6 ms·

Tuning the Prusa Core One

59 points by lutusp 1y ago

lutusp 1y ago
Learn how to set up and use the new Prusa printer. The article includes troubleshooting tips and example projects.
hnuser123456 1y ago
Good timing with this. I had an old maker select v2 from ~2015, and at some point, the SD card got jammed in and ripped the card reader off the PCB, so I just ordered a Core One (preassembled) over the weekend. The CoreXY system (and enclosure) seems more elegant than bed-slinging, but it's evidently more fiddly. Hopefully the enclosure also prevents it from accumulating dust as quickly. You mentioned you stripped one of the tensioners - does a screw thread into a 3d printed part? Is there a more robust version of the part?
- lutusp 1y ago
  > You mentioned you stripped one of the tensioners - does a screw thread into a 3d printed part? Sort of. A metal screw is threaded into a square nut that sits inside a 3D printed part. All good unless one gets to the end of the screw's motion range, after which the square nut begins to turn inside the plastic part and strips it. I have printed spares for the plastic part, also I know better than to trust Prusa's frequency detector applet, so this is not a deal breaker once you understand the system. There are much better ways than Prusa's applet to detect the belt's frequency, some described in the linked article. Prusa offers free downloads of all the printer's plastic parts: https://www.printables.com/model/1167816-core-one-printable-parts/files https://www.printables.com/model/1167816-core-one-printable-... > Is there a more robust version of the part? The original part is printed using PCCF, very strong, but the embedded square nut is too small to resist worst-case forces.
skybrian 1y ago
What practical reasons are there to choose the Core One over an MK4S or vice-versa? The Core One is slightly more expensive.
- hnuser123456 1y ago
  The Core One uses a "CoreXY" system where the extruder moves in X and Y directions instead of X and Z, and the bed moves in Z instead of Y. It eliminates issues caused by large prints progressively increasing the mass/momentum on the Y axis, but it requires a more complex system of belts. Also, the Core One only comes in an enclosure, which is good for some materials that need warmer air, but can hinder PLA, which needs cool air. Generally, it seems like if you just want to reliably print PLA, get a MK4S, but if you want the temp-controlled enclosure or filament versatility, get a Core One.
- Palomides 1y ago
  core one is enclosed and somewhat (20%?) faster
  - skybrian 1y ago
    Why does enclosed matter, though? Apparently there is a filter add-on that might help with printing something smelly? https://www.prusa3d.com/product/advanced-filtration-for-prusa-core-one/ https://www.prusa3d.com/product/advanced-filtration-for-prus...
    - dns_snek 1y ago
      Many materials with desirable properties (e.g. temperature resistance, strength) can only be printed in a heated enclosure. ABS and Nylon, for example. And if you're printing ABS then you need fume extraction because unlike more common materials, ABS fumes are toxic. It's not strictly necessary for your basic PLA and PETG, but it can help sometimes if the ambient temperature is really low or if the environment is drafty which can cause prints to lift off the bed. See: https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide
    - lutusp 1y ago
      > Why does enclosed matter, though? I print mostly ABS filament, and during the winter here in Washington State, I could't make my printer room hot enough to avoid warped prints from my earlier unenclosed printer. This printed completely solved that issue.
MikeKusold 1y ago
This article highlights why Bambu has been eating Prusa's lunch the past few years. Imagine spending over $1000 then needing to print parts to get it to work properly. I swapped my Ender5 for an X1C two years ago, and since then, I have only had to do whatever maintenance the X1C tells me. Using my X1C feels much closer to using my laser paper printer, whereas my Ender5 ended up being a hobby in itself.
- Palomides 1y ago
  this is a nice post on how to maintain and repair a Core One, not things you have to regularly do kinda irritating that every single thread about a Prusa printer has a dismissive post from someone who went from a janky Ender to a Bambu
  - sho_hn 1y ago
