Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
I really struggled with paying another $500 to essentially put my MK4S into a box and call it Core One. The Core One is just "better sameness". I was trying to find some reason to convince me to upgrade(?). But with the print area essentially the same and no integrated MMU, I'm sorry to say I cancelled the order. The big delay between announcement and product delivery actually helped me arrive at this decision.
I love my MK4S. It prints well, it's reliable, it just works. So I got to thinking, why am I going to take it apart and put it in a metal box. I do need to get another printer but unfortunately it won't be the Core One. A rare circumstance where my head won out over my heart.
RE:
I’ll upgrade even if the print quality and speed remain the same because it’s not just a metal box—it’s an enclosure with active heating for materials like PC, PA, ASA and ABS, which I can print on the Core One without any issues.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
it’s an enclosure with active heating
I think that's the key point. I've been printing PC and ASA just fine in a good old LACK enclosure on my MK3S, then Mk4S machines, but when it was time to buy a new one, the all-on-one aspect of the CORE One was intriguing. Better temperature control and smaller form factor, so more printers fit on a workbench. But if all you do is print PLA and PETG, the value proposition is less convincing, I agree.
After a couple of weeks or so of using it, I'm okay with the C1. It's a good printer but I'm not really loving it like I do my XL-5TH. It prints stuff, fine. The integrated enclosure works. But I'm no fan of the Modern Brutalism look of the metal frame, working on the extruder is awkward, the LEDs are anemic, the side cutouts are useless for anyone with more than 1 printer side by side, etc. Aside from the enclosure, the Mk3.5 sitting next to it is more fun and (until firmware upgrades address current issues) more reliable.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- https://foxrun3d.com/
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
That has come up a couple of times now, and seems a bit disappointing. I have seen Prusa praise the illumination in a few videos ("brightly illuminated", "illuminates the print like an artwork"). And I have also seen the lights mentioned positively in a few reviews, especially when compared to the Bambu Lab printers. Their placement on the front crossbar seems well thought-out too -- directly illuminating the hotend area without blinding the user.
So what gives -- why aren't the LEDs bright enough? How many LEDs are there? Has anyone checked what voltage and current they are operating on?
Or is the complaint mainly about the dimmed LEDs during extended prints? No sure whether the automatic dimming can be disabled entirely. Apparently it is not possible at the moment to temporarily set them to full brightness momentarily for time-lapse camera exposures. Is this the scenario where additional lights seem desirable, or also just for a visual check with the lights at their full brightness?
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
Maybe it's a matter of taste. "Illuminates like an artwork".. Yeah, most modern movie artwork is shot way too dark for my taste, can't see a thing. I just want more light to see things. not just the top of the print. When I swapped the nozzle for Obxidian, I had to get a flashlight to actually see anything.
https://forum.prusa3d.com/forum/user-mods/more-and-better-leds-in-the-core-one/#post-739561 shows one way of adding more LEDs, and I'm going to install something like that when I'm back home from my sojourn to warmer climes,
More light would certainly be useful for the camera, too. I monitor my XL and Mk4S's with Wyze cams but haven't found a way to mount them inside or outside the C1. I don't do time-lapse recording. My Wyze cams do real-time transmission to the app, and continuous recording to SD, so if something goes wrong I can go back and see when (and maybe why) it happened. I have BuddyCams on order, but the BuddyCam feels like a big step backward, with no ability to record and only snapshots (yeah, I know they're working on it, for what now begins to feel forever). And no, I don't care for ESP32-Cams. I used them for a few months and happily went back to Wyze.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- https://foxrun3d.com/
RE:
I’m in the same boat, but still holding on to my order. I love my Mk4s, but I want to print ASA, PA, CF, etc, that I just can’t do now (much). Adding an enclosure isn’t an option for me.
I realize the C1 is evolving; I’m prepared to deal with squaring the gantry and belt tensioning. And I’ll probably miss the openness and accessibility of the bed slinger.
In the worst case, I can always revert it back to Mk4s and easily sell the upgrade kit to someone else who wants to jump the line. Try that with an assembled or kit version!
