# Specific 3D Printers, Scanners, & Hardware > New Matter's MOD-t Forum >  New Matter updates

## Feign

It has just occurred to me that even though the New Matter team has been sending out weekly updates to backers, the forum here has gone a bit quiet.  After a little bit of consideration, I figured I would make this thread to share relevant snippets from the update e-mails when they come (and they come exactly on-schedule each Wednesday).  The past few updates have been a bit dry, the first paint test for consideration on the line, and a nice little extra that each backer who bought a printer will also be getting a New Matter t-shirt.  Little stuff like that.

The latest update has a juicy bit worth sharing:



> *MANUFACTURING UPDATE:*
> 
> “We’re currently refining the design with regards to manufacturability” Rob said. In other words, “The architecture is changing for the better. We’re heading towards high-volume manufacturing, ultimately leading to a higher quality machine.” Fewer parts that move more efficiently? Sounds like a win-win-win.
> 
> *BIRTH ANNOUNCEMENT:*
> 
> Our newest prototype was born this week! She’s happily whirring along and already out-printing her parents. [filler image] We'll be sending pictures of the printer in next week's update.


I'm a bit excited to see this semi-final "manufacturability prototype" and how close it is to the initial prototypes shown in the campaign video.

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## curious aardvark

interested to see the pics of the new prototype next week :-)

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## Feign

Small side-update: Apparently, every pledge that got a MOD-t also got a t-shirt thrown in (it wasn't originally included in any of the pledges except the specific t-shirt pledge).  When I saw the email for it a while back I wasn't all that excited, since I'm not really a shirts-with-logos kind of guy.  The shirt that came in the mail though is pretty darn nice, I'll have to make an exception. (the logo on the side is more subtle than the picture on the IGG site makes it look, making it overall look kinda classy.)

Now I wish they would have some kind of shop open on their site for little goodies like this.  My fiance wants a New Matter shirt now, but I have no way to get her one.

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## Feign

Well, this week's update was titles "As promised...  PICTURES" and it delivers on that.
They call this the "look-like, feel-like prototype" which is a bit vague, but from the previous update, this is the prototype made with all the materials and processes that are going into the manufacturing line from the hot end and servos to the paint and plastic.  This isn't actually the first unit off the line, but it should be exactly like the one that is.



First impression: they really did thicken up the guide rails for the z-axis, and the hot end and thermistor seems to protrude a bit from the bottom of the extruder housing, which might bother some people a little bit, but it's kind of a relief to me that it's accessible for cleaning and maintenance.  Aside from those details, it looks pretty much exactly like the original render.

I really hope at some point they'll give us a video of this new production-level machine printing something. For now we have to take their word for it that this prints.

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## curious aardvark

[QUOTE]["look-like, feel-like prototype"/QUOTE]
seems odd that there are no working pic. Unless this is exactly what the above quote says: ie: just a non-functional mock up to show you what the physical machine will look like. 

They probably haven't got the firmware or board running yet.

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## Feign

Ah, except that they mentioned in the September 26 update - 



> Our newest prototype was born this week! She’s happily whirring along and already out-printing her parents. [filler image] We'll be sending pictures of the printer in next week's update.


which leads me to believe that it most likely prints, they're just dragging out the reveals to make sure they have something each week.  Speaking of which, the updates tend to be in the evening, so today's isn't out just yet.  (I'll try to post about it here as soon as I can, they have a funny tendency to put them up during my evening commute.)

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## Feign

Sorry about not getting this up last night, there was kind of a whirlwind of personal stuff that kept me off the internet after work.  Not the least of which being a very fast-hitting cold that still has me too tired and sore to really paraphrase the weekly newsletter, so I'll just post up the first part word-for-word.  They've changed the wording slightly, calling last week's prototype the "looks-like, works-like" prototype.  Which I'm sure was in response to the same kind of confusion that was here as to weather or not the new prototype _actually works_.



