Any regrets?  

RE: Any regrets?

I am having similar thoughts as you. The lower price is what sold me on the Mini, but now i'm thinking about spending more to avoid dealing with problems that might not be fixed for a unknown period of time.

RE: Any regrets?

For me, second printer after an almost uselessly bad Anet A8, so first good printer for me.

I had some problems with Underextrusion (with all filaments except for Prusament, which always worked), which I fixed using tips on the Underextrusion thread. Once that was fixed, I have no regrets. It otherwise works great, it's (mostly) quiet, the design is surprisingly robust, I just can't really complain at all. Furthermore, the long term roadmap is superior to almost any other printer this cheap I've seen. (How often does Creality release firmware upgrades? What about upgrade kits for newer versions?)

RE: Any regrets?

We have both, the Mk3S and the Mini (for eight days now). While there are some niggles with the (early?) Mini, it's an overall good printer.

Compared to the Mk3s, here's my pro and cons:

+easy assembly (duration a 15th of Mk3s)
+half the price, ~80% capability*
+lightweight, space saving**
+improved hot-end design
+more potential in hardware

-firmware features not complete or not mature yet (a matter of time until retrofitted by new f/w releases - hopefully weeks and not months away)
   -bed heating may cause safety errors that stall the printer (reboot required) during normal use; extends heat up waiting times
   -no print job information in display when remote controlled
   -no presets for changing between PEI and powder coated sheets
-mechanically not mature yet (a matter of PR support tickets and fiddling)
   -MINDA cable prone to break after a couple of dozen hours operation
   -MINDA position might need to be adjusted to work properly, and this is not documented (easy fix though using the Mk3s manual)
   -PTFE tube coupling concept allows filament blockage (occurred only twice here, with only light fiddling)
-*not hot enough for exotic materials and some older ABS (no issue for 95% of users)
-**requires "25cm/1ft." empty space around it, so requires more space than a Mk3s
-*smaller build space

Amongst those points, there might still surface issues after a longer operation, but that is only speculation. To wrap this up, I had frustrating moments, but I still consider the MINI a good offer. What I value on both printers is the good support, the mature set of printing parameters that come with PrusaSlicer, and the magnetic spring steel sheet (I prefer the PEI, while the powder coated is a nice option).

RE: Any regrets?

My main printer is a MK3S which I have since about a year now. The Mini will be a mere backup and capacity increase for times I need to produce a lot as soon as possible. Given the Mini's smaller range in supported materials, it was already clear to me that the MK3S will stay my go-to printer for prototyping, everyday use and special cases, so it doesn't matter too much to me if the Mini isn't quite 100% usable yet the day I receive it. (Ordered on October 14th, so should ship somewhat soon.)

That being said, I am highly worried about the hardware design flaws that become apparent when you check out all the threads on here. Simply because fixing them will require Prusa to provide replacements for physical parts, and I'm not sure if they will do it without hesitation if the bill becomes too high. Consider how many Minis they have already sold and shipped by now.

As for the firmware, I kind of expected that it would have some childhood illnesses and that it wouldn't have all the promised features like Web UI and WiFi support from day one. But missing things as basic as saving multiple print bed configurations - features that already exist in the 8bit firmware, and especially since Prusa even sells the Mini in a bundle with two different sheets - does manage to disappoint me.

All in all, trying to answer your question, I can't tell yet. Prusa needs to show how they will handle those issues first. If they make things right with minimal involvement required on users' part, I can live with the bumpy start. Otherwise, of course, it will be something I regret as my original reason to go with Prusa was, to a large part, that I don't want to find and fix the manufacturer's mistakes myself like you have to with a lot of the cheapo chinese printers.

RE: Any regrets?

No regrets from me whatsoever.  I'm not doubting the early issues that have been reported by others and I was worried too that some of the reported problems might surface on the printer that was given to my kids for Christmas.  Low and behold the printer arrived in "perfect" condition.  I found  no missing or damaged parts from shipping, and nothing loose.  Cables were zip tied correctly (and with appropriate slack), and the z-axis is pretty much dead nuts square to the bed following standard assembly instructions.  So far I find the prints as nice as my MK3S and I've been astonished at the value.  I personally think for many people the MINI will make most sense.  

For any new production there are bound to be issues...especially when there are other schedule constraints like the Christmas deadline that was looming. 

My hat is off to Prusa for what I've experienced so far with the MINI...although I am also sorry for the people that have run into problems.  Their frustration and/or concern is certainly understandable.

RE: Any regrets?

Posted by: @julianr

That being said, I am highly worried about the hardware design flaws that become apparent when you check out all the threads on here.

