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Feedback wanted for upcoming video: What do you want in future 3D printers? (Patreon)

Published:
2021-06-14 04:14:25
Imported:
2026-06
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Content

I’m tired of manufacturers contacting me to review cut-price clone 3D printers. These are typically Ender 3 clones with filament runout, a colour display, silent steppers, and sometimes ABL. All welcome features but in the end these printers are almost the same.

I’m interested in innovation from manufacturers, but what interests you? I’m planning a “Dear 3D printer manufacturers, this is what the community actually wants” video, so have your say!

IDEX, tool changing, Raspberry Pi integration, multi material, automatic part ejection, or maybe just paying more for a product that is properly tested and reliable over another budget clone? Have your say.

We have discussed this in a recent video hangout as it says and I've decided to make a video, probably at the end of next week. Please post below, or in the forum thread here (where you can easily add links, images, videos, etc): https://teachingtech.discourse.group/t/feedback-wanted-for-upcoming-video-what-do-you-want-in-future-3d-printers/2149

Michael

Files

Previews only

Comments

Brandon Wolfe

Honestly, from my own experience, idex is what I think the next big step forward is going to be. Price wise it’s not that expensive, and most modern budget printers have the space to add a second extruder and x motor movement components. Heck, even the boards won’t need a lot of changes if any at all (extra driver and all). I also found setting marlin for 2 extruders not that much more difficult to setting up 1. Only thing I’d still like to add to my current idex setup is a way for each head to lvl itself, but that’s more a quality of life thing. And I don’t see that option to far off. I think the popular response, though, is going to be speed. Decreasing print time is going to be abig leap forward for fdm. Heck msla printers went from 10 -16s cure times to 1 - 2 second in what feels like overnight. As more and more kits like vorons and rat rigs pop up, the more popular they will get. But…. They aren’t cheap. I think coreXY prices are still out of reach of most of those getting into 3d printing. I mean, that’s why we are seeing sooooooo many ender3 clones. They are cheap, fairly reliable, pretty easy to use, and can grow with the user. Creality could add a second extruder to an Ender 3 v2 for a $60 -$100 bucks over OG retail and would be one hell of a bargain, same way the Ender 3 was an amazing bargain when it was released. So… those are my thoughts. IDEX style printers and coreXY systems (though price will need to come down!) are the the two innovations I think are the near future of 3d printing. And, again, I’m going off personal experiences. I would looooove to have a coreXY system to smash out prints…. But at the same time I could get 3 or 4 Ender 3 v2 and get increase my print capabilities. Heck just get two and convert both to idex machines solely for the purpose of using dissolvable supports.

Geoffrey Pitman

I was going to come in and say pretty much the same thing, other than coreXY has no reason to be so expensive! Some longer belts, a bit more aluminum extrusion, which can't be as expensive as were paying for it in the volume that these companies can buy, a few extra pulleys and you're in business. I think the three motor bed is pretty cool like the HevOrt but I understand that raises price significantly. IDEX is cool, but I've really grown fond of my mixing Geeetech A10M and the 3 color mixer would be really cool. Or something like the MMU that's plug and play with Marlin. There's my $0.02

David Rolling

You captured all but one of my “top asks” with IDEX, tool changing, Raspberry Pi integration, and multi material. Last “top ask” is high quality. I’m willing to pay a premium for top notch quality. Physical build quality and top quality parts (eg mains power bed heating, extruded, and quietness). Wishful Asks It would be REALLY NICE if the printer detected printing errors like parts breaking loose from the bed and pausing or cancelling the print. Safety, saving filament waste, and avoid nozzle clogging. Auto shutoff when print job is complete. I worry when I need to leave the printer unattended especially at night. Would appreciate it auto shutting off vs integrating WiFi controlled electrical outlets. Material weight scale built into the spool holder. Would be nice to know if I have enough filament when starting the print. Active build plate cooling after printing. My glass build plate releases the parts when given time to cool. If there were cooling fans (or other mechanism) that kicked in when the print was complete. Might make sense for unusual printing like food printing. Predesigned for expansion - specifically in the power and electronics housing. Preplan space for things like Raspberry PI or other boards that can readily tie into power and interfaces on the control board. Auto-adapting to environmental conditions. Example if the room begins to cool mid-print the printer’s sensors detect and adjust to compensate (increase printing temp or slow the cooling fan). Proactive notifications about print job status. Yes the can be handled with a PI, but with EVERYTHING becoming network attached the base units should have proactive notification capabilities. Example text a picture, printer stats and print job stats on an administrable interval.

Jon Freilich

I own an Ender 3 v2, it's my first and only foray into 3D printing. It's great, but it feels like it's been 70% learning and adjusting the printer and 30% printing and focusing on my designs. How do we flip that over for people new to the hobby? Or a better question, how can 3D printers become more accessible for people who want them to support other activities? Having features like ABL, network/web access (a la OctoPrint), and runout sensors would be nice. But there are some fundamental issues that manufactures could focus on to push the state of the art forward: like building in systems for better calibration (squaring and tramming the frame, adjusting steps, etc.) and making firmware updates easier.

Richard Boyce

a lower priced Voron would be nice, not sure how the quality would suffer though. Speed, easier first layer calibration wold be a great start for the future. I think existing printers have reached there limits, stop cloning and start inovating .

Leo Blondel

I'm currently teaching 3D printing to kids. What would be great is reliability vin the results. The kids don't understand why with the same parameters the printer does not behave the same way

Jeff

would love to see DMLS, or some other true metal printing technology reach the consumer market.

Dan Wade

Very Large format. Very High speed Quality of a resin printer. Is that too much to ask?

