Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I was an early adopter for the Mk3, I ordered as soon as I saw the notification and it took MONTHS to come... 

You have had a fantastic turn round on your order... 

My Mk2 MMUv1 is Bowden and it works well! 

regards Joan

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I recommend patience.  Your wait will be rewarded.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @nicholas-m12

@herbert

It wouldn’t be a bad idea to add some spare parts when they become available. Inevitably, you will get a blob that will tear out a thermistor or heater cartridge wire. Belts will stretch and need replaced. Having extras on hand is nice to avoid downtime waiting on replacements. 

No doubt about this.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @b3-marek

I also cancelled mine order, well maybe not cancelled but switched to Mk3s. Even that I ordered it in october receiving it in February or if anything slips on March and then probably some issues from beta I opted for polished Mk3s now rather then Mini 3 months later... 

Hi there - I'm thinking about doing the same and upgrading my order to the MK3 - is it worth doing?

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @lori-brooks

Posted by: @b3-marek

I also cancelled mine order, well maybe not cancelled but switched to Mk3s. Even that I ordered it in october receiving it in February or if anything slips on March and then probably some issues from beta I opted for polished Mk3s now rather then Mini 3 months later... 

Hi there - I'm thinking about doing the same and upgrading my order to the MK3 - is it worth doing?

You will never regret and Mk3S purchase.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@lori-brooks

For me time was a factor. 

If You can wait and Mini parameters such as bed size are ok for You then maybe it is worth waiting, Not to mention You will save a lot of $ also 🙂 

Anyhow whichever You buy, it Will beawesome printer

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

My i3 took 3 months to ship, the MMU2 took 9 months, so I'm not getting worked up about any delays it might encounter. I do hope it arrives this year because I'll have time to play with it during the xmas break and it will be in time for my birthday 🙂

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

In reality the absolute currency is time. You should always calculate the time you spend troubleshooting a device as if you were paying someone to do it for  you.

If one is so much in a hurry that cannot wait for a device to go though Quality Assurance then this device is definitely not the right choice for him. This is a brand new product category launch, with more than a few untested features (bowden setup, cantilever design, custom hot-end design, 32Bit MCU, multithreaded RTOS). What good would it do if you have a month earlier and spend that month wasting time and money trying to debug and iron-out the issues, instead of waiting for them to do it and get in it a more mature state?

If one needs a  printer that just works out of the box with minimal tinkering the MK3 is definitely for them. The price difference to the mini is easily offset by the testing and bug-fixing applied to the device by the community/prusa team.The mini will be a good introductory to 3d  printer, after a year or so in the market. At this early on its life-cycle I wouldn't recommend going for it if you are not ready to seriously tinker with it.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @b3-marek

@lori-brooks

For me time was a factor. 

If You can wait and Mini parameters such as bed size are ok for You then maybe it is worth waiting, Not to mention You will save a lot of $ also 🙂 

Anyhow whichever You buy, it Will beawesome printer

Yeah, part of me is itching to get printing, and the other part thinks that getting the big-brother as a first printer might be overkill -- plus I don't feel terribly confident in putting the kit version together - I might end up picking up an MP Select Mini so I can start iterating on stuff in PLA until the Prusa arrives ... I'll see how I feel about things after thanksgiving!

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

the problem is that you pay the full price for a product that is not available now

you order and you wait 5 months to receive the product ...
in the trade we pay only part of the price to the order
and the rest when the product is available
if Prusa was doing that, it was ok for me and I would have ordered

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@lori-brooks

The Prusa Mini will be my first 3D Printer, so I’m itching to get printing as well. I’ve been thinking about getting a Monoprice Mini Delta, about a $160 small volume printer, to get started with while I wait. I can then gift it to a niece or nephew once the Prusa arrives. 

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @lori-brooks

Posted by: @b3-marek

@lori-brooks

For me time was a factor. 

If You can wait and Mini parameters such as bed size are ok for You then maybe it is worth waiting, Not to mention You will save a lot of $ also 🙂 

Anyhow whichever You buy, it Will beawesome printer

Yeah, part of me is itching to get printing, and the other part thinks that getting the big-brother as a first printer might be overkill -- plus I don't feel terribly confident in putting the kit version together - I might end up picking up an MP Select Mini so I can start iterating on stuff in PLA until the Prusa arrives ... I'll see how I feel about things after thanksgiving!

One word of warning coming from an owner of a Mini.

Yes it was an interesting simple printer to begin with, yet it is quite painful to keep running. Having a lot of non standard things, like belt widths, Z axis motors, non open sourced firmware, pulleys, you will end up spending a lot of time modifying to fix quirks and maintaining it it just to keep it going.

