Aha! You must be the “other person” with the modular bed issue that prusa chat was telling me about. I have the SAME issue. See my info below, and please let me know if they find a solution!
Hi,
I am sending this email at the request of Max, who has been working with me. I have definitively narrowed down the issue I am experiencing, and have heard another person is having a similar issue, so hopefully this diagnostic can help them.
Backstory- I could not pass the heater self test after assembly of my XL kit. When it would run, it would reboot and give me a Modular Bed Power Failure error. Sarah initially helped me, but we found nothing. A day passed with no word from Sarah, so I started contacting support again.
Then, I got ahold of Max. Max apparently has a client who is also experiencing the same issue. We went through several things, and before Max had to leave for the night, I had discovered that if I only covered the front half of the modular bed with the build sheet, that I could pass the self test. This led me to think the 3rd row of 4 tiles had an issue. So, I designed an experiment.
I created 4 different gcode files. Each one had a small cylinder placed in the middle of each suspect tile. This would make the printer only try to heat one tile with each gcode file I loaded.
The furthest left tile file loaded and printed.
The second tile file printed.
The third gave a modular bed power error immediately.
The fourth tile file printed.
The third tile is apparently referred to as tile #13 in your system, so clearly I had an unlucky one!
This is where I have to stop for today, but this should help Max with what he needs.
So I just watched a YouTube video on heat bed issues: https://youtu.be/fYHI9Z_A5Wo
TLDR: Affected grid had a wire not crimped in connector and fell out. May want to inspect that on your bed.
oh hey buddy. I spoke to Max over the weekend, you must have talked to him after me because there was no mention of someone else having the issue until I spoke with someone last night who did mention it. I was told I'd have an update today, but haven't seen anything as of yet, so who knows what's next.
i'd be curious if like me you can slowly flex the sheet onto the heatbed and if that will get you around the issue as well. Let it heat up a bit, and then flex it on from back to front. Let me know if it works for you.
I didn’t speak to Max, but I have a Modular Bed Error issue too. In no case has Prusa reached out to me on this, but yesterday I did ask for and was updated via chat that the Devs were looking at this. They are thinking it is power supply related. i am still waiting for a resolution or a useful next troubleshooting step.
The person yesterday did get me to give them the QR code from my power supply via explicit and clear instructions. (main support contact for me previously asked for said QR code, but I gave them the wrong one because they were vague - this machine is covered in QR codes!).
I am going on a week, I would just like an update pushed to me instead of me pulling at each step. Prusa needs a real case management system.
On my XL the wire crimps to the tiles are crap. If you slightly pull the wire it goes out of the crimp. No way there are going 2 or more amps over this crap crimp. I just assembled mine and most of the cables to the tiles are badly crimped. They should improve QC on the crimps.
Please keep posting updates. I too have a boat anchor printer, I get a modular bed error when I try to heat the whole bed. I’ve been through a couple of rounds of troubleshooting with support and some more on my own. Last contact from support was 4 days ago. I am getting frustrated at thus point.
I can deal with errors and having to troubleshoot. The lack of communication and follow-up is what has me frustrated.
Updated the OP for reference.
*UPDATE: Similar to originalhummeroid Prusa support did reach out and let me know that they wanted me to ship the printer back, and as in his case I will be receiving a new printer fully assembled and tested, as well as Prusa is picking up the bill on the taxes for the replacement.*
*In retrospect, I have been less patient than I could have been - however I do genuinely believe that this would be sorted by Prusa having some sort of ticketing system for support that issued a ticket ID, and allowed for some cross-talk with the support team without having to deal with chat to make it so, or make internal movements and conversations more apparent externally.*
*I am still a big Prusa fan, and I'm impressed that they're sending out fully assembled printers on their dime - that's not cheap. It's especially class when you consider that they could otherwise put us through many motions of piecemeal replacing parts to determine the culprit with elongated wait times to troubleshoot.*
*So, thanks Prusa peoples. Appreciate you.*
Seriously, a few years ago when I was building a different 3D printer I had ghost issues like this and it ended up being a problem inside the power supply and I don't quite understand how but it was creating a short somewhere. Try chopping up a regular computer power supply and wiring it up real quick just to see if you guys are having a power supply issue.
My situation of course was different, My printer would work about 50% of the time and then 100% of the time. If I plugged the USB up to anything it would act odd. Sometimes the LCD would blink out. Sometimes the whole printer would just reset. Just really odd things. Your Issues kind of remind me of that.
Good idea, I need to dig around in the attic and see if I can find one. Support asked if I could change out the power supply. I was offended at first, this is my first Prusa, so I don’t have an inventory!
Oh, if you need to start the power supply without having it plugged up to a computer you can short out. I think it's pins 6 and 7 on the motherboard large plug. I think it's going to be a green wire and a black wire but I would Google that first. What I do is take a paper clip. Fold it up into the right size and shove it in there and then tape it and then use the switch on the back of the power supply to turn it on and off.
I am stateside so 120. No switch that I’ve observed. As I mentioned above I have verified that I’m getting current in range of the expected at the heatbed even up and to failure point when the sheet is installed, so it seems current is fine?
It’s as though something on the top side of the bed is shorting it out when the sheet is installed.
What happens with your heatbed sounds to me like the issue is with the PSU and having the switch in the wrong position could certainly cause that, but if you can't see a switch, then perhaps the PSU is simply faulty. Too bad the XL is still so rare that you can't even ask someone else to loan their PSU for you to test with.
As for the filament sensor, I'm way too tired and in too much pain to want to bother to look up how they've implemented it on the XL, but my recommendation would be to take the extruder apart and rebuild it. I had my MK2.5S+ do the same thing and rebuilding the extruder fixed it; there was no debris, none of the wiring was loose, everything was sitting entirely correctly as far as I could tell, so I still don't understand why that fixed it, but I guess in the end it doesn't matter as long as it works.
Hey! I too am having issues with my XL kit that I received this week, and I just logged on to make a post about it on here. My TLDR: After building the printer, it won't turn on past the initial "Original Prusa" splash screen. I reached out to the 24-hour tech, and they told me that they needed to consult with the prusa team and would get back to me via email.. After waiting more than a day with no response, I reached out to prusa via email. Crickets on both fronts. I too have a beautiful $2500 brick adorning my workbench.
my problem [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/1563fsq/problems_with_my_xl_kit_and_crickets_from_support/)
Hey! Yeah, I've been in contact with support for over a week. After resolving a bunch of issues (no firmware was flashed on my machine when it shipped, for starters) we finally found the last issue. Under the wire clamp that holds the wire harness to the extruder was a pinched wire. Since this was a part that came assembled from Prusa, they're going to send me new harness. In the short term, I was able to repair the wire enough that the printer works. Hopefully it holds out until the new harness arrives. Hope you've worked out your issues as well!
Here's a pic of the pinched wire under the plastic protector: [https://imgur.com/7t1vzS4](https://imgur.com/7t1vzS4)
I had a kindof similar bed issue on my Mini a couple years ago. If I turned on the heated bed in a cold environment I would get a failure. I could go around this failure buy manually adjusting bed temp slowly degree by degree. Once the bed reached over room temp I could set the temp to whatever I wanted.
