Petition/Request for "Headless" Upgrades
Hi all, and mostly Prusa admins,
A few days ago I made an order for my second Prusa XL. I got a 5T and it's been a curve (a few issues, but constantly getting better).
I was trying to decide between an XL, MK4s or to wait for a C1, but given that the footprint has become a good selling point for me, I went XL.
Unfortunately though, I missed the fact that the 1T, 2T and 5T do carry noticeable differences, and mistakenly placed an order for a 1T when I should've done a 2T at the minimum.
Anyways, the whole objective of this is that during my time with the 5T I've realised that I don't really need all 5 heads in one machine, and the best balance for me at least is having 3 tools.
So I ordered the 1T with the intention of transplanting 2 heads from my 5T into the 1T and end up with 2x 3T printers.
Then the disappointment came when chatting with support and being told that there's no such thing. -- So please consider it <3
The reason for this is that while 5T is awesome for multi-coloured prints. I often find myself doing bi-colour at most, large single colour that span through some spools, and different combinations and situations that a 3T would excel in ("XL" 😉 ).
So this comes naturally with a forked request:
#1- Is to expand support and maybe create profiles for printers with 1,2,3,4 and 5 toolheads. At the end, the 5T profile can indeed work in a printer with a different number. (I had tool #4 dropping once amid print and had it off for a few days). The main diff from 2 to 5 is the splitter board and the 3rd PSU.
#2 - Is to sell a bit more complete sets of upgrades at different levels. I tried to compose a shopping cart with everything I'd need, but unfortunately not everything is in the store (which made me wonder if the upgrades themselves do come with all the parts required).
For example, the cover angle for the power cables that are required for the 3rd PSU is not in the store, the same for the cables themselves, and the same for the 90deg angle adapter. Some of these could be an off-the-shelf purchase, but I have no idea if they vary in any way from standard components or what's the spec so it's a lot easier to simply buy from the original manufacturer 🙂
I also could not find the necessary components for the nozzle seal, the little rubber/leather strap nor the hardware required. -- again, likely printable and off-the-shelf, but having the "package" would be probably the easiest $10 that Prusa could sell as it becomes a no brainer (even if it becomes a bit more expensive)
If the whole sale process would be a bit more flexible and be able to cater for these situations, it would probably help a lot of people.
The 1 to 5 toolhead upgrade is almost another 1T printer. I'd much rather buy another printer and transplant one of my existing ones rather than just a single upgrade and end up with "spare" toolheads. So if it was to be possible to have a "soft" upgrade, with all the required hardware just minus the tool heads, would be absolutely amazing.
Everyone needs and budgets are different, but I guess the beauty of an open ecosystem like Prusa, is that everyone could customise their setups that suits their needs. While it might sound that doing so could harm Prusa's sales, I'd say it could actually boost them as maybe there are many with a 5T that haven't pulled the trigger on another printer due to the cost, and having the ability to transplant toolheads with ease would open the door to get more printers.
This has been also discussed previously as there was a thread with someone discussing the idea, so I'm definitely not the only one and there's probably a dev opportunity here. (happy to help and tinker however is needed)
Those are my 2¢ --- Hope this resonates with more people.
Cheers and happy printing.