Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S  

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

I have a Mk3S+ set up next to my Core One and the difference is amazing. Some of the differences include a much faster print speed, more precision on the prints, more material capabilities with the enclosure, touchscreen control, built in WiFi Prusa Connect capability. There are many more you can read about in the sales literature. I would like to add that I built my Core One kit about 4 months ago and it has worked exceptionally well with no issues. I keep it upgraded to the most recently tested and released firmware and I use the latest version of Prusa Slicer. If you want more specifics on the speed and quality improvements, you'll need to compare the specs. I see many posts about people having issues but both of my Prusa printers have been flawless.

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

Would you care to buy a lottery ticket for me ?.  You seem to have outstanding good luck.

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

When I build my MK4 from a kit and then upgraded to a MK4S, both printers worked (mostly) flawlessly on every print. Took about 3 months of constant tweaking (upgraded from my MK4S) to get my Core One to the point where I don't have to worry about it (much). With the MK4S, I never had to deal at all with g-code. With the Core One I've had to become a g-code expert. 

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

I don't have the fond memories of the MK4S that others have here.

Mine had a major problem on the Y axis where long transits would cause a loud noise and a layer shift. Took a lot of tweaking to get that working right for moderately large objects. There was also the problem of the  Y axis calibration taking forever, as it was very sensitive to the position of the bearing on the left front. I fixed mine with a 1 or 2 mm spacer on the left Y rod. This was a pretty common problem.

For the CoreOne, my only problem was a belt tensioner that delaminated and split in two. My fault, as I was trying to square the gantry by bending it while the belts were under tension. Bad idea.

The belt tension and square gantry are two of the weak points of the CoreOne but it's generally been pretty reliable for me.

RE:

All the issues I've faced. Except for #1, the rest are mostly fixed and my printer is generally reliable but it took many weeks to get to that point. 

• Belts losing tension 
• X, Y & Z axis calibration failures 
• Bent gantry brackets
• Idler tension screw seizing 
• Layer shifts
• Nozzle cleaning failures 
• Long X/Y diagonal prints causing printer to crash
• Door sensor causing printer to crash
• Right side filament sensor getting stuck

Of course people who post here with issues could be in the minority but we will never know for sure. Since I didn't have any issues with my MK4S, I had no reason to hang out in this forum (I didn't even know about until I started having issues with the C1).

To be fair, this could just be teething issues with this being a brand new design. We will see...

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

@Chuck76, 

Just because hanging out on the internet has taught me to never assume... There is no practical upgrade path from the MK3S to the Core One.  It could be done but the cost for all the various upgrades would be significantly higher than just buying the printer.

That being said, I would like to provide a counterpoint to some of the posts that you may see on this forum regarding the Core One and dissatisfied customers.  I started my journey in 3D Printing over 5 years ago with the same printer you have, built from a kit.  Over the years it has been upgraded to an MK4, then the MK4S and finally to the Core One.  I have never, in my entire journey, experienced ANY issues with any version of the printer related to design or function of the printers (at least not ones that weren't caused by me 🙂 ).

The difference between the MK3S and the Core One (as indicated above) is significant.  I recently re-built my original printer (now upgraded all the way to an MK3S+ 🙂 ) to give to a friend.  It has been printing alongside my Core One for about a month now and the comparison is shocking.  Printing the same exact models the Core One is easily 3-4 times faster with equal or better quality in print outcomes.  The enclosure makes the use of more exotic materials a non-issue as well.

If you decide to pursue the Core One I strongly recommend building from the kit.  While the assemblers at Prusa do a fine job (I'm sure) no one will be as meticulous and careful about the assembly of your printer as you will.  In addition, the build from kit gives you an invaluable knowledge base about your printer's construction and allows you to make changes/upgrades as you build that will allow you to avoid some of the pitfalls faced by some of the Core One owners on this site.  This forum thread captured some of the more useful ones: Pre-tear down print suggestions.  Many of these suggestions improve on the design of the Prusa parts (improved belt pulley mount for threaded inserts for example) and others will improve performance with more exotic filaments such as soft TPU.  The modification discussed in this thread Core One Crash/Restart is one in particular that while relatively easy to do on an assembled printer, is simple to perform during the build and highly recommended.

In any event, should you decide to build from the kit be sure to carefully read the comments provided in the online build instructions as they provide important details and context from people who have actually been through the experience of assembly and are key to avoiding issues.

Regards,

Steve

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

Thanks for the feed back.

Steve,

I've had two Prusa kits which I enjoyed assembling.

Chuck

RE:

Posted by: @artur5

Would you care to buy a lottery ticket for me ?.  You seem to have outstanding good luck.

You only see that small (1%) of the people who have problems. Why you don't see other 99% who doesn't ? Well, to answer it: because only people with problems write here, that's why.  Pretty much no-one without problems will open this forum and start a topic with "i just wanted to tell you guys: my printer works like a charm"...

But back to topic about what do you gain with core one: 

- what i like most: internet connection. It's worth beyond explanation when you slice an item in prusa slicer, click "send" and printer starts to print; instead:

     - go to printer
     - remove usb key
     - insert it into PC
     - copy file
     - (safely) remove it from PC
     - go to printer again
     - insert it into slot
     - wait to be recognized
     - find your file
     - hit "print"

back on my MK3 days i've had a Pi3 and octoprint installed just for this purpose.

- way faster printing

- somewhat bigger print dimensions

- enclouse: it quickly comes to the point where you need to close your open printer or you face many detached prints, especially when you switch to other material from PLA

- ...

RE:

Absolutely do the upgrade (replacement, really, doing a bunch of incremental upgrades isn't worth it, as others have mentioned), it's a night and day difference from the Mk3S+! There's a reason that, shortly after getting the Core One, I started the process of applying the Master Chef Upgrade to my Mk3S+, rather than even keeping it around as a secondary printer (I do still have my Mini+ as a backup printer as needed)

RE: Advise - Upgrade to Core One From MK3S

Ugh the Mk3S+ I was so excited when it came out but man it took me a lot to get it dialed in and I was never truly happy with it.  Had constant issues with warping and of course it was much slower than the Mk4 and Core One.  So I sold it to a friend and got a Core One.  To echo what others have said-for me the big thing is the Wifi.  If I never have to fuss with a SD card again and my printer it will be too soon.  The auto bed leveling is lovely and while I liked how I was able to dial in my Live Z I spent more time and energy on Live Z leveling and making everything just perfect on the first layer only to have to do it again when I changed build plates I do not miss it at all.  The nearly twice as fast print times in most cases is also very nice and something I enjoy.  Now I am looking for things to want to print instead of relucantly wanting to print things with it.  Is the Core One perfect for me?  No I had some minor issues (like the Z axis making weird noises that was easy to fix) belt tension issues (finally addressed) and the VFA's being more pronounced than I would care to admit early on.

I could have and should have done the Mk4 upgrade back when it came out but honestly I had the OG PSU and between that and the upgrade costs it almost was not worth it no matter how I cut it because it would be the cost of a whole kit.  So I decided to wait until the next gen printer came out hoping it would be a Core XY.  And I was not disappointed.  Now I just need to get into multi-color printing.