RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I don't share anything regarding their business fleet printer (NDA) or anything that would damage them. I only shared the issues impacting the MK4 and Input Shaping because they weren't getting internal prioritization and our business contacts were being forced into bad positions to speak out the wrong side of their mouth. Once aired and escalated to our escalation team, they gathered a team of developers, designers, and techs to problem solve the issues and create fixes. That was the goal and that was the result. No need to be salty.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Can we get the latest results of the poll? Haven’t pulled the trigger yet on MK4. Don’t want to vote to taint the results of the poll.
RE:
FYI - my first attempt at inserting an image (hope it works)
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Worked great! Thanks!
FYI - my first attempt at inserting an image (hope it works)
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Super happy with my printer. The assembly process was enjoyable and so far the only issue is the filament sensor being a bit finicky to the point that I disabled it.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Wifi file transfer speed (from prusaconnect to the printer) is awfully slow, 2023 unnacceptable slow 🙁
(Transfer from my pc to prusaconnect server is fast, only the download to the printer is slow)
Also I'm starting to see some premature wear and tear on my PEI smooth sheet that came with the printer. My old and used PEI sheet from my Mk3s+ is still in better condition than my new MK4 sheet which isnt normal. Not sure if the loadcell is at fault here. First layer doesnt seem always good on the right side of the sheet for some reason. (Always perfect on the left side)
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I am not experiencing slow speeds.
Wifi file transfer speed (from prusaconnect to the printer) is awfully slow, 2023 unnacceptable slow 🙁
(Transfer from my pc to prusaconnect server is fast, only the download to the printer is slow)
Also I'm starting to see some premature wear and tear on my PEI smooth sheet that came with the printer. My old and used PEI sheet from my Mk3s+ is still in better condition than my new MK4 sheet which isnt normal. Not sure if the loadcell is at fault here. First layer doesnt seem always good on the right side of the sheet for some reason. (Always perfect on the left side)
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Chuck H
3D Printer Review Blog
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I'm now five months into owning my MK4.. have one of the first units out there (4 screw) and I don't have any issues to report. Very happy with it! Fantastic upgrade to my MK3S.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I finished assembling my Mk4 kit last night. Previously I assembled a Mk3S kit.
I'm absolutely loving all the small improvements between Mk3S and Mk4, the printer is much quieter than my Mk3, seems to be a bit faster and certainly the print results are superior!
Overall, I'm loving it. Poor thing isn't going to get a break for a few months though 😉
RE:
ASA and ABS prints tend to warp on my MK4, even though the same models printed fine on my old MK3S+. I just opened a new topic on the issue.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
The printer has worked amazingly well out of the box.
However I get a lot of stringies all over the place, no matter what the material is.
Also, the network transfer speed is slow and the new 5.00RC firmware is slower even yet.
I'm connected via wired ethernet to be faster than WiFi. I even wonder of the ethernet port on the printer is 1000BaseT or not,
Also no camera interface.
The MK4 should be able to do everything the MK3 did and do it better and faster.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I don't think the hardware could handle 1000Base T. Raspberry Pis are more powerful than the STM32 on the xBuddy board and they have 1000Base T only in the name but not in the actual throughput.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I totally understand that the STM32 is way under powered for processing gigabit ethernet. However, for a $1000 printer you would think they would either use a second processor solely for WiFi/Network or use a faster processor. I know there are many high speed (>200MHz) multi core WiFi enabled embedded CPUs that would do the job much better for not more than a dollar or two Bill of Materials cost in Prusa Quantities.
It would be wonderful to get 10mbps in the MK4 and that is only 10% of the 100mbps that 100BaseT is or 1% of gigabit Ethernet. Even on WiFi the MK4 should be getting in the 10's of mbps and it doesn't even come close.
Don't get me wrong, I love my MK4 and I do not regret buying it. I just wish that Prusa had made it more of an evolutionary improvement over the MKL3S+ rather than just an incremental improvement. And even a step down is some cases (like network and webcam handling).
