Hello,
first about me:
My name is Tim; I’m 39 years old, and I work in IT as an IT System Electronics Technician.
English is not my native language, and I never learned it in school, so I hope it’s not that bad and you can understand what I mean.
I bought my first 3D Printer 2018 (Geetech i3 Clone) and one year later an original Prusa MK3 (now upgraded to MK3S+).
On work, we use now, around one year, a Bambu P1S and a Bambu X1C.
I design the majority of my printed models by myself, using Fusion360, FreeCad, SolidWorks, Meshmixer,… but sureley use websites like Thingiverse or Printables.
So I would say I am not a complete newbie and have some experience in the 3D printing world.
Honestly, I never heard about Sovol before, and I didn’t know how long your company existed or produced 3D-printing stuff.
I just want to try out a core printer and compared therefore some printers, and after all, I decided to give the SV08 a chance.
That was a good decision; it’s a good printer, but the SV08 has some downsides.
I have used the SV08 (not sponsored or something; bought it by myself from sovol3d.com, no enclosure) for about two weeks.
I don’t want to badmouth anything with this feedback; it is supposed to be more constructive criticism (I am German; we are very good at nagging :D).
Documentation:
You created a wiki, but there is not much content in it.
Maybe I am a little bit spoiled because I normally use Prusa and Bambu because they both have really good documentation (large companies, large communities), but that’s what I noticed at first glance.
I found out that sovol3D has a github page with more documentation, but that is not linked in the wiki or something.
Motherboard-Fan:
It’s way too noisy, even in idle. Why is there only a 40mm fan for the MCU?
I didn’t want to destroy anything from the printer, so I printed myself an adapter for an 80mm 24V fan and removed the original steel plate.
But removing that is very dangerous (the power supply is near that), especially for people who have no idea about electricity and electric current (230V can be deadly).
You should upgrade the fan to a bigger one, so you need a lower rpm for the same (or even higher) airflow and less noise (not everyone has the printer in a separate room, where noise makes no difference).
Length of the cables from base to gantry:
They could be a bit longer; I printed and installed a drag chain because I didn’t like that the cables have no guidance from the base to the gantry.
But, when I move the gantry to its max-z position, they are not long enough (or at least very tight).
So I build myself an adapter with some JST connectors so that the cables are 5 cm longer.
Boot-Up / Firmware:
After the printer was received and I finished the build process, I first started the printer.
It takes a very long time for the first boot (about 10 minutes), but I think that’s normal because it was the first boot process, and I know from other hardware that the first boot takes longer than other ones.
But there, I was wrong.
I sporadically had the problem that the boot process does not work.
Sometimes it starts the printer and its up in about 30 seconds, sometimes multiple minutes.
I installed a 5“ touch-display with HDMI and USB for controlling the printer.
Sometimes after a boot, the printer is working but the display is not (reconnecting the screen does not work).
I have „fear“ to restart the printer because I don’t want to restart it 10 times till everything works.
That has to be improved!
(I am using the newest firmware (at this time 2.3.3), flashed full image over an emmc adapter.)
bed / gantry leveling:
It doesn’t work that perfect. I had some issues with larger prints, that the nozzle scratched over the sheet on the edge of the heatbed, while in the middle of the bed everything was fine.
I believe it would be better to use other values for the probe in the original firmware.
I fixed this by using more samples and changed the value for the samples_result from „average“ to „median“.
And I changed the code to bed- and gantry-leveling, which is done by the bed temperature for the printed filament type.
leveling everything by 65°C, I don’t think that’s the way to go.
It could be better for unexperienced customers.
Rear part cooling fan:
The position of this fan is not that good, and the mount is not very strong.
I had a failed print where the model has detached from the print bed, and the result is this:
Ok, it could be just bad luck that this happened to me, but it happened.
An other angle of the fanmount or a different shroud could help.
(I printed on my MK3 a different toolhead (i modified a Halo toolhead from printables), so I dont need this fan anymore.)
Over all, the SV08 is a good and fast printer, but not a perfect one.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards
Tim