Anycubic Kobra Go that cost me $64

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Per the thread on the Mk4 and the post by brianfwise I went here:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/314230323637?hash=item49299639b5%3Ag%3A9ZYAAOSwGL9jVkvu&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwGFfRGagUvUgvq54RfZUXgii0nBSd4Y3lf2vOzJx%2B2hQC8dQpVcLlYEwrrI58vmpU%2B%2FRDaCflugUvAaikK0%2BuVx7jWIXKcfJV%2BfUPTnPb7HNVHyLm5uDDo4Tan7gFZ4%2FCiqrww%2BiCPfJ1AXf7VPKiyDdoENzMLDMW1s54%2BWn9dxdm2bQx1JZkthqQUkuMO6nJ5gTcEFVXWThMosbUXVe8g87Zo0uZoSXf5q6rKv2609QbXU9%2FDYUn4tfmU2HDEQDkA%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR6jlo9v0YQ&LH_BIN=1

I bought one. $64. I got it today.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

It took me about 40 minutes to build. All parts were there. The only sign that it had been used was it was not packed perfectly and there was some extrusion still on the bed. otherwise no wear at all. Everything on it works. It prints OK...

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

For $64 I am a bit stunned. It includes an inductive sensor and it maps the bed for Z height compensation... (typically incorrectly referred to as "mesh" mapping or auto leveling). The compensation works real nice! It printed correctly right away and the distance between the nozzle and the bed is correct. The plate is a PEI powder coated flexible bed attached with a full surface magnet. It also restarts after a power fail (I knocked the power cord out mid print. It restarted and completed fine! This thing is WAY better then a standard Ender 3!

$64!!! DANG!!! 

[Alan B]

They are probably returns. Rather than test and refurbish them they just sell them as-is with no guarantees just to get rid of them, so the user experience buying one may be totally random. Bargain or junk, depending on luck.

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[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Actually that’s incorrect. EBay provides a full money back guarantee on them. Are they returns ? Yes that’s exactly what they are. Why was the printer I have returned? Well… the switch on the PS was set to 230 and I cannot recall ever seeing in the assembly manual a step to check that switch during assembly.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Before people take the above as an endorsement...

I DO NOT RECOMMEND Anycubic 3D Printers!

This is now the 3rd Anycubic product I have. I also have the Predator (a big Delta) and the Photon (SLA). Anycubic does something that I think is not all that good. They take open source stuff and not just close it... they take it and SEAL it. IOWs they attempt to make it a completely plug and play consumer product. No access to all the settings in firmware. To some degree they succeed in making it easier to use. For example, I never had to do any mods or fixes to the Photon. It still prints reliably after 3 or more years. The Predator had issues. Although far from insurmountable. The bed surface was not reliable enough and I had to spend $100 for a custom circular glass plate. The three big uprights are painted and the paint came off where the delrin rollers ride and Anycubic had to replace them with anodized uprights. The extruder has a looong neck to the hot block making extruder upgrades and mods near impossible without major surgery elsewhere on the machine. However, it prints well although it's not a Delta speed demon.

Back to the Kobra...

I've only printed a couple of things so far. What I'm seeing is REALLY good for $64, BUT... I also see the same cultural thing here as I do with the Predator, For example, the "leveling". It works, but I feel completely disempowered. Initially the extruder was just a tiny bit too close and I did not immediately see a way to set the offset. I looked just a little closer and found the menu item in the leveling menu and I was quickly able to increase the offset just enough and it seems to recall it without my having to set it again... Still... I feel very disempowered and THATS the difference between a super inexpensive Chinese Mendel VS the relatively expensive Prusa Mendel. The Prusa Mendel the user can get to anything and fix, adjust and modify anything and in my opinion that makes it worth the added cost.

So should someone go the Anycubic route?

Well... here's one way of looking at it... I want to get a drone. One that uses GPS. I don't want to cheap throw-away non-gps drone but I also don't want the $2K cost of a Mavic. So my first drone will be the Mini 2 SE. I know that it is lacking compared to the mini 3 and the Mavic, but I'm not sure how much I'lll really be getting into it. So as a compromise I'll spend around $350 and get the Mini 2 SE and if I really get into it then I'll get the higher end products. Its probably an analogous thing here with the Anycubic cheepees. At $64 it's like a test, throw-away spool of exotic filament.

[brian wise]

I have bought all of 3d printers on there but one.  I just bought a Formlabs Form 2 SLA 3D Printer  off there for 350.00 and going to try resin printing.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

So there is something that I just noticed which IMO is not at all acceptable. At least not to me. The build plate. Its a flexible steel plate with PEI on the surface attached to the heated build surface with a full contact magnetic material on the back. Stick and release with PLA works fine. Thats not the problem. The textured surface is! The textured surface significantly impacts the quality of the print! This tuff is REAL bad! How can anybody accept this? It leaves a horrible texture to the surface where the print contacted the plate. After so many years of using Aquanet on glass or anodized aluminum I've gotten used to the surface which contacts the plate as a smooth, clean surface NOT a mangled mess of texture. This really stinks!

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Next example...

I'm getting feeder issues. The feeder drives a Bowden tube to the top of the extruder.. The feeder is a single gear, plastic idler arm. It is adjustable and I was able to adjust the issue away, but I'd prefer to put on an aluminum dual gear feeder. To do that one needs to switch the gear on the feeder's stepper so that it can drive the second gear on the idler arm. As such I'd need to be able to change the esteps for the motor. Anycubic does not give you access to this. The result is you cannot upgrade the feeder. Unless of course you change the FW and with an Anycubic that quickly becomes a very deep rabbit hole.

[brian wise]

You could add it to start of your Gcode.

[3D Printing Tips and Tricks]

Yes... if it were Marlin. If so I should be able to change esteps and save them with gcode on a live console using a slicer and connected via USB. However, it could easily be that same weird FW that they used on the Predator. Still it's a rabbit hole with one deeper than the other.

[Marco Kersten]

Hello,

The anycubic cobra 2 is that a good nice 3d printer? Vs the soval sv07?

I have a geeetech A20T it works fine slowly but can print some stuff only strings.

If you can anycubic 269 euro 299 euro sv07 for sv07 16 Juli can shipens long time.

 And i listing back podcast 5 years back now 230 epsodes. 221-230 than 211-220 etc thanks for that.

Gr. Marco Kersten from the Netherlands.

Op donderdag 27 april 2023 om 03:52:27 UTC+2 schreef 3D Printing Tips and Tricks: