First Impressions

Hi,

yesterday I got an e-mail announcing my delivery of my JG Maker Artist-D in 3 to 6 days. I checked the code and found the box was send two days earlier and scheduled that same day (now yesterday).

Putting the printer together was straight forward. I struggled a little bit to get the gantry in place and all screws in. Later I found one of the lose cable connector was stuck under the gantry. That may have caused my struggle.

The handbook told me bed should be leveled. It was by far not level. The screws in the front left and the back right jam a bit more than the string can push. I must lose some more and push the bed up. On the way down, I than can set up the level.

I do have some issues with the firmware:

When I first had loaded only one filament into E1 (= no Filament in E2) a change filament started for E1 in that’s home position. That filled the wire brush with plastic. After the first print the extruder went back into that blob of plastic. A next try to move E1 it was stuck in that blob of plastic. I had to get the brush out and clean it using a soldering iron.

After printing with E2 (only or as last extruder) x-home or home bumps E2 into E1 casing some ugly rattling. It does not matter how I home: via screen, gcode from file or octoprint. The firmware is a development build, so I hope there is someone developing. I will try updating it.

Offset between E1 and E2 was off, although the handbook tells it was set. On the first try the two colors separated immediately. It took me some iterations to get them aligned. But I will redo that after I got the print settings tuned.

The SD card came with a user manual, a useless ...download file in a video folder, a old Version of Cura and some stl files. I used the files from Dual-color mixed testing to check the tools offset.

In need of a Cura profile:

Having a newer Cura running, I used that. I am very much missing some (good) settings. The first prints where bad. I took the speed and movement settings from my Ender 3 pro. With them the results are good. I will start experimenting.

PLA sticks extremely to the bed. Even after cooling down it takes me some effort to get the print of that bed.

The fans run as soon as the printer is turned on. They are loud and noisy. I hardly hear the Artist-D printing. I can work next to my Ender 3 pro, but not next to Artist-D.

Summary:

Mechanical:

- Two bed leveling screws jam: JG Maker may have to fix production.

Software (?):

- E1 should not 'auto' change filament when E2 is empty and not used.

- From time to time the menus are exited and some strange movement of the bed occur. (No clue what happens!)

Inconvenience:

- A Cura print profile is missing

- Noisy fans

I expected this printer will have to mature here. So by now I am satisfied.

Heiko