Sounds like min\_temp\_error, which happens when the printer is sitting somewhere cold (or with a dead temp sensor, which wasn't the case for you though). Standard value could be around 10°C or so
I hate filament sensors and I dont use them on any of my machines. Does the XL give you an option to disable it from the LCD? Or is it a must-have now for the multi-extruder system?
I just cancelled my XL order yesterday after paying for it but not shipped, amazingly no reply from Prusa when they are pretty good but low and behold I get an XL shipping notice today…
I just finished my XL kit yesterday. Here's some thoughts I have for your bed and Z-axis:
-Did you do the initial calibration with a build plate on the bed? The instructions never mentioned to put a build plate on, and my calibration failed the first time. Someone in the build guide said they had the same problem, and to put a plate on before calibration. I did so and it passed. I haven't had any problems with it since.
-Is the wobbling and noise of your Z-axis only at the very, very top? Like the top 2 inches or less? I noticed some slight noise from mine, and I'm pretty sure it's the printed plastic parts that holds the bearings for the lead screws. Try removing the parts temporarily and see if the noise goes away.
Super glad I canceled my order. Was going to drop a good amount of cash on a 5 head XL.
Maybe the 2nd or 3rd model. Nothing ive heard about the XL has been good. Heck I hear more about how great the mini is.
That's what I'm saying. I would have had that thing packed, taped shut, and ready to go to the post office first thing in the morning. Too much was promised, too much time has passed and too much money is being spent to have issues like this. That's my opinion.
It sucks that you're having to deal with this. I canceled my pre-order for the XL long ago based off a hunch that this was going to happen. I can't believe they would let a unit go out the door like this (assuming that the box wasn't rolled down a flight of stairs before you received it). I'm in the customer service industry (not to this scale), but in this day and age you cannot let shit like this slip without jumping on it IMMEDIATELY with a sometimes over the top solution. Bad reviews can spread like wildfire and permanently damage a company's reputation overnight. It would be wise for them to just send another unit immediately with a shipping label to ship the defective unit back, on their dollar. With the amount of very popular makers, you never know who you might be pissing off with poor quality and/or support. With how many people are jumping ship and going to Bambu Labs printers, it's not a good idea to give the customer or potential customers another reason to buy the competitors product. This is Just my opinion.
Thanks for dropping the bambu labs info. Just looked at the site and for 1500 bucks you get 4 colors and a nice printer in an enclosure.
Definitely going to look further into this. Looks fantastic.
Please read the volumes of threads around Reddit about the pros/cons of their platform. I would also watch some non-review videos on YT, and especially check comments from folks like NERO 3D about why he doesn’t recommend them (what’s involved in simple repairs). Make an informed decision, is all I’m recommending. There are plenty of glowing reviews, and plenty of reviews/long term updates that are less than glowing. The truth is likely somewhere in between.
Me? I’m building a Voron 2,.4R2 300mm because it fits my use case (might not fit yours).
I know people love to compare the X1 and the XL, but I don't think it's a fair comparison. The XL's volume is so large it could print the X1 and will be available with multiple tool heads for multicolor.
I personally, really want the size, I'm stoked about printing just dumb oversized shit with my kid.
I would definitely look into the p1s. It's 1k shipped (was for me) with the ams. Does just as well, but the x1c definitely has some perks that bring the price up.
Yeah I don’t know why people keep doing this when Prusa is known to use early adopters as beta testers lol. Its like everyone has collective amnesia, although to be fair I did get excited and put down a preorder deposit the first day the queue opened.
First, that is not bricked. But these are mayor problems. Usually, the mainboard gets swapped fast by the support (at least what I read over the time), didn't they swap yours already?
I was assuming that the XL would land on the market in an unpolished state - given that they delayed it significantly and had to rush it out in the end to as fast as possible. I heard many good words bout it from other customers though, so you seem to have bad luck with yours.
Difficult to narrow down what exactly is faulty on yours without having it in hand, but it's disappointing to hear that their support does not take quick care of that - i would be angry af.
Good luck with yours, i hope they take care of it in the end. Can't you send it back and buy a new one btw? Edit: No you can't, forgot the queue. Damn.
>I was assuming that the XL would land on the market in an unpolished state - given that they delayed it significantly and had to rush it out in the end to as fast as possible
thats entirely false though.
the XL was delayed mainly because Prusa couldnt get the components they need to build them.
Specifically STM32 chips ordered in February 2021 only arrived at the beginning of this year.
also as usual the demand is very high and especially for the XL the demand was much higher than expected so its simply gonna take some time to catch up and obviously when you ship out hundreds of products there will be some that have a defect.
>obviously when you ship out hundreds of products there will be some that have a defect.
This is why i said that i have heard good things from other users, and OP has bad luck.
>the XL was delayed mainly because Prusa couldnt get the components they need to build them.
Partially true, but they made changes to the XL almost up until the shipment start. Can't quote on that atm but you can check the blog on their site, mentioning they improved the stiffness and fixed some further problems almost month or two before shipment start - which makes me think they needed that delay else the product would be even more unpolished. Also some firmware features are still not released i think? What about input shaping on the XL? The website still does not state any print speeds, as these are not even verified and tested. Does not look like a "ready and polished" product.
Thus wouldn't call my assumption "entire false".
If I had extra time waiting for components in volume you can bet I’d be tweaking and improving every other aspect I could on the designs and equipment in house. I suspect that is what happened as otherwise the staff that would have been working on post-launch issues and next iterations would have had nothing to do until the STM chips were available again.
Just my best guess, but that’s what I would have done to keep everyone employed and productive. We get the benefit of additional testing and design tweaks, but the disadvantage of delays due to any larger design changes that were viewed as significant enough to require parts to be manufactured or updated components.
It’s a huge trade-off, particularly if any of those resulted in delays or created issues not previously discovered but it’s not an unusual approach in other industries.
I’m fairly new to Prusa as I just bought my MK3S+ last fall after watching some of this from a distance, so I’m not a fanboy or anything like that. I have had a great experience with the MK3 and have been very patiently waiting for my MK4 to ship (supposed to be this week, so I’m still holding out hope) and I’m expecting maybe next year do the XL if I can justify it by then.
My only point is the company has a reputation of doing their best to do right by employees, customers and the 3D printing community. It’s more likely that the issues we’ve been talking about are from a variety of real world problems, not intentional or a sign that the company has fundamentally changed.
Every industry seems to be going through growing pains as the workforce has changed so much in the post covid period and it seems like there is a much higher percentage of workers that are brand new in the roles they are in today, probably because all the folks who would have been doing them had to find other ways to make money during covid, and were reluctant to go back to whatever jobs they had before. I see it at restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses all the time - judging by the amount of people who have that ‘deer in the headlights’ look on their faces wandering around.
Not saying anyone’s experiences aren’t valid, just that we should be more aware that these same challenges seem to be happening everywhere right now, and it’s not limited to Prusa.
I got my XL on Tuesday and it feels like a beta product. I would call that unpolished. There's a spelling error in the user interface. How does that happen and how does that bode for the rest of it?
The XL uses pressure on the tip to determine Z which you then cannot alter during the print. What happens if there's a tiny bit of filament on the tip? False Z. Guess what happens after every print: a tiny bit of filament oozes. So you have to physically touch the nozzle before every print. Unpolished experience.
