Prusa Mini update: Improvements including Bondtech extruder & heat-break
In my opinion my Prusa Mini missed the mark on release. Some good features but the print quality and reliability was just not there. With plenty of folks still suffering from these issues, I decided to purchase and test the Bondtech extruder and heat-break upgrades.
Make up your own mind based on the side by side before and after shots, but from my point of view the extrusion quality and consistency has improved. What do you think?
The print quality is now “good enough” for me to use this 3D printer as I intended.
Everything featured in this video was purchased with my own money. All opinions expressed are my own.
Products:
Prusa Mini silicone socks: shop.levendigdsgn.com/
Bondtech Prusa Mini extruder upgrade: www.bondtech.se/en/product/pr...
Bondtech Prusa Mini heat-break: www.bondtech.se/en/product/bo...
X3D Recycled Pro PLA: x3d.com.au/products/x3d-pro-r...
Resources:
Extruder installation guide: support.bondtech.se/Guide/01....
Heat-break installation guide: support.bondtech.se/Guide/0.1...
Prusa Mini forum: forum.prusaprinters.org/forum...
Bondtech extruder feedback thread: forum.prusaprinters.org/forum...
Bondtech heat-break feedback thread: forum.prusaprinters.org/forum...
Prusa Simplify3D profiles: help.prusa3d.com/en/guide/how...
Prusa Mini firmware releases and changelog: github.com/prusa3d/Prusa-Firm...
M303 Autotune: marlinfw.org/docs/gcode/M303....
Models featured in this video:
Maya Death Whistle: www.thingiverse.com/thing:266...
Stepped bin: www.myminifactory.com/object/...
Milk crate: www.thingiverse.com/thing:334...
Buy quality and affordable filament from X3D. Buy 3, get 1 free and a free sample pack with every order: www.x3d.com.au
Get Quality Resins from 3D Printers Online. 5% off storewide for Teaching Tech subscribers [Code: tech5]
3dprintersonline.com.au/
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Support me on Patreon: / teachingtech
Very interesting reading the comments on this one. Some people happy with their Mini as is, others having significant issues. Mine was an early model and I think more recent models may have been tweaked to be more reliable. Like any manufacture, as an early adopter you are more likely to run into teething issues. There is a still a significant difference between Prusa and other popular companies, in that they actively develop their product after release and offer excellent one on technical support. Please remember that part of the higher price of a Prusa machine goes towards this.
I do have Mini from first wave i think, i picked that up on 18.12.2019 and ony thing i had was failed minda after few prints, solved through support witch immediate changed spare part and since then working flawlessly. Prints are a notch better than from MK3s - mine has from time to time need to be cared about but working well too. A part from two events when fillament managed by splitting to be left in bowden tube, I haven't got any issues with printer, Oh and from start had a too loose belt on Y axe,but that I do not count as a fail, it was just need for attention before first run after assembly. That is my experience so far.
We got ours in July and have had constant issues with it. At this point some of the obvious quality and design issues we experienced should have been ironed out. The support wasn't very helpful so I dont see a reason to ever buy another Prusa product again. Teaching Tech, I can't tell you how happy I am that Prusa is making better products off my money! I didn't know that it was also a gofundme project.
Your experience matches mine, and my Mini was from September 2020. I returned my Mini for a refund. What would you recommend as a decent printer in this price range that does mainly PLA?
So you didn't know that the best time to buy a Prusa product is one year after its release? "Sad but true."
Marco Roman, what you describe is called arrogance. Their business model has been adequate hardware and great software. There was info on their own website ridiculing the idea of very high quality hardware (not a good idea) while they continue to make hardware-related mistakes.
I used your setup and calibration website and after investigation, my Mini needed 251 e-steps to extrude 100mm of filament. (Was under-extruding 8mm). It’s also worth noting that with the latest Prusa Mini + firmware, one only needs to go to settings, long-press the button and change the e-steps there. Also in that menu, if the Bondtech extruder is running in reverse, that option is available in the hidden sub-menu also; change the extrusion direction from “Prusa” to “wrong” and save your choices and the machine will restart with your new choices. No need to mess with changing wires or editing Gcode.
It may be time to revisit this and do a comparison with the latest mini+
I agree most videos could be deleted as they’re obsolete
extruder is still shit can confirm
@@legobuildingsrewiew7538 I and still having issues even with latest firmware 4.3.3.and I still working with Prusa for a proper solution. I have taking apart this machine to confim things more then I have spent printing things. Bummed as this was for my son and his love for engineering. We are just learning the importance of proper engineering, instead of creating our own designs at this point, and look forward to when things are actually working.
@@legobuildingsrewiew7538 I bought the new mini + and I was having constant clogging and under extruding. I found that the tiny 2nd PTFE tube in the hot end is just a couple of mm shorter than the replacements.
@@MrBassard I’m getting one, should I order a new tube with it?
I've had problems with under-extrusion. I was at a point when I couldn't get one single good print out of my printer. I was seriously considering the same upgrade but I contacted Prusa support first, and I'm glad I did it. For me what solved the problems with the mini were: - re-tightening the hotend PTFE tube so it is sitting in there REALLY tight. - reapplying the heat-conductive paste on the heatbreak (I used the one that came with the printer) Ever since these steps my under-extrusion problems have been completely solved. My print quality is on par with my colleague's i3 MK3S. The only thing that's difficult to handle are seam marks on vertical cylindrical surfaces. Regarding the extruder, I followed the instructions of the online manual for disassembling the extruder, unloaded the filament, adjusted the screw so it's flush with the plastic housing and reloaded the filament. I check the extruder gears regularly and clean it when there's some accumulated debris inside. When unloading the filament I can not detect any significant "bite marks" on the filament anymore. I think the BondTech upgrade (especially their extruder) is a worthy improvement to the Prusa Mini design, but if you are just trying to fix the under-extrusion phenomenon and not looking for improved print quality then my advice is to try a few maintenance tricks first and contact Prusa support before spending more money. BTW thanks for the detailed description of the upgrade process, I'll definitely re-watch this when I finally try one of these upgrades!
Prusa must have made some tweaks to the firmware since your review. I have just received a Mini+ and have to say the print quality is flawless. I printed the 'Buddy' model as a first test piece and it came out smooth as silk with no discernable layer lines. I followed this up with one of my own designed models and that came out perfect as well!
