Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

My team got the email saying we were selected to receive the Ekocycle 3D printer, and that there would be a follow up email. I haven't heard back since! Did anyone else who was selected get this follow up email?

I thought these printers were supposed to ship out by mid-December...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Just got an email about how to order it.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Well, wouldn't you know?! I just got an email about it.

Scaryone, your shipping confirmation is probably for the roboRIO. I got that earlier today as well.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Yup, just got the second email now.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Just got our email as well!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Just ordered it!

I wonder if the regular cube printer plastic works in the EkoCycle Printer.... as I would like some other colors instead of the 4 choices...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I read that the EkoCycle cartridges will not work in other printers, but I sent Cubify an email regarding regular cartridges working with our printer. I'll let you know when I hear back.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We have not received our email on how to get the printer yet...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Yep, read that as well. Ya, Let me know what you hear. I really want to get ahold of blue and neon green! Haha.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Just completed the order. Prospective ship date is December 10th.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

This is the response I received from Cubify:

"The Ekocycle printer will only print in the Ekocycle material, so you would not be able to use the Cube3 PLA and ABS."

I hope they expand the list of available colors as well. I'm sure if the Ekocycle takes off they will.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I was wondering the same thing about the different filament types. I sent 3DSystems an email a couple weeks ago asking and here is their response:

So, unfortunately it is only the PET material that can be used. Hopefully it holds up as well as ABS and PLA have. The video released about the Ekocycle didn't provide much insight into the material properties. We'll be doing some testing as well when we receive ours.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We haven't received an e-mail about how to order them yet, even though we were awarded one and financially cleared.

Does anyone have a link that I can use to order it? Or are the links all unique?

Thanks

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Dang...

potatoshane:
Each "Code" they give you is unique.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

You will need an email from 3dprinter@usfirst.org. It contains a discount code that you use at check out that is unique to your team. We received our e-mail on 12/3/14. Check your spam filter. I ordered a couple filament cassettes and an extra glue stick with it. Shipping was $54 for all of this. I would expect that the shipping for the printer only will be the $54 or something very close to that.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Shipping to Canada was only $39.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Well, with 1600 new printers given out by FIRST, I'd say its a safe bet the EKOCYCLE will take off around Dec. 10.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Yup, got the second email as well. It contained instructions about how to order the printer and the discount code.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Just a notice to all the teams. I ordered our printer right as we got the email, showing that it was going to ship on December 9th. Emailed them, and was told that all FIRST teams that received a printer, will not be shipped until January.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I emailed them and got the same response. Would have liked to have the printer for some prototyping after kickoff.

hopefully they ship early January.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I called them to make sure our order was in the system (it was :-) and learned that they plan on shipping the last two weeks in January.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I got an email saying that our shipped Friday and is slated for delivery this Wednesday. Hopefully they are starting to get all of the orders out the door.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We ordered ours 6 weeks ago, emailed them last week to follow up, they said it will ship out by the end of January. We are excited!

-Mike

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I got an email ours shipped Friday, the tracking isn't working though, so we shall see when it comes in.:D

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Thanks for the update guys!
We were about to email them for a follow up as well.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours is in the neighboring town...set to deliver on Wednesday.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I got mine today!!! I can't wait to see all the custom made red and white parts on the robots this year!

Isn't it incredible that high school students have access to this type of technology?

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We just received ours today as well, but we are having trouble activating it. The Cubify website is telling us the serial number is invalid (we've rechecked it about a dozen times).

Anybody else having this problem?
- Dean

[EDIT] I just got it activated - I kept submitting the same S/N, and it eventually worked. If you hit this problem, just keep trying I guess. [/EDIT]

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

You have to activate the 3D printer?

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Yes. When the printer starts the first time, it needs a 4 digit activation code. You go to the Cubify website and enter the printer's serial number to get that activation code. That is where I was stuck, but after a dozen or so tries with the same serial number, it finally went through. Perhaps they had a back-end server down for a while...

