New User to 3D - Initial Experiences - Mini+  

New User to 3D - Initial Experiences - Mini+

Receive Mini+ for Christmas. I'll start by saying I love it. Printing lots of items for my business that I've wanted for several months.

When we powered up the USB has the latest firmware (checked the web site first). On boot up strange things were happening. USB not seen, then seen, then went away again. As such, firmware install did not start automatically as web site and documentation said. When you are completely new to 3D and have never setup up a machine, you are already concerned about being in over you head. So I would only stress that a bad USB is not at the top you your list of things to be freaked out about, because you already have a 1000 higher concerns. 🙂 Anyway...eventually the USB was at fault. Replaced the USB and things started progressing. NOTE:  formatted the faulty USB and it seemed ok. Stupid me...loaded a GCode and started to print and the USB failed. Not sure what I was thinking.... 

Menu on initial boot up was in CS language. Had to use google translate to figure out the menu. Language option was of course the very last menu option we had to translate (one-by-one) so that we could select English. Also...the menu selections on the machine are not documented in the user guide. So again, figured it out blindly with google translate. Kind of exciting to have the unit boot up and unable to read anything on the display. 🙂

Calibration is trial and error, and for a first time user, pretty much blindly stabbing away at it. Struggled to figure out what the process was supposed to be. The way I am wired it is hard to translate the higher the negative number the lower or higher the head distance to the platen (again...what the ????. Anyway, finally got it under control and calibrated. 

Filament has refused to extract once so far. Took out the tube where filament was stuck (two brass nuts) and eventually got it out. 

With all that said....I absolutely love the printer. Thanks for a great product!!