MK4S/MMU3
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
I was planning on upgrading all my MK4S to the CoreOne, but just recently cancelled my order. I only print ASA on occasion, and right now just throw some blankets over my Mk4S and it works fine for my needs. I will likely upgrade at some point, but after seeing some of the initial issues folks are having decided to wait it out a bit longer. I realize some of the issues may be overblown due to negative post amplification (ie: VFA, vibrations, clogging), but figured my MK4S is working perfectly now so didn't want to take the risk.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
Do you guys know what annoys me a little bit about this forum? These litanies! Okay, did you order a device (printer) and then changed your mind and canceled the order? And I ask you only one thing, to ask yourself: What is it to anyone in the community after what decision you made in private? Sometimes it seems to me that you confuse this technical forum with a social network. If anyone has technical problems here, just ask a question here and surely someone will find and advise! But who cares what decision someone makes in their private life?
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
Do you guys know what annoys me a little bit about this forum? These litanies! Okay, did you order a device (printer) and then changed your mind and canceled the order? And I ask you only one thing, to ask yourself: What is it to anyone in the community after what decision you made in private? Sometimes it seems to me that you confuse this technical forum with a social network. If anyone has technical problems here, just ask a question here and surely someone will find and advise! But who cares what decision someone makes in their private life?
To be frank, your post seems more of a "litany" than the ones you complain about. 😉
In my book, discussing the pros and cons of a Core One vs. the very mature and stable Mk4s, weighing them based on different usage scenarios, and arriving at a personal conclusion certainly qualifies for a technical forum. That's exactly what several users have posted in this thread. It may help other readers in making up their mind about the Core One and their own purchasing decisions. What's wrong with that?
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
In all fairness to Miroslav, the original post was mostly a "thank you for the fish" post with no technical question, which then came from subsequent responses.
On the other hand, OP provided some rationale behind his choice (that of course can be debated) so I for one didn't mind it.
All in all it's nowhere near as bad here as say Reddit, where apparently every teenage boy and girl has to post that they just quit using [insert software of your choice] as if anyone gives a rat's ass.
And wait until they start posting pictures of stupid prints in random forums… I gave up looking at r/printables because it's mostly junk like that now. Hopefully we can keep these forums here clean of that.
Formerly known on this forum as @fuchsr -- https://foxrun3d.com/
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
In all fairness to Miroslav, the original post was mostly a "thank you for the fish" post with no technical question, which then came from subsequent responses.
On the other hand, OP provided some rationale behind his choice (that of course can be debated) so I for one didn't mind it.
Who says there has to be a technical question behind every post? I didn't realize that was a requirement here. A technical assessment (including one which leads to a purchasing decision) seems fair game to me.
Also, may I point out that we are in the "General Discussion" sub-forum for the Core One here. There are other, dedicated Core One sub-forums for technical help on assembly, hardware, firmware, software and printing. Hence I would argue that a technical question in the present sub-forum is actually off-topic. 😛
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
In all fairness to Miroslav, the original post was mostly a "thank you for the fish" post with no technical question, which then came from subsequent responses.
On the other hand, OP provided some rationale behind his choice (that of course can be debated) so I for one didn't mind it.
Who says there has to be a technical question behind every post? I didn't realize that was a requirement here. A technical assessment (including one which leads to a purchasing decision) seems fair game to me.
Also, may I point out that we are in the "General Discussion" sub-forum for the Core One here. There are other, dedicated Core One sub-forums for technical help on assembly, hardware, firmware, software and printing. Hence I would argue that a technical question in the present sub-forum is actually off-topic. 😛
Understood, but it is getting a little old. Lots of complaining these days, more complaining than actual help. Makes me want to stop looking at the forum some days. I originally came here to see what was going on in the printing world, learn some, and to help some, but if you look at what gets the most posts...... Complaining, hands down, and the threads that have complaining have more posts than any other.
I'm not saying you can't have constructive criticism, or ideas for improvements, or things you dislike, but the issue is that it's usually phrased in a very negative way, something like Prusa sucks yada yada yada. It just gets old and doesn't contribute anything other than pushing users away.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
I'm not saying you can't have constructive criticism, or ideas for improvements, or things you dislike, but the issue is that it's usually phrased in a very negative way, something like Prusa sucks yada yada yada. It just gets old and doesn't contribute anything other than pushing users away.
Hmm, our perceptions are different here. The large majority of posts I read does discuss technical questions. And those posts which criticise either a Prusa product or Prusa as a company are mostly quite specific in their criticism: Support being difficult to reach or giving unhelpful advice (with specific examples), lack of quality control in assembly (with specific description of missing or misaligned parts) etc. Personally, I have written a couple of times that I consider Prusa's full prepayment policy a bad choice for an established company in Europe, but again that's specific criticism, far from "Prusa sucks".
