MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?  

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

I wonder how many MMU 2s they sold.

I think I recall a figure of over 10,000 MMU2 units being mentioned around the time it started shipping.

Peter

Wow, that is a lot. Very few people have complained vs the number they have probably shipped by now.

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

People who do not have problems usually do not post anything at all.

That's it, in a nutshell. Distorted poll and understanding of the wider community experience.

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

Did you quote me write in your own words? If so, that's not cool. You did summarize a point that I made but in your own words and by typing it in as if you were quoting me.

It seems that kieran.s4 messed up on the quotes and that he was actually quoting CybrSage...

Let me know if you want it fixed.

Peter

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

Did you quote me write in your own words? If so, that's not cool. You did summarize a point that I made but in your own words and by typing it in as if you were quoting me.

It seems that kieran.s4 messed up on the quotes and that he was actually quoting CybrSage...

Let me know if you want it fixed.

Peter

Please do. I'll delete my other message and you can clean these up too. Thanks, Peter.

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

I thought it looked like something I would say. 🙂

Re: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

I thought it looked like something I would say. 🙂

😀 😀 😀

Peter

RE: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

Thats not true that only customers with problems complain.  I couldn't get MMU2 to even to print 2 filaments and I this is my first post (I ordered 1 year ago).  All I need is water soluble support.  The quality of multicolor prints images posted does not impress me, and with every automatic filament change everything has to work perfectly. And before you flame me for being a newbie, my first 3D printer was a plywood laser cut Makerbot.  I am an early adopter and I am usually forgiving of new technology that has some rough edges (my day job is printing live tissue).  But the MMU2 is a disaster. 

Even the most faithful Prusa YouTube evangelists have had problems.  At best they say it takes a lot of tweaking to work.  Why did Prusa offer free vouchers for the MMU2S upgrade if the vast majority of MMU2 users were satisfied? I ordered my MMU2S upgrade, still waiting to see if it works. Where are the unbiased MMU2S reviews??

RE: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

I totally agree with nicolai-r:

The releases of PR are always a bit ahead of a stable ready to use out of the box product.

Nothing wrong with that if you aware of it and take into account the price you pay for a real nice state of the art 3D printer.

In the end "Everything will be alright" (Bob Marley), due to this very active helpful community and..... believe me at PR they are reading this!

Soo what can you do if you purchased a MMU2(s) and are disappointed?

A) You expected a MMU (kit or factory build) ready to go:

- Have patience! The major issues are IMHO:

A1) Friction off the entire filament flow.

A2) Sensor readings and stability.

A3) Firmware, both I3 Mk3S & MMU2(s)

B) If you love to be an early adopter and have the time to do some research on your own, building up your 3D FDM skills:

- Proceed, ask your questions (positive!) on this forum and people like toaf, flaviu and many more will try to help you.

My case:

I have not the time at the moment to do the thing I love most, RESEARCHING!

My I3 MK3s MMU2s is now running 24h in singel mode producing an awful lot of Buddy's because one of my customers is asking for some post processing options. Soo..... Isopropyl alcohol, Dual action Airbrush and 3D-XTC ready and production!! 

RE: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

Thanks for your advice dick-v, and I am very happy for you that you got your MMU2 up and running.  You raise very important points about early adoption.
Regarding patience:  I spent 6 months trying to get my MMU2 to work.  Perhaps you have more patience than me.  I kept lowering expectations until I was able to print just one filament with my MMU2. Then I picked the two "channels" that seemed to work the best in single filament mode and tried dual-filament printing. Didn't work.  Tried all the tips, tricks, and tweaks reported on this forum and other social media.  The MMU2 has so many points of failure that one cannot narrow down through traditional trouble shooting.  Even worse, my MMU2 would not even fail consistently at the same point in the printing process.  My threshold for success was actually very low:  print with any two channels, that is at most 40% of what PR claims. 
Regarding research, I am lucky that I am actually being paid to do research.  But I am not interested in doing research in getting someone else's design to work.  My interest is in using 3D printers as a tool.  In my professional research I use a robotic arm with 6-axis control and 5 independently controlled print heads.  So my use of PR printers is just a hobby for me, not serious research.
Regarding cost, when I was cash-strapped as a starving student I would rather spend hours trying to fix and use a cheap tool then buy an expensive one.  But now my time is worth more, so my interest in MMU2 was not the apparently low up front cash cost.  My MK3 was factory assembled because I didn't want to spend time assembling a kit and troubleshooting any assembly errors. And I would have easily paid 5 times more than the MMU2 kit, for a factory-assembled MMU that worked out of the box. I have great admiration for Josef Prusa, his open source philosophy, and his innovations.  I was intrigued that PR got something to work with such a kludgy design which seemed counterintuitive to me:  loading and retracting filaments repeatedly for every color change.  Given PR's success with the MK2 and MK3 I was curious to see how they had solved the problem.  Turns out they hadn't.  It is MMU users such as yourself and nicolai-r who have solved the problem, which IMHO is a man-made problem.  My current interests are trying to solve natural or physical problems. 
I am contemplating purchasing a Formlabs SLA printer and was very excited to preoder the PR SL1, but I think I will wait till the unbiased reviews are out.

RE: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

In reply to Darryl-3D's previous post:

I didn't say or suggested that my I3MK3s/MMU2s is working full featured and multi colour printing.

For your information I am a professional Additive Manufacturing consultant running my own small company.

Yes, I have full access to all kind of high end 3D printing solutions like 3D systems, Stratasys, EOS and HP

If you want eg. Buddy, Benchy, Adalinda etc. full color and even metal printed? Just call me!

There will be only one problem however...... Are you willing to pay for eg. Buddy full color metal printed for the price of > 10 I3MK3 printers?

It seems to me that you are a very lucky guy, whow, being payed for research! The best thing a human being can get payed for, just follow you passion!

Does this mean I don't agree with you? No, absolutely not, I think Josef Prûsa is pushing his good work (and his success)  a little bit too far at this moment, releasing Beta products as Final.

I am also using my I3MK3s/MMU2s SINGLE MODE.... as a tool for testing my ideas created with FUSION 360

In the meanwhile that doesn't stop me following my passion and try to help everyone who is interested in the magnificent world of creation!

Well just to keep you all motivated I attached some pictures from my latest work and believe me don't think that printers over >300.000 will do the job without any challenges .....

The pictures attached are about 3D printing regarding cultural heritage, in this case the museum Mauritshuis based in my home town, The Hague, Netherlands. Well enjoy and keep motivated!!

RE: MMU2 - will it ever work reliably ?

Ok, it seems to be that I can only attached one picture at a post....:)

Well here is the next, the full printed ready to assemble in my back yard:)