Dear Snapmaker enthusiast & People in Snapmaker

Snapmaker 2.0
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To All Snapmaker Enthusiasts and Snapmaker Team Members,

Hello, this is Blockmodule.

It has been quite some time since Snapmaker was first introduced. Looking at the Snapmaker store, I see that products are being sold at significant discounts. Those who purchased at close-to-original prices might be feeling frustrated.

I imagine sales are starting to slow down. While I understand that Snapmaker employees rely on these sales for their livelihood, I suspect internal discussions are happening about how to boost sales.

Thereā€™s still plenty of potential for Snapmaker 2.0 to generate revenue, but I wonder if Snapmakerā€™s management and engineers have realized this yet.

Take, for example, the Snapmaker GitHub repository. Many user requests have been submitted, yet most remain just requests, with few actually leading to feature additions or improvements.

Looking at these requests, many suggest enhancements to the touchscreen display, which could significantly improve functionality and visual information accessibility. However, these have been largely ignored.

To increase sales, the key is keeping existing customers satisfied. Since Snapmaker already has a touchscreen panel connected via USB-C, why not release an expanded version with a larger display? A wireless tablet-like version with Wi-Fi or Bluetooth connectivity could also be a great option.

Imagine a wireless touchscreen panel that allows precise jogging of CNC axes with speed control from 0.05mm to 10mmā€”just thinking about it is exciting!

Thereā€™s still so much untapped potential. Perhaps itā€™s time to analyze user feature requests more carefully and turn them into new products.

I personally use five Snapmaker 2.0 A250 machines to create various projects, dedicating each one specifically to Laser, CNC, and 3D Printing tasks.

Iā€™ve had my fair share of complaints in the past, but Iā€™m still an avid fan. Please release a new touchscreen panel that reignites excitement among Snapmaker enthusiasts.

Additionallyā€¦
Regarding the white plastic screws in the old and new linear modulesā€”Snapmaker may prefer to sell entire linear modules, but experienced users and enthusiasts specifically need those plastic screws. Of course, aiming for large sales is important, but consider selling these as individual spare parts as well. Please make the plastic screws for the older linear modules available for purchase.

I know Iā€™ve written quite a bit, but I canā€™t help but be excited about a wireless touchscreen panel. For someone like me, who operates five machines, a shared control interface would be a game-changer.

What do you all think?

Some might say itā€™s unnecessary, but for those who truly love Snapmaker, this would be fantastic news.

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Especially the Software side on the Snapmaker machines is really frustrating. The GUI is more or less 1:1 since snapmakers 2.0 released. Do they lost their software developer for this?
There is so much potential, but absolutely no improvements. :man_shrugging:t3:

There are more and more faster, cheaper and more accurate printers and lasers in the Market. Focus a few ā€œsprintsā€ on CNC.

For me it seems like snapmaker will just sell they invented once. But that will not be enough in the future. It is frustrating.
But many Chinese companies are doing exact same.

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Like Blockmodule, Iā€™m kindof a Snapmaker fan, having the Kickstarter 2.0 and happy using it at low frequency, also aware of some of its shortcomings.
That Snapmaker shoots the units out at discount prices does not bother me too much - IMHO it is not unusual that older products get down in price at some point, especially if a ā€œfollow upā€-product - the Artisan - is there.
My gut feeling is that Snapmaker is not dedicating too much engineering resources any more to the SM2 - so I personally would be surprised if anything specific to the 2.0 will come out. With SM2 community still being a considerable customer base, I would more expect that future developments for the Artisan will be made compatible to the SM2 - so we will see development, but none specific to the older model. I find it telling that the last firmware update is already quite a while ago, and that the vibration compensation firmware merge is taking so long. That is for me an indicator that they are more on a ā€œbest effortā€ mode here.
That said, I see the best chance for improvement in the community. With the core firmware being open source and some of the closed-source aspects at least partly reverse engineered, thereā€™s room for this, and looking at several user-made improvements to some extent it is already happening.
Specific for your touchscreen wish Iā€™d see a way forward, and that is OctoPrint on a tablet - or even Luban on a tablet.
Regarding the plastic screws, Iā€™d agree that it would be great if they sold this as a replacement part - still, there are users that replaced the plastic nuts with brass replacements with success, a way forward exists.