I own 8 Prusa Mini’s. They all print amazing. The only problem is the MINDA sensor doesn’t have a thermistor, so the z-height changes depending on the temperature of the room which is a problem with a printer farm. I print over 18 hours daily on all my printers.
I have this same issue. The only reason I removed it from my farm.
Have you seen the Mini+? They have resolved this exact issue with a new SuperPINDA probe :)
Bogdan Andrukhovich Did you buy it pre-assembled or the kit? Curious if that matters. I don't want issues with it when I buy :D
@@onehotpepper I bought them before they had those options, mine came in 2/3 parts. Took 15 to put one together. The issue was fixed with the SuperPINDA. I also got 8 more Prusa MK3s+ printers and those are amazing, you set it up once and they pretty much work for months without issues. I won’t get another mini until they update the extruded, it doesn’t print as well as original Prusa.
Ahhh. This is why my printer goes bonkers on first layer sometimes.
I love how honest your review is!
Got the mid August version of the Mini and having no print quality issues at all, still running stock. The only point of grief is the first layer height inconsistency. Neither the 'pre-heat' nor the 'keep the probe away as long as possible' approach yields 100% reliable results.
I got a Prusa Mini and started getting a lot of jams from heat creep with pla. I could handle petg no problem but became perfectly reliable when I made these upgrades. Would highly recommend
I got my Prusa Mini in July. I had been watching the forums prior to receiving it and had picked up on the issue that many people experienced with the PFTE tube not being seated correctly in the hotend. Right out of the box I did the recommended fix from the forums, and I've had very good print results from day one (once I switched away from the textured sheet, its not for newbies like myself!), excluding some failures that were related to some poor quality filament. Watching closely to see how Prusa support handles the issues, while myself and many others have had success, it seems like there are just as many out there who have struggled. I'm interested in the Bondtech upgrades as well, but I'm relatively new to this stuff still, so I'm not confident enough yet to mess with the start g-code. Your videos are great!!!
I have a MINI and have added the two Bondtech items. I've never 3D printed before so I had nothing to compare to. It works fine for me. Thanks for your videos ... I enjoy them. 👍🇨🇦
Got mine last Friday and I've been printing like crazy. So far I'm pretty impressed with the quality. Very very slight banding occasionally. But thats about it.
The Bondtech extruder and heatbrake have transformed my Minis into two useful and more importantly reliable printers. I was plagued by inconsistent extrusion and blockages unlike my other printers but this has transformed the machines.
I recieved mine recently ... Works very reliably ... Prints are perfect
I have had nothing but issues with my Prusa Mini. First the Minda probe shorted out after a few prints. After getting it replaced, I started having under extrusion and clogging issues. Like TT, it turned out that my tube in the hot end was too short and there was a gap that was allowing filament to build up. I got a replacement tube but I'm having a hard time clearing the hot end of residual filament that had built up so replacing it has been challenging. I also found that it takes more force than it should to feed filament (even prusament) through the Extruder-Print head PTFE tube. Thank you for the video, I've been busy the last few weeks and since I have a MK3 working fine, I haven't put much time into it. After watching this video, I'm hoping to get back to it this weekend.
Did you have an issue like in this video? kzhead.info/sun/a7uYl9ejo5Rpnnk/bejne.html I have an intermittent problem where the extruder will not do its job in a smooth and consistent manner. It works ok for awhile, then this starts and ruins a print 50% in.
I've got the prusa mini.... I had perfect prints to start with... I thought i'd it the jack pot after watching your first video... But after 5 prints I ended up wit the same issues you described. I cleaned the extruder. levelled the bed countless times... I ended up doing 3 cold pulls and replacing the PFT tube and it's back to flawless prints... And looking at the prints you got after all of those prints I'd still say you ave an issue... Something is still broken. At tis stage I think you need to speak to Prusa.
Exactly same experience here ! Except I didn't have to replace the PTFE tube, just put it back into compression (which required a slight PINDA probe height adjustment). I clearly do not see the banding Michael has.
@@vileguile4 The short piece of PTFE tubing that's inside the heatbreak seems to shrink a bit during the first prints. as a result, some molten filament makes its way between the heatbreak and PTFE tube in the bottom area, creating a blockage. If you dismantle everything, you will understand how it's made. When you say "disconnected pipe".. this is kinda what I had indeed.. except this "disconnected pipe" is inside the heatbreak. The solution is to dismantle the whole assembly, clean everything, and push the heatblock up to compress back the PTFE tube in order to have a good contact of the PTFE tube inside the heatbreak (hence "put it into compression"). SInce you push everything up, the PINDA / MINDA probe (the yellow popsicle that probes the bed during autolevel) is them too low and needs to be readjusted by a millimiter or two or it might touch the bed
@@lfrederic1823 Thank you very much! I have disassembled so i have seen the PTFE tube in the bottom area. I also managed to disassemble the cogwheel feeding the filament. Is adjusting the heatbreak/Minda on similar level of difficulty?
@@vileguile4 it’s pretty easy to adjust the Pinda. Just a bit fiddly. Only two screws to undo and then adjust the Pinda height up or down by playing with the screw mount. Just need to find the right spot. There are detailed explanations on Prusa website and several videos on KZhead
@@vileguile4 for the heatbreak, just undo the 3 grub screws and push the whole heatblock assembly up from below while it’s hot to put the PTFE tube under reasonable compression and tighten the 3 grub screws back again. Do that step before Pinda height adjustment obviously. Again, everything is explained on Prusa website. Make sure you don’t burn your fingers :D
Incase anyone was wondering the PTFE length will be roughly 15-16mm. Also the instructions seem slightly outdated in the link. On the older Prusa firmware they say set the extruder direction to 'wrong'. But on the latest firmware...do not change the direction.
Thank you for putting up this video. All I see is praise for the mini and that has not be our experience. My buddy and I got a PrusaMini in July (after a 4 month wait because of Corona) and I will not buy another Prusa product again! Everyone praised Prusa and I don't understand why. They have so many quality issues. There were even problems in assembly because the aluminum extrusions had burrs on them that were a pain to file off, and in the 3D prints many holes did not line up. These are basic quality issues. For the last month we haven't had much use of it because of an extrusion issue. Something is designed wrong. Maybe the Bowden Tube design is not robust enough. Some combination of the PTFE tube, extruder, and hot end is causing inconsistent extrusion and clicking coming from the extruder. Did a number of calibrations, replaced the tube, disassembled the extruder, I'm done. The Customer Support is useless as well. They just throw up their arms and say "If it used to work well, and doesn't work well now, it's not our fault. Figure it out" Really? Ok then, F*** you! No more Prusa for us or anyone we talk to.