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Raspberry Pi4s are available again at about the same prices as before the shortage. Just get one, put OctoPrint on and forget the whole affair. 🙂
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Raspberry Pi4s are available again at about the same prices as before the shortage. Just get one, put OctoPrint on and forget the whole affair. 🙂
And do what with it? I was commenting on the CPU that Prusa used being under powered for high speed WiFi and Ethernet.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Instead of complaining about things that do not work, which will most probably get you nothing but high blood pressure (it will not get you better WiFi and Ethernet), just use OctoPrint. It gives you all the networking functions at a good speed, you can use even multiple cameras, you can watch your printer remotely and much more. Just saying.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Also worth mentioning that Josef said faster networking is coming in the next firmware release (was on the live stream)
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
I'm super exited to see my (self-asssembled) MK4 printing like a charm. Gotta say I'm used to Ender-3 quality, so I guess it's no wonder I'm impressed, but hear me out:
I took my sweet time for the assembly, following the written online guide. I found it still a little cumbersome to always find the required parts for each step, but eventually I made it.
Anyways, the first print, using the spatula g-code from the usb stick was a huge success and all the following prints (by now something around 50-60) have been pretty successful too. I tried several brands of PLA, PETG and TPU using PrusaSlicer 2.6.0 and recently 2.6.1 RC1 using the "Generic" profiles for each material. The worst I could notice would be some overshooting on sharp corners owed to the print speeds and accelerations. I can live with that trade-off and in cases where I can't, I simply slow things down a little.
The only real issues I noticed was a clicking sound whenever the nozzle moved in a certain X/Y position and some missing first layer lines on larger prints in exactly that X/Y area. I pinned both of these problems down to some drag caused by freshly started filament spools with 1Kg Filament on it, going heavy on the spoolholder if that's not exactly in the center of the frame and the used spool is on the far side. i.e. spoolholder a little to the right, right spool used and almost full still caused a length of maybe 15mm on the far left side of the outer 1-3 lines of the first layer to be missing.
Everyone would think, the drag caused a serious under-extrusion and they wouldn't be wrong. But they would also assume the clicking to be the extruder fighting that drag and there they would be wrong. Turns out I somehow managed to ever so slightly misalign the upper bearing on the X-carriage and the drag lifted the whole carriage just a tiny bit on the smooth rod, also lifting the nozzle for maybe 0.01-0.03mm and preventing the material (which was still extruded and stuck as a kind of elongated blob to the line as soon as the direction changed and the drag was gone) from sticking to the buildplate. The prints were still fine but they had that tiny defect on that spot.
Lessons learned:
- Be as accurate as you can with aligning the bearings
- Have the spoolholder well centered or rather on the left side (or design a new one that holds the spools a little more back from the frame because the filament may catch on the brim of the spool)
- that printer is so well made, a really tiny give in the assembly might cause fails
The easiest fix for my particular problem was to center the spoolholder and to loosen 3-5 windings on the spool before starting a wide print. The right fix was to re-align said bearing. Last night I printed This Walter White Bust in Overture Rock PLA and I had my doubts about the glasses, but I had a gorgeous result. I may post a pic later, because I'm so proud and happy of it.
Horizontal layer lines are virtually invisible even at 0.2mm layer height and even when I tried to separate layers with a knife, I couldn't.
Final verdict: The MK4 is a very fine machine. Tinkering with it may have a negative impact on your printing quality, since it is great as it is. The PrusaSlicer "Generic [Materialname]" profiles of version 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 are perfectly tuned for that printer to deliver awesome results with whatever brand of that material you are using. There might be difficult material brands but I think it's easier to avoid them than to adjust the profiles.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Having difficult with PrusaConnect but given that remote monitoring is not something I need to use often, it is of little consequence to me. It otherwise works well with enclosure. Always look forward to firmware and slicer updates.
Using firmware 4.72.
RE: MK4 Current Owners - Issues? [POLL]
Nine prints so far after finishing building last week and this printer hasn’t put a foot wrong. I was forever abandoning prints when the first layers didn’t stick on my previous printer.
This thing is awesome.