I haven't been on this forum for a long time. Maybe things are changing somewhat as the audience is broadening, complementing the "3D tinkerers and experts" with more "3D consumers". Expectations regarding ease of use, maturity of a product, out-of-box experience etc. may be changing, and that's probably reflected in some of the threads here.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
I personally don't mind reading on others experiences, thoughts, and decisions. Sometimes I find I'll pick up ideas to implement myself, or may help be with a decision I'm looking to make!
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
There is no active heating.
it’s an enclosure with active heating for materials like PC, PA, ASA and ABS
Anyway, how is the noise compared to Mk4? I was hoping to get very quiet printer, but from what I’ve been reading it’s not the case and Core One is louder.
RE:
There is no active heating.
it’s an enclosure with active heating for materials like PC, PA, ASA and ABS
Anyway, how is the noise compared to Mk4? I was hoping to get very quiet printer, but from what I’ve been reading it’s not the case and Core One is louder.
Correct, core one is passive heating up to 55 C (and can take a while to get to that point depending on ambient). Basically uses the heated bed. As a result, this works for most common materials just fine, but any of the more exotic filaments that need higher chamber temp won't be suitable for a retail Core One. I suspect most of those exotic filaments would need extensive modding of any normal prusa printers to print anyways, including adding active heating, and higher temp nozzles (Core One tops out at 290 C nozzle). For instance PEEK would need a 350C extruder temp, and I think 150C chamber. Of course that filament also costs $1k a kg roll too.
Edit:
https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide
Here's a great link that shows a large variety of printable materials and their temp requirements. I think all of them can be printed in the Core One, except for PEI which would need a prusa pro HT90 (or similar high end or commercial machine) or extensive modding of other printers
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
It is definitively a noisy chap.
Considering this is supposed to be an improved Mk4s in an enclosure it is not what I hope for qua noise. But then, we might be placing the machine in an enclosure and we expect reasonable noise levels afterwards.
Fact: print quality so far is fine. Just fine. really fine. And that's what counts.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
I guess if you wanted to ADD active heating you could get liquid cooling setup and use it to blow heat into the case. Place the power supply and logic board in their metal housing under the Core One. Take coolers/radiators meant for CPU’s and connect them to a radiator (like one used to cool a PC) facing up with fans behind it that blow the hot air harvested from the two to four hundred watts of power supply/logic board up in to the case. Use the blower fan inside the case to control the temp. I *think* 200 watts of dissipated heat should raise a cubic meter of air one degree Fahrenheit (sorry for freedom units) in 3 or 4 seconds…
If you plan to do this I’d advise swapping out all the PETG components with PCCF, but you do you.
Reuse the heat generated by control/power supply and make it an active heater. I also don’t know how much heat the extruder electronics can handle so use at your own risk. I’m probably just a dumb on the interwebz, so consider that.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
That is useful info and exactly what I came to hear. Despite working in a library, what matters most is odor (chemical smells) and particulates, not the noise. I think when my library is ready to buy another PRUSA, I will be going with the Core One. My library and I have come a long way since 2012 with our MakerBot Replicator, many of classes, many students, and many prints. (Makerbot was a real pain in the backside sometimes). But, from the very start, in 2017, the PRUSA has been solid for us. Its serendipity that as we come upon a new purchasing cycle, PRUSA put out the CORE One. The addition of the enclosure and heating is what we did not have. This forums has been a great help.
It is definitively a noisy chap.
Considering this is supposed to be an improved Mk4s in an enclosure it is not what I hope for qua noise. But then, we might be placing the machine in an enclosure and we expect reasonable noise levels afterwards.
Fact: print quality so far is fine. Just fine. really fine. And that's what counts.
RE: Cancelled my MK4S to Core One Kit
Thanks! That wil make my delivery faster 😉 And yes, MK4S is a very good printer, I have it in an Ikea Lack enclosure and I have printed all parts that hold moveable parts in PC CF instead of PETG, so I use to say I have an MK4S+ 😉 But by some reason I always wants the newest 😉
I really struggled with paying another $500 to essentially put my MK4S into a box and call it Core One. The Core One is just "better sameness". I was trying to find some reason to convince me to upgrade(?). But with the print area essentially the same and no integrated MMU, I'm sorry to say I cancelled the order. The big delay between announcement and product delivery actually helped me arrive at this decision.
I love my MK4S. It prints well, it's reliable, it just works. So I got to thinking, why am I going to take it apart and put it in a metal box. I do need to get another printer but unfortunately it won't be the Core One. A rare circumstance where my head won out over my heart.