When I received my prusa mini printer last year I had a major problem with it as I was unable to get anything printed successfully. I did some research and found bondtech's extrusion upgrade. I purchased it and since then I had no issues with printing.
Just got our mini and prints are perfect.
Great information! One request for future, fit one upgrade/repair at a time. I know it makes the video longer, but what actually resolved the issue? was it extruder or heatbreak?
I was thinking the exact same thing. Which fixed it? The £65 extruder or the £15 heat break?
Got mine today after ordering it back in November 2020. Was surprised to find that I was upgraded to the Mini+ for no extra cost when it was delivered. Initial hardware setup was fiddly to say the least, and the First Layer Config failed until I started printing the Bolt on the included USB and used Live adjust functionality on it. And because of that I was able to get the cleanest and smoothest Benchy I've printed thus far. Can't wait to get more done with it over time :)
What has it been like for you
Interesting video as always 👍 Thanks for sharing 👍😊
My prusa mini had similar initial challenges to yours, if maybe a bit less severe. However, after sliding the hot end up into the extruder assembly and replacing the PTFE tube with a slightly longer one, print quality is much improved. Surfaces are not perfect relative to my Mk3, but I would consider that nit picking at a much cheaper printer. Very satisfied after making those quick fixes. Also I am now very interested in a silicone sock for the mini!
I just upgraded my Prusa Mini+ with the Bondtech extruder and heatbreak upgrade and it was totally worth it for me. The issues I had with my Prusa seems to be solved now which is good :) It took a while to assemble. I found out that if you were careful you did not have to disassemble the heater cartridge and the thermistor. You could just remove the heatbreak if you were careful but you had to loosen some screws on top of the fan so the cords were not so tight/able to move when removing.
Appreciate this information. I've had to take apart my extruder twice in the last 3 months to clean the gears so I'll be getting that upgrade for sure.
We have 2 mk3s and 2 minis, print quality very similar, I can’t tell the difference on most prints. No issues out of the box and actually the mini is my go to machine. I order late December ‘19.
I just received my Prusa Mini earlier this month, and I couldn't be more happy with its prints in both PLA and PETG. I'm not sure why your having so many issues, truly.
Well, the thing its that:the time pass and then yuo gona find problems..
@@noway8233 Isn't that true for any printer/product?
@@noway8233 The thing is some people are having issues right out of the box. Things may eventually wear, yes, but some machines just print better than others, it seems.
@@danielr9708 Mine jammed on the first print out of the box. It was downhill from there.
I’ve had the Mini for 11 days now, and only 2 prints of about 60 have failed. Other was about too high first layer, and other too tight extruder grip. Other than that, quite good results. PLA looks really good, and PETG has some horizontal bands. Not bad thou, and no underextrusion or missing sections.
I did the same upgrades as you have. Initially I was having heat creep issues and was going to do the Bondtech heat break and had the "might as well's" and did the extruder too. I make it a point to run the restart g code every time I restart or power up. If you don't do that, loading and unloading filament does not work well. Slice engineering has something brewing for the mini I think. Keeping an eye on them. Just upgraded to their new heat break and block on my MK3. Another thing I did was to add a piece of bowden tube to the wire bundle to help with strain relief. Lost one minda to wire fatigue, trying to prevent another.
Slice engineering has STL files for adapting the existing Mini extruder to work with a Mosquito. That should resolve the some of the issues.
Prusa now allows you to permanently change the E-steps in the firmware and the Bondtech extruder now houses the filament sensor internally. The sensor wires still require a re-pinning of the sensor plug. I found this to be a fantastic upgrade. I see that others are changing the E-steps to correct extrusion issues that still persist. I have found that running a calibration cube and adjusting the extrusion rate in the slicer's filament profiles to be a much better option as every filament extrudes a little differently. I now have different profiles saved for each of my filaments as even different colors of the same brand of filament have required slightly different extrusion rates to achieve optimal extrusion and have found that there is no magic extrusion value that works with every filament.
Those whistles are great.
i got the mini for one day ago, installed and printet since it was put together.. prints like a charme out of the box :-)
I received my mini in June 2020. Never had a single problem with my mine so far
No problems with the mini from stock. Works fine 👍
Most effective fix: Change coldend cooling fan. Original fan is loud and runs at 38% speed (by firmware, not controllable for the user). Replace the fan by a noctua. Remove black cable from the connector, islolate it (use a 1by1 Dupond connector housing or some tape) and plug it to J21 Pin 2 (you might have to remove the jumper between Pin 1 and 2). This way the noctua gets permanent ground instead pwm. A Noctua@100% speed provides about 30 to 50% more ait to keem coldend cool than stock fan @38%. And is ultra silent...
Wonderful video as always! may be worth adding a card at 11:35ish saying don't use PC thermal paste! That stuff is only rated to slightly above 100C and will degrade heavily and possibly release some nasty gasses during printing. Its important to use high temp thermal paste like slice engineering's boron nitride (which I know is what you used) but I don't want someone who has left over pc thermal paste from their pc's cooler swap to try and use it on their printer!!!!
Good points
The heatbreak should never get that hot in the upper section.
@@olorf that’s a very good point. I also apply thermal paste to me heater cartridge which certainly does so I guess my brain was stuck on that!
@@rickyh2896 that's a good practice. I apply to nozzle threads, thermistor, cartridge and upper heatbreak.
U just happened to have the left over slice engineering paste but if I didn't I probably wouldn't have even thought of that. Thanks for the heads up.
You might want to check the bowden tube on your Mini. I was having weird extrusion issues on mine and found that the pressed olive style couplers they use were a bit too tight and were causing extrusion problems during certain movements. I changed them out for the usual PC4 quick connect couplers and it resolved the issue.
I changed those PC4 quick connect dumb things out for the brass ones on my Clone and that fixed all my problems...
I was lucky to receive Mini + No mods installed. Only printed PLA so far. Excellent prints for me. Maybe I am too easily pleased.
My Prusa Mini is to arrive in two days! I’m excited for expected premium experience over my ender 3!
How's it been?
I sent mine back. Not happy with clicky extruder and layer lines.