    > kinda irritating that every single thread about a Prusa printer has a dismissive post from someone who went from a janky Ender to a Bambu A lot of HN users have bought a Bambu and feel a need to justify their choice after the fact in a way that gels with their outsized need to perform as experts in front of others. This leads to a lot of comments basically just repeating Bambu talking points without having evaluated any alternatives. "The printer for the masses" just becomes received wisdom. If you know better, just let it wash over you and go do cool stuff. I'm also sort of wondering if it's a bit of an American thing, where Americans tend to have this odd self-disparaging impulse to call Western-made products crap and point to Asian manufacturers as having figured it out. See e.g. Japanese cars. Perhaps Bambu is perceived as the Toyota of 3D printers or something.
    - jazzyjackson 1y ago
      I'm an open source fan boy but my friend is always sending me links to the bambu sales. I don't think she's a self-disparaging american, and we've worked together in FabLabs we've practically used every printer out there so its not for lack of evaluation. She pushes bambu on me because she's sympathetic to what a PITA it is to deal with the majority of printers. Lulzbot is good too but I have to ask myself if my patriotism is worth it to pay 3x as much for a worse product ? Made-In-Colorado is extruded aluminum screwed together with brackets. [0] Made in Shenzhen is welded steel. [1] Also, there is very good reason that Toyota developed its reputation relative to American cars, and it's not Japanophilia. [0] https://buy.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-3d-printer-taz-workhorse-boxed-for-retail-na https://buy.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-3d-printer-taz-work... [1] https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x1-carbon https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x1-carbon
antirez 1y ago
Excellent article. It is very hard to understand a few things about Prusa, lately: 1. The Nextruder looks 5 years behind Bambulab nozzle switching, without to mention the cost of a new nozzle. A clogged nozzle is a non issue in a Bambulab printer, but it causes me a big cost and more work with my MK4 (which has the same extruder as the Core One). 2. How is it possible that these printers still lack at least a cheap webcam? 3. One of the strengths of Prusa should be support. It used to be very good, years ago. Now the issue the OP is reporting about the app that is not able to detect the principal component in the sound of the belt, is an example of a more extended problem, that one can see in many ways, especially in the MK4 / Core One documentation, that is especially lacking. In general, here the OP is doing the work that Prusa should be doing to provide a better experience, without to mention all the design issues that they are not fixing directly before shipping their printers. I'm also a Bambulab user, and my A1 costed a fraction of my MK4 and it is the printer I always hit because of the zero-issues. It just works. Now companies may have ups and downs, but there is some problem at Prusa: they are still not understanding what's really happening and where their problems are.
- bantunes 1y ago
  The Buddy3D camera has a firmware update recently, now it can RTSP stream inside your LAN and you can force day/night detection. Also, it saves timelapses to a local microSD. Still not super cheap, but yeah.
- omnimus 1y ago
  1. I think even on bambu people switch extruder so they have swichable nozzles. Atleast thats what i did on my P1S. There is huge aftermarket with these if you need them. 2. Reasoning i heard is that Prusa printers are used a lot by print farms that dont want them for security reasons and that there are aftermarket cams that are going to be a lot better than what they can deliver. Again cam on Bambu P1S is pretty bad so if you like the feature you end up changing it but because the chip in P1S is pretty low powered you end up adding whole different camera system. 3. This is very good point. I guess they were under pressure to release asap and the docs are rushed / in process. The upside is that they have track record of long support for the products. I am not sure that they are so clueless. I’ve had P1S for some time. It’s great. I wanted focus on 3D printing not on 3D printer. But now? Bambu is update away from not being able to print outside their cloud. There is zero openness. They do everything to stop any kinf of reverse engineering or alternative firmwares. Afaik they might just decide tomorrow that they stop support some of the older models and they simply stop printing. I still ended up messing, modding, tweaking and learning about the Bambu printer anyway. But i also found a lot of use for 3D printer. So idea of buying 3x times more expensive printer kit that will take me 20h to assemble and then even more time to tweak to print as good as Bambu… is OK? Almost intruging? I will know that with care it will work for a looong time i will know how it works and it will be valuable knowledge. It seems a lot like linux vs mac. At some point you bite the bullet and never look back. Or you do and go back.
