LCD panel & UV LED life time  

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@vintagepc

I can confirm that the degradation of the LCD screen manifests as light bleeding through the screen causing ghosting and then just allowing light through entirely at total failure. About 2 years ago I built my old MSLA and this is precisely how the screen would fail. It actually happens temporarily if the LCD becomes too hot (hence the need to actively cool the screen from below) but recovers when cooled down. Eventually the issue starts to manifest even with a cooled screen and starts to become permanent damage at which point it'll need to be replaced.

The LCD I was using maybe lasted 200 hours of active UV light but about a quarter of that time was before I added a fan to actively cool it.

It seems a shame to waste the aluminium frame when replacing the part but having that piece put together at Prusa is probably for the best - I had a fairly janky setup where I added a small tablet glass screen protector to the 5.5inch lcd to provided rigidity. Assembling and shipping it as a single component is the only real way to ensure quality control on that particular part.

As @clearmindmetals points out, the cost of replacing a Form vat is actually higher and more frequent than replacing the screen on the SL1 - realistically, the LCD+FEP should be considered consumable parts.

To answer one of @mahmoudmohy10's original questions:
Q. Is the assembly of the kit easy; I mean Is there really a complete step by step guide that illustrates the assembly process?

A. I put my Kit together last weekend and the instructions (here: https://manual.prusa3d.com/c/Original_Prusa_SL1_kit_assembly ) were excellent. Was very straight forward and took me about 3 hours in total (disclaimer: I'd rate my technical experience for this kind of thing as mid-level to expert)

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Is it still the case that the displays only have a life time of 500h?

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@vintagepc

@hobsie

Thanks for the info! I searched everywhere for something like that. I build mechanical parts with very low tolerances and it has driven me mad that I was not able to properly tune in my Photon to some resins. This might be enough for me to justify an SL1...

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Posted by: @piranhamousemods

Is it still the case that the displays only have a life time of 500h?

I don't believe people who have the SL1 would have broken the 500h mark as of yet. 2-3 months of non-stop printing would hit that mark if 8hr days and 5 days a week was a standard work week.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Since the panels are out of stock I want to keep an eye on it and plan prints accordingly.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Just a follow up: I now own an SL1 and can verify that suddenly I can tune my resins properly. Before I had -0.3mm tolerance with Harzlabs Model resin on my Photon and now I have -0.05mm on the SL1. This is something that should be advertised.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

I m just curious if Prusa is considering upgrading to Monochrome LCD?!

I mean if Phrozen Mini (200$) has integrated monoLCD .... its expected for 1300$+ printer (SL1) to have one.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Wow.  I must be an early owner (non tester) — this is the first post I’ve seen about an actual LCD needing to be replaced on an SL1.  About a month ago I started noticing holes in the same spots in my prints.  After running some tests I contacted support and found that my LCD needed to be replaced — this was after 691 hours on the UV LED array.  I ordered a new one with the calibrator, but it was on back order.  I knew how long Prusa back orders can be (>1 year for a MMU2) so after some research I found on Amazon an Elegoo Mars Pro 2.2k 5” LCD screen that looked very similar to the SL1 without the aluminum frame.  After I ordered and received this screen, I broke the LCD screen and glass plate below it from my old LCD print display.  Then after several designs and prints on my MK3S I made a frame of PETG which placed the Elegoo LCD in the correct position in the old aluminum frame (I can send anyone the file for it).  I silicone glued all together (same as the original SL1 LCD is silicone glued).  This rebuilt display assembled in the printer the same as the original and has been working well.  Shortly after I installed it, the back ordered LCD screen and calibrator arrived from Prusa (surprise! surprise!).  I put that LCD screen in storage and used the calibrator as instructed to calibrate the Elegoo screen.  All is going well so far.  The Elegoo screen is reinforced but certainly not as strong as the Prusa one.  My next question is:  Is there a way to know how long I have printed on this LCD display?  I can subtract 691 from the total hours on the LED array but it seems there should be a better way — a direct way to show print hours from the time a LCD display was installed.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

Posted by: @mahmoudmohy10

Hi Guys

I'm about to order  an "Original Prusa SL1 kit + Curing and Washing Machine BUNDLE" , however I've some inquiries:

• Is the assembly of the kit easy; I mean Is there really a complete step by step guide that illustrates the assembly process?
• What's the life time of both the LCD panel & the UV LED?
• How frequently do both of them need to be changed?
• Is it easy to replace them myself & How much do they cost?

Thanks in advance

I am BIG Prusa fan, but nobody convinced me so far to go for SL1 instead of EPAX X1, except their great 24/7 comm. support ... and not even to speak about EPAX latest monoscreen X1-K, which is beast.

As I am aware, its unfair to compare Photon with SL1, but EPAX is on par with SL1... its high quality built, READY TO PRINT (preassembled).

If you are new to resin printers, I would highly suggest you to go for EPAX X1-K + Anycubic CureWash... 

*X1-K because it uses monoscreen, which lasts at least 4x longer than than regular RGB.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@hamza-b

Wondering if and when you purchased the X1-K and if you have already received?

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@tooms

If not, this is a feature that Prusa should add in their next software upgrade.  I have about 100 hours on my SL1 and don't want to be caught out without a replacement panel.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

For anyone else having issues with print layers not even being the correct shape (let alone poor quality), my printer has reached 607hrs and the LCD has failed. You can see from the video that the display test shows a weak logo (not very dark) and there are pulsing lines moving across it.

It seems the 500hr estimate I've read elsewhere is about right.

But otherwise the SL1 prints beautifully and I highly recommend it.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

It seems I can't post the video of the failure, but imagine a windows loading bar pulsing from side to side (or the lights on the front of Knight Rider if that's more your thing) and that's what my LCD now looks like. Faded and Knight Riderish.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@danypsi

hello man !

can send me your files for the elegoo screen please 🙂 

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@fredruggiu

Here are stl and f3d files for the frame printed on my MK3.  The Elegoo LCD is attached to the frame with silicone adhesive.

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@fredruggiu

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

I tried, but received the message "the file type is not allowed".

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@danypsi

Perhaps you can put it on thinginverse ? 

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@danypsi

if you have problems attaching files, here, try zipping them and attaching the Zip File

regards Joan

RE: LCD panel & UV LED life time

@fredruggiu

I'm sorry for not replying sooner.  Part of the reason is because the Elegoo display had less than 300 hours on it when I started to get bad prints. I replaced it with a Prusa SL1 display, and the prints are good again.  The Elegoo display may not have been the problem -- it looked ok when I tested it.  It was also cheaper and came quicker than the Prusa display.  I will try to attach the zip files of the spacer I made to mount it in the aluminum frame from the original Prusa display.  See if this works.....