I am super happy with my Mini as my goto printer for super quality small prints. I have my Mini since February. Have it setup up to print high quality prints with a .25 nozzle and 0.1 layer height. It consistently brings perfect prints (with the right filament truly amazing prints) Besides bedadhesion problems I did not have a print fail yet (more than a hundred prints). The only problem I have is with unloading filament, the tip seems to get stuck when it comes out of the hotend and tries to go into the Bowden tube. I have not made a single change to the machine but for firmware upgrades. (I have a Mini, 3 Mk3's and a large Delta)
Mini+ Pre-assembled. Thanks for the video. I have the printer now for a week or 3 and it has been printing everyday. The first prints where a bit frustrating. Entirely my one mistake because i only did the final assembly and started printing whiteout reading any instruction. I pretty soon figured out what was wrong and how to adjust. It is now near to the end of the first spool ( 1kg PLA) that i'm starting to read the instructions. ;-) .I've got more time between designing and printing because printing takes a lot longer now +30 hrs printing. Issues that i came across where more related tot the model than to the printer itself. I've had a part found on the web and adjusted it to my needs. The part of the print that was from the original file had some roughness an d a lot stringing. From the part that I added, designed with Sketchup, stringing was almost gone.
I use my PRUSA Mini to print parts for my car using PETG, I like the small print bed. I am not worry about the problems with the quality since the parts are post-process with Bondo and sanded.
Maybe time to revisit this with revision parts and newer firmware to see if anything has changed, it still seems very popular.
I had the issue with the too-short PTFE tube, but swapped it out. Except for the brief period of jamming just before the swap, I've only had one print that wasn't high quality due to the machine and not operator error with either slicer settings or not putting in the right z-height for the build plate I was using.
Mine was also an extremely early unit (likely first or second batch from what I've been able to find). Mine began having extrusion issues within a few days and got steadily louder as well. I've since reseated the heatbreak (it was far from correct as delivered) and replaced the extruder with the bondtech version as the supplied extruder had extremely shallow teeth and a high tendency to strip and eat filament. Since that upgrade I have had far fewer issues with extrusion, but manually setting the e-steps every power cycle is a pain. The resonance in printing has also gotten far louder and despite re-packing bearings and tightening everything I can find it remains. I've just reverted to lowering speeds to avoid the strongest resonance frequencies. Finally, the bed leveling is pretty terrible compared to my mk3s (bear). I have a modified start that positions the MINDA probe over the center of the bed for 2 minutes after heat-up, but it still fails to find a perfectly reliable z-height given that, and often has areas of the bed with inconsistent height. At this point I'm considering an entire rework, replacing the hotend with a proper v6 or dragon, the MINDA with a PINDA, and maybe rebuilding the frame or swapping the mainboard. I love my mk3s Bear, but this printer fell far below my expectations, especially after the announcement of the Appendix and all the issues with releasing source files and dev tools (I pre-ordered and those elements were not revealed until after I had purchased). I worry they will make the same mistakes on the mk4/XL.
This video has so many outstanding teaching aspects that I award you full points. As an experienced user and custom GCoder, your workarounds to Prusa's firmware "no user update" are well done. But does Prusa not defeat the "Open Source" philosophy that Prusa claims it supports? Sorry, this may be a TLDR review. I have not watched your initial Mini review so I may be commenting where you have already been. The Mini major issue for me is the cantilevered "x" axis. While it may permit a simple kit assembly but it hardly qualifies as a stable, vibration free design. It may, however, be a good overall choice for a beginner's printer in kit form. But now to this video. You are so thorough is describing the hot end design Mini deficiencies (see 1:48 in video). The identification of the "free space" caused by improper tubing length is very important to new 3D printer folks. It can cause major jams and loss of time due to cleanout, this is nontrivial work. You didn't discuss if the Bondtech replacement kit solved this issue; it likely does as the Bondtech instructions are so complete it is hard to imagine that it does not. You also describe the Prusa limitations of PID calibration - no M500 saving into EEPROM but offer a very convenient fix for users using the Start Code script in the slicer. You are again so thorough in describing the Bouden Extruder Mini deficiencies. The Bondtech replacement is totally appropriate to me that it defines Prusa's design as a Mini "showstopper" for purchase. Bondtech instructions are impressive. But how sad that a user would have to rewire the motor connector because Prusa will not permit firmware changes in configuration.h where motor direction can be changed. I am sure you know what I am discussing. Overall, Michael this is outstanding work. But does it not label Mini as a failed design? I say it does.
Haha, I love that little milk crate model. I want one :)
I had a rough start with my Prusa Mini. (Got mine in May) First issue was the heater cartridge cable was preventing the part cooling fan from turning. As disappointing as this was for a prebuilt part, it was an easy fix, however there is still only about 1mm clearance. Second issue was the idler housing on the x axis. It was gripping the smooth rods so tightly that it would retain any slight twist, causing the hotend to pitch as it travelled along its length. Easing off the clamping screws allowed it to untwist and sit at the intended natural position. I too found the default profile to be a bit stringy. I attempted to tackle this by reducing the print temp, which then caused my final issue, the dual drive chewing up filament, then getting caked up and unable to extrude properly. The final solution I found was to print at normal or slightly above temperatures, while counter intuitively reducing the retraction down to 1.8mm from 3mm. Since then I have printed many things in a good range of filament types and colours. So far so good, print quality has been excellent and at least on par with my other Prusas, some of which are heavily modified.
I am so happy that i canceled my order of the Prusa Mini!
You are lucky. I wish I cancelled mine. I hate my mini.
@@joesyuh I have hundreds of print hours on mine with zero issues yet. It's functioned flawlessly out of the box.
Your review, as always, is very helpful.
Bondtech to the rescue! It’s a shame Prusa botched this printer. Quality components make a big difference. I have many Bondtech upgrades on my print farm of 14 3D printers. Good components, great customer service and excellent t documentation.
Have had a mini for a few months now. I’m happy with the quality of the prints (no mods) but I have been experiencing first layer hight drift in the last few weeks. This was solved by pre-heating the bed and nozzle for a minute before the ABL for each print. The fact that only happens in the last few weeks and not from the start makes me believe is more than just lack of thermistor on Pinda probe.
The early probe points were set way too close to the edge of the bed plus the wiring was a bit too short. This may have caused stress on your probe wires leading to them breaking internally. I'd say get a new probe via support and see. My probe failed 3 weeks in, but have been very reliable since then.
