The Capbot is small. The build area is 150mm x 150mm x150mm. It does not have a heated build plate which should make it ideal for using PLA which is not known to the State of California to cause cancer. PLA is made from natural materials such as tapioca starch or similar stuff. It is essentially non-toxic.
The overall features of the CAPBOT are:
Uses PLA
Build Area 150x150x150 (mm)
Self Contained - a One Pound filament roll fits in the machine.
Non-Heated Build Plate
Enclosed on the sides
Uses Repetierhost as the Softwate.
The Downsides of the CAPBOT
The CAPBOT uses a specially modified version of Repetier. It will not work with any other package, or so says Hanbot. We had trouble getting the software to work. Hanbot took control of our computer several times and sent us several revisions. It turns out the software only works reliably in Chinese. It would not work at all in English.
Packaging.
The CAPBOT was not packaged well. The company is located near Shanghai yet they shipped it by truck to Shenzen and then by air from Hong Kong.
Our unit arrived with a red sticker stating it has been opened by DHL Security in the presence of t he shipper. When it finally arrived the box was beat up pretty bad. Opening the box was a real eye opener too. Everything was loose in the box. Prior to opening the box I noticed hour it sounded like something was loose in the box. I figured they must have packaged from loose odds and ends and that I was hearing them. They had to be in a box of their own right? Nope.
Oh my gosh! Everything was loose including the removable build plate. The build plate had blue tape on it as well. The Plexiglass door and windows were scarred and scratched up pretty bad on the inside and outside. They made no effort whatsoever to protect the insides of the printer.
The X axes was out of alignment and stuck on the left side of the Y axes. Hanbot asked us to remove the screws and lift off the top of the printer and that was harder than it should have been too. The top screws all came off easily enough and I got all but one side screw off but one of their screws was stripped out in the head. They are all metric hex screws and I had to drill off the head but I still could not get the top off the printer because the rest of the screw was in there preventing the top from lifting off. One of the Z axes corner pieces was in the way. I basically man handled the X axes to get it back into alignment and moving.
The Filament Roll Adapter
Let me start by saying that all of the plastic parts of the CAPBOT are 3D printed and some do not look to good. The part that the roll rests on is a 3D printed rod with a metal cap on the outside and two screw holes on the inside. These are made with ABS plastic and do not firmly attach the roll adapter to the printer. They use M3 bolts threaded into plastic. If there was an embedded metal nut in there they would work ok but the bolts do not tighten and so the roll of filament rubs on the top of the 3D plrinted cover of the motherboard. If the plexiglass is removed the filament roll falls out of the printer.
To fix this I drilled out the metal bracket and the holes in the plastic rod. Then I used two one inch drywall screws to firmly attach the rod. When I told my rep there was a problem in their design the response I got was the design tested ok when they prototyped the CAPBOT.
The Software
The Hanbot software is a heavily modified version of Repetier. We could not get it to work at all at first. The Hanbot rep said other customers were not having the problem we were having. Their software was installed on a Windows 7 machine and when we could not get that to connect to the CAPBOT we pulled out an old XP laptop of mine and tried it. Same issue. Would not connect. There was an issue with how it set up the USB COM port.
Hanbot finally fixed that problem then on to the next problem. I loaded the 20mm test box and told the software to print it. No dice. It turns out the software was not slicing. They use a version of Slic3r abd had me download and copy it to the PC. Still would not work, During this time they took over control of the PC and found it would only slice if the user interface was in Chinese. A couple downloads later they told me to wait for an English-only version.
The English-only Repetier from Hanbot
I downloaded the English version they sent me the link to and opened it up. It was in Chinese even though the user interface had English as the selected option. I had to click on Chinese and back to English to get the software interface in English.
Rewind
While waiting for the English version of their software I used the Chinese interface to try and print the 20mm test box. It actually sort of printed but each layer peeled off and the fill looked like a screen such as you have in your windows of your house. It also started too deep in the blue tape as well. A couple times when I started to print the extruder would go somewhere inexplicable and just sit there making a racket until I turned off the machine.
You do not level the build plate as you would a normal printer. The printer is supposed to raise the build plate and touch the corners with the nozzle to find the "level" as the plate does not need to be actually level. In practice it does not work.
The printer touches the build plate right front corner, travels to the far left and backwards to the back left corner where it touches the plate. In my mind this is not accurate because it needs to touch at least three corners to find the angle of the plate.
There is also a setting to adjust the level in software. There is a setting at the bottom of the settings that defaults 1.5. If the nozzle is to far above the plate change this with a lower value. Too close to the plate enter a higher value.
I never was able to get a print.The CAPBOT was consistently backing out the filament instead of feeding it to the nozzle. It also does not consistently feed the nozzle either which tells me the nozzle is either damaged (I think it is) or the extruder is not getting a grip on the filament. I measured the diameter of the filament and it is within normal parameters.
The LAST time I tried to print the extruder traveled to the far right and tried to keep on going. Why? There is not a limiting switch on the far right, it's on the left. At this point I shut down the CAPBOT and emailed the rep that I hope they insured the machine with DHL because it was not working and it is too damaged. I explained I wanted our PayPal payment refunded. Other than an email wishes us a Merry Christmas I have not heard back from Hanbot.
I cannot attest to the quality of the other 3d printers available from Hanbot but if our experience with the CAPBOT is any indication I say do not purchase a 3D Printer from Hanbot.
My Final Observations
The CAPBOT has one hinge on the door. This is a design flaw that will eventually lead to the door failing because the hinge is plastic. They told me in the future they would upgrade to two hinges.
Did the shipping damage prevent t his from being a working machine? I honestly do not know. Maybe not. It is possible the other issues are just plain lousy design and amateurish coding.
They could have packaged the printer much better. The X axes should have been tied down and the extruder disconnected and enveloped in good packing matierial. The magnetized removable build plate should have been wrapped in styrofoam, taped and placed UNDER the CAPBOT. That would have prevented it from causing any damage. The plexiglass windows and door should have been shipped inside the carton in their own little box and with the protective plastic still attached. When I saw how badly scratched ours was I first thought that it must be the protective film but no.
When the tape is removed from the build plate it looks like a piece of metal from the scrap heap as well.
Three plastic parts should be injection molded and those are:
The motherboard cover
The protective cover around the extruder *
The rod that the filament rests on.
It's all about the overall customer experience. If I were manufacturing the CAPBOT I would want it to look good and work well. It does neither. Below is my unedited unboxing video.
The printer does not have a CAPBOT label because we asked Hanbot to ship it that way.
Here is another video showing the extruder trying to go who knows where.
* The plastic cover around the extruder should also act as a fan shroud to cool the PLA while printing. I think all it really does at this point is provide protection to the cables.
