http://www.3dsystems.com/press-releases/3d-systems-end-life-cube-its-entry-level-consumer-3d-printer
Does anybody know what impact this will have on all of the Ekocycle printers that were given away to FIRST teams last year? The Ekocycle printers are based off the Cube and utilize the Cubify software. Will Ekocycle filament cartridges still be available for sale? Will there be any support? etc.
To quote the link you provided:
…The company will continue to sell the existing inventory of Cube printers. Ongoing support and sale of materials for Cube customers will be provided through a new e-commerce platform on the company’s primary corporate domain, 3dsystems.com…
IMO, the Cube printers are one of the worst, most overpriced printers on the market, and I for one, will not miss them.
I’m tempted to go out and buy an Arduino and a G-shield for our Cube and just bypass the stock control system and use the existing motors. The existing Cube software is terrible, and the filament spools are expensive and too small.
http://www.makergeeks.com/cu3dprfiad.html
Hmm I wonder if they would complain…
I agree completely BUT for what it’s worth, it took very little setup to get the ekocycle printing. We had it out of the box and printing in about 30 minutes. It was a mediocre printer though and we never could get the sizing quite right but we did use parts that it printed on our robot.
Would love to know if anyone got that hack working using the PET filament that the Ekocycle printer uses, and where the PET filament was purchased from as there seem to be lots of PET variants (PETG, PET+, etc).
Agreed. We have a CubeX Trio and the only way it is bearable to use is if we use Kisslicer and CubeItmod, which is an external slicer/plugin combination that you can import STL files into, change settings, and then convert the output into something the printer can understand. Not sure if it will work with your printer, but I would suggest looking in to it as it makes fine tuning and other stuff much easier and allows you to use non-cube filament on the printer.
Agreed as well, for an entirely different reason. We pulled the power cord out and forgot to loosen the barrel end and actually pulled out the entire power jack. The machine has been broken for 3-4 months now and customer service has sent us a replacement, but after repairing the jack, half of the screen no longer works. According to them we have to buy a whole other unit.
You haven’t figured out the trick yet 
. All you do is leave an empty cartridge in and have a secondary supply of PLA that the printer is actually using. It is an effective way to reduce the WAY overpriced PLA that they try to sell.
Yeah, the Cube is not the best by any means and definitely overpriced (Apple anyone? Beats? 
) but our team won one free in some giveaway last year and it suits our needs well. We have to make a bracket or something every once in awhile and it works great for that but it is definitely overpriced. Can be hard to work with at times, but you can start to figure out common fixes that solve most problems.
Does this actually work with the eckocycle?
Ours won’t feed our bulk filament though. This has happened before with Cube filaments too, I think its a setting on the power level of the stepper motor, hence why I want to bypass the integrated controller. Also being able to use open source software would be nice too.
Agreed about software, and I think it depends on the resistiveness of the bulk, you can’t just buy anything as you noticed because it might be too much to pull for the stepper but there are a few kinds that should work.
No clue if it works with the eckocycle, I don’t have access to one and so I can’t test it, all we have is the Cube 2nd gen.
From what I understand, the bypass is possible on 2nd gen Cube is because of an older firmware version, if you update the firmware, the bypass isn’t possible anymore. Consequently, I would assume as the eckocycle is a much newer printer, they likely shipped with a set of firmware that already included this fix.
That said, I don’t have one of these printers either so I cannot confirm this either.
I think it should still be possible as it is totally hardware, no software at all, the only way that the Cube knows that something is installed is by a sensor in the bracket, if you leave an empty one there and just have a large and cheaper supply next to it, it should work perfectly fine as long as the stepper can pull it in well.
It keeps track of how much filament is extruded and writes that amount to a chip mounted on the filament. Once the printer uses a certain amount of filament it will say its empty even if filament is left on the reel.
Proprietary anything always throws a red flag in my mind. Pulling stunts like you just said is a sure-fire way to make me never support and actually actively oppose one’s organization.
I doubt that you can bypass the Chip on the Ekocycle, since some of you may have a Cube 2, the trick is:
Install a Cube Cartridge as usual in its slot but feed a bulk roll into the head of the printer.
Once the print had started, hit the stop button and the printer should ask you if you want to confirm that you want to stop the print (the printer should still be printing). At this point, you will want to pull the Cube Filament Cartridge out of the slot so that the IC on the cartridge is no longer touching the contacts on the printer. This will prevent the filament level decreasing on your cartridge. The missing cartridge timeout will not begin as long as the screen stays on the “are you sure?” Screen (paraphrasing, don’t know the exact wording on the screen).
The bad, you can see your print progress and its a little extra work. The good, you can use bulk filament.
From what I recall, cube filament is 1.7mm (1.65mm)while the industry standard is 1.75mm
On the cube 2, you can remove the print head cover via the two screws on top. Inside there will be a nut (towards the lower side of the front of the print head, should be facing left when you look at the printer from the front). If you loosen this nut you can adjust the tension on the feed stepper in order to allow for the larger filament.
This is probably a little out of place on this thread, but hopefully it helps someone. I use “JustPLA” and “JustABS” from
Amazon, it seems to be decent, but I wouldn’t say it’s flawless. My feed has still jammed with these (albeit rarely)
We had both the cube and the ekocycle printers. Both broke after 1 season. Both were human error imo but that’s a story for a different day.
I talked to Avi Reichental(previous ceo of 3d systems) and asked him why they took this approach. He actually said to me “because I’m greedy.” I’m happy he stepped. Down from his position and even happier they stopped clouding up the consumer space with these pieces of crap. Although I do thank them for supporting us.
Before anyone doubts how I talked to avi. It was at the inside 3d printing show where I had a press pass allowing me to go to the back conference rooms to find him. I only wish I got what he said on tape bet he would have stepped down sooner.
I guess I am the only one who has had a good experience with the ekocycle then. Only problem has been the filiment pricing.