If you are a starter it is important to have both a community, a firmware and slicer that is constantly updated even if you do not know how to modify it yourself, and most importantly a hardware configuration which is easy to procure standard replacement parts.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @minos197

The mini will be a good introductory to 3d  printer, after a year or so in the market.

 

Maybe not a full year, my guesstimate is after ~4-6 months, time from order to shipping will be low enough for people to buy this printer basically as any other computerized appliance. I believe PR will do everything to sell as many of these as possible (going with lower margins, rack it up on volume), and 3-month waiting periods are not good for such goals.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@lori-brooks

I would not cancel.  You will get a printer.  

Do you have another brand?

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

@charles-h13

Oh definitely not going to cancel, either I upgrade my order to the MK3 or pick up a MP mini V2 to get me going on prototyping stuff until the prusa mini arrives. The only real thing stopping me from upgrading the prusa is my lack of confidence in building the kit.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @lori-brooks

@charles-h13

Oh definitely not going to cancel, either I upgrade my order to the MK3 or pick up a MP mini V2 to get me going on prototyping stuff until the prusa mini arrives. The only real thing stopping me from upgrading the prusa is my lack of confidence in building the kit.  

If I can build it, anyone can build it.  You got this!  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Consider this however; by building the thing from a kit, you will inevitably learn how the machine works in detail, which in turn will help you a lot for troubleshooting when your printer stops working. I speak from personal experience. And I say when, not if, because this is still inevitable with the current state of the technology. Sooner or later there will be issues you need to handle.

I have built my MK3 from a kit and yes, I admit it was very tiresome (took me about 10 hours total for the build plus lots of belt tension re-adjusting after). I will also say that I am not a "hardware" person. I can easily build a PC from individual components, but that's about it. If it requires stuff like soldering, crimping, anything that exceeds plugging things together and fastening screws, I'm out. Having studied the assembly manual beforehand, I was absolutely confident I would be able to build it with the skill level I had before I ordered the kit.

Of course 3D printing in its current state - even though Prusa already is one of the biggest innovators - still requires a lot of tinkering. If not for perfectly calibrating your printer mechanics, you will at least have to find the perfect print settings for the specific brand/type of filament(s) you use by experimenting. That is the one big thing you still have to consider. But building an i3 really isn't that complex. It requires time and work, but anyone who can assemble a PC can do that.

And if you like to experiment with your printer, you will also damage lots of things. I have my MK3(S) since just under a year, and so far I've accidentally destroyed a heater block, another heater block-heating cartridge-thermistor assembly, a couple of nozzles, two heatbeds, and a few plastic parts (which however I was able to print replacements of). I'm positive that there's not many parts left that I haven't destroyed yet at least once. From the other things I have learned my lessons already. Do plan some budget for replacement parts.

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

Posted by: @julianr

Consider this however; by building the thing from a kit, you will inevitably learn how the machine works in detail, which in turn will help you a lot for troubleshooting when your printer stops working. I speak from personal experience. And I say when, not if, because this is still inevitable with the current state of the technology. Sooner or later there will be issues you need to handle.

I have built my MK3 from a kit and yes, I admit it was very tiresome (took me about 10 hours total for the build plus lots of belt tension re-adjusting after). I will also say that I am not a "hardware" person. I can easily build a PC from individual components, but that's about it. If it requires stuff like soldering, crimping, anything that exceeds plugging things together and fastening screws, I'm out. Having studied the assembly manual beforehand, I was absolutely confident I would be able to build it with the skill level I had before I ordered the kit.

Of course 3D printing in its current state - even though Prusa already is one of the biggest innovators - still requires a lot of tinkering. If not for perfectly calibrating your printer mechanics, you will at least have to find the perfect print settings for the specific brand/type of filament(s) you use by experimenting. That is the one big thing you still have to consider. But building an i3 really isn't that complex. It requires time and work, but anyone who can assemble a PC can do that.

And if you like to experiment with your printer, you will also damage lots of things. I have my MK3(S) since just under a year, and so far I've accidentally destroyed a heater block, another heater block-heating cartridge-thermistor assembly, a couple of nozzles, two heatbeds, and a few plastic parts (which however I was able to print replacements of). I'm positive that there's not many parts left that I haven't destroyed yet at least once. From the other things I have learned my lessons already. Do plan some budget for replacement parts.

Very true.  I bought a built printer for the first time.  it was not until the second that I bought a kit.  It taught me to build and fix my printers.  

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

RE: Unofficial Prusa Mini Wait Thread

I still don't get why they don't just ship out the Minis with an empty USB stick and still-buggy firmware and deliver the firmware update via internet a couple days later. Gets the printer to people faster, while the firmware will still be available soon enough that most people don't actually have to wait longer after receiving as they likely finish it when the Minis are still on the road.

I could only imagine said bug is so bad that it affects product safety...