ashoeafoot 1y ago
Has anyone made any experience with printer head changes (similar to factory robots exchanging grippers)? I dont want the print to pause in some gcode function waiting for me to pick &place
- 98codes 1y ago
  The Prusa XL[1] can be configured for 5 toolheads for fast, automatic switching ala factory robots. [1] https://www.prusa3d.com/en/product/original-prusa-xl-assembled-5-toolhead-3d-printer/ https://www.prusa3d.com/en/product/original-prusa-xl-assembl...
- mjb 1y ago
  There are a large number of "toolchanger" printers out there, include Prusa's XL. They're pretty great: multiple nozzle sizes and types, multi-material and multi-color without a lot of waste, and even the ability to use different tools (like lasers and subtractive manufacturing). In the consumer space the technology is still fairly expensive, and the complexity reduces reliability, but I suspect is going to become more and more of the norm over time. Most modern printers also support simpler multi-material setups which change the filament in a single tool automatically. Waste is fairly high (because of the need to purge), and speed fairly low (because of the need to purge), but the technology is mature and cheap.
  - rtkwe 1y ago
    Bambu also has their new 2 head printer the H2D where you can print incompatible materials like PLA and PETG for perfect supports that don't stick to the main print.
    - 0x457 1y ago
      Yes, but you could print incompatible materials before just fine. It was just either time-consuming (manual change) or time-consuming and wasteful (AMS-like systems that cut filament)
      - 1y ago
conorbergin 1y ago
I think someone says this in every HN post involving CAD, but the reason FreeCAD is "buggy" and Solvespace is small and fast is Solvespace has a fraction of the power. FreeCAD uses the Open Cascade kernel, which can do complex 3d boolean and fillet operations, not having these operations severely limits the geometry you can create, and you will run into walls very quickly using Solvespace, OpenSCAD or anything else with a hand rolled geometry kernel. Even commercial projects use an off the shelf kernel, they're just difficult to write.
- Miraste 1y ago
  This is true, but it's not a reason to put buggy in quotes. FreeCAD is, objectively, full of bugs. Running into bugs all the time also limits what you can create. For hobbyist 3d printing purposes, Solvespace and OpenSCAD can cover the vast majority of simple single-part designs.
  - conorbergin 1y ago
    I could not imagine trying to design a 3d part without fillets. I use Build123d mostly, and have even gone as far as using the Open Cascade library directly, but if I had to choose between FreeCAD or OpenSCAD/Solvespace I would rather work around FreeCADs jank than give up fillets.
    - Miraste 1y ago
      Understandable, there are plugins and workarounds for fillets in OpenSCAD but they're not great. If you're using Open Cascade through something other than FreeCAD, you may be having a better experience anyway. FreeCAD uses their own fork, which is hundreds of commits behind.
      - hnuser123456 1y ago
        OpenSCAD is verbose, but fillets are just a cylinder subtracted from a rectangular prism.
Arcuru 1y ago
I didn't realize Paul Lutus had an active blog! I would highly recommend not only reading this post but checking out the author. I read their book Confessions many years ago and it was one of the things that helped push me to look for fulfillment outside of tech. It looks like he posted this so may see my comment. I just want to say thanks, I appreciate the things you've put out into the world.
- dekhn 1y ago
  The site is filled with cool stuff. I wanted to learn more about optical lenses and found https://arachnoid.com/blender_graphics/index.html https://arachnoid.com/blender_graphics/index.html to be very useful.
- lutusp 1y ago
  You are most welcome! Because AI has taken over most low-level coding, I think more people will be looking for fulfillment outside tech. And thank you for your kind words. Link to my free book "Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor": https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html

59 points by lutusp 1y ago

Learn how to set up and use the new Prusa printer. The article includes troubleshooting tips and example projects.

Good timing with this. I had an old maker select v2 from ~2015, and at some point, the SD card got jammed in and ripped the card reader off the PCB, so I just ordered a Core One (preassembled) over the weekend. The CoreXY system (and enclosure) seems more elegant than bed-slinging, but it's evidently more fiddly. Hopefully the enclosure also prevents it from accumulating dust as quickly. You mentioned you stripped one of the tensioners - does a screw thread into a 3d printed part? Is there a more robust version of the part?

lutusp 1y ago
> You mentioned you stripped one of the tensioners - does a screw thread into a 3d printed part? Sort of. A metal screw is threaded into a square nut that sits inside a 3D printed part. All good unless one gets to the end of the screw's motion range, after which the square nut begins to turn inside the plastic part and strips it. I have printed spares for the plastic part, also I know better than to trust Prusa's frequency detector applet, so this is not a deal breaker once you understand the system. There are much better ways than Prusa's applet to detect the belt's frequency, some described in the linked article. Prusa offers free downloads of all the printer's plastic parts: https://www.printables.com/model/1167816-core-one-printable-parts/files https://www.printables.com/model/1167816-core-one-printable-... > Is there a more robust version of the part? The original part is printed using PCCF, very strong, but the embedded square nut is too small to resist worst-case forces.

skybrian 1y ago

What practical reasons are there to choose the Core One over an MK4S or vice-versa? The Core One is slightly more expensive.

hnuser123456 1y ago
The Core One uses a "CoreXY" system where the extruder moves in X and Y directions instead of X and Z, and the bed moves in Z instead of Y. It eliminates issues caused by large prints progressively increasing the mass/momentum on the Y axis, but it requires a more complex system of belts. Also, the Core One only comes in an enclosure, which is good for some materials that need warmer air, but can hinder PLA, which needs cool air. Generally, it seems like if you just want to reliably print PLA, get a MK4S, but if you want the temp-controlled enclosure or filament versatility, get a Core One.
Palomides 1y ago
core one is enclosed and somewhat (20%?) faster
- skybrian 1y ago
  Why does enclosed matter, though? Apparently there is a filter add-on that might help with printing something smelly? https://www.prusa3d.com/product/advanced-filtration-for-prusa-core-one/ https://www.prusa3d.com/product/advanced-filtration-for-prus...
  - dns_snek 1y ago
    Many materials with desirable properties (e.g. temperature resistance, strength) can only be printed in a heated enclosure. ABS and Nylon, for example. And if you're printing ABS then you need fume extraction because unlike more common materials, ABS fumes are toxic. It's not strictly necessary for your basic PLA and PETG, but it can help sometimes if the ambient temperature is really low or if the environment is drafty which can cause prints to lift off the bed. See: https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide https://help.prusa3d.com/filament-material-guide
  - lutusp 1y ago
    > Why does enclosed matter, though? I print mostly ABS filament, and during the winter here in Washington State, I could't make my printer room hot enough to avoid warped prints from my earlier unenclosed printer. This printed completely solved that issue.

MikeKusold 1y ago

This article highlights why Bambu has been eating Prusa's lunch the past few years. Imagine spending over $1000 then needing to print parts to get it to work properly. I swapped my Ender5 for an X1C two years ago, and since then, I have only had to do whatever maintenance the X1C tells me. Using my X1C feels much closer to using my laser paper printer, whereas my Ender5 ended up being a hobby in itself.

