Throwing Prusa an "Ata' Boy"...
I'm not a huge contributor to the forum, but I was much more active as I brought my Mk4 and then XL-5 online. Sure they had some teething problems and it seems like a new firmware/slicer/tweak was coming for them every few days. That's better than not addressing issues. And at least Prusa addresses issues, even if they are awkward- like the 0.4 to 0.6 on the XL nozzles.
But the main reason that I haven't been posting lately is that I've been printing, alot. And designing a lot. And tweaking and printing more. But what I haven't had to do is worry about my Prusa printers. I also finally got my two MINIs onto ethernet, and upgraded them to REVO nozzles. My Mk4 and XL are on wireless. I still don't actually understand by PrusaConnect and PrusaLink(?) work, but I have all four printers connected. Transfer speeds aren't fast, but it gets done. So much better than having to swap back and forth USB sticks, that seem to fail all to often.
So the printers are dong what they should and the software is doing what it should. Even my XL has exceeded my expectations- which were pretty low coming from MMU2s hell. I have a company interested in little doo-daads that have some parts printed in PETG on the Minis, and multicolor parts (upto 5 colors) on the XL. I've printed over 100 of the multicolor, just doing 3-6 at a time (once 12 to cover half of the plate), and I've only had a couple of errors. One was a shift of about 1mm during the print, and another linked to the design and the very small use of one color per layer. Other than the shift, which I think more a .6 nozzle drool issue, and hasn't happened again. I probably have 10,000 tool changes and no failures. Would have never expected that. They have been working so well with ASA multicolor prints, with the only tweak being turning off the purge tower. I haven't needed to haunt the forum for the latest Voodoo and incantations to get prints to work.
The ability for the XL and especially the MK4 to swap build plates is awesome when swapping materials and therfor sheets. The Mk4 printed some PA11-CF for my next project perfectly. (Upgrade an old Mk3s to teh REVO HIGH TEMP version.). The XL has printed a little PETG, but a good amount of PLA and a a lot of ASA with out issues.
Probably jinxing myself, but the PRusa printers right are at a place where I don't even think about them. I'm desinging, iterating, rinse-repeat and the printers just keep chugging along.
I wasn't shy to bust Prusa's balls when they were chunking it up, but the end point is certianly worth it. Good job Prusa.
RE: Throwing Prusa an "Ata' Boy"...
Just an update on my XL5. I haven't run really big items, but I've been printing hundreds of business card by 25mm five color items. Usually just 6 at a time for a 6-8 hour print cycle. I've printed mostly in ASA, followed by PLA and then PETG. It's been since early Nov and my stats are:
X & Y axis at about 40km
Z 400meters
2.1km of filament
11,300 tool changes total
I had some issues with wipe towers in the begining, so I've just not used them. Had a weird crash report recenlty, but it was after the print had finished. So 1 'failure'.
I had a two groups of 6 items print fail, but then I realized I was missing some layers in my design, so not a printer error.
Only done same material, different color prints for now. Going to do some material compatability testing this weekend.
PrusaConnect is great, even if sometimes it seems like I have to tell it to start the print twice. Can't wait for camera integration.
All in all I'm happy with it, and have had few problems with it, which is why I haven't been around.
I might not have the highest use rates, but it sits idle for a week or ten days, then I run it silly. It is by far the most reliable printer I have out of the 2 minis and my Mk4.