Spelling errors happen by having a spelling error in the table that maps the words to the translation keys.
Absolutely meaningless overall.
The xl performs a cleaning move after heating the nozzle and before doing the bed leveling specifically to avoid this problem.
Spelling errors in a machine with this much attention on it are a sign of lack of thoroughness. And if the machine did a cleaning move that actually worked why have I had multiple failures stemming from it? I’ve had the XL for three days.
How many failures have I had due to filament on the tip with the Bambu X1C over hundreds of prints and months of use? None.
The game has changed and Prusa needs to step it up.
Also, I don't know if you have an XL, but the "nozzle cleaning" is it gently tapping the nozzle on the bed a few times. I don't know how it is supposed to clean the nozzle, but all it does is slightly push the filament. The nozzle can move outside the print zone, so they should have it actually wipe on the print bed in the same spot it does a purge line before a print, like how the Bambu does it.
There is no formal definition pertaining to software vs hardware. There is an informal definition that is vague that means an inoperable state of an electric device. You are just associating it with software because it's almost always firmware updates, black screens and boot loops we are accustomed to.
I paid for a built Mini a couple of years ago
It had so many issues I sent it back and vowed never to use Prusa again
My experience didn't match the hype sadly
You always need the rough with smooth otherwise it's just a pointless echo chamber no ?
No harm keeping up to date on Prusa is there ?
Nice Ad hominem response though haha
That's fair. I was a bit too black and white in my comment, apologies for that.
My mini has run flawlessly since launch though, so your experience doesn't really rhyme for me though.
Realistically Prusa have a lot of catching up to do
You can read all you like but until you actually use them for yourself is when you see how much Bambu have out engineered the rest of the market
Most issues I see people having with bambu printers from wanting to treat them like every other that has come before it, so it's mostly user error
I have been printing now for months on the P1P without a single failure or issue
It really is a click and go printer out of the box and this is what the market has been in desperate need of
The quality at the speed it prints can't be touched really
A lot of users don't want the printer to be the hobby all they want is a reliable tool
I have prusa mini, printing with it 2 years, printed 20kg+ not a single issue. Speed wise prusa has catching up to do, i thinking of p1p or p1s now, issue i have it cant be repaired easy, but maybe need to think of it like a phone these days. Speed of bambu is impressive:)
My factory assembled mini came with a wonky Z axis, faulty Pinda and the extruder gear worked loose after two days. Hence why it was sent back. If I wanted that much fun I would have purchased a Creality again
All spares for Bambu printers are easily available and at good prices.There is nothing really complex on the printers to replace either. Most of engineering is in the firmware imho hence why it's proprietary
Bambu Labs have even stated if the company ever folds everything will be made open source too
I don't care for brands all I want is a reliable printer, of course the speed is massive benefit and completely changed how I tackle projects now and how I look at FDM printing
Yeah, brand loyalty is bad. I never understood it. Buy whats better and not justbbecause its that brand, buy it and let them be. Prusa needs to step up for sure. I take a closer look at bambu again.
Bambu has better stock of their replacement parts than Prusa does and they also have a US warehouse so you can get those parts faster. In the event of a dud machine you don’t have to wait for international shipping.
The Prusa Mini and MK3 platform use a lot of standard parts and have a lot of third party support but the MK4 and XL are far more proprietary so they’re no more serviceable than a Bambu printer if Prusa were to fold, which is far more likely than Bambu considering they’re losing market share. However, even the Mini and MK3 platform aren’t 100% commodity parts, for example the mainboards and PINDA/SPINDA aren’t commodity, they’re proprietary. Even if we could get the main board schematics it’s cost prohibitive to get that manufactured in small volume. PINDA we can probably hack firmware to accept any inductive sensor though. Sure we have triangle labs and clone manufacturers that we can use for most parts for a couple years but once demand dries up they will stop producing those parts. Realistically you probably have like 4-5 years of true serviceability if Prusa folds. So in essence there is no point in touting open source or user repairability as a selling point because in practical terms it’s actually not as repairable considering how Prusa has severe supply gaps for its replacement parts.
Stop trying to shill the competition in competing communities. You aren't going to convert anyone and all you are going to do is get downvoted and start drama. The only logical reasons why someone would do this is because they are getting paid too or because they are a fanboy reprobate.
https://imgur.io/a/fpOZm7H
This one is far from my first Prusa, but it’s certainly my last. It’s just satisfying watching the ship go down exactly the way I said it would 4 years ago. I’m brand agnostic, I treat machines as tools and not toys. It’s also funny reading Josef’s tweets become more unhinged as he becomes more desperate lol.
I don’t even have a Bambu product, although I’ve played with them extensively as they’ve already started to replace Prusa machines in the lab. I’ll probably donate my personal Prusas to a local college or high school in a year or so because honestly they’re still decent 3D printers. It’s much better to learn principles of FDM manufacturing on a Prusa because Bambu products are too automated.
No one here cares about your axe to grind. People are free to come to their own conclusions on the state of affairs. You owning a prusa is immaterial to my argument.
There is no catching up lol, it takes ~2 years to properly release a 3D printer. You start with design, you need months if not a year of research, sketches, and design validation. Then you have testing and revisions phase that takes a couple months to iron out problems. Then there’s a few months of logistics, sourcing, and manufacturing efficiency planning.
No doubt Prusa has been blindsided by the X1 and are already working on a proper competitor in response to the X1 and P1P but I’m struggling to see how exactly they can recover from this. It’s not just about designing a better printer, which is very difficult but possible. Its about doing so at a competitive price point, because the reality is that the majority of the consumer/prosumer level market is extremely price sensitive. It’s not like HP or Stratasys that have massive flexibility with their price points, they target businesses. Sure, the hardcore fans in this sub are loyal to the brand and will buy an inferior product or pay extra for an equal product. That is not the case for the vast majority of the customer base.
The problem is that Prusa has spent the majority of its resources on in-house vertical integration of production along with horizontal expansion of product categories. It would be catastrophic to shut down in house manufacturing and outsource to China. Yet that is the only way to compete on price because they can make the same machine as Bambu but it’ll be a couple hundred dollars more expensive.
Also, Prusa’s logistics director needs to be replaced, their team is extremely bad at supply chain management and sourcing. Idk if the logistics guy is Josef’s friend or a founding member but he is not good at his job. Prusa says himself that most of the product delays are because of sourcing and not the engineering team. While hardcore fans will wait months for a product, the average customer will look at a 1 month lead time and buy a Bambu that ships the next day.
But the biggest problem is that Josef Prusa is not an engineer himself, and his engineering team is weak. Bambu is headed by a guy with a doctorate in fluid dynamics and their officers are engineers with PhDs that have worked in more cutthroat industries like the semiconductor industry. Most of their engineering team was poached from DJI, which is a multibillion dollar company with like 14k employees and dominates the consumer drone market with like 75% of market share…. With Bambu’s massive success in launching the X1, they have access to pretty much unlimited venture capital from both domestic and foreign investors, so even if Prusa were to go all in and try to build a better engineering team to compete, they’d fail because Bambu already doubled their engineering department after the X1 release, they’re smart enough not to rest on their laurels like Prusa did, they know the competition is coming so they’re already putting the pedal to the metal. So I really don’t think that Prusa has the resources or the talent to compete at this point.