> In this newsletter, we'll update you on the whereabouts of two team members, chat briefly about 3D artists and share a handful of our first test prints from the looks-like-works-like prototype we showed you last week.
> 
> Rob and Alan left for China last Saturday! They will be in the country for two weeks, hopping around to a couple of different cities but spending most of their time visiting factories in Shenzhen. If you have any recommendations for things to see or places to eat, we started a little facebook convo on our page here.  
> 
> We're on the hunt for 3D artistic talent. If you or someone else you know is interested in designing for our New Matter Store, send a portfolio to imadesigner@newmatter.com.
> 
> Last week you saw the printer. This week, it's all about the prints!





Well, there you have it.  I sure would have loved to see video of it printing.  The comparison bunny is nice, it looks like they've probably been working on the code a bit in addition to just cleaning up the hardware.  I wonder how well it would work with regular g-code from Cura or Slic3r.  The precision test looks absolutely beautiful, and a nice choice of model for it in a torture test kind of way.  The pencil holder is probably for the 'practical uses only' readers, but it's not exactly a hard print so I can't get too excited about it (looks like there was a slight lift on one of the corners, too, but it seems to have not effected the rest of the print, which is intriguing).

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## Feign

Another Wednesday has passed, so another update email.  Not too much about the printer itself in this one, instead focusing on the New Matter team moving into a larger facility.  

Probably the most interesting thing is that they seem to have been hiring like crazy, the team has definitely grown.

Pertaining to the printer, there is this one shot of a line of prototype parts kits possibly from the Shenzen factory *EDIT:* I've been corrected, these are _not_ from the factory.


It's definitely looking like they are steadily on the way to ironing this out for production.

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## curious aardvark

okay where the hell did they get that metallic silver pla ? I want some ! 

So what was the original schedule and how are they doing ?

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## Feign

> okay where the hell did they get that metallic silver pla ? I want some ! 
> 
> So what was the original schedule and how are they doing ?


At first I thought the silver bunny was painted to show the layers, but upon closer looking maybe that _is_ a metallic PLA...  Curious.

According to the schedule on IGG:
"Sept to Nov 2014 - Fabricate and qualify tooling" <- They're definitely right here now
"Dec 2014 to Jan 2015 - Pilot runs and Regulatory Testing" <- *very important* step that most campaigns try to just skip (_if_ they make a timeline at all)
"Feb 2015 - Production Pilot" <- These get torture tested to make sure there's no need for emergency adjustments to the line.
"Feb to May 2015 - Production and Delivery"

It should be noted that the earliest promised delivery date is in April, so they have from February to March as wiggle room in the plan to iron out any kinks in production and build up a QA cue.  It should probably be noted that most IGG campaigns would in this situation have tried skipping the testing and Production Pilot to try delivering in time for Christmas.  One of the reasons the schedule is the _most important thing_ I look at when considering donating to a campaign.

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## NewMatter

Just wanted to clear a couple of things up:

- Metallic PLA would be really cool, but sadly, the metallic bunny was spray-painted.
- The photo of MOD-t parts are actually parts for the "look-like, feel-like" prototypes in our Pasadena lab.  

We do, though, hope to have stacks of actually factory parts before too long!

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## Feign

Thanks for clearing those points up (I've gone ahead and edited my previous post to correct my error.)

I should probably take a moment to reiterate that _I am not in any way associated with New Matter_, I'm just a very enthusiastic backer who is eager to pass along what news I can find. (perhaps _over eager_ since I clearly got a few bits wrong...)

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## Feign

Well, this update is pretty light on technical goodies, the Idea Lab crew is hosting a "Tech Crawl and Mixer" where New Matter is showing off some iterations of the printer and some prints from it.  Interesting, but unless you're near Pasadena, Ca. it's not really realistic to attend.

The technical update portion is short enough to quote:



> Speaking of our printers, we'll give you a quick prototype update -- one is happily executing g-code as we speak, another is waiting to be prepped for a print and two more are just about to exit our lab.


So I'm going to assume that's referring to those two parts kits we saw last week, they didn't _specifically_ say this was the "looks-like works-like prototype" but it seems safe to assume by this point, since it was working in previous updates.  It'll be good to have multiple prototypes for testing (though having several of the "looks-like works-like" printers sure _can't hurt_ for marketing when going around to events and such.)

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## curious aardvark

> Just wanted to clear a couple of things up:
> 
> - Metallic PLA would be really cool, but sadly, the metallic bunny was spray-painted.
> - The photo of MOD-t parts are actually parts for the "look-like, feel-like" prototypes in our Pasadena lab.  
> 
> We do, though, hope to have stacks of actually factory parts before too long!


