Not completely. Its usable though, just not a perfect 1st layer.

I didn't request this, which leads me to believe that all mini owners were sent one.

Interesting.

I hadn't looked into it yet as I have no interest in voiding my warranty at this point.

Had they just contacted me, I would have told them to save the $5 in shipping to send a 2 cent part

I reset the height of the MINDA probe per advice on the Prusa forums.

Got some interesting behavior.

Where the probing fails is where I have major issues with MESH jamming the nozzle too close to the print bed.

Can't embed, but take a look at the video links and tell me what you think.
EDIT: Crap, those links give out personal info

Puzzing.

lol, yeah, I think they screwed up not using the PINDA probes from the MK3.

Would have been worth the extra $5 (probably less) to have a reliable, in-production probe with temp compensation instead of jumping a step backwards on a new probe w/o a thermister.

ETA: I'm on my second heated bed/Y carriage, AND MINDA probe, and I run both textured and smooth sheets, no changes on the swaps.

The_Steward:

I made a small edit in your reply of my quote. I didn't realize that those links gave out personal information. I would do the same for anybody who accidentally gave out personal info and was quoted to protect their privacy.

So I guess you got insider information on me

Prusa Mini is going back across the pond.

Tech support isn't sure what is wrong at this point, so a trip back to the factory to figure it out is in order.

Prusa is sending a shipping label. They would like to to come back assembled, so I will use my own box.

If its a warranty issue, this will cost me $0. If I broke shit, it will cost me repairs+freight. I highly doubt I did anything wrong, but I have the same policy with my business, so I fully get it. You don't know what kind of idiot bought your stuff and had no idea what he/she was doing and broke stuff and expects you do give out free stuff. BT/DT.

Of course, I'll keep this thread updated when I have updates to share.

I believe they will stick to the $349 for a while, unless the machine needs a total redesign, which I doubt. Replace the MINDA with the mk3's PINDA and they are in business. Prusa rarely runs a sale, and with the Mini getting more and more sales, they have no reason to have a sale anytime soon. So that to say no, the price will not go down.

The cantilever is plenty solid. They have acceleration values tuned nicely for good prints.

I believe this will be a great machine at a great price once they get the bugs worked out.

If you buy one, I suggest the filament sensor upgrade option. If you want to print petg, get the textured upgrade bed option (you will get both a textured and smooth bed). You are looking at about $450 with all extra options and shipping to the US.

Still haven't heard back to get my return shipping arranged

Pre-release of a new firmware today. Supposed to have MESH fixed.

I'm trying it out now.

ETA: Nope, didn't fix my problem.

Well, 11 days later, I got my return label in my email inbox this morning.

I'll pack the mini up and let it take a trip to Prague.

After a hold-up with customs, the Mini is due to be delivered to Prusa on Friday.

Once it is delivered, I'll be curious as to how long they have it before I get resolution...

No idea

I got basically a beta machine, and I knew I would having ordered on announcement day. I fully suspected issues, but for some odd reason, I wanted to be in on the cutting edge of Prusa Connect: their print-farm software. Prusa Mini's that have these initial issues taken care of (and the vast majority of plagued printers didn't need to go back, just parts sent out) are also just starting to ship recently. Of course, that happens to coincide when I (hopefully) get a fully functional machine . Lots of other folks have been very happy though, I've seen some INCREDIBLE prints come off of the Mini from other users. My printer gave me great results, save for the 1st layer ABL issues. I kept running it through the issues, and got great results. I've posted some. At this point, I still think the Prusa Mini will be a great quality option for beginners, provided the print area suits their needs.

I'm fully confident that Prusa will take care of me, but if they don't, I'll go scorched earth.

After issues with customs on both ends (not Prusa's fault), my Mini is now scheduled for final delivery on Monday. Unless they find an issue and not give me a "we made some adjustments, lets try this", I'll be pushing for a different machine coming back.

QC with the Chinese machines seems to be hit and miss. Some folks seem to get great units that work wonderfully out of the box, others have weeks of frustrations, printing out mods and fixes and trying to diagnose the issue, some folks actually giving up. Creality seems to be good at making ENDLESS revisions and changes, and you have no idea what you will get until it comes. I've thought of getting a cheap Ender 3 just for prototyping upgrades and new parts for making some of my other printers. I spent about as much on my Duet Maestro control board and BLTouch sensor for my R1+ rebuild as a full Ender 3 on sale .

Cura has nothing to do with Creality, its just compatible with Creality and most all printers, as are nearly all slicers. I just don't use it. I got S3D back when its features were well worth the price (before the free slicers were even close), and I just keep using it because it still does well and when I did my slicer showdown, I got better results with S3D (albeit I have my profile tuned), though they were all about the same: no reason for me to learn new software. S3D has been leading folks on about a MAJOR update early 2020, so we will see if/when that happens what they are bringing to the table (crossing fingers for built-in non-planar printing).

There is actually a reason they 3D print the parts. Multiple actually.

1. RepRap project compliant. Prusa is one of the original significant adopters of the RepRap project, which has a philosophy of having as many of the 3D printer parts being 3D print-able and being open-source. The idea is that if you have 1 machine, you can start making more machines. With how far 3D printers have come since the birth of RepRap, I'm not sure how practical this philosophy is anymore, but "you do you".

2. Geometries that are not injection mold compliant. You can do tons of geometries that are simply impossible to do (or expensive to do) on traditional injection molding.

