1st print and comments, nice to find you here :)

Hello, greetings to the whole community from Greece. I have been reading for quite some time your posts here and i'm glad to have finally joined you.

Yesterday we had an early arrival of some M200s and after the unboxing (excellent packing guys, thumbs up) we immediately begun a first test print (a reprint actually as it was an old already printed order)...

the file was a bike helmet prototype at 1:2 scale. ~15hrs at 0.19mm, normal speed, medium infill, 20 lite supports, auto fan

helmet00.jpg

helmet01.jpg

helmet02.jpg

helmet03.jpg

helmet04.jpg

helmet05.jpg

helmet06.jpg

helmet07.jpg

helmet08.jpg

helmet09.jpg

(excuse me for the bad quality, these are just quick phone shots)

First impressions:

Build quality: WOW (i had the chance to check out the M200 at the recent euromold expo, so it was not a surprise, but when you see sth so well built you should mention it)

First start experience: Straightforward. unpacking and assembly was uber easy. Initiating the print seemed a bit slow, heating the platform took a long time even it was at 97-99% for quite some time and after that it begun heating up the extruder which i guess could be done in parallel saving some more time.

Auto calibration: cool feature. could be more interactive, giving feedback to the user on the specific measurements so as to know how much off the platform is before each adjustment

Software: first impressions are ok, it's on the simple and limited side with no control on advanced print settings, i hope to see real improvements there. Speed is ok, not lightning fast but not sluggish either.

Noise while printing: minimal, a very pleasant surprise

General feeling: robust, gives the impression that it can handle anything with no complaints or stress.

1st print results and comments: well the helmet came out nicely, peeling off from the platform was easy (new juiced version), outside finishing is smooth and inside is almost quite as good regardless the supports. Raft removal from the item was a bit difficult and left some marks and there will be needed some post processing. Support removal was 95% a piece of cake (thumbs up again) and 5% (inside the lower small cells) a nightmare but a better than expected nightmare. I would love to see z-suite improvements in that area, for example manual support positioning and removal as in simplify3d. The latter would have given me the ability to omit support inside the smallest cells which troubled me the most and there wouldnt be any printing problem as the bridges there were pretty small. Finally, white filament is quite translucent, good for hiding defects, bad in the case of the M200 which is able to print very fine details and smooth surfaces. And i'd like the lcd to show more statistics during print and when finished, time remaining/elapsed etc

To sum up my initial opinion, it seems like a serious TOOL with lots of potentials but also with a tight harness. Hope to see many improvements and extra options on z-suite to allow us advanced control on settings.

ps. is there a way to have z-suite not to ask the m200 version on startup every time?