Damn, guess I'd better stop looking for that silver pla then :-)

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## Feign

Happy Halloween, and sorry it took me till now to post this up.  In my defense, the update itself was a little bit late too.  Mostly it talks about their attending the Inside 3D Printing Conference in Santa Clara, California.  Just enough to make me wish I was able to go there, but not enough to really go over what was presented there.  I wouldn't mind hearing more about this conference if there's anyone here that attended.

On to news about the printer itself, though:



> Since assembling the first “looks like, works like” model we showed you earlier, we’ve been running it through a series of rigorous tests. Our priority right now is to optimize performance and assemble more units. We’ll have more info for you next week, but we’ve been able to do some exciting things on the optimization front. Stay tuned!


I'm wondering if this optimization is on the software or hardware end.  Other than that, this week is summed up with "It's all still going according to plan." Which is good, if not particularly exciting, news.

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## Feign

I am really sorry about missing last week's update, and when the previous one even hinted at it being an update with some actual news on the printer itself at that.



> As promised, we have some exciting news on the optimization front. While we still recommend printing at a 200 micron thickness, we have been testing printing at 130 micron thicknesses with reliable success! Here’s a picture of a block printed at 130 microns:
> 
> 
> 130 microns! So smooth!


Okay, so it's not a huge update on the technical front, though it's interesting to see that the hardware can _technically_ go down to finer resolutions than promised.  So often these projects go in the other direction.

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## curious aardvark

cool :-) 
_Some padding because 'cool' as a comment is apparently too short - who knew ?_

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## Feign

Hey, I'm actually prompt with an update for once!   Though this one doesn't have any technical news, it does have a good bit of news for the project as a whole:




> We’re thrilled to say that CES, the largest consumer electronics trade show in the world agrees! Today it was announced that the MOD-t was selected as a 2015 CES Innovation Honoree! For those of you who many not know, this is an incredible award to receive because only a select few products get chosen for this prestigious designation.
> 
> Check it out on the CES website (select "3D Printing" from the dropdown menu)


Very neat indeed.  

(apparently, they'll be receiving their actual trophy "soon".  Somehow this just seems fitting for a crowdfunded project.  :Stick Out Tongue:  )

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## Feign

All right, just to make things easy this cold, cold morning, I'm just going to directly quote the tech update portion of last night's update email.



> On the production side, the last few weeks have been focused on finalizing the production design based on testing and feedback on the “looks-like, works-like” model. Unfortunately, that’s not very exciting as it involves a lot of small tweaks, optimizations, and tuning. The great news is that all of that work has resulted in finalizing production design and being ready to create molds and tooling! For non-technical folks, this is a big step in getting the MOD-t to you. These molds can weight in excess of 1000 pounds each, so it was important to take the time to get it right the first time. After they’re made (which takes a while), we can start creating MOD-t’s that are ready to send to you! Thanks for sticking with us! We promise it will be worth it.


I don't think "not very exciting" is the way to put it (at least I know _I_ sure like news about each little tweak, but perhaps I'm a bit _odd_)...  I mean this is big.  Final production design is a go!

And according to their IGG schedule, making the tooling for the final design was planned for November, so they're _very close_ to being on-schedule.

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## Feign

Sorry I missed last week's update...  It was a "Happy Thanksgiving" mailer.  Cute but not entirely substantive.


For substance, though this one makes up for that.



> _Now witness the firepower of this fully ARMED and OPERATIONAL MOD-t prototype!_
> 
> We have multiple pre-production prototype printers operational and we’ve been busily building lots of parts. In a series of test prints, we continue to successfully print below our promised layer thickness of 200 microns (aw yeah!!!). Life testing of critical components will start soon!


Should be interesting to see how these production versions of the racks and pinions stand up to wear testing.

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## curious aardvark

that is a nice looking machine. 

Curious about the enclosure, it's not got a heated printbed. So why bother to enclose it ?
Ah - would it be a safety feature to help get CE certification ?
Stop the little sprogs sticking their fingers on the hot printhead maybe. 