Our printer is now activated, but it won't print. It thinks it is printing, but nothing is coming out during the test prints. I've gone through the quickstart instructions 3 times now (in painstaking detail) so I'm pretty convinced that I'm doing everything right.

Unfortunately, I haven't found any troubleshooting guide, so I guess I'll have to talk to Cubify support if I can't get it working by messing with it.

Cheers,
- Dean

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Having to activate a 3D printer and be dependent on the servers of the manufacturer is really messed up. You should not have to jump through those hoops to use a piece of hardware sitting in front of you.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Printer just arrived. YAY!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Received our printer today also!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

It seems like a 1-time thing, so once it is running I think you no longer need their servers.

I believe they do this because they are also trying to be a content portal, and this ensures each machine is activated in conjunction with an on-line account. No account, no activation code.

It wouldn't be my preference to handle activation this way, but since the printer was free, I'm not going to complain!
- Dean

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I guess if it's free it's harder to complain. Even as a donation, though, I'm not impressed. With online activation, proprietary filament cartridges, and recycled plastic greenwashing, it looks like consumer 3D printing is heading down the wrong path.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Luckily, this is not typical of most consumer 3D printers. If you look at Lulzbot, Ultimaker, Printrbot, SeeMeCNC, you will find some successful companies with great products without all of the proprietary locked down cartridges, web activation, and propaganda. These also let you use any material you want and modify the printer to allow use of even more. My team is utilizing a lot of 3D printed parts made from Nylon 12 that is made 100% from waste nylon from industrial laser sintering printers. We are printing this on a Rostock Max from SeeMeCNC with an E3D hot end.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Anyone else getting a T12 Error Code? It wont let me print the test print...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

If they truly want this machine to be Eco-Friendly, then develop a filament maker that grinds, melts, and extrudes my plastic bottles into new filament.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I'll settle for one that prints at the correct size at the moment. It's not a bad 3D printer but it doesn't seem to print anything at the scale it says it is printing it at currently.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We got ours; it seems to work better if the red filament is on the left and the natural is on the right. We had no problem with activation code at all.
Overall we've found it to be rather user-friendly.
Monday, once we get administrative approval, we will be able to print our own designs. Right now we're stuck with the test print.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours came in yesterday, just a warning for the Canadian teams, duty was $190 :ahh:

We couldn't get it until today because we didn't have that much in cash yesterday.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I received my Cube today also. I had trouble activating it because the shipping dept. did not enter my device into their system so phone support gave me the activation code.

My cube also did not have the USB Stick. There is no software with it so I cannot convert the Inventor STL files into a .cube file for printing. I cannot find it on the web site to download so I assume I'll have to wait all weekend to get a response from support.

I also found out that the Cube firmware does not allow spaces in the Wi-Fi password or the printer name. Therefore I cannot connect my cube to the internet!

I am glad to receive a free printer and I will be sure our team meets its commitment to the Grant. However, this late in the Build Season will be a challenge to get it running so that we can produce anything to go into our robot.

The printer does have some nice features. Its print space is bigger than the MoJo and I like the ability to build in support structures without extra material. The second color is a nice feature. I’ll let you know more when I get it to print something from Inventor!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

To get the cube software you need to go to http://cubify.com/en/Ekocycle/Activate and click "download software" right under where it says "buy now" (Photo attached).

Converting to STL from .ipt will cause a scale issue with the part if you use export in Inventor and save as an STL. You need to open your part, go to "Print", and click "3D Print Preview". You will be able to select the units and the part will be scaled correctly. You can also increase the number of facets aka the resolution of the STL model (see other photo). After the correct units have been selected and the resolution is set to a satisfactory point you can save as an STL. I've found that after you open the file in the Cube software and select your desired settings you should save it to a flash drive and plug that into the printer directly. This will alleviate any inconsistencies with trying to send the print file over a network.

