Review on FLSUN Φ200X200 Printing Auto Leveling Platform by Mark Adlesh

Bought Q5 at the end of July. It's late January now, so this review comes after about half a year of ownership and fairly heavy use. This printer was a gift for my youngest son who was about to enter high school with a robotics program and team. My oldest son (college engineer) has had a lot of experience with 3D printing since high school, but my youngest son and I are absolute beginners. That was our first 3D printer. We've since added the Ender 3V2 (Black Friday Special Edition) and the Sovol SV01. That's why I'm writing this review with a total of about half a year of "experience" and two other popular printers for comparison. Q5 build and first prints. super easy. FLSun did a great job of giving away rating blocks to a few creators (although not the most famous ones), and almost every video included detailed step-by-step instructions on how to create one. My youngest son looked at a few of these and he had it up and running in less than half an hour and it was slow on purpose because it was his first build. Once assembled, initial setup is just as easy. Auto leveling was a breeze. Attach the small sensor to the magnet and in about 5-6 minutes you are done. Then the printer will ask you to remove the sensor and adjust the Z height (another minute if that) and that's it. Ready to print. It took another 4-5 minutes to warm everything up, so only about 45 minutes from opening the box to laying the first layer. All done by a 14 year old rookie, slowly on purpose. As I said, very simple. The print quality is surprisingly good. The combination of elephant and nut and bolt on an SD card seemed great to me, but then again this was my first experience with a 3D printer so I have no point of reference. The big surprise was how impressed my eldest son (an engineering student) was with the prints. Immediately after completing the first two prints from the card, he cut his own models, which he had previously printed in the college lab using a Raise3D printer. He's the guy who doesn't care about cleanliness, but about accuracy and reasonable tolerances. After measuring and re-measuring his prototypes, he declared the printer to be "good”. Tiny table size. It wasn't until I got my other two printers that I really began to appreciate how little space the Q5 takes up on a desk or counter. My other printers tend to "splay". You need space for the display on one side, coils on the other, and the space and clearances needed to move the bed back and forth, etc. The Q5 is designed as a triangle with sides about 13 inches all the way in closed. Compared to my other printers, it doesn't take up space and is much easier to move. He turned out to be a workhorse. Both my kids' high school and college have well equipped labs with some of the best commercial printers out there from Makerbot etc. But because of the pandemic it's all online so they haven't had access to it. The two worked on this printer like a mule. I had something I wanted to print and my wife discovered that this thing could make some great looking planters, so there came a point where you had to fight someone gladiator style to use the printer. We worked hard, but he just kept typing. Unfortunately, it grew out of it quickly. so much space to build. If you want to print something square, the printing area is really about 140 x 140 mm. Because all the electronics are on top and the bottom of the top plate is perforated allowing all the hot air to get in, you'll never be able to properly enclose this printer. You can put a case around it, but all the electronics inside will start to burn, especially since it's at the top where all the hot air collects. My youngest son wanted a large writing platform, my eldest wanted to be able to print ABS reliably (enclosure required). But that's not the main reason the printer outgrew it. This was due to the lack of ubiquitous distribution of spare parts and lack of access to the knowledge base and support. Right now, one of them is using Ender and the other is using Sovol. They dropped the Q5 entirely, which doesn't bother me - it's mine now :) Omnipresence has value. It wasn't until I got Ender that I realized the value of omnipresence. Replacement and aftermarket parts are much easier to find and locate. Revain has a wide range of everything you could possibly need. Even my local micro center has most of the parts you will ever need to service or update your Ender. Not so with Q5. Some parts can be replaced/upgraded like any other printer. Other parts are custom-made and partially patented. For example, the hotend is a V6 clone, but it doesn't look like any other clone and has a proprietary assembly. If you want to upgrade your hotend to another/better clone or real offering from E3D, you need to do some "metal operations". It will be necessary to drill holes and tap metal etc. This is not impossible but not an easy procedure as it requires tools that we do not have. Flsun has a shop that sells spare parts and the prices are pretty good. But delivery is slow, and since some parts can't be found anywhere else, you have no choice but to wait a while for a replacement. For example, my Q5 needed a replacement heater block - the $1 part on the FLSun website. It is not available at the moment. There is no compatible replacement for Revain (according to Flsun support). I have contacted their support team and they will send me a new device but it will take two weeks. If I needed a heater block for Ender, I could drive to the Microcenter and have it on hand in about 20 minutes. As I said, ubiquity has value. No access to the knowledge base and no community outside of Facebook. Good Things is on Facebook. Firmware, test files and all kinds of documentation and help from other users can be found in the Flsun Facebook group. The band is a phenomenal resource from what I've heard. However, this printer was purchased for a 14 year old child. He's not on Facebook like his brother. Neither of them want to take part and I don't blame them. I left Facebook many years ago. The only one in our family who still uses Facebook is my grandmother. Giving personal information to an evil company just to get help with a 3D printer seems unnecessary. The lack of a community and knowledge base outside of Facebook was by far the main reason my kids gave up this printer. Getting support is difficult. Even if you use Facebook, help there may be limited. If a part fails and you need warranty service, you will need to contact the company. This is a lot harder than it should be. There came a time when our printer developed "amnesia" and forgot settings like auto-orientation and z-height after power cycle. I've tried emailing support multiple times over the course of several months. None of my emails have been answered. I finally got support by contacting the seller through Revain who gave me the name to add to Skype. If you need their assistance, instead of emailing the seller, contact the seller here on Revain and they will tell you what to do. On the contrary, I had no problem communicating with Creality when I needed support for my Ender. Sovol was a little slow to respond, but I didn't have to jump through hoops or use Skype to get in touch with anyone. This is an area where FLSun definitely needs improvement. That's not to say FLSun's support is bad, they're actually excellent - once you find them. It's easy to find them. difficult. growing pains. A young company operating in the foreign market, so some growth problems are to be expected. Engineers did a great job developing this machine. The workers at the plant did an excellent job. The grocers did a wonderful job of finding parts that can sell this item at a great price. Customer service is ok. However, the easy access to support and knowledge base needs to be greatly improved, especially since the company is actively targeting newcomers. It's a young company full of bright, energetic people - I'm sure they'll find out. In the meantime, prepare yourself for some growth challenges. Finally. The obvious question is: would I buy it again, recommend it to a friend, etc.? The answer is yes and no. No, I would not buy it again for my children. The lack of ubiquitous upgrade parts and the fact that all "good things" can be found on Facebook proved to be a hindrance for them. Yes, I would buy that. I don't have to print anything large or use exotic materials. The printer works great for my purposes. It's small. It's very accurate. It's faster than my other printers. It is easy to maintain and has so far proven to be very reliable. And for the price, it's great quality. The only thing I regret about buying the Q5 is that I didn't buy its big brother, the QQS-pro. If I were recommending it to a friend I would advise them to spend a little more and get a bigger Delta if they can afford it.