Upset about my Original 3 in1

Snapmaker Original
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I’m beyond frustrated with Snapmaker. Their tech support is not helpful. I didn’t use any profanity there - take note I’m trying to be nice. My issue with the dept. Is this: when I told them the symptoms and what the history of the machine was in an email- they responded and asked me to do more including video- I did. They then responded with an email that sked me questions that were answered in the video and previous email. Their focus was on the laser module because they suck at diagnostics, (I’ll explain) and the syntax they used was also suspiciously Googled. I need a new controller - plain and simple. The last email exchange took almost a week and went nowhere. How can I get a new controller? I asked about it in one of the exchanges, but they didn’t address it. Can anyone help? I got frustrated originally so I let it go for a while - I just recently contacted them again and got a reply that they’re out of the shop for a week. Why can’t I find a controller? It’s an $800 brick. Thanks. I know I sound unhinged :slightly_smiling_face:. Sorry.

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I found one. And some more with a fast Google search. :man_shrugging:t3: Also here in this Forum you can buy one: SM Original Parts for Sale - #5 by Benebarba

Other question: when you just wanted to buy a spare part: why don’t you just ask to buy one? I did it often also to ask for unusual parts and there was never a problem to get it.

1 Like
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Thanks for the info - this is the first request I’ve made to the community and you came through great. I appreciate you taking the time to hook me up.
Like machines do- this was a cascading mechanical foundering resembling a voodoo curse. It went down about a year ago. I used mainly the laser to make business cards( very impactful) production runs of 5-6 hours every week. In the middle of printing, the laser power decreased so half the card was printed light brown. I looked for tech support and saw the upgrade 1.6W laser mod so I just bought that as a replacement. Installed, the new mod did the same exact thing. Email support insisted that I needed to clean the laser and send them video of it working or not. I had given the history of the upgrade and the tech was following a script that wouldn’t diagnose this. I wasn’t sure if it was a firmware issue or OS or even could be corrupted g code. It progressively got worse with more failures, then I got ill and was down for a few months, now I’m back at it and it’s obviously the control. All the modules have their own particular failures, but it basically will cause the mod to sound like a seized motor then the screen locks and gives
a red light on controller.

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Mine won’t do 3D printing anymore after a clog (which is now resolved), but the CNC and laser modules work just fine. When I extrude I can hear something, but no filament comes out and the gear won’t turn.

I asked for a quote on a new controller as well, was 80 USD + shipping. I asked if they could throw in some spare cnc bits and the like, since I was a kickstarter backer. Nope.

They are definitely a business, and they do it the american way too. Basically Apple, anyway…

I am thinking about making some upgrades to my unit. Like a new (custom) controller board with modular setup so you can easily swap out individual stepper drivers.

My main problem before starting any of this is the controller’s firmware. It would be great if snapmaker would open source their fork of the original firmware, so we could make our own modifications. Since it detects the type of module connected there’s bound to be some magic we’d need to summon to get a third party firmware to work properly.

Since I would be designing this, I might as well make some upgrades:

  • Tool length indexing (pushing the CNC tool on to a very light switch, obtaining it’s exact length)
  • work surface mapping, either LiDAR or conductive (although that would only be useful for metal parts)
  • Better homing/tool positioning (the linear modules only have one limit switch, while having them at both ends would be more convenient for CNC and lasering since the work order is opposite to that of 3D printing

Seems the snapmaker’s Extruder/DC-Driver/Laser-Driver is prone to one side (2 pwm channels control the stepper) failing. Another argument for modularity.

The snapmaker Original kind of convinced me that a machine that does everything is a pipedream. It won’t do anything well enough to really stand out or be useful.

Of course with more features it could’ve been a great machine.