volt power port from my car.

Just remember car power ports aren't, by themselves, a replacement for a proper power supply. Expect 12V with engine off, less as the battery discharges. 14.5V with engine on. May drop to 6-8V during engine start. They're normally used either with devices that have their own batteries and charging regulation or devices that aren't sensitive to dirty power.

Not saying its unusable, but you may need more than a simple power cord for reliable operation.

[Mac The Knife]

Well, at least you didn't say that it would probably be a bad idea to be printing and driving. Printing ABS. With the windows rolled up. Doing 80 MPH. Eating a snoCone.

[IMBoring25]

That would scare me. Even if it's fused for what would likely be about a 12-14-amp draw with the engine running, running that circuit at that kind of amperage for hours on end is likely more than was intended.

[Mac The Knife]

The Eris ships with a 80 watt psu, that's just 6.6 amps. At least it wouldn't be packed in a box and shipped like this video shows
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FjABsSxWlpk
However, I have a 10 hour trip coming up in a month. That would be a test, traveling from Mid-Michigan, to the Keeweenau Peninsula. In a Mustang with 18" rims on crappy Michigan roads.

Will it Blend.

[geneb]

beta-test.jpg (90.08 KiB) Viewed 13447 times

[Mac The Knife]

16 hours in on an 18 hour print with no jams.
Default settings with the exception of printing at a .1 layer height, and increasing the infill speed.

I've had 3 print failures due to jams, the first one I'm not sure what happened, but I suspect it's the same cause as the third.
The second jam is from not seating the liner fully into the hotend.
The third failure was from the filament crossing itself on the spool.

After this print finishes in a couple of hours, I plan on wrapping a piece of pin striping around the liner, right at the lock collar of the hotend. It is easier to get the liner seated properly when the hotend is free of the arms, and you can twist it.

[Asteroid]

OK Guys,

As of this morning, there are 50 ERIS assembled and ready for their burn in tests. The guys (JJ and Guanu) were here till 6-7AM since YESTERDAY morning, and got em done! 30 will be headed to the Bay Area MakerFaire, 10 go up on the site in an hour, and the rest are being sent out to various places for demo's and testing/reviews. EXCITING DAY!!!

I've added on the product page a link to download the defaults we're proposing for slicing with mattercontrol, and in that zip there are also the Gcode scripts for calibration, load, unload filament and notes. If anyone cares to take a peek at them, feel free!

Good News!

[cjyohe]

Received it Friday. First thoughts after a weekend of printing - out of the box it was a stunningly easy setup.
The hardest part was threading the filament through the easy struder into the tube (so not hard at all).

Calibration was a sight to behold.
The one thing I did notice was that in removing replacing the build plate, recalibration isn't always necessary, but helps.
This wouldn't be an issue for experienced users, who know better, but for novice and possibly first time users who may not know to wipe the hotend, a quick wipe maneuver during the calibration would probably be a good add.
The removing/replacing of the build plate is necessitated by the amazing build surface.
There are going to be some happy first print users. I've never had a out of box prints with first layers like that.

After the calibration cube I dove into a 13+ hr print then a 4+ hr print in place.
All using stock default settings.
All were successful, although the stock settings need some tweaking to the retraction/speed settings I'm working through now with the matterhackers model.
Print in place was mostly successful. 9/12 joints moved without failing.

So far I've been trying to emulate a "new user" "christmas morning" experience so no real tweaking yet, but starting to mess with the settings now.

Has anyone else noticed the layer height settings seem to be a bit off?
The layer height looks much smaller than it should, comparing with other printers running the same layer height.
Could just be me but if anyone else has noticed it, let me know.

All in all a great out of the box experience, works ok without tweaking.
Not perfect, but closer to OK than I expected with a brand new printer release.
Hotend seems to be running a bit hot (calibration on that to come as well with the retraction tweaking).

[Mac The Knife]

Here is the result of my 18 hour print,,, that took 20 hours.
Default settings except for the followin:

infill speed 80 mmps
inside perimeter speed 60 mmps
layer height set at .1 mm
3 layers bottom
5 layers top

I have know idea why the top is ratty,,, Mayybe it was starved for filament.

[Mac The Knife]

Adobe Acrobat required to check out the 3d model I'm working on.

[AlanZ]

Mac, the PDF is displaying blank on my iPad.

[U.S. Water Rockets]

Mac, the PDF is displaying blank on my iPad.

Do Ipads even handle 3D PDFs?

[AlanZ]

Perhaps not. I will attempt to view it on a computer in the morning.

[JATMN]

Blank on my pc too..

[Mac The Knife]

Blank on my pc too..

If you're using something other than Adobe acrobat, it may not show up. On Android devices you have to use a 3d specific app to open it. On I-Pads, you're on your own

[johnoly99]

Good feedback so far guys. Couple notes:

ON the hotend temps. Yes, we've already documented the 220c being better on average than 215. It IS a metal hotend, even though it's lined with PTFE. All metal hotends with small heating blocks require a slightly higher temp for printing than comparable hotends (like our current ones)

ON the filament load/unload scripts. Yes, they definately will be documented, as alanz found, because they can grind off the filament if it's already loaded and they run the load again.

ON the settings. These are what I personally have been printing with. It's not a one setting prints all machine, none are. They were based on hundreds of different prints, and using what i thought would be the best compromises of all the settings combined. You can print MUCH faster, but it takes a higher temp, which when printing small objects dosen't work at all, so theres a balance. That's why we're asking for the feedback, what you guys are experiencing and seeing without our skewed view of things

Docs are coming, videos are getting published, and reviewers have machines out there now. There's about a dozen machines with different people all for reviews, both for advertising AND for feedback, not just from any one source. We really want the ultimate feedback experience in terms of new users to pros to haters to fanboys. So there's a pretty diverse set of guys getting these right now. Also, for the haters remember, this is NOT a tricked out, fully loaded rostock max or other big bad printer. This is a durable, affordable, easy to start using, portable and user friendly 'first' printer. Think of it as that, and not as the souped up hot rod printer.

[geneb]

John, you really need to post that video of Steve shoving the Eris off the table.

g.

[AlanZ]

Gene, I saw that video. Interesting QA department.

[johnoly99]

LOL. I think everyone can see it now, if i set permissions correctly
https://www.facebook.com/johnoly99/vide ... 712781389/

[Windshadow]

you need to license the magsafe connectors from Apple

[JATMN]

I got Mac The Knife's PDF open.. Heh I don't usually use Adobe PDF readers so that was the issue..
Attached some screenshots of the pdf for those that could not view it.
Looking good Mac!

[themitch22]

I did a unboxing video for the Eris:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tNEPOlH-N_k

First 3DBenchy using Inland (Microcenter) red PLA:

[img]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/x7lDe ... 95-h596-no[/img]

MatterControl did this weird loop thing going from 0C to 220C after trying to run the Load Filament gcode as a macro. Calibration seems to not work reliably when the hotend is hot and oozing.

That Ultralex stuff likes to stick really well to PLA, almost too well. A little knife action to get the first calibration cube popped off, benchy came off much easier. How would I adjust the z-height offset for this printer?