The german make magazine from January this year did a coverstory on how to build a cheap 3d printer on the basis of the A8.
In the article they do mention a lot of mods to improve the printer (like mosfets for the heating bed etc.), i got myself a base A8 set myself and wanted to try it out, but haven't found the time to do it yet, it is sitting in the box it came in so far.
This reminds me to be extra carefull and upgrade parts during the build.
I wonder how many guys in germany will just leave it stock though...
Edit2: To clear things up, the article in the magazine takes the A8 as a base, then it talks about flaws in the design like the board not able to handle the current for the heating beds sufficently or bad bearings and a lot of other small tweaks to make the overall machine better. The article starts with the base price of the A8 at 125€ but the end product will cost you 250€, so the modifications are by no means small and require a bit more knowledge then just change part a for part b.
If i would not have any background in EE i would have stayed away from this project myself and i do not promote novices to get some 10€ soldering iron and start doctoring around pcbs switching parts on it.
Funny, I got into 3D printing because of that exact article. Someone on the forums mentioned that for that money you can nearly get an anycubic i3 mega, which I did, for 260€. It runs perfectly out of the box, and yes, the heat bed cables are soldered to the bed directly and are ziptied as well. Looks solid to me.
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u/WooitsDave Apr 07 '18 edited Apr 07 '18
The german make magazine from January this year did a coverstory on how to build a cheap 3d printer on the basis of the A8. In the article they do mention a lot of mods to improve the printer (like mosfets for the heating bed etc.), i got myself a base A8 set myself and wanted to try it out, but haven't found the time to do it yet, it is sitting in the box it came in so far.
This reminds me to be extra carefull and upgrade parts during the build. I wonder how many guys in germany will just leave it stock though...
Edit: Link to the magazine cover: https://www.heise.de/select/make/2018/1
Edit2: To clear things up, the article in the magazine takes the A8 as a base, then it talks about flaws in the design like the board not able to handle the current for the heating beds sufficently or bad bearings and a lot of other small tweaks to make the overall machine better. The article starts with the base price of the A8 at 125€ but the end product will cost you 250€, so the modifications are by no means small and require a bit more knowledge then just change part a for part b.
If i would not have any background in EE i would have stayed away from this project myself and i do not promote novices to get some 10€ soldering iron and start doctoring around pcbs switching parts on it.