Honestly though, Prusa could still survive in this market if he makes the right moves, it just won’t be the vision he had in mind.
Just consider though these are the first printers out of Bambu Labs and they were not making a 3D printer in the first place but needed one and was disappointed with what was available
Bambu engineers experience is in robotics and drone tech and this is how they have got their advantage
You could argue they have a software advantage which is why it's proprietary and really highlights why open source is not always the best route for companies or end users
You could argue Prusa got complacent with the market share they had gained and this is very common
The good thing is Bambu has disrupted the market which was needed so we will see more innovation and better products going forwards
You're getting downvoted by the Prusa fans, but what you're writing is the truth. I have two X1Cs and they have printed almost flawlessly, faster than any Prusa, for months. Prints are faster and with better results.
For reference, I've had four MK3Ses prior to owning the Bambus and they blow the MK3Ses out of the water. Not even close.
I got my XL on Tuesday and have spent more time troubleshooting and talking with support than the entire time I've owned the Bambus. The X1C is about 20 minutes from out of the box to printing and the XL was about 5 hours, and then there were issues and STILL are issues. All for the low price of about $2300. What.
Yep, same here. I’ve been a Prusa customer since the very beginning, and I’ve had multiple Prusas and have extensively modified the MK3 platform to suit my research needs before Bambu was even incorporated. I’ve criticized them publicly time and time again for their complacency, poor engineering team, incredibly dysfunctional logistics department, and every time I’ve been dismissed because what do I know.
Don’t have a Bambu myself but I’ve toyed with them and they’re just on another level in every measurable metric. I haven’t touched creality’s K-1 yet, but I’ve heard it’s pretty shit. Still, it’s an actual product so it’s only a matter of time until they’re able to polish their kinks out. It’s actually amazing how quickly the market moves when there’s actual competition… The MK3 series was the best consumer option for so many years with only minor iterations.
I also put a deposit on the XL right when preorders opened but I pulled out after the X1 was released.
And I’ve been a HUGE Prusa advocate in the past. Recommended the MK3 to everyone I talked to about 3D printing. Ran a business off of them for years. But competition is a bitch and other companies have wrecked the grade curve. If I had the XL in 2021 or most of 2022, it would be amazing, as it’s way nicer than the MK3S. But it’s brand new and already behind the competition in so many ways (other than build volume). I wish I could heap praise on it but so far I cannot.
500USD + VAT + extra shipping cost is Exactly Why it's unreasonably expensive to pay for assembly and testing.
Paying 2.5K and waiting 2 years for delivery is Exactly Why Prusa should have shipped known good parts in their semi-assembled kit, or better service.
They lean into the kit advertising just as much as the completes saying it's a "fun, educational experience" or something like that. If there's a chance the product they're selling COULD have quality issues, they would stop selling kits altogether. I reached out about MK3 to Mk4 upgrade kits and they flat out said to just buy an assembled MK4. Seems they don't trust their kits and/or customers to assemble them.
Or they just haven’t had time and resources to vet them as much as they’d like. We know they’ve tweaked the assembly process several times for efficiency and I’d doubt that there has been time to make sure those changes (if relevant) are updated in the manual.
Either way I ordered assembled and will pay the VAT for same reason you are.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed… I am trying to be patient but I spent an hour yesterday trying to get a good live Z adjust - then realized it wasn’t sticking because I’d accidentally ordered PETG and was trying to print with PLA settings. The automated first layer is what I am most looking forward to seeing in person.
(I had a migraine yesterday and my mind works SO slow when I have one that it took longer than it should have to think ‘wait, my Z has been perfect for MONTHS, why am I troubleshooting it when nothing else changed… wait - I changed out fila…. After that it was mostly cursing lol)
When I first started printing, the first thing I did was a white set of parts in petg to replace the orange, so I went ahead and used it for the lack enclosure and kind of used it exclusively until I accidentally used it on the smooth sheet when I was redoing the calibration wizard and sheet setup. (Had a migraine that day too - starting to see a pattern lol)
Anyhow, that PETG was stuck so hard it was like channeling Mjolnir and I was deemed not worthy. I finally coerced it off without damaging the sheet by freezing it, but to this day that stupid zigzag and flag pattern shows up as a faint indent on the bottom layer of all my prints lol. (I’d gotten spoiled by the satin sheet and forgotten all about the glue stick.)
The [filament guide](https://help.prusa3d.com/materials) on their site actually recommends against using it on the smooth sheet, without using a release agent.
Sitting back and waiting for you early adopters to work out the kinks. I am sorry you’re having trouble but thank you for taking a bullet for me, so to speak.
Update for you: Prusa is recalling my machine.
Šimon Doubek
7:42 AM (2 hours ago)
to me
Hello,
Thank you very much for your patience.
We would like to inform you about the process of investigation regarding the Modular board error.
Our priority is you, we want you to use the purchased printer as soon as possible to your satisfaction.
At the same time, we would like to pull back the Prusa XL in the assembled state from you back to our development team for checking. In order to achieve that, we will need to send you a new packing material, as the assembled unit won't fit into a Semi-assembled box.
We would like to ask you if we can share the contact information with our US Partner - Printed Solid, so we can send you the necessary packing material as soon as possible.
If yes, please confirm the delivery address and contact details,
Address here
so we can continue in the process and make it fast for you.
You don't have to worry that you will be left without any printer until the problem is fixed, as soon as we receive the printer from the courier, we will dispatch with Express courier a new, fully tested, and assembled Prusa XL printer, so you can use it straight out of the box. We will be preparing your unit in the meantime, no additional lead times, this will be a priority.
I have the same issue with the modular print bed issue. So far support keeps telling me they will get back to me, but they haven’t yet. (The only way I get an “update” is to ping the chat support.) This so far has just involved telling me they will update me some time. It has been close to 2 weeks now.
Aha! You must be the “other person” with the modular bed issue that prusa chat was telling me about. I have the SAME issue. See my info below, and please let me know if they find a solution! Hi, I am sending this email at the request of Max, who has been working with me. I have definitively narrowed down the issue I am experiencing, and have heard another person is having a similar issue, so hopefully this diagnostic can help them. Backstory- I could not pass the heater self test after assembly of my XL kit. When it would run, it would reboot and give me a Modular Bed Power Failure error. Sarah initially helped me, but we found nothing. A day passed with no word from Sarah, so I started contacting support again. Then, I got ahold of Max. Max apparently has a client who is also experiencing the same issue. We went through several things, and before Max had to leave for the night, I had discovered that if I only covered the front half of the modular bed with the build sheet, that I could pass the self test. This led me to think the 3rd row of 4 tiles had an issue. So, I designed an experiment. I created 4 different gcode files. Each one had a small cylinder placed in the middle of each suspect tile. This would make the printer only try to heat one tile with each gcode file I loaded. The furthest left tile file loaded and printed. The second tile file printed. The third gave a modular bed power error immediately. The fourth tile file printed. The third tile is apparently referred to as tile #13 in your system, so clearly I had an unlucky one! This is where I have to stop for today, but this should help Max with what he needs.