I bought a MINI because I thought it would be the best printer in its class. Also, after fiddling with an old Ender 3, I saw it as a huge upgrade. And overall, I'm very happy. I do have a pretty serious problem though. I'm not sure if it's the MINDA probe or what, but I have to manually change my z-offset with pretty much every print. It wouldn't be a huge deal, but even my Ender has been printing for months without touching bed level. After contacting Prusa, they didn't have much of an answer for me either. I'm not sure how I feel about it. I will say though, that when it prints well, it's very nice and I can rely on it. Great Video, thanks Michael!
Sounds like a MINDA issue. You could try preheating(pick your temp), calibrate(home), let it warm up, let it sit for 5 minutes and then print. That should help but it still wont be perfect.
@@hurrycaine1 thanks for the reply. I did end up contacting Prussia support and that's basically what they told me to do. Unfortunately it still didn't fix the problem like you said. Thanks though!
Huh, the only problems I've had with mine were some layer calibration issues but that was on me. But then again my printer was only shipped in september, I imagine they got their assembly dialed in a lot better since you got yours!
Nope
I preordered the Mini the day it came out and received it in december 2019. I had issues with the hotend not being all the way in which was resolved by taking the grub screws out, giving the heater block a good push and putting the grub screws back in. My printer went from "good" to "perfect" after this. Since then it printed flawlessly. I have a recently printed octopus (like, the print in place chained legs thingy) with cheap filament and the prusament profile right next to me. It has a bit of stringing but not enough for me to tune the profile for that filament. I printed one with Prusament PLA Galaxy Purple as well that turned out literally flawlessly but is not right next to me at the moment so i'm not taking that one as an example. The octopus in my hands right now is smooth. No ringing around the eyes. No sign of under or over extrusion. I'd consider this a perfect print.
I have absolutely zero problems so far with my stock mini and I have it for a month now and it's constantly printing. Print quality is better than on my CR-10s Pro. Maybe this is due to the fact that I use a prusa printer with prusa filament and prusa slicer. I love this machine and I'm sure his machine in the video has another problem. I would buy the prusa over the creality if I had to choose one
I have an early release mini that started off printing perfect. After a bad bed adhesion due to me not cleaning skin oil off the build plate, the nozzle became clogged and I think it formed some permanent “crust” inside it. I then started having under extrusion and slipping issues. I tried everything and what ultimately fixed it was just changing the nozzle, a $3 part. At temp and with the boden unhooked, , you should be able to easily push filament through the nozzle by hand. If there is a lot of resistance, change the nozzle (probably don’t even mess with cold pulls). Ultimately, it’s not the extruded drive gears, it’s that there is too much resistance in the nozzle.
Getting my Mini next month. I hope it's good out of the box. Sucks that there's always an early-adopter tax.
It’s not just early adopters. My Mini arrived in September with the same issues. Brace yourself.
So to get a €380 3D printer, which is already very expensive considering the small bed volume and the price of the competition, to get printing decent, you need to pay another €70? Prusa really need to get this printer working properly. There's too many great printers for way less with bigger bed volumes and similar options that print better too.
Without the upgrade it's already printing more than decent...
While I agree, what people always seem to forget about is that Prusa, unlike Creality, does a great deal for the community. Would I ever purchase a Prusa printer? Probably not, there are far better value printers out there, but if people didnt pay the Prusa premium then we wouldnt have Prusa Slicer, their version of Thingiverse, etc. So I am glad Prusa does what they do, and glad people pay the Prusa premium, because without them, the 3d printing community would be worse.
@@jon9947 I don't mind the idea of charging a lot IF your product works fine. I hear so many negative things about the Mini that they clearly made some crucial mistakes in the design. Charging that much for the state of printer feels like insult on top of injury. I get what you're saying but that doesn't excuse sloppy designs which take WAY too long to fix.
@@redavatar You're only hearing from the people who have issues. People without issues aren't pointing about it online. I myself have a Mini in addition to a RailCore, heavily modified Ender 3, and a Mini (plus 2 MSLA printers). The Mini prints fine out of the box for me and has been perfectly reliable for over 12x 1KG PLA/PETG rolls and many hundreds of hours. Only issue I've had was the probe failed 3 weeks in, but Support shipped me a new one within a week and I was good to go. With that said, I think Prusa can always do better and I hope their experience with dealing with this (esp. the new board/firmware) goes a long way to not have these issues with the future Prusa XL.
@@jon9947 What is this bs about Creality doing nothing for the community. They developed the Ender 3 and made it open source. Creality machines and their clones(or machines heavily inspired by their design) are one of the main reason the community grew as fast as it did in recent years. Affordable and well usable printers are very important if you want to get students and similar into 3d printing.
Thanks for this excellent review! I share your opinion about the original extruder. When I replaced it I discovered lots of filament "dust" in the old one. Simply badly designed. The bondtech one has more power and does not slip. About the hot-end. Again, the Prusa design is not perfect. IMHO a hot-end should be all metal where the heat break design is crucial. In an ideal situation there is no gap between the heat break and the nozzle. Many cheap heat breaks have a chamfer at the side where they hit the nozzle. That will cause clogs sooner or later. Even the cheap E3D clones will work well with an original E3D heat break. After installing the Bondtech extruder, thanks for your advice and placing an E3D all metal printhead the printer prints fine. But, the printer will not reach full print volume in X and Y direction and a non functional M500 command is rediculus. Again thanks for sharing your experience!
I have been using my Prusa Mini steady since May 1st 2020 . After getting lots of Z banding . I printed & replaced the Y axis belt tensioner and obtained better results . Don't over tighten your belts . My bad . They are very touchy about adjustment . i may try replacing the belts if banding reappears . TB
Sweeeeeet!! Thanks! :)
Just got my Mini+ kit last week and it has been nothing but intermittent issues. Definitely considering getting the bondtech extruder in the near future after having to pull my mini extruder 5 times to clear out filament.
My Mini+ is doing well. It is just a week old now. I got the pre-assembled kit.
I have found out a lot of the trouble comes from the two gears in the extruder. The parts are all printed and have tolerances like crazy. The gears must not make grinding noises and the slack/clicking should be on a minimum. However the extruder will never be perfect no matter how you install it
I've had the printer since March it had to be sent back to the factory for it would not print correctly one they send it back to me with samples it was OK but I took it apart and found 1 boden tube missing from the assembly just after the extruder motor now it is my favorite printer For small prints
My experience: there are certain (non-Prusament) filaments that, after I use them, I'll know I will have to clean out the extruder gears. My Prusa MK2S never had that problem. But otherwise... my Prusa Mini+ has been giving me essentially perfect prints since I bought it in the fall of 2021. I did see some stringing at first, but experimented with temp, speed, and retraction settings and managed to find values that have mostly removed that problem.