3. Instant revisions. If they build a better part, they can literally have it in production that day for basically no additional investment in tooling. Injection molding setup is hugely expensive, so you get stuck into what you designed until its time to re-tool or you have no other option as to re-invest in tooling.

There is also the un-written rule that all opinions are null and void after 60 days .

Seriously though, the industry is moving THAT FAST. 3D printing, particularly desktop 3D printing, is a bleeding-edge industry. Its literally evolving by the day. Just look at what the free slicers could do today that they couldn't do 6 months ago. You have new companies like Slice Engineering changing the norms, power-house companies like Lulz-bot going basically out of business.

Its hard to keep up with the nearly daily changes in what is possible and available. Just give it another year, maybe 2, before the E3D tool-changer techniques really take hold. Once China picks up on that, your Ender 3 will seem like a waste of money. It will revolutionize this revolutionary technology.

My current main printer is a Robo R1+. Well, it used to be anyway. All injection molded parts, zero 3d printed parts.

It actually makes mods a pita. Since Prusa has their parts open source, it's easy to make mods for it in CAD.

So now my machine, which was actually advertised as having "no 3d printed parts", which actually won me over vs the similar priced Prusa mk2, is now full of 3d printed parts that I have designed .

I guess to say that since it's a given people will mod their printers eventually, and will almost certainly 3d print their new parts, I don't see it as a negative having properly designed and executed 3d printed parts as oem.

In case anybody is waiting on updates, there really are none.

The package is STILL not delivered.

First it was US Customs having a baby fit. I had to provide them documents for the export.

Then it was German customs (Or EU, whatever) having a fit.

Then it was the broker in Czechia dragging their feet.

But...

This morning...

It is cleared through customs. Again .

Hopefully gets delivered tomorrow, maybe .

None of this is Prusa's fault, just EU bullshit. I wonder how much of this is because the EU doesn't like Trump?

At some point, I can see it. I would try out Prusament if they had a reliable US stock, and more folks I think would get into their printers if they had US based support.

It also may be cheaper to pay for international shipping on the few warranties that need to come back (vs parts sent out) than a US presence.

Dunno.

Shipping has been updated.

Scheduled for delivery on Tuesday .

Package was delivered yesterday (Friday).

We shall see how long it takes for them to get back to me with testing results and what they plan to do.

Yup. Got tied up in customs/brokerage on both ends.

Sucks, but government do what government do.

Email this morning:

This whole email seems like a canned response with some code used to drop in the relevent information like what kind of product and my address.

I'll keep you folks updated.

The Mini was delivered today. I had no notice it was coming back, and I figured it would be a while with beer flu.

Haven't opened it up yet, it will have to go through ozone decon tomorrow.
Their policy is if you broke it or nothing was found wrong, you at least pay for shipping. So I guess they found an issue, which it obviously had.

Just in time to start making masks and visors!

Will update tomorrow.

Opened up the box, read the tech report. When they went to auto home and first layer cal, it failed: bad MINDA probe. They would be the 2nd or 3rd bad MINDA probe. Yes, they did change it, I got the new version now.

It got all the official updates, hardware and software, and serviced, new MINDA probe and nozzle. The included test prints looked great, perfect first layer.

I'll get it sterilized and back and going tomorrow.

Super excited tot have it back!

Just ran a bed leveling test print.

Not 100% perfect, but insanely better than it was, and perfectly usable.

One of the test prints that came back with the Mini

That would be an upgrade I would be all over as soon as available. Going away from the MK3's PINDA was a dumb move by Prusa.

So far, no issues with the heat break or the extruder, so I'm not sure if I will upgrade those or not.

I still intend on setting up my mini as a precision machine, leaving my other printer to run the .6 nozzle for chunky prints. That test print that Prusa sent back that was (supposedly) printed on my machine is extraordinary, and the motion system of my old machine just isn't up to the task of something with that much detail.

As an update, the Mini has been running just fine.

I'm considering the bond tech extrude upgrade, but only if it makes running flexibles easier. Still doing research.

Mini is still running find, but I have found a weak spot:

The stock extruder doesn't like flexibles. I was able to get the semi-flex to print, such as the Tianese 95A TPU, but I had to slow it way down. I got some of the WYZ filament from Wal-Mart, which is more flexible, and I just could not get it to run, it would explode out of the extruder, jam up and grind away the filament, seemingly no matter how slow I printed.

I installed the Bondtech extruder upgrade to my Mini (which only took about 30 minutes with me going slow, easy to do), and I have to say that I am LOVING this extruder.

As a point of reference: I got about a 25% success rate on one of the v1 masks (from the 3D printed masks thread) taking 8 hours to print. I was able to run a demo mask (didn't have solid infill around the locking area) in 4 hours, no issues. I'm working now to see how fast I can push it. I have figured out that I can't ask more than 4.5mm of retraction from the Mini, or it jams up.

If you plan on running flexibles on your Mini, this upgrade is damn near necessary. Of course, I did NOT get any improvement in print quality in general, but I wasn't expecting any. This upgrade was strictly for running flexibles.

OK, yeah, this bondtech extruder upgrade is worth every penny.

I'm running this WYZ flexible at very near PLA speeds: Ran a proper v1 mask in 3 hours, 50 minutes. By proper I mean making the lower ring with the locking tabs 100% infill.