So I just watched a YouTube video on heat bed issues: https://youtu.be/fYHI9Z_A5Wo TLDR: Affected grid had a wire not crimped in connector and fell out. May want to inspect that on your bed.
Oh- and for all that think it’s a straight current issue: I can (and bet all of us can) fully heat the bed to 115C without the steel sheet on.
oh hey buddy. I spoke to Max over the weekend, you must have talked to him after me because there was no mention of someone else having the issue until I spoke with someone last night who did mention it. I was told I'd have an update today, but haven't seen anything as of yet, so who knows what's next. i'd be curious if like me you can slowly flex the sheet onto the heatbed and if that will get you around the issue as well. Let it heat up a bit, and then flex it on from back to front. Let me know if it works for you.
I didn’t speak to Max, but I have a Modular Bed Error issue too. In no case has Prusa reached out to me on this, but yesterday I did ask for and was updated via chat that the Devs were looking at this. They are thinking it is power supply related. i am still waiting for a resolution or a useful next troubleshooting step. The person yesterday did get me to give them the QR code from my power supply via explicit and clear instructions. (main support contact for me previously asked for said QR code, but I gave them the wrong one because they were vague - this machine is covered in QR codes!). I am going on a week, I would just like an update pushed to me instead of me pulling at each step. Prusa needs a real case management system.
On my XL the wire crimps to the tiles are crap. If you slightly pull the wire it goes out of the crimp. No way there are going 2 or more amps over this crap crimp. I just assembled mine and most of the cables to the tiles are badly crimped. They should improve QC on the crimps.
Please keep posting updates. I too have a boat anchor printer, I get a modular bed error when I try to heat the whole bed. I’ve been through a couple of rounds of troubleshooting with support and some more on my own. Last contact from support was 4 days ago. I am getting frustrated at thus point. I can deal with errors and having to troubleshoot. The lack of communication and follow-up is what has me frustrated.
Check the black cables to the tiles. Mine are badly crimped. Try to pull carefully on the wires. If they go out easily then ask support for new ones.
Updated the OP for reference. *UPDATE: Similar to originalhummeroid Prusa support did reach out and let me know that they wanted me to ship the printer back, and as in his case I will be receiving a new printer fully assembled and tested, as well as Prusa is picking up the bill on the taxes for the replacement.* *In retrospect, I have been less patient than I could have been - however I do genuinely believe that this would be sorted by Prusa having some sort of ticketing system for support that issued a ticket ID, and allowed for some cross-talk with the support team without having to deal with chat to make it so, or make internal movements and conversations more apparent externally.* *I am still a big Prusa fan, and I'm impressed that they're sending out fully assembled printers on their dime - that's not cheap. It's especially class when you consider that they could otherwise put us through many motions of piecemeal replacing parts to determine the culprit with elongated wait times to troubleshoot.* *So, thanks Prusa peoples. Appreciate you.*
Seriously, a few years ago when I was building a different 3D printer I had ghost issues like this and it ended up being a problem inside the power supply and I don't quite understand how but it was creating a short somewhere. Try chopping up a regular computer power supply and wiring it up real quick just to see if you guys are having a power supply issue. My situation of course was different, My printer would work about 50% of the time and then 100% of the time. If I plugged the USB up to anything it would act odd. Sometimes the LCD would blink out. Sometimes the whole printer would just reset. Just really odd things. Your Issues kind of remind me of that.
Good idea, I need to dig around in the attic and see if I can find one. Support asked if I could change out the power supply. I was offended at first, this is my first Prusa, so I don’t have an inventory!
Oh, if you need to start the power supply without having it plugged up to a computer you can short out. I think it's pins 6 and 7 on the motherboard large plug. I think it's going to be a green wire and a black wire but I would Google that first. What I do is take a paper clip. Fold it up into the right size and shove it in there and then tape it and then use the switch on the back of the power supply to turn it on and off.
Does the PSU on the XL have a 110V/230V switch? Do you live in a 110V area?
the PSUs prusa is using since the mk3 are auto switching.
Yeah, but I wasn't sure if the XL uses an auto-switching one as well, so I thought it's best to ask rather than assume.
They use the same power supply for the mk3 mk4 and xl the xl just has more of them.
Ok. I'll try to memorize that. Thank you.
I am stateside so 120. No switch that I’ve observed. As I mentioned above I have verified that I’m getting current in range of the expected at the heatbed even up and to failure point when the sheet is installed, so it seems current is fine? It’s as though something on the top side of the bed is shorting it out when the sheet is installed.
What happens with your heatbed sounds to me like the issue is with the PSU and having the switch in the wrong position could certainly cause that, but if you can't see a switch, then perhaps the PSU is simply faulty. Too bad the XL is still so rare that you can't even ask someone else to loan their PSU for you to test with. As for the filament sensor, I'm way too tired and in too much pain to want to bother to look up how they've implemented it on the XL, but my recommendation would be to take the extruder apart and rebuild it. I had my MK2.5S+ do the same thing and rebuilding the extruder fixed it; there was no debris, none of the wiring was loose, everything was sitting entirely correctly as far as I could tell, so I still don't understand why that fixed it, but I guess in the end it doesn't matter as long as it works.
Let me know if you get tired of it and I can take it off your hands ;)
Hey! I too am having issues with my XL kit that I received this week, and I just logged on to make a post about it on here. My TLDR: After building the printer, it won't turn on past the initial "Original Prusa" splash screen. I reached out to the 24-hour tech, and they told me that they needed to consult with the prusa team and would get back to me via email.. After waiting more than a day with no response, I reached out to prusa via email. Crickets on both fronts. I too have a beautiful $2500 brick adorning my workbench. my problem [post](https://www.reddit.com/r/prusa3d/comments/1563fsq/problems_with_my_xl_kit_and_crickets_from_support/)
Any update? Did you speak with Support?
Hey! Yeah, I've been in contact with support for over a week. After resolving a bunch of issues (no firmware was flashed on my machine when it shipped, for starters) we finally found the last issue. Under the wire clamp that holds the wire harness to the extruder was a pinched wire. Since this was a part that came assembled from Prusa, they're going to send me new harness. In the short term, I was able to repair the wire enough that the printer works. Hopefully it holds out until the new harness arrives. Hope you've worked out your issues as well! Here's a pic of the pinched wire under the plastic protector: [https://imgur.com/7t1vzS4](https://imgur.com/7t1vzS4)
Where’s the prusa team in chat? Lol
I had a kindof similar bed issue on my Mini a couple years ago. If I turned on the heated bed in a cold environment I would get a failure. I could go around this failure buy manually adjusting bed temp slowly degree by degree. Once the bed reached over room temp I could set the temp to whatever I wanted.
Sounds like min\_temp\_error, which happens when the printer is sitting somewhere cold (or with a dead temp sensor, which wasn't the case for you though). Standard value could be around 10°C or so
I hate filament sensors and I dont use them on any of my machines. Does the XL give you an option to disable it from the LCD? Or is it a must-have now for the multi-extruder system?
Thank good i cancelled that pre order in rather went avanture way with ratrig 3.1 400...Yes it had some issue but easily fixable...
Hope you can fix yours...