And yes I have actually printed parts for robot use, and plan to do more with this printer.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Thank you for this! We use Solidworks but we've had a really hard time with the scaling and this printer. We'll give this a shot and see where we land.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Has anyone not received theirs yet? We placed an order on December 9th and it still hasn't shipped. Time to contact Cubify I guess..

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

As a quick exercise on how much the filament for the Ekocycle 3D printer actually costs, I did a bit of detective work. While the machine itself is reasonably priced, the actual amount of filament you get in the $50 cartridges is conspicuously absent from their website. While they do not state it, they do give some hints:
I did a little research and I found that you get approximately 19 20 oz bottles per pound of PET. From this we can calculate that each bottle is 0.84 ounces (16oz/19bottles) or 23.81 grams. Then from the blurb on the 3D Systems website we see that each cartridge contains 25% recycled plastic which is about equivalent to 3 bottles. From this we can conclude that each spool is 285.72 grams (23.81 * 3 * 4). Now that we have grams per cartridge we can actually figure out the cost per kilogram, which is..... Drum roll please..... $175 per kilogram. The most expensive non 3D Systems equivalent to this filament is Tauluman t-glase which cost about $70/kg. There are a few suppliers making PETG filament for $50/kg.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Wow, that's pretty expensive. I wonder how difficult it would be to swap control boards with one that allows printing anything. You could easily recoup the cost after a few kg of plastic.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Not terribly hard, but you need to have a pretty good understanding of how the controls work.

Off the shelf solutions like the RAMPS 1.4, Rambo board, and Smoothie board are readily available. All of these are going to require some modification to the firmware to make them work.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I am having this same problem. I have tried a few dozen times now but it won't go through. This whole business of having to activate a piece of hardware seems like a waste of time and resources to me. Too bad they weren't giving out something tried and true like a Makerbot. :(

Also, our printer did not ship with the "included" flash drive.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We had that error as well. Emailed Cubify tech support, gave them the serial number and they simply gave us the activation code. Real simple (Though would rather have not had to deal with it).

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Anxiously awaiting word on when ours might ship. Emailed them today. I expect it will be difficult to setup and create a part in time for this years robot.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Is it possible to use any PET as long as you load it into their special cartridges? The printer is super cool but I'm terrified to use up the included spools at $50/each!

Example: http://www.amazon.com/MadeSolid-PET-.../dp/B00PH4D5P6

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Nope, the cartridges contain a chip that stores filament type and length remaining. As filament is extruded the printer updates the length remaining value on the chip. When that value hits zero the printer will refuse to print even if filament is available.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Marshall,
We've only printed one item on our (had trouble with the cartridge jamming), but saving it as an stl file from Solidworks, opening it in the cubify software and sending to the printer - the scaling was perfect.

T.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I truly believe that the cost-prohibitive nature of this filament is going to cause exactly this to occur...as soon as the warranty expires, users that got one of these will figure out how to hack it into printing bulk PLA or something affordable. Cubify has to realize that a machine like this just can't compete against printers you can buy for less than $1000 that use filament you can get for $18.00 a kg.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We had issues with scaling that we have since figured out. We're abusing it at the moment to print all kinds of stuff. It seems to pick which filament it wants to print with randomly. The software is a bit confusing.

One thing is for certain, once it is out of filament it is probably going to be liberated from its proprietary nature.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We've paid for shipping, but still no sign of ours yet. Feels like we've been waiting a while. I'm not expecting to use it much during build anyways, but hoping it comes soon.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours came late yesterday (after I went home).

I went home sick today, so I didn't have a chance to explore it.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I wonder if there's a way to tweak that similar to how you can mess with the toner cartridges from Brother printers.

Could be a fun student exercise.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

probably not. I would guess that they use an encrypted tag. I know that they did on the HD3500 cartridges. Breaking the encryption proved to be non-trivial. I would imagine they did something similar here since they have the tech worked out elsewhere previously. Unlike the HD3500 there are open source alternatives for the controller hardware for the Cube. Instead of trying to crack the encryption your are probably better off just switching the controller board out for a Ramps 1.4, Rambo, smoothie board, CRamps etc.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Does anyone know if the Cube 3 cartridges can be used in the Ekocycle version? My team was wondering if we would be able to use the Cube 3 cartridges in order to get a wider variety of colors.

