Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
The title covers the main point i want to say. Openprinttagwith NFC is a nice idea. But Prusa replaced all their Prusament spools with ones that include openprinttagand charges for it. And my question is
Why should i pay (however small the extra cost is ) for an unusable option? Prusa still has no workflow or clear implementation for the openprinttag. In their documentation it describes a bundle of possible benefits, describes roughly how to write to a tag, invites others to incorporate it but offers NO way to use it in their own printers. At least i could not find one. Yes there are ways to write to it read from it , with the aid of your smartphone, but no clear way to use it with Prusaslicer or our printers. I have the 4k 5th XL by the way and im not sure that it even has an NFC reader.
And even if the openprinttag was mature working and Prusaslicer, had a two way communication and synchronization with our Printer., it should be optional and not included in every spool.
And finally even if this is the company's policy first create a working usage workflow for all your "active" printers and THEN sell it. You are placing charges on a vague promise.
I usually buy prusament filaments for specific colors or where presentation is important since there are a bit pricey and the shipment cost goes up with weight. I bought a few spools on clearance but personally i find my self drifting away from prusament consumables. There are a lot of good quality half the price filaments out there.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
Same! There is a hefty price increase, electronic waste (nfc tag) and even less filament on the spool. This is totally useless ATM.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
The better title for this thread might be: "Why did Prusa force us to buy spools with OpenPrint Tags before having good support in the printers and slicer?" That part of your criticism I can certainly relate to.
The fact that they are introducing it on all their filaments and are no longer producing spools without the tag is understandable. If Prusa want this open tag to gain traction, with other companies adopting it too, they need to push it into the market to some extent. There is probably a bit of extra margin for Prusa in it too...
Will Prusa lose some filament sales over this, because customers feel that they don't want the tag and that this pushes the Prusament price over the edge? Probably, but I think it won't be a big impact. Prusament has always been on the expensive side and people buy it based on brand loyalty or the desire to get everything out of one hand, with tailor-made filament profiles for the printers -- so Prusa already knows that their filament customers are not very price-sensitive.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
I already try to avoid Prusament just because of the high shipping costs. Love the stuff, but not enough to pay those shipping prices to the UK!
Agree with OP though - there should have been an add-on included as part of the Core One + upgrade for example, so that the printer can read the tag......
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
I understand wanting to push something to the marker especially if it is already offered by your bigger competitor. But as we both agree charging for it, while its not useful for the end consumer, is bad practice. And honestly , as i already said, i have a 5th XL and with the way it is handled im not sure when or if ever is going to be supported. And in what way or what cost. This is putting the cart before the horse and charging you for it even if you are just sitting in a bench looking at it. The bottom line , as you already mentioned, the premium on Prusament was for specific clientele and for specific reasons (in my case). What Prusa has to realise though is that the quality of materials , both filaments and resin, has gone up the past years, for a lot of vendors. Cheaper brands offer really good quality to price ratio and with a large selection of colors and technologies. Even "hardcore" fans of prusament filament have to admit that 30E Prusament PETG (with 10% discount) is not necessarily better from an X brand (i dont want to be accused of promoting brands) with a pricetag around 15E. And most of them offer reduced or free shipping after a certain amount.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
I agree with everything said in this thread, most particularly Prusa's occasional habit of releasing half-finished things instead of releasing a finished complete package.
I also don't see myself using it, but I will say that open print tag might be one of those things that I'll be against and then discover that I enjoy later on. I'm usually a "if it's not broken then don't fix it" type of person, and I remember how I initially decided to not enable the touch function on my Prusa MK4 screen, I just thought that it was not needed and the knob was enough. Fast forward a little bit and not I'm using almost exclusively touch instead of the knob, I just didn't see the value of the change when it was introduced. Maybe it'll be the same for open print tag, who knows.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
lol - I haven't ever used the touch screen. Not on my MK4s or on my Core One. Guess I'm just used to using the knob and forget there is a touch screen there to use! I feel its a bit of a 'tacked on afterthought' to be fair. It works well for the main screen with the larger icons etc, but when scrolling menus I find the knob so much quicker and easier to use!
I remember how I initially decided to not enable the touch function on my Prusa MK4 screen, I just thought that it was not needed and the knob was enough. Fast forward a little bit and not I'm using almost exclusively touch instead of the knob, I just didn't see the value of the change when it was introduced. Maybe it'll be the same for open print tag, who knows.
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
I've gotten into the habit of using both. Yes, I can sometimes hit the wrong line in the menus (fat finger syndrome), but I find using the touch screen faster for entering numbers (like temperatures). Instead of selecting the (for example) temperature by pressing on the button, tap the temperature and you get a numeric keypad on the touchscreen. Much faster for me to type in 230 then to scroll from zero with the knob. YMMV though.
lol - I haven't ever used the touch screen. Not on my MK4s or on my Core One. Guess I'm just used to using the knob and forget there is a touch screen there to use! I feel its a bit of a 'tacked on afterthought' to be fair. It works well for the main screen with the larger icons etc, but when scrolling menus I find the knob so much quicker and easier to use!
I remember how I initially decided to not enable the touch function on my Prusa MK4 screen, I just thought that it was not needed and the knob was enough. Fast forward a little bit and not I'm using almost exclusively touch instead of the knob, I just didn't see the value of the change when it was introduced. Maybe it'll be the same for open print tag, who knows.
See my (limited) designs on:
Printables - https://www.printables.com/@Sembazuru
Thingiverse - https://www.thingiverse.com/Sembazuru/designs
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
When Prusa started shipping and charging for the touch screen, it was actually supported by the firmware, right? That's the difference to the OpenPrint tags...
RE: Why did Prusa placed an openprinttag on all filaments and charges for it?
When Prusa started shipping and charging for the touch screen, it was actually supported by the firmware, right?
I bought the MK4 right at launch and if I recall correctly Prusa didn't tell anyone that the shipped screen was in fact touch screen. It wasn't until months later that they released an update revealing that the screen had been touch all along, just that they hadn't had time to make it work properly yet. So in that sense no, I don't think the touch screen was supported by the firmware when they first shipped and charged for the (secret) touch screen.