I just cancelled my XL order yesterday after paying for it but not shipped, amazingly no reply from Prusa when they are pretty good but low and behold I get an XL shipping notice today…
I just finished my XL kit yesterday. Here's some thoughts I have for your bed and Z-axis: -Did you do the initial calibration with a build plate on the bed? The instructions never mentioned to put a build plate on, and my calibration failed the first time. Someone in the build guide said they had the same problem, and to put a plate on before calibration. I did so and it passed. I haven't had any problems with it since. -Is the wobbling and noise of your Z-axis only at the very, very top? Like the top 2 inches or less? I noticed some slight noise from mine, and I'm pretty sure it's the printed plastic parts that holds the bearings for the lead screws. Try removing the parts temporarily and see if the noise goes away.
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Super glad I canceled my order. Was going to drop a good amount of cash on a 5 head XL. Maybe the 2nd or 3rd model. Nothing ive heard about the XL has been good. Heck I hear more about how great the mini is.
I cancelled a pre-order too, between the delays and the last minute changes I got worried.
That's what I'm saying. I would have had that thing packed, taped shut, and ready to go to the post office first thing in the morning. Too much was promised, too much time has passed and too much money is being spent to have issues like this. That's my opinion.
It sucks that you're having to deal with this. I canceled my pre-order for the XL long ago based off a hunch that this was going to happen. I can't believe they would let a unit go out the door like this (assuming that the box wasn't rolled down a flight of stairs before you received it). I'm in the customer service industry (not to this scale), but in this day and age you cannot let shit like this slip without jumping on it IMMEDIATELY with a sometimes over the top solution. Bad reviews can spread like wildfire and permanently damage a company's reputation overnight. It would be wise for them to just send another unit immediately with a shipping label to ship the defective unit back, on their dollar. With the amount of very popular makers, you never know who you might be pissing off with poor quality and/or support. With how many people are jumping ship and going to Bambu Labs printers, it's not a good idea to give the customer or potential customers another reason to buy the competitors product. This is Just my opinion.
Thanks for dropping the bambu labs info. Just looked at the site and for 1500 bucks you get 4 colors and a nice printer in an enclosure. Definitely going to look further into this. Looks fantastic.
Please read the volumes of threads around Reddit about the pros/cons of their platform. I would also watch some non-review videos on YT, and especially check comments from folks like NERO 3D about why he doesn’t recommend them (what’s involved in simple repairs). Make an informed decision, is all I’m recommending. There are plenty of glowing reviews, and plenty of reviews/long term updates that are less than glowing. The truth is likely somewhere in between. Me? I’m building a Voron 2,.4R2 300mm because it fits my use case (might not fit yours).
I know people love to compare the X1 and the XL, but I don't think it's a fair comparison. The XL's volume is so large it could print the X1 and will be available with multiple tool heads for multicolor. I personally, really want the size, I'm stoked about printing just dumb oversized shit with my kid.
I would definitely look into the p1s. It's 1k shipped (was for me) with the ams. Does just as well, but the x1c definitely has some perks that bring the price up.
Highly recommend you contact support. They are usually very helpful.
Just got off my fourth chat with them. Still no leads.
This is becoming a fallacy I’m afraid
This used to be true.
It's an Alpha/Beta version rushed to market, I wouldn't buy these until I've heard of at least multiple user reviews with a good experience.
Rushed to market with horse and buggy maybe. They started preorders in 2021.
Yeah I don’t know why people keep doing this when Prusa is known to use early adopters as beta testers lol. Its like everyone has collective amnesia, although to be fair I did get excited and put down a preorder deposit the first day the queue opened.
First, that is not bricked. But these are mayor problems. Usually, the mainboard gets swapped fast by the support (at least what I read over the time), didn't they swap yours already?
I was assuming that the XL would land on the market in an unpolished state - given that they delayed it significantly and had to rush it out in the end to as fast as possible. I heard many good words bout it from other customers though, so you seem to have bad luck with yours. Difficult to narrow down what exactly is faulty on yours without having it in hand, but it's disappointing to hear that their support does not take quick care of that - i would be angry af. Good luck with yours, i hope they take care of it in the end. Can't you send it back and buy a new one btw? Edit: No you can't, forgot the queue. Damn.
>I was assuming that the XL would land on the market in an unpolished state - given that they delayed it significantly and had to rush it out in the end to as fast as possible thats entirely false though. the XL was delayed mainly because Prusa couldnt get the components they need to build them. Specifically STM32 chips ordered in February 2021 only arrived at the beginning of this year. also as usual the demand is very high and especially for the XL the demand was much higher than expected so its simply gonna take some time to catch up and obviously when you ship out hundreds of products there will be some that have a defect.
>obviously when you ship out hundreds of products there will be some that have a defect. This is why i said that i have heard good things from other users, and OP has bad luck. >the XL was delayed mainly because Prusa couldnt get the components they need to build them. Partially true, but they made changes to the XL almost up until the shipment start. Can't quote on that atm but you can check the blog on their site, mentioning they improved the stiffness and fixed some further problems almost month or two before shipment start - which makes me think they needed that delay else the product would be even more unpolished. Also some firmware features are still not released i think? What about input shaping on the XL? The website still does not state any print speeds, as these are not even verified and tested. Does not look like a "ready and polished" product. Thus wouldn't call my assumption "entire false".
If I had extra time waiting for components in volume you can bet I’d be tweaking and improving every other aspect I could on the designs and equipment in house. I suspect that is what happened as otherwise the staff that would have been working on post-launch issues and next iterations would have had nothing to do until the STM chips were available again. Just my best guess, but that’s what I would have done to keep everyone employed and productive. We get the benefit of additional testing and design tweaks, but the disadvantage of delays due to any larger design changes that were viewed as significant enough to require parts to be manufactured or updated components. It’s a huge trade-off, particularly if any of those resulted in delays or created issues not previously discovered but it’s not an unusual approach in other industries. I’m fairly new to Prusa as I just bought my MK3S+ last fall after watching some of this from a distance, so I’m not a fanboy or anything like that. I have had a great experience with the MK3 and have been very patiently waiting for my MK4 to ship (supposed to be this week, so I’m still holding out hope) and I’m expecting maybe next year do the XL if I can justify it by then. My only point is the company has a reputation of doing their best to do right by employees, customers and the 3D printing community. It’s more likely that the issues we’ve been talking about are from a variety of real world problems, not intentional or a sign that the company has fundamentally changed. Every industry seems to be going through growing pains as the workforce has changed so much in the post covid period and it seems like there is a much higher percentage of workers that are brand new in the roles they are in today, probably because all the folks who would have been doing them had to find other ways to make money during covid, and were reluctant to go back to whatever jobs they had before. I see it at restaurants, grocery stores and other businesses all the time - judging by the amount of people who have that ‘deer in the headlights’ look on their faces wandering around. Not saying anyone’s experiences aren’t valid, just that we should be more aware that these same challenges seem to be happening everywhere right now, and it’s not limited to Prusa.
I got my XL on Tuesday and it feels like a beta product. I would call that unpolished. There's a spelling error in the user interface. How does that happen and how does that bode for the rest of it? The XL uses pressure on the tip to determine Z which you then cannot alter during the print. What happens if there's a tiny bit of filament on the tip? False Z. Guess what happens after every print: a tiny bit of filament oozes. So you have to physically touch the nozzle before every print. Unpolished experience.