The best thing I could find was the description of the Ekocycle printer which says, "Exclusively printing in post-consumer waste...", but the cartridges do appear remarkably similar (besides the Ekocycle branding on one of them and the material inside).Has anyone tried to use a Cube 3 cartridge in it and can tell me how it went?

We're very happy to have the printer, with a number of parts already designed for when it arrives, but we're hoping we can order the blue Cube 3 cartridges to match our team colors!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I do not believe you can use any other material than the partially recycled PET filament. Sorry, no blue with the stock electronics.

How to print a Solidwork part?
 

Got the Ekocycle printer today, got it setup, printed the test part that is part of the printer.

Now, how do I print my own file? I have a SolidWorks part. I assume I save it as an .stl file.

How do I actually print? Save it to a usb stick (as an .stl file) then stick that in the printer? I don't see a printer defined within Windows. The cubify.exe software seems more like a glorified web browser.

Your help is appreciated!

Re: How to print a Solidwork part?
 

I have found the most success from using cubify.exe. It allows you to control how you print. I.E. Solid, almost solid, hollow, honeycomb, ext. It's a little annoying to use but you have to use it.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Got an email today that our printer shipped yesterday! The link in the email doesn't work though :(. I hope we get it soon enough that we can print some parts for our robot!!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours shipped yesterday as well.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

If you look at the URL through which the tracking link takes you, there is a letter at the end of the tracking number. Remove the letter and you can see the tracking information.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

If WolfPack needs some help and pointers with 3D printing, we will gladly help you out.
We will be using several printed parts on our robot this year and have learned a few tricks.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We received an email from Cubify this morning - our printer has shipped!

FedEx says we should receive it Wed pm.

Hopefully, we get their USB stick and don't have issues activating the printer.

We've got at least one part we'd like to print for our robot: a magnetic encoder mount.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I don't know what your application is, or what encoder you're using, but last year we mounted a magnetic rotary encoder over our shooter's tilt pivot to measure the angle. The 3D printed mount method worked perfectly to hold the encoder, but we had a great deal of trouble keeping the encoder's chip perfectly aligned above the magnet. It would give us bad values when it strayed. We ultimately replaced it with a potentiometer, which was much better for our application...just keep it in mind if you're doing something similar.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

It looks like the email was a little premature, I went to test this and this time the link worked - but it hasn't even been picked up yet :(.

Thanks Bill!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Congrats! We were selected last year, and we didn't get our 3D printer until about week 4. So I wouldn't worry.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I queried them today and ours is set to ship no later than 1/30/15; we placed the order on 12/9/14.:rolleyes:

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Yeah. You (like I) just need to remember the huge donation they gave us. I'm thankful for the opportunity and try to manage my natural impatience :).

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We're using them as an incremental encoders for our drive train. This worked very well last year, allowing us to implement an automatic transmission for our Super Shifters. This year, we purchased AMS encoders from Mouser and will integrate them onto Toughboxes.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Hi - anyone having cartridge trouble with the Ekocycle? We've been doing 3D printing for a couple of years on an UP! Mini. Some fuss and care, but easily repaired; the extruder and head can be maintained and declogged pretty readily.

The Ekocycle is more integrated (extruder and drive cogs are part of cartridge) and both cartridges are clogged. They won't extrude, just click-click-click. I have an email into 3D systems, but I am tempted to take one apart. Anyone have a similar issue w/ suggestions? Thanks

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I have had the same problem. One of mine is clogged. They emailed instructions to unclog it... According to them, you can open it up, then load it, from there, do the test print, and manually feed the filament. Im still trying to open the case....

