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Review on TRONXY 330×330×400Mm Platform Leveling Printing by Mike Goodwin

Revainrating 3 out of 5

Good, but requires a lot of work

This review is about the TRONXY X5SA PRO 3D printer. This is a Core xy printer. The build area is quite large: 330 x 330 x 400 mm, so quite a lot fits on the build plate. It includes an impressive glass platform and one less upgrade than this printer needs. There is a textured mesh on top of the glass that helps it stick to the bed. Glass also helps make the bed more level to begin with than magnet or steel platforms. This particular model does not have automatic bed leveling, although the description says otherwise. Note, however, that this option is currently unavailable. One of the first things I noticed about it, and what prompted me to do it, was the dual Z-axis drivers as well as the quad Z-axis tracks. Working together, they really help keep your bed stable and avoid any problems that may arise... with other printers that only have rails on one side. It's really nice to look at and it speaks volumes about the quality they get from this device. The downside of Dual Z motors is that they need to be synchronized to work and this can be a little tricky to sync. I had problems with this printer. There were definitely some. Thermal runaway is NOT active by default on this printer, that was the biggest issue for me. It can be difficult to get it working with Cura or PrusaSlicer as there are no profiles for it. Fortunately, most 3D printers follow the same commands. I managed to get it working with a profile for one of the Ender brand printers, but I had to change the bed size, but that may not work with every command given. There is also a "chitu v6" file for Marlin that might be helpful, be sure to check it out. Although some of them involve flashing the board, which may not be possible with this printer. I've seen reports that it was blocked at board level. Set up was easy following the instructions. The instructions themselves aren't particularly good, so you might run into a problem or two if you're new to 3D printing. This is my fourth 3D printer so it's more of a backup or side project for me so it wasn't a problem for me. Tronxy is a great printer brand and they usually sell Ender clones. It looks like this is the printer they're moving further out of the box with, although you have to keep in mind that it's not 'battle-hardened' like other designs, so to speak. In general, the printer works and does what it's supposed to do, but you can play around with it more than you can with other models or brands. Because of this, it's probably not the best printer if you're new to the hobby. It's not one that you can probably just assemble and print right out of the box. Like I said, you can make it work, and when it works, it works great. I'd say for a newbie to 3D printing it's probably 1 or 2 stars. It won't be a fun time. But if you're experienced, can troubleshoot, and don't mind messing around, then I'd say it's definitely 3 or 4 stars.

Pros
  • Additive Manufacturing Products
Cons
  • So far so good