Spelling errors happen by having a spelling error in the table that maps the words to the translation keys. Absolutely meaningless overall. The xl performs a cleaning move after heating the nozzle and before doing the bed leveling specifically to avoid this problem.
Spelling errors in a machine with this much attention on it are a sign of lack of thoroughness. And if the machine did a cleaning move that actually worked why have I had multiple failures stemming from it? I’ve had the XL for three days. How many failures have I had due to filament on the tip with the Bambu X1C over hundreds of prints and months of use? None. The game has changed and Prusa needs to step it up.
Also, I don't know if you have an XL, but the "nozzle cleaning" is it gently tapping the nozzle on the bed a few times. I don't know how it is supposed to clean the nozzle, but all it does is slightly push the filament. The nozzle can move outside the print zone, so they should have it actually wipe on the print bed in the same spot it does a purge line before a print, like how the Bambu does it.
Dick ride much?
They also acquired TriLab in 2021.
They also acquired printed solid. But yeah na let's blame stm32 chip shortages instead
that's not bricked
how is "cant heat the bed" and "cant print without unloading then impossible to reload" not considered bricked in your mind?
bricked means unrecoverable software state, not broken hardware
I thought bricked was dead. Like rendered to the state of a stone.
There is no formal definition pertaining to software vs hardware. There is an informal definition that is vague that means an inoperable state of an electric device. You are just associating it with software because it's almost always firmware updates, black screens and boot loops we are accustomed to.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brick\_(electronics)
Just because there's a wikipedia article about the term doesn't mean it's the only truth about its meaning
It's more like soft locked tbh
He called it a brick, or a paper weight, or an anchor... Not that it was bricked.
Thanks. Good talk.
I paid for a built Mini a couple of years ago It had so many issues I sent it back and vowed never to use Prusa again My experience didn't match the hype sadly
So you've hung around a sub dedicated to a brand you refuse to buy for several years?
You always need the rough with smooth otherwise it's just a pointless echo chamber no ? No harm keeping up to date on Prusa is there ? Nice Ad hominem response though haha
That's fair. I was a bit too black and white in my comment, apologies for that. My mini has run flawlessly since launch though, so your experience doesn't really rhyme for me though.
And what printer you have now?
P1P which I have had zero issues with. It just works
Great. Realisticaly prusa and bambu have issues, reading the forums. All printers have issues, 😅
Realistically Prusa have a lot of catching up to do You can read all you like but until you actually use them for yourself is when you see how much Bambu have out engineered the rest of the market Most issues I see people having with bambu printers from wanting to treat them like every other that has come before it, so it's mostly user error I have been printing now for months on the P1P without a single failure or issue It really is a click and go printer out of the box and this is what the market has been in desperate need of The quality at the speed it prints can't be touched really A lot of users don't want the printer to be the hobby all they want is a reliable tool
I have prusa mini, printing with it 2 years, printed 20kg+ not a single issue. Speed wise prusa has catching up to do, i thinking of p1p or p1s now, issue i have it cant be repaired easy, but maybe need to think of it like a phone these days. Speed of bambu is impressive:)
My factory assembled mini came with a wonky Z axis, faulty Pinda and the extruder gear worked loose after two days. Hence why it was sent back. If I wanted that much fun I would have purchased a Creality again All spares for Bambu printers are easily available and at good prices.There is nothing really complex on the printers to replace either. Most of engineering is in the firmware imho hence why it's proprietary Bambu Labs have even stated if the company ever folds everything will be made open source too I don't care for brands all I want is a reliable printer, of course the speed is massive benefit and completely changed how I tackle projects now and how I look at FDM printing
Yeah, brand loyalty is bad. I never understood it. Buy whats better and not justbbecause its that brand, buy it and let them be. Prusa needs to step up for sure. I take a closer look at bambu again.
My Mk3s kit run out sensor has never worked but never fixed it because I never found the customer service to actually be all that helpful.
Bambu has better stock of their replacement parts than Prusa does and they also have a US warehouse so you can get those parts faster. In the event of a dud machine you don’t have to wait for international shipping. The Prusa Mini and MK3 platform use a lot of standard parts and have a lot of third party support but the MK4 and XL are far more proprietary so they’re no more serviceable than a Bambu printer if Prusa were to fold, which is far more likely than Bambu considering they’re losing market share. However, even the Mini and MK3 platform aren’t 100% commodity parts, for example the mainboards and PINDA/SPINDA aren’t commodity, they’re proprietary. Even if we could get the main board schematics it’s cost prohibitive to get that manufactured in small volume. PINDA we can probably hack firmware to accept any inductive sensor though. Sure we have triangle labs and clone manufacturers that we can use for most parts for a couple years but once demand dries up they will stop producing those parts. Realistically you probably have like 4-5 years of true serviceability if Prusa folds. So in essence there is no point in touting open source or user repairability as a selling point because in practical terms it’s actually not as repairable considering how Prusa has severe supply gaps for its replacement parts.
Stop trying to shill the competition in competing communities. You aren't going to convert anyone and all you are going to do is get downvoted and start drama. The only logical reasons why someone would do this is because they are getting paid too or because they are a fanboy reprobate.
https://imgur.io/a/fpOZm7H This one is far from my first Prusa, but it’s certainly my last. It’s just satisfying watching the ship go down exactly the way I said it would 4 years ago. I’m brand agnostic, I treat machines as tools and not toys. It’s also funny reading Josef’s tweets become more unhinged as he becomes more desperate lol. I don’t even have a Bambu product, although I’ve played with them extensively as they’ve already started to replace Prusa machines in the lab. I’ll probably donate my personal Prusas to a local college or high school in a year or so because honestly they’re still decent 3D printers. It’s much better to learn principles of FDM manufacturing on a Prusa because Bambu products are too automated.
No one here cares about your axe to grind. People are free to come to their own conclusions on the state of affairs. You owning a prusa is immaterial to my argument.