Joshua Murrah

I think the market is missing mass-manufactured higher end printers - imagine a printer, with just a bit more performance/speed, Dragon-ish hotend, and a fully enclosed print area, would be like, something that wasn't a bed slinger. I also think there's too much focus on coreXY as "the" performance format... I believe cross gantry will come into focus in the next year or two. Takes more rails and steppers, but performance is high, with simpler mechanics... just more expensive.

james robinson

I would like to see more qualty components on a machine in an open source package. It would be nice to see companies creating a sound frame with genuine high end parts that are not cheap plasticky knockoffs of high end parts. I would be happy to pay for something that was quality right out of the box, but still operates in the non-proprietary environment that the lesser quality units are in. It reminds me of the early days of home pc products with a bunch of proprietary parts vs later when you could just get a pc with all standard components and you could buy whatever quality level you wanted. The problem I see is that the only way this is obtainable is by building it yourself, and many of us have less time for tinkering and need something that just works.

CJ Alcorta

SOFTWARE. It seems like every entry level printer has very similar hardware, but the firmware and slicer appear to be an afterthought. First time users can usually get the printer assembled, but then they're stuck with an outdated Marlin build and an ancient version of Cura. How many people do you know that have an assembled 3D printer gathering dust because they "just couldn't get it to work right"? All printers should have, at a MINIMUM, the following: - Built-in hardware checks: Prusa's setup wizard does an excellent job guiding the user through fan, endstop, and heater checks. This is a huge help for 1st time users. - Skew correction/compensation: Prusa's had this feature since the MK2's release in 2016. - Filament loading/unloading: Some printers don't even have a function for this and it's left up to the user to figure out. Or the function exists, but doesn't retract the filament properly which can cause clogging. - Bed tramming: There should be simple and clear on-screen instructions for adjusting the height of bed screws. Even if there's a BLTouch or other sensor, they'll work better if they start with a "level" bed. As for slicers, manufacturers need to focus on creating good profiles for existing slicers. Instead you usually just get a ancient version of Cura with the manufacturers logo on it. A user should be to pick the default profile for their hardware and get a decent print out of the box. Tuning a profile isn't terribly difficult and the company that built the printer should certainly be able to do it. Creality, for example, will release a printer, then develop an endless number of mods for it and release it as a Plus, Pro, or S model. They spend so much time and money coming up with incremental updates that don't even improve print quality. Imagine if they used those resources to build better firmware and printer profiles for their machines. Those developments in functionality would benefit every printer and user.

Andrew Walters

Multicolor. The current ways to do it are not things I imagine using on a daily basis. I want multicolor that is not a technical achievement, but something I can use to make a lot of models.

Michael Navarro

I am too new to 3D printing to really have a solid opinion on this... but lets throw the noob's perspective on this into the ring I suppose and don't yell at me too much, I'm new to this lol. As far as innovation goes I think the list looks something like this: 1) Printers should ship with some sort of choice between a PTFE and an all-metal hotend. They both have advantages, we should have the option to switch easily between both. Seems ripe for innovation here... we really are talking about just a handful of parts here and it doesn't seem too far-fetched to have a system where you could theoretically switch say the heat-brake and nozzle segment between Bowden and an all-metal solution. 2) We need to ship with better software and firmware. Now full transparency here, my first step into the 3D printing world has been with a clone of a clone of an Ender that is actually not "too" bad if you have certain skills (Lotmaxx Shark SC-10 v2). This printer would have 100% been a better experience if someone had taken the time to vet the software/firmware (Marlin V 1.1 if you were curious) and if they had it work decently out of the box. Now I am... somewhat accomplished when it comes to "Linux'ing" my way out of situations so getting up to speed on this point wasn't really a barrier to me; but I can see it as a definite barrier to people who don't want to get in there and flash their firmware, poke things and generally modify things to work with what should already be a functioning product out of the box. 3) An enclosure option is becoming increasingly desirable. There are usually only 3rd party options for this; this is ripe for innovation by manufacturers. 4) I would love to speak to what we should be innovating at an "architectural" level (IE CoreXY, CoreXZ, Delta, etc)... but I am only just now discovering them so it is all new to me currently. Off of the top of my head that is all I can think of at the moment. I'll check back in if something else occurs to me.

Danny Hermans

All metal direct drive hotends in an IDEX enclosed CoreXY with at least 30x30x40 build space and silent fans+steppers. Should be possible 😃

Teaching Tech

Thank you everyone for your responses. Between Patreon and the YouTube community tab there were over 900 responses. The video is out tomorrow.

krazyderek

One thing i noticed from the CR10 smart review i wanted to add as a late addition here. Packaging. I think it was another youtuber that previously mentioned that packaging is very good for the safety of printers, but not made out of very sustainable materials. Cardboard, or Mycelium (mushroom based) packaging would be far more recyclable or compostable. Having received a large 300x300 FFF printer, and more recently 9" resin, and wash & cure machines, i'm struggling to figure out what to do with all this foam packaging. I try to repurpose some of it for odd jobs, but 3/4 of it ends up in the garbage.

Teaching Tech
>>64430536

I agree. I've been hoarding the flat pieces for laser cutting. It's pretty good for under bed insulation too which I think I'm, going to make a video about.

Doug Walmsley

Michael, I'm attempting to incorporate Stepperonline model ISD04 to my Core XY with the new BTT Octopus board which will support 3x Z-axis drives and a single Orbi direct-drive extruder. Would be nice if you would produce a video on incorporating the board and closed-loop with latest Marlin. I viewed you SB042B closed-loop and it was informative but the closed-loop system I am incorporating is new and not too much out there on this setup.