2 minis. Both upgraded with Bondtech extruder upgrade and both works flawlessly. Very happy with them. Tried the heatbreak on both but no success. However, I didn't try the pid-tuning. Might give it another go after seeing this. :)
I'm very disappointed with my mini, under-extruding and failed prints and it sometimes does not stick to the bed. I may have to try this in the near future.
I just recieved my mini+ last week and have had about 5 filament jams that required different degrees of disassembly of the extruder and cleaning of the hot end. I agree that it seems the PFT tube is short on the hot end and filament can get clogged under it. I have been able to get some quality prints but have not done prints over 6 hours and not at the point I want to leave it unattended overnight. In comparison to Ender 3 prints when the Mini+ is working the quality is top notch. I do not think I will do this upgrade at this point and will keep working with Prusa tech support to optimize the printer.
Hi Michael - I have a Prusa MK3S and a Prusa Mini (October 2020 production) and have not had the issues you encountered. The Mini prints at the same quality as my MK3S. The only issue my Mini has is that it is very finaky on the filiment I feed it. What I consider Premium filaments (Atomic, Printed Solid "Jessie" and Prusament all print without a care. When I feed it a filament from other asia manufactures, it will tend to have issue extruding. I have the upgraded heatbreak and Bondtech extruder in hand in case I need them (bought them to combat the issues caused by, IMHO, crappy filamenet from the far east. I know this video is from more than 6 months ago, but I wonder if different filaments would make a difference in your machine.
I had to swap out the small section of PTFE tube on my mini. I also need to raise the heat break, but I can't break the grub screws loose on mine. I will have to get ahold of support to see what to do about it.
They sent me a replacement entire hot end assembly for free ($78 replacement part). Unfortunately it only worked a week before clogging up again.
My mini's print quality has been excellent, in line with the MK3. Is it possible you received an early version of the printer? I recall they made some updates immediately after it was released. I'd be interested if you got a new mini if your problems would be solved. Bummer it seems a pain to implement the bondtech upgrades. I was considering this extruder for a fun project, but I may hold off now.
Mine was definitely from the early batches. I pre-ordered the day after it was announced. More recent deliveries such as yours seem to be going better, and that's a good thing.
I also think this is was an issue. Received mine June 2020. No issues so far
Same here, with the Mini that I received in September the print quality has been excellent and pretty consistent. (My only complaint might be that the first layer height seems mildly inconsistent, though this seems to be improved if I preheat the bed with the hot end nearby, so I get the sense this is due to the bed leveling probe on the mini not being temperature compensated.)
My Sept 2020 Mini had the same issues. I returned it.
Got mine in July and it has these issues and so many others. I will never buy another Prusa product again.
With the new prusa firmware you dont need to rearrange the wires, go to settings - HW Setup and you can switch from "prusa" to "wrong" which will reverse the direction the extruder spins, you can also edit the esteps there
I'm still with my old 2018 Ender 3 and still print happily like the bondtech result there, albeit incredibly slow when compared to the vase mode displayed, and salmon skin because of OG 8-bit board, but even when it's printing ABS that is decent like eSun, I only found my problem that I wasn't printing slow enough, and that's not because of the printer, just the material itself could not adhere well to the previous layers if the speed is 40mm/s and above, despite the print did finish seemingly perfectly. not touting about Ender 3, but rather, I've never or rarely ever heard just how low is actually the point of diminishing return when you have certain expectations towards a 3D printer before turning it into a money burning pit.
@Teaching Tech Could I still use the automatic filament change feature which pushes the filament out fast, if I'd upgrade to the bondtech extruder?
I'm considering getting a Mini+, hoping they improved on the plus iteration.
it has a PINDA sensor instead of the MINDA, which should provide more stable mesh bed leveling. Otherwise the printers are more or less the same mechanically.
you had me at "Death Whistle"
Prusa devs promised to include some sort of this upgrade support it future firmware upgrade (ESTEPS and PID permanent storing).
I got my Mini a few months ago. It printed "ok" right up until I put Prusament in it and then print quality went downhill and it eventually clogged hard. Turns out I had the same gap in the hot end and everything clogged up. Clicking extruder and all. I ended up disassembling the hot end and replacing both the nozzle and the PTFE tube and have had very few problems ever since. I even managed a 50 hour print at 0.05 layer height with zero issues. Banding is minimal for me. My two remaining issues are the bed level and the alignment of the gantry assembly which I have to shim so that left to right movement moves in a mostly straight line. Without the shim there's as much as a 5mm shift when traveling across the plate. I also have to let the MINDA heat soak for 5 minute before every plate to get the leveling to come out decent. This is AFTER having Prusa replace the MINDA.
help.prusa3d.com/en/article/xz-axis-skew-correction-mini_158518
I received one of the first Minis and besides the Minda probe height being incorrect from the factory it rivals my MK3s for print quality, though it is very fussy about getting the temp right, for PLA if you’re off a bit the print looks awful. I’ve found that with the exception of Prusamement it’s 5c less than the MK3.
Hello from France !!! First, i'm a fan of your channel 🙂That's done. I have a prusa Mini and i'm going to mount a Revo E3D kit. Even if Prusa recommends not to PID tune the Mini, do you still think it is necessary? If yes, what is the process for PI tuning on Prusa Mini because Prusa doesn't allow to touche the PID value stocked in the EEPROM ? One again , thanks a lot for all your video and sharing. Merci 🙂
tought about getting an easy to use printer. after watching your video i dont think the mini would be a improvement over my cr-10 mini. very disappointing. any recomandations for a good easy to use printer with abl sensor ?
Great video! I've had a prusa mini before, I bought both bonditech upgrades and applied them correctly, they worked as advertised. However my problem eventually became the bowden tube design with the compression style collet, no matter how many times I replaced it and no matter the fashion of reassembly, the bowden tube would be come dislodged after less then 24 hours of print time. (It would be nice if they would sell the collet uncompressed!!!!!!!) Lucky I was within the return time, so it was sent back after 100 dollars worth of upgrades and spare parts had been invested. I'm now 100% happy with my ender 5 pro! Anybody want to buy a used bonditech extruder for prusa mini? Lol
I realize this is 10 months old, but still selling the bondtech?
