Gadget

Today we will look at a 3D printer from the manufacturer Selpic.

The company is originally from the USA and specializes in the production of various printing devices. At the moment, he has two miniature handheld printers and cartridges for them, as well as the printer that will be discussed today (they are currently running a Kickstarter campaign and are available for pre-order at a price of $99).

There is a website where you can view and purchase all products. Free international shipping (DHL) is available.

This printer is positioned as the most optimal for beginners due to the ease of assembly and installation, as well as low cost. But it’s also open source, allowing advanced users to make modifications.

Printer promo video:

The package with the printer is light and small, its weight is just over 3 kilograms.

Package:

Equipment:

Among other things, the kit comes with one set of 10 meters of PLA plastic, as well as an 8GB flash drive and a Netac card reader.

To my surprise, there are no instructions in the package, although the main audience of printers is beginners. As it turned out later, the instruction was in electronic form on a USB flash drive, but there is not a word about how to connect and work with the laser head.

Also on the flash drive are drivers, G-codes for two models for printing, and an installation file for the Cura application for macOS and Windows.

The length of the cable for connecting the printer to the computer is 51 cm, which, in my opinion, is a significant drawback, especially if a person uses a stationary PC and not a laptop.

The length of the power cable is sufficient and is 149cm.

Peculiarities:

Among the features, I would also include the presence of a heating platform, a 2.4-inch touch screen and a laser engraving head (1.6 W). It should be noted that these accessories are not included in the basic package and are purchased separately.
It would be nice if the manufacturer provided an opportunity to choose the power of the laser engraving head. However, it can also be purchased separately on Aliexpress.

Comparison with analogues:

Printer assembly steps:

Assembled photos:

Minor manufacturing flaws:

The downside, as for me, is the inability to quickly replace the print head with a laser head (or, ideally, just connect without dismantling anything).

Bottom view:

The disadvantages include the lack of anti-slip inserts. Not that it slides much on smooth surfaces, but they wouldn’t get in the way anyway.

The plastic holder can withstand loads up to 250 grams. The weight of the plastic that comes with the kit is 30 grams. It is worth noting that the holder clings to the printer simply on hooks, that is, without a strong and reliable fixation, and at the slightest movement it walks back and forth and strives to fly off.

After turning on the printer, it must be calibrated, the distance between the nozzle and the desktop in each corner should be minimal (adjustment occurs using the wheels in each corner).

Next, load the printing material: you need to click on the “+” and the nozzle will start heating (about 1 minute), after which we push the plastic into the hole until it comes out of the extruder (after which we click on “+” again to complete the process).

All processes are accompanied by light indicators of control buttons and are described in detail in the instructions.

Setting up and starting printing takes place in the Cura application.

Application setting:

Print setting:

The nozzle temperature in standby mode is about 23 degrees. Heating up to 180° occurs in an average of 2.5 minutes.

After the first start of printing, I started to do something like this:

As I understand it, this was due to the too small distance between the nozzle and the working surface. In order for everything to be normal, you need to accurately guess with the optimal distance: so that it is not too tight, but also so that the A4 sheet does not crawl freely.

Noise during operation averages 47 dB. The biggest noise comes from the extruder fan.

The printing of the rocket (height 4 cm) took 1 hour 25 minutes.

The problem was that the bottom of the figurine stuck too strongly to the working surface, so much so that the rocket broke away from it and flew away, and I had to tear it off, melting the plastic with fire and tearing it off with a knife.

The second figurine (height 5 cm) was printed from a memory card (the file must be in the root of the card), it took 3 hours and 35 minutes to print it.

As for the print quality, there are no questions about it, especially the cost of the printer and the fact that it can be used almost immediately from the box.

Print timelapse:

Unfortunately, due to the lack of instructions on how to connect and work with laser engraving, I can’t say anything about its operation. If anyone can tell me how to connect it and make it work — I will be grateful!

Results

Summing up, we can say that the idea of ​​a ready-made printer for beginners with advanced features is definitely interesting and promising, but the implementation requires some improvements.

Among the advantages, I would like to note the following: ease of installation and operation, light weight and compact size, large print area and quiet operation, as well as the possibility of various customizations.

The disadvantages include the lack of instructions for working with the laser head and paper instructions, the lack of anti-slip feet, a short cable for connecting to a PC and an unreliable implementation of the plastic holder for printing.

Considering that Ali now has a lot of inexpensive printers with similar characteristics, the manufacturer should also not miscalculate the price so that it is competitive.

You can buy the printer here:

• KICKSTARTER
• Official website of the manufacturer

Branch of this printer on w3bsit3-dns.com