Palomides 1y ago
this is a nice post on how to maintain and repair a Core One, not things you have to regularly do kinda irritating that every single thread about a Prusa printer has a dismissive post from someone who went from a janky Ender to a Bambu
- sho_hn 1y ago
  > kinda irritating that every single thread about a Prusa printer has a dismissive post from someone who went from a janky Ender to a Bambu A lot of HN users have bought a Bambu and feel a need to justify their choice after the fact in a way that gels with their outsized need to perform as experts in front of others. This leads to a lot of comments basically just repeating Bambu talking points without having evaluated any alternatives. "The printer for the masses" just becomes received wisdom. If you know better, just let it wash over you and go do cool stuff. I'm also sort of wondering if it's a bit of an American thing, where Americans tend to have this odd self-disparaging impulse to call Western-made products crap and point to Asian manufacturers as having figured it out. See e.g. Japanese cars. Perhaps Bambu is perceived as the Toyota of 3D printers or something.
  - jazzyjackson 1y ago
    I'm an open source fan boy but my friend is always sending me links to the bambu sales. I don't think she's a self-disparaging american, and we've worked together in FabLabs we've practically used every printer out there so its not for lack of evaluation. She pushes bambu on me because she's sympathetic to what a PITA it is to deal with the majority of printers. Lulzbot is good too but I have to ask myself if my patriotism is worth it to pay 3x as much for a worse product ? Made-In-Colorado is extruded aluminum screwed together with brackets. [0] Made in Shenzhen is welded steel. [1] Also, there is very good reason that Toyota developed its reputation relative to American cars, and it's not Japanophilia. [0] https://buy.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-3d-printer-taz-workhorse-boxed-for-retail-na https://buy.lulzbot.com/products/lulzbot-3d-printer-taz-work... [1] https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x1-carbon https://us.store.bambulab.com/products/x1-carbon

antirez 1y ago

Excellent article. It is very hard to understand a few things about Prusa, lately: 1. The Nextruder looks 5 years behind Bambulab nozzle switching, without to mention the cost of a new nozzle. A clogged nozzle is a non issue in a Bambulab printer, but it causes me a big cost and more work with my MK4 (which has the same extruder as the Core One). 2. How is it possible that these printers still lack at least a cheap webcam? 3. One of the strengths of Prusa should be support. It used to be very good, years ago. Now the issue the OP is reporting about the app that is not able to detect the principal component in the sound of the belt, is an example of a more extended problem, that one can see in many ways, especially in the MK4 / Core One documentation, that is especially lacking. In general, here the OP is doing the work that Prusa should be doing to provide a better experience, without to mention all the design issues that they are not fixing directly before shipping their printers. I'm also a Bambulab user, and my A1 costed a fraction of my MK4 and it is the printer I always hit because of the zero-issues. It just works. Now companies may have ups and downs, but there is some problem at Prusa: they are still not understanding what's really happening and where their problems are.

bantunes 1y ago
The Buddy3D camera has a firmware update recently, now it can RTSP stream inside your LAN and you can force day/night detection. Also, it saves timelapses to a local microSD. Still not super cheap, but yeah.
omnimus 1y ago
1. I think even on bambu people switch extruder so they have swichable nozzles. Atleast thats what i did on my P1S. There is huge aftermarket with these if you need them. 2. Reasoning i heard is that Prusa printers are used a lot by print farms that dont want them for security reasons and that there are aftermarket cams that are going to be a lot better than what they can deliver. Again cam on Bambu P1S is pretty bad so if you like the feature you end up changing it but because the chip in P1S is pretty low powered you end up adding whole different camera system. 3. This is very good point. I guess they were under pressure to release asap and the docs are rushed / in process. The upside is that they have track record of long support for the products. I am not sure that they are so clueless. I’ve had P1S for some time. It’s great. I wanted focus on 3D printing not on 3D printer. But now? Bambu is update away from not being able to print outside their cloud. There is zero openness. They do everything to stop any kinf of reverse engineering or alternative firmwares. Afaik they might just decide tomorrow that they stop support some of the older models and they simply stop printing. I still ended up messing, modding, tweaking and learning about the Bambu printer anyway. But i also found a lot of use for 3D printer. So idea of buying 3x times more expensive printer kit that will take me 20h to assemble and then even more time to tweak to print as good as Bambu… is OK? Almost intruging? I will know that with care it will work for a looong time i will know how it works and it will be valuable knowledge. It seems a lot like linux vs mac. At some point you bite the bullet and never look back. Or you do and go back.

