U1 a hoax?

U1 Toolchanger
1

I heard alot of scuttlebutt about tool changer anomolies… was on the, fence…but the idea of actually having an efficent multi nozzle machine, made me say okkkkk ill give it a chance, heres $900

only took 600 tool changes, aka half way thru my first print multi color print… and bam print ruined, machine a mess, tool changer anomoly…

If i could get a refund i would take it in a heart beat…I dont forsee that happening, and I don’t want any fan boys crying…

so

What can I do, make, adjust, machine, buy, to make my snapmaker u1 work as advertised…because mine does not, much like many on youtube warned about…

2

Have you engaged with Snapmaker’s support?

3

No problem description, no photo, no video (did you enabled timelapse?).

What do you expect from us?

4

The error messages I’ve encountered so far are pretty cryptic. I wish they would give more info like Bambu.

5

There are definitely things that could be (and likely will be) improved on this machine. However, the vast majority of users have very high success rates. No machine will ever be flawless, but there are myriad variables that can contribute to a very minor and common error like you are describing.

I will make no assumptions about your skill level, but did not mention any attempt at troubleshooting, nor did you provide any specifics about the state of your machine, the filament or the model. If you are unable to (or just don’t want to) do basic troubleshooting, you are going to have a very bad time with most 3d printers, in general. They are relatively fickle machines that require a decent amount of basic knowledge and willingness to address issues as they arise.

If you are looking for community help, we need far more details about your specific issue and the circumstances that existed at the time of occurrence.

6

Yes, the thousands of positive reviews and all the people on this forum are paid shills. It is a mass conspiracy to steal $700 from you. OR, every 3D printer can have issues from time to time. Are you looking to positively engage or just complain?

7

I have always tried to disabuse newbies of the rose-tinted advertising that goes with 3D printing. Expectations should be managed, but that’s bad for marketing.

Consumer grade FDM printers, and the software ecosystem that drives them, have improved in reliability enormously, but you cannot expect every print you attempt to go smoothly. If your first experience is failure, you get a negative impression of the whole thing.

Above all, troubleshooting is an integral part of the experience, and buying a toolchanger should sound alarm bells that there is even more to go wrong.

I worry about people who buy “toy” printers for their kids to dabble with – very educational, but don’t imagine supervision won’t be required!

I can’t imagine what the OP was thinking if he expected an affordable toolchanger to be no trouble at all. If you want dependability, buy a Prusa. Meanwhile, having bought one and run into trouble, it is only appropriate to allow Support the opportunity to rectify any faults the delivered unit might have.

8

I really like that the U1 recognized my supports came loose and it stopped the print. My Bambus would have just kept printing spaghetti.

9

If you share more information the community is willing to help.

Open a support ticket to get attention from Snapmaker:
https://snapmaker.formcrafts.com/u1-troubleshooting-request

Here is the U1 Wiki with it’s error codes:
https://wiki.snapmaker.com/en/snapmaker_u1/troubleshooting/u1_error_codes

10

This type of post is generally just a Bambu fanboy. Notice the zero details.

11

ah maybe your not aware, let me help you. There is a plethora of people complaining on youtube about tool changer anomolies… Do enough in a row, and it’ll screw up… it doesnt put it back correctly, would you like a picture of a tool head not put back correclty? would that help you understand…

12

Ill assume yall dont look up youtube videos on the situation… so ill fill you in

Lots of people are complaining, that the machine will park a head incorrectly, and screw the print up… with alot of people claiming its about half the time they print…

I would kill for that, i can’t get a single “full build plate” print off

Gonna be honest, works great for 4 color change hue forges… but i cant get it to work long term in a print, ive tried the above mentioned print twice, and the same thing happens… about half way thru it 135mm and 600 or so tool head changes, it parks a head incorrectly, smashed into the prime tower, shifts the print, and then prints spaghetti till it tries to pickup the mis aligned tool head…

Sorry if the way i talk has offended people…

let me try again friends…

Does anyone have a blue print, for a part i can turn down in a lathe, or maybe make to replace to make this more reliable…

Machine works ok, for small numbers of toll head changes… quality ok to…
not working for longer bigger prints… For me, it’s the only reason to have this machine…

i have an x1c with 3 ams attached to it, has over 4000k hours on it, i still have to use it, if want bigger prints with lots color to work

I trully do hope my seld and other on youtube are the only ones with this problem and works great for you

13

Stop blame and get help here. Do you asked snapmaker Support? Do you checked this video? https://youtu.be/M00cjpjvqvE

I had one parking issue but it was related to collisions with the print itself, so maybe you can use the timelapse for your next big print to have an Idea of the failure, or better, record it with a real camera. If you do not see the problem, you won’t be able to fix it.

But if you just continue with “there are so many Videos about it and i am so poor”, then just use your Bambu.