Is there any chance you would be willing to make a video about how to compile firmware for the mini? I have learned everything about marlin and vscode from you, but the mini doesn't follow the normal build process. It's quite daunting. Any help would be greatly appreciated! :)
I have my prusa mini for 4m now and its going perfect. Just one thing few days ago I had Z home -1,008 and it was perfect. But one day I started the print and 1st layer was really bad. I changed Z home to -1,140 and everything is good.
Any ideas why?
Could be room temperature?
Prusa mini+ owner here - no issues so far.
My Mini should arrive in a couple more weeks. I've been doing a lot of research and am starting to wonder if a lot of the problem is with the boden drive mechanism rather than a "direct drive" setup. Bodens do tend not be as tight as a system where the filament goes directly into the drive gears from the spool. Regarding the heat brake, how much weaker is the Bondtech heat brake than the original? Is it more likely to be twisted off with that thinner one? Why not make the heat brake out of more exotic stuff like titanium?
I've had a Prusa Mini since February, and it worked great for a few weeks and then I had extrusion issues. The PTFE tube had shrunk, so I replaced that and then had issues again after another few weeks. The Bondtech heatbreak solved all of those. Mostly now I have no issues at all but sometimes strange extrusion problems so I am very tempted to try the Bondtech extruder as well. I almost only ever get stringing with PETG. I think the quality is very good, but it's my first and only 3D printer so... 🤷♀️
Hello Did you change de ptfe tube correctly? I had many trouble with mine 2 hours after the first print. At the beginning I though the extruder was faulty but after cleaning it it work for 2 more hours then it started making noise. I change de the ptfe hose with my method and no more problems with the hotend. It is my first printer too.
We also have issues with ours. After an hour printing the extruder would make clicking noises. We've taken it apart, changed the tube, tightened the couplings, etc. Very annoyed with it currently. Would not recommend the mini to anyone with all the trouble we've had with it.
@@tomsko863 the quality is good but yes, fixing it could be hard... When I disassemble my hotend, the heat break was very clogged. I had to drain it with a wood stick by the upside while I was heating it a 280° Then I could mount the new ptfe tube. I I havnt cleaned the heatbreak it would have a gap between it and the tube. (after the pla clogged melt) I make sure to do a half turn more with the joining part of the bowden to tighten the tube correctly. (screw the joining part to the max with the heatbreak and the tube in a low position, Unscrew it for a half turn. Push up the heatbreak at the maximum and screw the 3 little screw on the right. Then screw the joining part to the max. With this method the assembly is tight. But the heatbreak have to be clean. Maybe you will need to a little more than an half turn, unscrew it at the beginning the value you want before pushing up the heatbreak. Take car the temperature you use with your filament, mine need more than the value indicate on it.... Sorry for my English 😅
@@bargeaup.6378 Yes, I think the main problem is the heatbreak allows the PTFE tube to get too warm so it shrinks over time. It's like the tube is a consumable part. I have measured the Bondtech tube a few times since I fitted it and it hasn't shrunk at all.
@@RobeenaShepherd I don t think so. The factory mount have a 4mm ptfe tube which is to short or uncorrectly mount. The tube wasn t melt or destroy but the pla reach to go between the ptfe tube and the heatbreak.
I waited 6 months for my mini. Did a few great prints then downhill after that. It's so frustrating it's been sitting for 2 months untouched. Today I added a new nozzle and bond tech heartbreak and that still hasn't fixed any issues. Also random red screen, bad usb drives etc. Really disappointed in it. Hate to say it, I miss my ender3. Unmodded the thing was dead nuts reliable and printed non stop for months without a single issue.
In case of me, i changed the e Step value which is 412. Check the extruding length. 415 makes over extruding.
I did check and got 416, which is within the tolerance of the permanent marker tip.
Unrelated to the video but it seems like the kind of thing maybe you'd know... have you ever come across what I guess you'd call an entry level micro metal lathe? Something like the 3018 CNC Router of the lathe world - not the greatest, but perfectly serviceable for pins, rods, sleeves, and bolts/screws (so adjustable auto-feed). I'm looking to expand my 3D printing base to include articulated toys and cutting down old nails by hand is something I'm not exactly looking forward to doing in any reasonable quantity (four has been enough doing repairs on existing toys, and good luck finding super-coarse "thread forming" dies). I've seen your earlier wood lathe video but it's clearly a more manual option, though it is about the size and power I'm trying to find. Everything I've come across so far myself has been much larger (like the 7x12 "mini" lathe), missing auto-feed, impossible to obtain, and/or is prohibitively/unnecessarily expensive.
I was waiting for this Video so bad. I have the same opinion about the Mini and I have the Upgrade Parts here but I am still afraid of upgrading as the new values cannot be be saved permantly and the results aren't mindblowing. Your results after installing the upgrades does not give me hope that the upgrades are worth it for the mini. So now I am confused what to do. I still have my MK3S too and have no Problems at all with it. Maybe a Upgrade to the Slice Engineering Mosquito or Copperhead together with the Bondtech Upgrades makes a good Printer out of the Mini... What you think?
@Teaching Tech: Hi there, i won a prusa mini+ since one month and start to wonder, if i would be better of with an mk3s+. I am looking to print PETG with as minimal strining as possible. If i look at the data sheet i don't see a clear picture that the mk3s+ is worth all that extra money. What do you think? I am missing classical comparison videos.
I'm not a fan of Prusa printers, the two I had were both bad and my cr-10 mini and ender 3 both printed better than the two prusa printers I bought. I eventually sent them back because i didnt want to upgrade them to print as good as my two creality printers, i used that money to buy 5 more printers from creality and still had some money left over for a few upgrades for them.
I refuse to pay 1000 bucks for a printer with 3d printed parts. It looks cheap and not as strong as injection moulded. To top it off like you said you can buy 4 ender 3s which i love and trust.
@@carbide1968 MK3S parts are printed in PETG. I don't know how you treat your printers but I don't kick mine around. My old Mendel Max 1.5+ is about 6 or 7 years old, with joints printed in PLA and still works to this day. My MK3S is a little over a year old and has been performing perfectly. It is a tool like my cordless drill. I turn it on when I need it and it will produce my part. No recalibration, no messing around, it just works.