ashoeafoot 1y ago

Has anyone made any experience with printer head changes (similar to factory robots exchanging grippers)? I dont want the print to pause in some gcode function waiting for me to pick &place

98codes 1y ago
The Prusa XL[1] can be configured for 5 toolheads for fast, automatic switching ala factory robots. [1] https://www.prusa3d.com/en/product/original-prusa-xl-assembled-5-toolhead-3d-printer/ https://www.prusa3d.com/en/product/original-prusa-xl-assembl...
mjb 1y ago
There are a large number of "toolchanger" printers out there, include Prusa's XL. They're pretty great: multiple nozzle sizes and types, multi-material and multi-color without a lot of waste, and even the ability to use different tools (like lasers and subtractive manufacturing). In the consumer space the technology is still fairly expensive, and the complexity reduces reliability, but I suspect is going to become more and more of the norm over time. Most modern printers also support simpler multi-material setups which change the filament in a single tool automatically. Waste is fairly high (because of the need to purge), and speed fairly low (because of the need to purge), but the technology is mature and cheap.
- rtkwe 1y ago
  Bambu also has their new 2 head printer the H2D where you can print incompatible materials like PLA and PETG for perfect supports that don't stick to the main print.
  - 0x457 1y ago
    Yes, but you could print incompatible materials before just fine. It was just either time-consuming (manual change) or time-consuming and wasteful (AMS-like systems that cut filament)
    - 1y ago

conorbergin 1y ago

I think someone says this in every HN post involving CAD, but the reason FreeCAD is "buggy" and Solvespace is small and fast is Solvespace has a fraction of the power. FreeCAD uses the Open Cascade kernel, which can do complex 3d boolean and fillet operations, not having these operations severely limits the geometry you can create, and you will run into walls very quickly using Solvespace, OpenSCAD or anything else with a hand rolled geometry kernel. Even commercial projects use an off the shelf kernel, they're just difficult to write.

Miraste 1y ago
This is true, but it's not a reason to put buggy in quotes. FreeCAD is, objectively, full of bugs. Running into bugs all the time also limits what you can create. For hobbyist 3d printing purposes, Solvespace and OpenSCAD can cover the vast majority of simple single-part designs.
- conorbergin 1y ago
  I could not imagine trying to design a 3d part without fillets. I use Build123d mostly, and have even gone as far as using the Open Cascade library directly, but if I had to choose between FreeCAD or OpenSCAD/Solvespace I would rather work around FreeCADs jank than give up fillets.
  - Miraste 1y ago
    Understandable, there are plugins and workarounds for fillets in OpenSCAD but they're not great. If you're using Open Cascade through something other than FreeCAD, you may be having a better experience anyway. FreeCAD uses their own fork, which is hundreds of commits behind.
    - hnuser123456 1y ago
      OpenSCAD is verbose, but fillets are just a cylinder subtracted from a rectangular prism.

Arcuru 1y ago

I didn't realize Paul Lutus had an active blog! I would highly recommend not only reading this post but checking out the author. I read their book Confessions many years ago and it was one of the things that helped push me to look for fulfillment outside of tech. It looks like he posted this so may see my comment. I just want to say thanks, I appreciate the things you've put out into the world.

dekhn 1y ago
The site is filled with cool stuff. I wanted to learn more about optical lenses and found https://arachnoid.com/blender_graphics/index.html https://arachnoid.com/blender_graphics/index.html to be very useful.
lutusp 1y ago
You are most welcome! Because AI has taken over most low-level coding, I think more people will be looking for fulfillment outside tech. And thank you for your kind words. Link to my free book "Confessions of a Long-Distance Sailor": https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html https://arachnoid.com/lutusp/sailbook.html