From what I read while waiting for my MINI, those don't seem to be hardware design flaws. Overtightened zipties, probe too high or low, broken cases in packaging, extruder put together where it leaves gaps in filament path causing jams and inability to retract - those all seem like simply bad assembly rather than design flaws. Which is a fault of people in factory who pre-assembled those components, as well as missing/inefficient processes that would establish necessary checks to correct/avoid those issues. I am not working there, but any sane company takes feedback like Underextrusion thread or MINDA videos on Facebook backed by customer service reports, find why is it happening, how to correct it and how to prevent it happening again. They will figure it out with each new batch, they claimed to have something like 35% of manufacturing time for MK3(S)s spent on QA - that also happened for a reason, and not overnight.

RE: Any regrets?

No regrets from me.

Have a MK2.5S and a MK3s (both upgraded several times) and I think the Mini match up with most of my printing jobs. The Mini has some beginner problems as described in the other posts, but nothing that can't be fixed. Most is in firmware and some is hardware based - though I am surprised that some faults are the kind that should have been caught prior to release (short wires etc.).

For the price point, the Mini is a great choice:

- Magnetic removable two sided bed coated with PEI (good quality).
- Mesh bed leveling out of the box.
- Very quiet compared to other non Prusa printers.
- Print most filament types - I have tried PC and Nylon (Bridge).
- Nice big display (not so good knob).
- Easy to assemble (please make a kit :-).
- Open Source like the MKs.

I would definitely recommend it as an entry or as a second printer. Time will show if it is also a workhorse...

RE: Any regrets?`

Since I haven’t received my mini yet, I think it would be premature of me to say I have regrets after hearing about the various issues. I am a bit concerned at the number of issues reported here, but I agree with @crawlerin that the issues seem to be rooted in poor assembly and not design flaws.

I didn’t order until 11/4, so I probably won’t receive mine until late January/early February. By then, I’m sure all the kinks will have been worked out of the assembly process. I thought about ordering an MK3s instead of the mini, but the thought of a 32bit MK4 being released later this year made me reconsider. I know I’m going to want a 2nd 3D printer that has a larger print volume and the capability to use the MMU2. Hopefully, by late 2020 I’ll have a choice between am MK4 or an XL.

RE: Any regrets?

Have my mini and have been pleasantly surprised with the print quality and quietness. I ordered within an hour or two of sales start.

No complaints about minor issues I have had with the machine, I had to wait three days for parts to get it running, I did say 3 days.. Support was great, never use email, always use chat. Parts in 3 days, I keep repeating to myself, sheesh. .. For artillery it was weeks, for Creality it was weeks..  ..

In comparison to other printers I have tried and sold, well there isn't any .. None of the other printers I have tried are even close to any of the Prusa lines along any metric.

Resale values: I have sold quite a few used (8) Prusas over the years and the  resale market is ridiculously good, average for sale time less than 1 day, average resale price a fraction less (<10% price cut) compared to buying a new one, unbelievably good. I expect same for mini but haven't tried as yet.

Compared to other lines?.. 25% price cut on Artillery S1 Printers (took a week or two for each) , 50% cut on CR10S-Pro ( took months) , 25% cut on Ender 3 (took weeks)

None of these were in the same value league as the Prusas and none could compare with the print quality of the mini no less the MK3S.

As far as price, you should not compare the price to the kit on the MK3S, it takes me a good 8-10 hours to build one, the mini took 15 minutes.. That to me would make the price compare more appropriate with the assembled model, so to me it is 1/3 the price of the MK3s.

Will be one of the first in queue for the CoreXY and the MK4 models and will be ordering at least a couple more of the minis and continue to turn-over machines for upgrades and new releases/models..

For those who are disappointed, you will have no problem selling them and getting most if not all your money back .. but the big questions would be .. where are you going to go? .. who is even close? .. factoring in resale and support .. there are literally no contenders..

Color me a loyal Prusa customer for the foreseeable future ..

RE: Any regrets?

My mini had the issues as discussed on the under extrusion thread and couldn't print at all but even then I had no regrets.  I knew a solution would be found and it was.  Hopefully Prusa are now aware of the issue and fixing it in their assembly lines will be easy.  My mini is now printing as well as my MK3s though filament loading and unloading is a bit less reliable (though still MUCH more reliable than my Creality 10s).

The mini is a really nice printer to use and is so damn cute 🙂

Until Prusa fix the assembly issues, the mini could be a disappointment for those with no experience with 3d printers as they will not be comfortable taking their hot end or extruder apart but it is actually very easy to do.  The mini even comes with the tools to do it.

RE: Any regrets?

No regrets so far.  Little hiccups here and there, but nothing this first timer has not been able to handle.  I really appreciate how small it is.

