Doodle3D Review
Unboxing of the doodle3d wireless print box! #3dprinting http://t.co/GunBy7fLGA
— 3D Hubs (@3DHubs) November 14, 2013
Backing this on Kickstarter was a great experience: tons of feedback and an exciting product and great people. Great fun to see them at Ohm2013 afterwards as well!
The device is a small box which has it’s own Wi-Fi and it’s connected with the printer with the USB cable, and when you’re connected to that Wi-Fi you can draw something and then send it to your printer so u can print from any device which has that Wi-Fi.
How it works:
Setup:
- Type of printer
- Bed size
- Wall thickness
- Layer height
- Print speed
Start Printing:
Once it’s setup it’s quite easy to draw something and print it, it’s just needs to be plugged in and u can start , first u connect to the Wi-Fi then u go to your web browser and go to the link draw.doodle3d.com and u can start drawing.
Our Opinion:
Perimeters:
It’s nice that you can select how thick you want to print the perimeters so that you don’t print thing that when you take it off the bed it breaks. And then it has some strength.
Intersecting paths:
The software also works with intersecting parts. If you have for example a infinity sign it would go over the sign as we would draw it. It would not do one half and then go to the next half.
Even more, it allowed for traversals where it would not print, but move to the next bit
Multiple Devices compatible:
Once you print a objet from one of the device’s you can’t print from any other so there’s no interference with the device’s and if you print something but the connection is lost, it’s okay cause it send the file to the box and then it’s being send from your device anymore.
But at the same time it allows multiple devices to draw stuff and wait for the printer to come online.
Extrusion control:
… There’s no such button where you can control the extrusion. So if want to change filament, you can’t do it from the device. so it if they add a extrusion button that would be useful.
In fact a better printer control panel would be amazing to allow you to fine-tune the printer or home the printer and extrude filament before you print.
Everything is about Z0
When it prints, the distance between the bed and the extruder should be perfect, otherwise it would not print properly especially because it’s a one perimeter print.
Apparently the whole 3d-printing world revolves around the first print layer, so why would be doodle3d be an exception?
Import
There are 3 things I find should be added
- Add .stl : if you could just upload an stl so you can print files that u already have.
- Add normal shapes : It would be nicer if you get a certain amount of shapes and that you could edit them afterwards.
- Add .svg : It would be also cool if you could just upload a .svg file and this would be a lot easier if you want accurate drawings.
Dimensions
Beyond that I would love to have some kind of indication before I print of the size of the doodle… Sometimes I draw a ring, which then prints like a bangle… Great fun, but a grid or measurement would make doodles better life up to the expectations.
DualExtrusion Doodling
Hack?
I could not help but wonder if there is a way to hack the Doodle3d to also enable you to dump gcode on the box and use it as a print-server of kinds… But more on that, if I ever get the time to dig into the device!
Conclusion:
All in all a great device to have around for workshops and parties, to quickly show people the power of 3dprinting without having to learn to model anything… A great way for smaller kids to see their creations come out of the screen and into the printer…
[Please note that this is the first post in which I am taking my son’s help to slowly introduce him to blogging his own opinion on 3d printing and products… I hope you can read past the “cooler” language. If you have a product that needs a teenager’s opinion, don’t hesitate to contact us! Slowly I want to move out of the Editorial role and let Ritik write his own posts here!]