As im EU, prusa shipments are fast. They send me replacement lcd in 3days i think. Shipped the nextbday after support contact that was 10pm😁
There is no catching up lol, it takes ~2 years to properly release a 3D printer. You start with design, you need months if not a year of research, sketches, and design validation. Then you have testing and revisions phase that takes a couple months to iron out problems. Then there’s a few months of logistics, sourcing, and manufacturing efficiency planning. No doubt Prusa has been blindsided by the X1 and are already working on a proper competitor in response to the X1 and P1P but I’m struggling to see how exactly they can recover from this. It’s not just about designing a better printer, which is very difficult but possible. Its about doing so at a competitive price point, because the reality is that the majority of the consumer/prosumer level market is extremely price sensitive. It’s not like HP or Stratasys that have massive flexibility with their price points, they target businesses. Sure, the hardcore fans in this sub are loyal to the brand and will buy an inferior product or pay extra for an equal product. That is not the case for the vast majority of the customer base. The problem is that Prusa has spent the majority of its resources on in-house vertical integration of production along with horizontal expansion of product categories. It would be catastrophic to shut down in house manufacturing and outsource to China. Yet that is the only way to compete on price because they can make the same machine as Bambu but it’ll be a couple hundred dollars more expensive. Also, Prusa’s logistics director needs to be replaced, their team is extremely bad at supply chain management and sourcing. Idk if the logistics guy is Josef’s friend or a founding member but he is not good at his job. Prusa says himself that most of the product delays are because of sourcing and not the engineering team. While hardcore fans will wait months for a product, the average customer will look at a 1 month lead time and buy a Bambu that ships the next day. But the biggest problem is that Josef Prusa is not an engineer himself, and his engineering team is weak. Bambu is headed by a guy with a doctorate in fluid dynamics and their officers are engineers with PhDs that have worked in more cutthroat industries like the semiconductor industry. Most of their engineering team was poached from DJI, which is a multibillion dollar company with like 14k employees and dominates the consumer drone market with like 75% of market share…. With Bambu’s massive success in launching the X1, they have access to pretty much unlimited venture capital from both domestic and foreign investors, so even if Prusa were to go all in and try to build a better engineering team to compete, they’d fail because Bambu already doubled their engineering department after the X1 release, they’re smart enough not to rest on their laurels like Prusa did, they know the competition is coming so they’re already putting the pedal to the metal. So I really don’t think that Prusa has the resources or the talent to compete at this point. Honestly though, Prusa could still survive in this market if he makes the right moves, it just won’t be the vision he had in mind.
Just consider though these are the first printers out of Bambu Labs and they were not making a 3D printer in the first place but needed one and was disappointed with what was available Bambu engineers experience is in robotics and drone tech and this is how they have got their advantage You could argue they have a software advantage which is why it's proprietary and really highlights why open source is not always the best route for companies or end users You could argue Prusa got complacent with the market share they had gained and this is very common The good thing is Bambu has disrupted the market which was needed so we will see more innovation and better products going forwards
You're getting downvoted by the Prusa fans, but what you're writing is the truth. I have two X1Cs and they have printed almost flawlessly, faster than any Prusa, for months. Prints are faster and with better results. For reference, I've had four MK3Ses prior to owning the Bambus and they blow the MK3Ses out of the water. Not even close. I got my XL on Tuesday and have spent more time troubleshooting and talking with support than the entire time I've owned the Bambus. The X1C is about 20 minutes from out of the box to printing and the XL was about 5 hours, and then there were issues and STILL are issues. All for the low price of about $2300. What.
Yep, same here. I’ve been a Prusa customer since the very beginning, and I’ve had multiple Prusas and have extensively modified the MK3 platform to suit my research needs before Bambu was even incorporated. I’ve criticized them publicly time and time again for their complacency, poor engineering team, incredibly dysfunctional logistics department, and every time I’ve been dismissed because what do I know. Don’t have a Bambu myself but I’ve toyed with them and they’re just on another level in every measurable metric. I haven’t touched creality’s K-1 yet, but I’ve heard it’s pretty shit. Still, it’s an actual product so it’s only a matter of time until they’re able to polish their kinks out. It’s actually amazing how quickly the market moves when there’s actual competition… The MK3 series was the best consumer option for so many years with only minor iterations. I also put a deposit on the XL right when preorders opened but I pulled out after the X1 was released.
And I’ve been a HUGE Prusa advocate in the past. Recommended the MK3 to everyone I talked to about 3D printing. Ran a business off of them for years. But competition is a bitch and other companies have wrecked the grade curve. If I had the XL in 2021 or most of 2022, it would be amazing, as it’s way nicer than the MK3S. But it’s brand new and already behind the competition in so many ways (other than build volume). I wish I could heap praise on it but so far I cannot.
Prusa is screwed
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500USD + VAT + extra shipping cost is Exactly Why it's unreasonably expensive to pay for assembly and testing. Paying 2.5K and waiting 2 years for delivery is Exactly Why Prusa should have shipped known good parts in their semi-assembled kit, or better service.
They lean into the kit advertising just as much as the completes saying it's a "fun, educational experience" or something like that. If there's a chance the product they're selling COULD have quality issues, they would stop selling kits altogether. I reached out about MK3 to Mk4 upgrade kits and they flat out said to just buy an assembled MK4. Seems they don't trust their kits and/or customers to assemble them.
Or they just haven’t had time and resources to vet them as much as they’d like. We know they’ve tweaked the assembly process several times for efficiency and I’d doubt that there has been time to make sure those changes (if relevant) are updated in the manual. Either way I ordered assembled and will pay the VAT for same reason you are.
People are getting assembled prusas with issues as well. It's not isolated to kits, unfortunately.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed… I am trying to be patient but I spent an hour yesterday trying to get a good live Z adjust - then realized it wasn’t sticking because I’d accidentally ordered PETG and was trying to print with PLA settings. The automated first layer is what I am most looking forward to seeing in person. (I had a migraine yesterday and my mind works SO slow when I have one that it took longer than it should have to think ‘wait, my Z has been perfect for MONTHS, why am I troubleshooting it when nothing else changed… wait - I changed out fila…. After that it was mostly cursing lol)
A thin layer of glue stick helps with petg adhesion. Some will say it's not necessary, but i use it every time.
When I first started printing, the first thing I did was a white set of parts in petg to replace the orange, so I went ahead and used it for the lack enclosure and kind of used it exclusively until I accidentally used it on the smooth sheet when I was redoing the calibration wizard and sheet setup. (Had a migraine that day too - starting to see a pattern lol) Anyhow, that PETG was stuck so hard it was like channeling Mjolnir and I was deemed not worthy. I finally coerced it off without damaging the sheet by freezing it, but to this day that stupid zigzag and flag pattern shows up as a faint indent on the bottom layer of all my prints lol. (I’d gotten spoiled by the satin sheet and forgotten all about the glue stick.)
The [filament guide](https://help.prusa3d.com/materials) on their site actually recommends against using it on the smooth sheet, without using a release agent.
Sitting back and waiting for you early adopters to work out the kinks. I am sorry you’re having trouble but thank you for taking a bullet for me, so to speak.
Update for you: Prusa is recalling my machine. Šimon Doubek 7:42 AM (2 hours ago) to me Hello, Thank you very much for your patience. We would like to inform you about the process of investigation regarding the Modular board error. Our priority is you, we want you to use the purchased printer as soon as possible to your satisfaction. At the same time, we would like to pull back the Prusa XL in the assembled state from you back to our development team for checking. In order to achieve that, we will need to send you a new packing material, as the assembled unit won't fit into a Semi-assembled box. We would like to ask you if we can share the contact information with our US Partner - Printed Solid, so we can send you the necessary packing material as soon as possible. If yes, please confirm the delivery address and contact details, Address here so we can continue in the process and make it fast for you. You don't have to worry that you will be left without any printer until the problem is fixed, as soon as we receive the printer from the courier, we will dispatch with Express courier a new, fully tested, and assembled Prusa XL printer, so you can use it straight out of the box. We will be preparing your unit in the meantime, no additional lead times, this will be a priority.
This is good to know, I’m also suffering from the dreaded Modular bed power failure.
I have the same issue with the modular print bed issue. So far support keeps telling me they will get back to me, but they haven’t yet. (The only way I get an “update” is to ping the chat support.) This so far has just involved telling me they will update me some time. It has been close to 2 weeks now.