RE: Any regrets?

No regrets at all. I am pretty happy with the printer and except some smaller software glitches I have not had any problems at all, especially none of those mentioned in the forum (which does not mean they don't exist - I've just not seen them). The output quality is much, much better than previous printers I had (one of them being an Anycubic Mega-S). I've only had a single failed print so far and that was due to bad calibration. It simply works, silently, and produces nice prints. Yes, the firmware has some room for improvement and some features are missing, but it's a new 32 bit board/world and I can live with that being improved over the next 6-12 months. Thumbs up from me!

RE: Any regrets?

I did expect some problems as the Mini is a new product, but I did not expect to be able to do just one print in 2 weeks, got my printer December 18, had problems with Z-axis angularity, when that was solved the LCD control encoder broke down and replacement will arrive at January 2. Just before the breakdown I had problems with clogging, I think I might have the grub screw problem too. I love my MK3 and think Prusa is a great company, but I am worried about the quality of their assembly process for Mini. The encoder problem is most probably related to a batch of bad components that could happen anyone, but the other problems are related to bad assembly quality and such problems should be solved during preproduction before the product is released to market get the impression that the assembly is to operator related, the set screw problem seems to be related to the torque and that should be handled by the process control. The angularity problem I have not figured out the root cause of yet, but it seems to be something in the assembly of the Z-axis that was not in the proper position. Other problems I have read about in the forum seems also to be related to operator mistakes such as nuts in wrong track, improper zipping of Minda cable etc. As the number of shipped printers is rather limited, the number of problems is too high, It is more or less a Beta product that have reach us early adoptors. I do not regret my Mini, but I must admit that I at this moment do not have the full trust in the product. Prusa have to quickly solve all the issues, software related problems should be quite easy to correct, but the hardware related problems are worse, from the serial numbers of the defect LCD encoders one can assume that there are at least about 1000 defect LCD assemblies, hopefully not all those are shipped to customers yet.

RE: Any regrets?

I guess every company that makes products or provides services goes through the same growing pains, but unfortunately the experience is not transferable. Often crowdfunded startups discover this the hard way, more mature companies like Prusa are able to take it on the chin and deal with it. But even top engineering companies get snafus with new products (ahem, Boeing).

I suspect that Prusa may have been a little surprised by the number of orders for Mini (demand is inversely proportional to price), and may have had to finish development and ramp up production quickly at the same time, a tough ask. As it is impossible to predict what unknown problems  may be encountered when launching a new product, the only way to achieve quality is through continuous improvement.

RE: Any regrets?

I'm still on the fence on mine. I have 16 MK3S, 15 Ender 3, 6 CR-10, and 1 mini. Mine was DOA with the LCD knob seizing up, but Prusa sent a replacement after I showed them the video. Too bad it was a black replacement instead of orange. 

I'm pretty much convinced the print quality is equal to the MK3S. That said, the bowden setup makes for a slower print (+10% compared to same MK3S print). I have 3 successful prints off of the mini so far, 1 of which with a RPi running octoprint. The serial controller on the Mini started timing out into the 2nd print, and it hasn't worked since. Onto the pile it goes. 

I think in the end I'll be adding MK3S over Minis to my farm over the next year. I have a crap ton of spares for the MK3S, I understand the firmware and I can alter it to get around the "MINTEMP" feature that cripples my farm in the winter. And above all else, the MK3S just works. The problems I've encountered are 15-60 minute fixes, and after I chained up the Y axis I'm basically just replacing nozzles and lubing rails at this point. I think I've had to repair 3 filament sensors, but they were all clogged with hairs, no actual electronic failures. 

I don't think they can make the claim of a smaller footprint, though. Between the power brick and the spooling it makes for a clumsy fielding. Best I can muster was to zip tie the brick to one of the verticals in my rack, and likely I'll spool from the shelf above and extend the feeding bowden tube.

I'm not a fan of the fused link on the Mini board to prevent fiddling with factory firmware. I've been stung twice by Prusa firmware releases, and I had to go in and fix the issues myself to get the farm up and running again. 

My .02

RE: Any regrets?

@derek-k2

Changing the LCD cover is simple, just pull off the know with a flat screw driver and remove the four screws that joins the PCB and cover, then just reuse your orange cover from the broken LCD unit and your back to orange. Orange is the new black:-)

RE: Any regrets?

You're not wrong. 

RE: Any regrets?

@derek-k2

While I have no interest in running a farm, curious to know whether you're printing for yourself or for customers.

RE: Any regrets?

@towlerg

I throw the occasional odd job in for myself from time to time, but I focus on paid work.