14

Yeah. As a Bambu owner I didn’t view the U1 with jealousy. I heard about it on a Saturday. We watched as many video reviews we could find Saturday night, and I ordered that night. I knew i wanted it. Printed the Dragon first of course, and was blown away by the quality.

The whole fanboy thing is so pointless.

My Bambus were game-changing going from an Ender 3. The U1 changed the game again.
Don’t be mad. Just order one. :slight_smile:

15

It’s a machine. Something is wrong with it. Every machine is fixable.

Wanna hear a great story? Okay, here it is. :slight_smile:

Bambu P1S would start a print, then start underextruding, then move on to printing air.
Of course I start troubleshooting a clog. Cold pulls. Start a print, same thing. Wake up to half formed prints that it thinks it finished.

Guess what it was? The little fan that cools the motor drivers died. Print starts great, drivers heat up, less torque, then finally no torque. But the printer doesn’t know…that model has no AI.

$7 fan. Printed a test cube and passed out when I saw how flawless it was.

You’ll have flawless prints after you find the bugger.
I love troubleshooting other people’s stuff. LOL Lay it on us.

16

Did you watch this:

18

@iowa3dprinting

Hi, Thank you for your detailed and honest post.

The title “U1 a hoax?” stings, but I understand why you’d feel that way given your experience.

I, as well as the rest of our community remembers — we’d love to help you improve your experience with U1. As Chris mentioned, we also have an engineering team behind U1, and you are welcome to submit a support ticket here:https://snapmaker.formcrafts.com/u1-troubleshooting-request.

So to be direct:

· No, the U1 is absolutely not a hoax. But your machine is clearly not performing as it should, and it’s on us to help fix it.

· We absolutely want to get to the bottom of this with you. A nearly 100% failure rate on long multi-color prints is unacceptable, and we don’t expect you to solve this by machining custom parts yourself.

What we’d like to do next:

  1. Get your log files and g-code from the failed prints—this will help our engineers pinpoint whether it’s a mechanical drift, thermal accumulation, or firmware calibration issue.
  2. If possible, a short video of the failure moment (or the failed print state) would be incredibly helpful.

Please also check your PMs—I’ll reach out directly to get the details. And thank you again for giving us the chance to make this right.

19

As useful as YouTube is, it’s just another form of social media. Social media is full of hysteria. There will be a far higher percentage of negative stuff than positive stuff, because people with something negative to say are far more motivated, and negative stuff feeds on itself and breeds. Neither can you trust the motives of the detractors – are they in the employ of competitors? Are they just fishing for post views?

What’s getting people’s backs up here is that you jumped in with something negative to say instead of taking the obvious first steps to deal with the problem (or if you did, you haven’t said so). What you seem to have done is experience a problem and then go straight to social media to join and add to the hysteria.

So why didn’t you say the problem is with toolhead parking in your first post? You could have been directed to the relevant troubleshooting guide straight away (there are many troubleshooting guides, support is amazing compared with other makers I could name). Or do you for some reason believe FDM printers “just work” and require no setting up nor maintenance??

Honestly, you should be embarrassed. I’m not talking as a Snapmaker fanboy, I’m talking as an ancient engineer who’s seen it all. People don’t seem to understand the vast majority of FDM printers work by dead-reckoning, or at least the affordable ones do. If something causes the dead-reckoning to lose track, things go wrong.

I’ll tell you again what I told you in my reply to your original post (but in more words): you made a purchase from Snapmaker, and consumer rights law says you have a right to support from Snapmaker… but Snapmaker also have the right to be given the chance to sort out the problem, without you launching a hate campaign first.

That’s very diplomatic of you (and perhaps necessarily), but the OP didn’t. “Giving you the chance” does not mean jumping onto the forum with all guns blazing. I realise this is the way of the world now, but that doesn’t make it right. And, as for the U1 being a “hoax”, perhaps the OP needs to buy a dictionary.

20

Just like the 24hr news cycle, YouTube is a fantastic resource, but it is very strongly biased toward negativity. The headline “Why I HATE the Snapmaker U1!!” gets a lot more clicks than one titled “Snapmaker U1: a great machine!” But you know this, which is why you titled your post as you did.

Using YouTube as a resource = smart

Relying on YouTube as an accurate reflection of ground truth = dumb

21

This has nothing to do with the OP’s issue, however will playing with Full Spectrum I just finished a print that had 1900+ tool changes. Once I got the abnormaly issue. The filament had broken at the feeder so that head ran out of filament. Corrected the issue, hit resume & the print finished. No way could I blame this on the U1, it did what it was supposed to do. Stop & inform me of the issue.

From the small amount of facts given, I would check belt tension then recalibrate the tool heads. Might also clean the pogo pins with a little IPA.

Remember the Snapmaker Wiki is your friend, there’s lots of troubleshooting tips there.