... nvm, finally got it.... brute force.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We didn't get our order in until Dec 12th. I just got the e-mail stating that our printer has shipped.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We just got ours last night; haven't had time to make it do useful work. I am seeing several comments that it may have trouble working reliably, which was the whole point of this design, to work reliably.

We'll see how it compares to the Ultimaker at home and the new Duplicator 2 at our build space. At least it looks pretty. I think it would look prettier with all that plastic removed and the bare cast aluminum chassis exposed.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

So far 2781 is happy with the printer. I have had no issues with it, and our prints are coming out perfectly.

I'm not looking forward to buying more "ink" though, and I wish there were more color options. But besides that, its a nice introduction to 3D printing for our team.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours is coming in tomorrow and we've got models waiting to print. We're going to be running that thing 24x7 until the end of build season, I'm looking forward to the students being able to more easily go from thought to part...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We had the same problem with our "natural" colored cartridge. Ekocycle customer support was prompt in their response and quite helpful by directing us to take the cartridge apart and describing how to solve the problem. They even told us they would be willing to replace the cartridge if it broke in the process since they told us to open it up.

The general idea of what we were supposed to do is to take the outside (when mounted on the printer) of the cartridge off to expose the filament. They then said to take the cartridge and push it firmly through the nozzle, until it comes clear, since the motor wasn't strong enough to extrude it. This was done during the cartridge installation cycle while the nozzle was heated. It solved our problem promptly.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours is slated by Wednesday. all the extra stuff got shipped separately. Apparently that snow event is impacting deliveries...but to Tejas? It's 75 degrees, sunny and outstanding today!

Ours comes sometime next week but if it's anything like the old cube 3d it's going to be a pile of junk after a few prints.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We got ours yesterday. I just tried to use it. It wants me to enter my WiFi password, but the text entry menu on the little touchscreen has no means of entering the space character, so I can't do this. Perhaps they thought that no one in their right mind would ever need to type a space key.

It will be interesting to see how many other glitches we encounter in this not-quite-finished product. But, hey, it's FREE!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours arrived today. Time to get it set up, we have parts ready to print!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Hi all. Let's remember that this was a big donation by a company, it cost them a good amount of $. Let's be respectful of their product and give it a fair shake/convey objective results. Ours comes in today and I'm grateful for the opportunity to show the students how useful 3D printing can be...

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Source? We've got a Cube3D in 125's lab that works pretty well when we use it. We just don't use it all that often as we have access to more advanced printers.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I'm trying to be objective. It's hard to do so when you read things like the following words on the Cubify website:

"Cubify is the central hub for all things possible with the 3D printed lifestyle. Cubify offers everything from co-creation with favorite brands, a curated shopping experience centered around personalized fashion, décor, toys and more, a community inspiring the latest in 3D design and printing possibilities and access to the easiest home 3D printers and related products. Shop the collections for things to print at home or have printed for you in high-end materials like precious metals, edibles from chocolate to sugar and a range of full-color materials and higher quality plastics; discover the designer in you; join the community and share your print inspirations in the Design Feed; organize and display prints on your Shelf; and design your future, powered by 3D printing. 3D Systems’ consumer technology platform that powers Cubify allows for the safe hosting, publishing and production of branded and licensed content. 3D Systems also manufactures the Cube family of consumer 3D printers, the Sense 3D scanner and a suite of consumer design software, all available on the Cubify hub."

That sounds like the exact opposite of the Maker Credo, as I have absorbed it from years of making interesting things, being featured in Make: Magazine and helping to run a hackerspace.

They gave 1500 free printers to the brightest young engineers in the country, and expect them to be "consumers"? Good luck with that.

I will note that the agreement that we had to sign to get the free printer says nothing at all about re-purposing it to use other brands of filament or a Marlin-based controller, and I expect these to be discussed at length on CD after the build season.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

First, cool site and I love the gadgets! Lots of talent there... Now back to it. Why must it be in line with the maker credo? Why are you assuming they are trying to make the students consumers? Who in their right minds would think giving a bunch of 3D printers to robotics teams would make them consumers? Why are we being so negative about a company that gave away a great tool to a bunch of kids?

