Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!  

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @antimix

[...] That could be a mix of design and marketing strategy, but it will ensure that you will be able to purchase and use ONLY ORIGINAL PRUSA parts replacements, even being open source, since nobody else will produce them (at least for a while).

Open source means that the designs are released and others are free to produce products using the same designs so long as they too adhere to the  terms of the open source licensing. Using an open source license is not a vow of poverty, nor does it require a company to produce parts for use by its competition. It is interesting that E3D is using a new heatsink design in their Hermes products. I wonder how much collaboration is going on between Prusa and E3D.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @bobstro

Posted by: @charles-h13

I wonder why Prusa is not using an E3D nozzle?

Aren't they? The hotend assembly (heatsink, heatbreak and heat block) are not normal E3D, but they specifically mentioned "E3D compatible nozzles". I can't imagine it's more economical to manufacture their own, but perhaps so.

Check it out at 11:00 in the following clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=s5wpoGe9wT0

Further clarification, JP states he isnt sure if the mini will ship with a genuine E3d or not. but they are compatible

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @m8harry

Posted by: @bobstro

Posted by: @charles-h13

I wonder why Prusa is not using an E3D nozzle?

Aren't they? The hotend assembly (heatsink, heatbreak and heat block) are not normal E3D, but they specifically mentioned "E3D compatible nozzles". I can't imagine it's more economical to manufacture their own, but perhaps so.

Check it out at 11:00 in the following clip

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=s5wpoGe9wT0

Further clarification, JP states he isnt sure if the mini will ship with a genuine E3d or not. but they are compatible

That is good news.  

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

We are a month away from shipping. PR should have the nozzles already in stock. Maybe they are still trying to find/finalize alternative contracts and in worst case they will ship the first batch with the E3Dv6 nozzles which they have in stock for MK3.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Fingers crossed that the Bowden setup will not prohibit printing of  85A TPU. (Why do I always want to leave the 'w' out of bowden?) I might need to expand printing capacity in the foreseeable future and this looks like a great solution, but _only_ if I can effectively print Ninjaflex and other similar TPUs.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Concur!  TPU is a bear on one of my others Bowden Printers.  

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @paul-h25

Fingers crossed that the Bowden setup will not prohibit printing of  85A TPU. (Why do I always want to leave the 'w' out of bowden?) I might need to expand printing capacity in the foreseeable future and this looks like a great solution, but _only_ if I can effectively print Ninjaflex and other similar TPUs.

Any chance you could explain that for a n00b?

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @m8harry

Posted by: @paul-h25

Fingers crossed that the Bowden setup will not prohibit printing of  85A TPU. (Why do I always want to leave the 'w' out of bowden?) I might need to expand printing capacity in the foreseeable future and this looks like a great solution, but _only_ if I can effectively print Ninjaflex and other similar TPUs.

Any chance you could explain that for a n00b?

Unlike the previous Prusa printers, which have the filament drive mounted on the extruder, i.e. direct drive, the Mini has the filament drive mounted a distance away. The filament travels through what is called the "Bowden tube" to the extruder head.  In general this allows faster printing due to a lighter print head, but also a slight bit of slop in the feed due to the tube. In addition while there is not much compression/expansion in a typical abs/pla/etc. filament when pushed/pulled a flexible filament (think rubber) exacerbates this issue. This can cause a host of problems at the printing end relating to incorrect feeds and retractions.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Guys (and gals?), I have been successfully printing Fiberflex 40D on my MK3 using an extruder insert that I put on Thingiverse as Item #3361565. I haven't upgraded to the MK3S configuration yet, but it may not work with that extruder. Currently, the only US source for this filament is here.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Thanks @paul-h25

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

@reddawg

I hadn't heard of Fiberflex 40D, but they claim that it can be printed on Bowden extruders at 15-30 mm/s, so it sounds like it ought to work on the MINI.

FYI, the Mk3S has a constrained path from the extruder's drive gear to the hot end, so it can print flexible filament better than the Mk2/3.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Posted by: @laird-p

@reddawg

FYI, the Mk3S has a constrained path from the extruder's drive gear to the hot end, so it can print flexible filament better than the Mk2/3.

The same upgraded extruder is also available for MK2.5 and MK3. No difference there to MK3s

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

- Did anyone noticed that the Prusa Mini graphic LCD displays the Preview rendering of the object that is in printing/or selected ?
or at least in the video this is the impression...

I wonder if this is real time calculated by the 32Bit processor or a new PRUSA trick.. (e.g. embedded image somewhere in gcode, or a fixed 3d bitmap image in the  LCD...) 🙄 

Regards

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

I think that I do remember hearing JP say something about G-Code visualisation on the new boards in a video somewhere.

So that you don't waste time printing the wrong thing.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

I have ordered one (on the 19th), I was sick and tired about tuning my cheap Chinese 3D printer.  I hope it get delivered before Christmas

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

@antimix

I would expect the image to be embedded (perhaps as a comment using base64 encoding) at the end of the gcode file. But I know no more than you do.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

I think the power is inside the chip to calculate it. Some printer management software on the Raspi can do it to (don't know the name right now)

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

@nikolai-r

Yep. Just pointing out that the 3S incorporated the constrained path that was a mode on the older printers.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

Does anyone have any info about what else besides the printer is in the box?

All the shop page says about extras is the filament - either a full spool if you add it, or at least a filament sample (of unspecified quantity however).

I wouldn't expect them to add a USB drive to store prints on (like the SD card they add to the MK3s), but I'm curious if they will add any tools like allen keys, screwdrivers, pliers to service the machine or if one has to pick such stuff up separately.

RE: Announcing the Original Prusa MINI - a smart & compact 3D printing workhorse!

I am sure there is also a small thing of Haribo.