My first impressions of the Robox Pro (Lots of problems, But I like it (sorta) )

[Jared Reabow @jaredareabow oxford]

So, I have been working with the Robox Pro for about 2 weeks, and I have to say, as far as print quality is concerned, it is basically a bigger version of the Robox, however there are issues, Below are the pros and cons of the Robox Pro in relation to the Robox.

Pros: Bigger build volume, Quieter, Filtration, Network connectivity built in, build surface magnetic, easier to clean, better viewing angles.

Cons: Less reliable, Less premium build materials/design, Flexible Filament loading VERY difficult, Filament loading inconvenient, touch interface is bad, No USB to PC connection, cost, currently unusable, no first time run routine, NO MANUAL!

I should also mention, at the time of writing this, the printer is essentially bricked, on the touch interface, it is recognized as an unknown printer with a garbled name, it is still controllable, but when attempting to send it a print, it fails on “Bad command error”, robox are aware of the issue ( see issues video part 3 )

So I am going to address the ‘Cons’ of the printer now so as to justify why I believe they are cons, feel free to skip to the videos if you prefer.

Less reliable — So the printer has failed (through no fault of my own) to print about 60% of the times it has been used, generally this is down to “firmware command error” which requires the software and sometimes printer to be restarted ( not a big deal ) , however it has also failed mid print many times ( as discussed in the issues videos ) The failures aren’t bad files or bad orientation etc, they are the printer freezing, pausing itself once on its own, then again every time you try to un-pause it, stopping mid print because the file transfer failed but the user was not informed and the printer continued printing .

Less premium build — The original Robox uses a lovely metal chassis and feels solid like a brick in construction, no creaks, warping etc, but the pro chassis feels like something I could build with a laser cutter, line bender and some spray paint, the blackout paint on the acrylic is all spotted like too thick of a coating was used, the door lock is completely ineffective, someone opened the door during a print even though it was locked by simply opening it using the handle where the original requires a some amount of effort to pop open by either removing the bottom tray or warping the plastic slightly.

Less premium design — To be honest, the absolute biggest thing that ruins the experience for me is the resistive touchscreen, it is soooooooo nasty. But even ignoring that, I could live with the resistive touch panel, if the interface was different. The LED lighting, it would have been nice to see a diffuser strip over the LED strip.

Filament loading — The loading of filament is not great, the holes being on the inner front of the printer wall make it difficult to tell where they are from the front of the printer, and seeing as for most people , it will be on a desk, one cannot stand to the side of the printer, they have to lean around and over the desk, whilst loading the filament… ok, not a big deal but this coupled with the very tight space between the reel and the insert point makes it a slightly inconvenient affair.

Flexible filament — Take the above and combine it with flexible filament and we have a problem… the sheer distance you have to push filament for it to reach the extruder is huge, it is 3 turns on a reel, nearly half a meter!
The result is the only way to load flexible filament (talking about the stuff CEL sells) is to manually run the extruder whilst trying to push the filament further until it catches, this is because the auto load routine does not wait long enough for you to push the flexible stuff into the grip wheel.

No USB connection to PC — After speaking with Robox support I was informed the printers main board is connected to the internal raspberry pi which is why it cannot be connected to the computer, however all the marketing material states you can connect it to the PC via USB…. arrg! So the reasons one may wish to connect to the PC directly are as follows:
Reliability 1 – without the need for ethernet or wifi networks ( not everyone knows what to do to connect it directly to a pc via ethernet )
Reliability 2 – The root system built into the printer is currently unreliable, it causes the printer to freeze on occasion which ruins any ongoing prints.
Speed – I don’t want to wait around for the thing to boot up and connect before I can use it.
Convenience – having to enter a pin and sometimes an IP address if Automaker forgets it is a pain in the a**.

Cost — The Pro at the moment is £3,999.90 with a build volume of 210 x 300 x 400, the robox dual is £1,119.90 and the 3 Tier tree with 2 duals and a mote is £2,599.90 or £3,719.80 for Three dual material printers, a tree and a mote, with a build volume of 210 x 150 x 100 each or a total of 630x450x300, for less than the cost of a single pro. Yes the build volume is smaller, but I rarely experience the need to print larger than the build volume, but often feel the need to set more than one print going.
Interface — Sorry but it is BAAAADD, the resistive screen is anything but premium, but coupled with the, what feels like Alpha or maybe early beta interface, I cannot recommend using that interface at all, but the scary thing is, you are forced too in order to set up the printer. It is slow, buggy, touch unfriendly and unpleasant to use.

First time run routine — There reallly needs to be a first time setup routine that runs on the printer (similar to a smartphone) when it is powered on / factory reset(another missing option), especially because there is no manual.

 

So there you are, my opinion and impressions of the Pro so far, unfortunately they are mostly negative which is a real shame because I expected greatness!
I do like this printer, and I will say, I expect a lot of these issues will be resolved in future software updates, but I am unsure how the internal PI will be updated.

You don’t have to watch the videos but I thought I should point them out:
(Unboxing) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Wjpqc-KT28

(Issues Part 1) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYsMNVy8Zsc&t=

(Issues Part 2) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6SjbWYG2ezc

(Issues part 3) — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hVphOsXTWD8

[hagster @hagster My Robox is a Blue Commercial Version UK]

Thanks for sharing this. Good to get a proper look at the machine for once.

I hope they fix the software issues. If it cant run a 4 hour print reliably due to software glitches its a non starter.

I agree that resistive touchscreens dont have a place in 2018. I bet you can plug a wireless keyboard and or mouse in to the USB port though.

[Jared Reabow @jaredareabow oxford]

you can, but why in the end

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