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I would assume the goal is to make the schools and the tax money that operates the schools the consumers.

The same sort of people that sell oscilloscopes for $50 to the U.S. Government and then charge $100 a nylon case screw which 'happen' to break in multiples at mandated calibration :yikes:

On this we agree. The Cube printer that MORT was given has been the most trouble free to setup and use of all the printers either Team 11 or the school owns. I include the Prusa I donated with the understanding that I expected them to build the Prusa and that always meant they would have to work the build out before they could print.

Assuming the goal was to take a 3D printer out of the box and start printing the Cube printer won that challenge hands down of those between Team 11 and the school. However I own an Up! printer and not only is the resolution much better than the Cube but it does print just fine with common materials I can buy and with little easy modification I can easily expand that range of materials.

So if I was looking to replicate the experience and I could handle the smaller print area of the Up! I would say the Up! was just a better choice of the ones I've unpacked and tried. I own more than 10 3D printers including SoliDoodle 3, Prusa, Mendel and others that are projects from various RepRap timelines.

Then again I like building my printers such that I know the maximum amount about what I am getting into and can source parts and modifications.

Also it's fair to mention that not all formulations of PLA are the same. A lot of people do not understand that certain formulations of PLA will fail to extrude unless specific settings and changes are made for that formulation. As a result there are whole piles of materials at places like MicroCenter that will print fine in a MakerBot but not on a Bukito. On the other hand if you part that pile sooner or later you will find the spools that contain the proper compatible formulation for the Bukito (or whatever your 3D printer is) and then noting that part number you can order proper materials. This matters because even though the chipped materials are more expensive - at least there is the assumption the printer maker gave you the right materials.

On that note I printed 200 pieces for a game for the school. When I did that I needed the right materials. Given the job scale and time frame I could afford to sort the proper materials and corresponding part numbers out. If that was a small batch of parts it would have not been worth the effort. Now I know what PLA sold by MicroCenter works properly in which of my printers (that was....fun).

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Well, I suppose my default setting is such that I assume the best in people unless proven otherwise. I'll go on assuming that will.i.am pushed hard to get us these printers because he saw how big of an impact they can make. I'll also assume that the company hooked us up with 3D printers because they know the more prevalent they are, the better off we all are.

Happy printing for those that have them, for those who don't, be patient! Mine just came in about 20 minutes ago!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

I am still trying to figure out the angle that 3D Systems was after. I assume that it's a PR move by a NYSE corporation trying to broaden their reach. I am basing this on the FRC grant agreement that wants all users to publish photos of their students using the machine.

I don't think that 3D Systems intended to turn the robotics kids into consumers; that's just who they want to sell to. I suspect that the unintended side effect of this FRC 3D printer grant is that the robot kids will work like heck to subvert the "pay for the razor blades" business model that is being pushed here.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Well, we got ours in today and w/in about 30 minutes of unboxing it our first print was underway. Easy and good quality!

Source - me. The glue on the platform came off auto leveling didn't work. The cartridges would read empty when they were full and it fell apart so we had to hold the thing together with duct tape

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

So we've got two conflicting outcomes, given that I've never heard any other teams having this issue I'm chalking it up to either you got a lemon or user error.

Did you contact support?

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We're working through difficulties with our EKOCYCLE as well - almost identical to what Sperkowsky has stated. I'm in contact with their support, I'm thinking we also got a lemon, but I'm also grateful for their donation to the team.

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

Ours came about 4 days ago, and has been put to use already- printing some good quality battery plugs to distinguish the charged batteries from uncharged.
So far, everything's working great, and hopefully will continue to!

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

How do we print with two colors in the same object?

Re: Anyone heard more about the Ekocycle 3D printer?
 

We have printed several parts that would be very difficult to make - so far it's been great! There is a learning curve but it's been great so far!