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@@carbide1968 Yeah I wasted my money on the mini and mk3s. both have the same problem with inconsisest first layer.
Those naughty Prusa printed sock puppets are going to roast design prototype test again ;)
Why did he say Teaching Tech is paid by Prusa, when TT made the harshest review of the Mini on KZhead? That was a pretty stupid opinion from DPT
@@jacekjagosz Im pretty sure every opinion that guy has is a terrible opinion. He only makes videos like he does to get views, and if people started ignoring him, he would likely disappear. Every time you bring him up, or watch one of his videos you are fueling his next video and putting ad revenue in his pocket.
haha i had forgotten about this guy, and he's still doing the same ranty prusa=illuminati videos; in the last one he compared them to the nazis and SS in less than 3 min of video...
@@jon9947 He still makes great technical videos where he gets into tiny details of the printers and shows clever ways to improve. Almost nobody else makes videos like that. I hope he will simply go back to technical videos, because they are really good.
@@jon9947 you know, i think you are right here. I discussed points in the comments, about what is open source (he said prusa "stole" open source ideas; whereas prusa used open source and released open source updates, as one would do with open source...), went trough lenghty post to demonstrate my points, but once i made good points he stopped responding, and started his antics on the nex video again. So i think that you are right, he may not even believe all the things he says and just does it to generate drama and buzz around him... That or he's delusional, with some kind of persecution complex... according to him apparently joel from 3D printing nerd is a prusa shill now... In all cases, what you said is right, his chanel has lost any interest it may have had, as he not only focuses on drama, but we can't expect objective videos anymore. I don't know why but i still have some morbid curiosity to see for how long he will continue this path though. The dumb thing about this is that i see so many super positive chanels within the 3D printing community, with content that complement super well, some technical chanels, some for begginers, some reviews chanels, some "just for fun" ones, i feel like there is space for everyone without the need to do this kind of slanderous stuff... but then again perhaps in the youtube ecosystem, there needs to be a space for drama?
would you recommend the Prusa i3 Mk3S+ over the mini+ for the time being? and can the printer print flexible filaments like Ninja Flex, TrueFlex, Oo-Kuma and so on?. Because I'm thinking of getting either the Mini and or the MK3S+ as my first 3D printer.
I am using my printers seriously for prototyping for my business. I was looking to get a mini to test it’s capabilities for handling actual part production. While prototyping I need a larger machine and the excellent SK Go is my print perfection workhorse. However for production parts a small machine is very attractive because all the parts I will need to produce for commercial product will probably be small enough to fit on the Mini. The promised print farm functionality is therefore highly attractive. But I have to say I have been really put off this machine now. I want a machine that churns out parts with Mk3 quality, day in day out and it seemed the mini would fit the bill. But it’s become clear to me it simply doesn’t quite make the mark as compared with the Mk3. Many reviewers confirm this. Quality is important. FDM 3D printed parts are, IMO, only just acceptable when printed really well. I purchased an Ooznest Workbee CNC which had printed parts and they are all, without fail, extremely impressive. I know Ooznest use Mk3’s and they have them dialled in really well. The Workbee was the first product I have seen where I feel FDM 3D printing is acceptable quality. I want the same quality for my own business but won’t accept less.
I have just done the extruder only upgrade. I have put the settings in the gcode in every print. The problem is I get lots of stringing using petg ever since. Sometimes it is so bad that it gets tangled and rips off the first layer from the bed. Do you have any ideas what adjustments I need to make to fix this. I am relatively new to 3-D printing and this is my first printer so I don't really understand what all the settings do.
I did the exact same upgrades and still not happy with the results.. So now I will put in a Mosquito Hotend from Slice Engineering, I understand it takes the mini to the next level
it's good but very expensive, the e3d lite6 hotend is excellent if you're looking to print just PLA/PET/ASA, and quite a lot cheaper
You're going to have $1000 in it and a $200 ender 3 will still print better
I'm glad I passed on the Mini just like I passed on the CR6SE. Both printers need a lot more time to soak and get better.
Have you had a look at the Mingda D3/4 they seem to legitimately be prusa beaters at lower prices. They have ABL, silent steppers and are direct drive. The only problem they have is they currently seem to be in violation of the Marlin license as their firmware isnt open source.
I own a Mini since March and I was extremely happy with it till a few days a go. Print quality with prusa slicer is superb in my opinion. I printed all parts for my Hevo in ABS without an enclosure and I couldn't be more happier with it. Then I tried Flex... Oh boy. That's where the trouble started. Flex printed okay-ish but I was to lazy to tune in a profile so I switch back to PLA and voila - clogging and underextrusions. I cleaned Hotend and Extruder gears (i.e. cold pull) but wasn't successful. Previously I printed pla at 195 now I needed 230! Which resulted in really stringy prints. So I decided to swap the PTFE tube... Which was the cause of the issues. Since then it prints fine again but the whole incident leaves a bitter taste... I consider buying the bondtech heatbrake as the prusa one seems a complete failure by design. I bought the mini cause I wanted a cheap reliable workhorse without tinkering to have time for other projects and I hope the bondtech heatbrake will improve this issue because the inner PTFE is shorter and heatcreep shouldn't be as bad with the narrow part after the heating block.
I'm facing similar issues now after more than half a year of pretty much flawless printing with the mini. Although my issues came with a 0.25 mm nozzle. So far only high temperature seems to solve it. As for the hotend, it is crucial to make sure the PTFE tube is correctly preloaded, i.e. squeezed between the heatbrake and the brass fitting.
It was probably just a coincidence with the flex. I and many others have had same problem. It is just a matter of time before you have issues due to the ptfe tube shrinking. With the hotend cold, remove bowden tube, loosen the grub screws and lift hot end all the way up, tighten grub screws and put the bowden tube back on but do not over tighten. This got me back up and running. (make sure its clean as well and do cold pulls to clean if needed). Also, move the minda probe back up like in this video and recalibrate. I think when I do need to upgrade it might be a full metal hotend, this ptfe tube is driving me nuts.
@@hurrycaine1 @Petr Hošek Yeah I guess it was a stupid coincidence since the flex material clogged and used every little gap between the PTFE and Heatbreak. I will upgrade to a Bondtech Heatbreak soon and I hope the issues will be gone. But I also have to add that my prints look way better than Michael's! Even with stupid cheap Sunlu PLA / PETG / ABS ;)