Iā€™d love to be proven wrong and see more innovation specific for the SM2!

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I understand your frustration, but looking at the SM2 history, Iā€™d find it a bit unfair to say itā€™s a ā€œonce invented-sold unchanged foreverā€ product. It had quite an evolution!

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With new products which they can sell.

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I agree with the post except for the first part.
I chose to paid the price of the machine at the kickstarter.
If someone can buy the same printer 2 years later at half the price, good for them! I had a head start of 2 years .D
And also means I might be able to get spare parts cheaper too, I suppose.

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I was a Kickstarter adopter who got an A350. My only issue was never about the speed, but about the non-flat bed. For this reason - and the plug and play versatility - I ended up getting a dedicated prusa mk3s+ (in kit form) and for printing that works quite well.

I never did resolve the non-flat bed issue but I kept using the snapmaker with the laser tool head and that sort of works although I will admit I still cannot understand the coordinate system and why it is different when running from the PC and when running from the touchscreen, but ā€œlife is shortā€ so I am trying to live with it.

And I never used the CNC.

Cutting a long story short, I recently decided to make the best of what I have - and decided to go for the new rails, the Quick change kit and the bracing kit and have in fact just installed them together with an upgraded enclosure fan, so I am kind of feeling like when I first got the machine.

I really like the bracing bits and bobs, and the quick change too. They look and feel professional and to be honest I think Snapmaker have their hardware side down to a ā€œTā€ now. Its just the software side which is playing ā€œcatch upā€, but getting there in my view.. albeit slowly..

Currently the machine is outside the enclosure as I am trialling the print tool head and praying that perhaps the non-flat bed issue went away (since I had at some point also changed the bed that is under the heated bed for the newer version). So far testing is still a work in progress.
I had forgotten how slow it is though! And how noisy even with the new rails..Anyway, it will be better once back in the enclosure and this time round I may even try the CNC (I also purchased the 200W toolhead).

Snapmaker please read the following in particular:
My suggestions to Snapmaker are:

  1. To continue to have sales on accessories and ā€œfree shipping daysā€
  2. To continue to improve the software (perhaps include a self-diagnostic like Prusa have?)
  3. To improve the touchscreen (I sent some suggestions separately).

I do want to commend Snapmaker on their support, which is excellent. Also on their packaging, which is very professional. I like the fact that they send a few spare screws too.

  1. Very important and probably on many peopleā€™s wish list - I wish that I could buy the parts I need to make a complete second machine using the discarded rails and other toolheads I have (the old printer head for instance, and the 50W CNC and the 1.6W laser).
    I already know I can buy the touchscreen and spare power unit, but on top of that I would also need the bed, the connector that collates the cables from the axis, the bus that attaches to the upright rails,where all the cables plug in, and lots of spare screws of course.

Any chance of this Snapmaker ? Actually I think you could have a great secondary market from helping people to assemble a second unit from their upgraded bits and bobs!

Thank you for listening.

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Hello Snapmaker users,

There have been many user requests and suggestions made on the Snapmaker GitHub repository (Snapmaker Ā· GitHub) regarding the Snapmaker 2.0. I wrote about the idea that these requests could be incorporated into the tablet-style touchscreen interface to create something new. I also proposed that Snapmaker could go beyond just selling the machines themselves and turn user feedback into business opportunities by developing new products based on those needs.

However, most of the suggestions that were once posted on the Snapmaker GitHub are now gone, and there are fewer posts and reports on the community site as well. This may be due to a decrease in sales.

Another serious issue is the impact of U.S. tariffs and retaliatory tariffs, which could even affect Snapmakerā€™s survival as a company. Exports to the U.S. could end up costing 1.5 to 3 times more, which means theyā€™ve likely lost a major sales market. I also suspect theyā€™ve stopped using their U.S. warehouse. If thatā€™s the case, there would be no product stock within the U.S., and American customers would no longer be able to purchase Snapmaker products due to the high prices caused by tariffs.

Snapmaker might go out of business.
If that happens, Iā€™ll be in trouble tooā€”because I wonā€™t be able to get any replacement partsā€¦

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