But you could probably slip a small heating element in there to help stop warping as well :-)

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## Feign

> But you could probably slip a small heating element in there to help stop warping as well :-)


But that's _patented_!  :EEK!: 

...  Yeah I'll totally be doing that too.

Officially, the enclosure is likely a safety measure and to keep any draft from changing the print environment.  Also, the open handles are likely a loophole to keep the print volume from being _entirely_ enclosed (also patented, I believe)

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## Duck

It is probably to stop drafts and keep the heat in.  On my CubeX, when printing with open sides it is very susceptible to temperature changes.  It would cause peeling up of the bottom layers.  By enclosing the sides with panels, the heat of the electronics + extruder is enough to keep the inside toasty and warm and mitigates this problem.

I agree that this is a very nice looking machine.  The XY/spline drive is a great idea with a lot of advantages.  It will be interesting to watch the progress of this one and the M3D Micro, as both were on Kickstarter at about the same time.

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## Feign

My apologies in advance for the huge image, but there's some interesting details in there.



> The team has been hard at work assembling more MOD-t prototypes and today you get to see them! A couple don't have the stickers on yet, but we figured that if you enjoyed seeing one, you'd enjoy seeing three even more! We've been testing them day in and day out, making sure they are all functioning seamlessly.


You can pretty clearly pick out which one is the prototype we've been seeing so far and which are the two new ones, also, it looks like they've got quite the collection of whimsical prints on that cart from their stress testing.  The big green cylinder looks like it might have taken up most of the printer's build volume, and from what I can tell might have been used to test out different methods of infill.

Still looking good, there.

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## curious aardvark

well if they can get this produced for under $300, I think it'll outsell the micro. Just a classier looking unit.

And if they can get distributors in the uk or europe so we don't end up paying double the price in tax and postage. I'll buy one. 
Most of the stuff I make would fit in it's print volume.

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## Feign

Well, then. This is rather unexpected!



> We have a huge surprise for everyone! We've been working hard and we'd like to reveal that we were able to get the MOD-t printer to officially support 100 microns layer thickness! This was initially our incentive for the stretch goal of $750K for our Indiegogo campaign and even though it was not met, we were still able to include this important feature into the MOD-t. We're so excited to be able to share this awesome news with you!
> 
> 
> The MOD-t printing seamlessly at 100 micron layers!


So it seems the printer not only can go to such small layer height, but they've decided it can do it consistently enough to make it a standard feature.  Once again, sorry for the big image, but it seems pretty relevant to the update itself.

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## Duck

What stage is this project at?  How close are they to shipping?

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## Feign

I'm not sure if this set of prototypes constitutes the beginning of the "pilot run" for testing or not, but the shipping date still definitely looks on track for April 2015.  There are still many steps between here and store shelves, but they are on the right track.

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## curious aardvark

Interested to see what the final price of the production model ends up at.

It's a really neat machine. 

Software wise - is it still going to be tied into it's propriatary slicer ? 
I'd quite like a printer I can use any of the standard free slicers on.

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## NewMatter

> Software wise - is it still going to be tied into it's propriatary slicer ? 
> I'd quite like a printer I can use any of the standard free slicers on.


The MOD-t isn't at all tied to a proprietary slicer.  It will accept standard G-codes generated by all the common slicers.  You can take models you create (or models from someplace like Thingiverse), slice them using your favorite slicer, and then print them on the MOD-t.  Models from the New Matter Store, however, will be pre-sliced and will download directly to the printer from the store.

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## curious aardvark

cheers :-) 

Any idea on the final retail price and where it'll ship from ?

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## 3DPBuser

Heated bed for $300 ?

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## Feign

Sadly, it has no heated bed planned.  And it would be more complicated than just tossing one onto the platform to add one.

It'll be under $300, It will almost certainly be $250 like the non-early-bird price (though it probably won't come with the free filament like the IGG pledge rewards do).

As for updates, the last one was before CES, with a preview render of their CES booth setup, there wasn't a regular update email however.  I would assume that they were _pretty busy_ at CES though, so I'll forgive it.  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## Feign

Allright, so it has been quiet the past few weeks, though that doesn't mean the team hasn't been busy.  I had been looking forward to their report back from CES and it was worth the wait.


> Hello New Matter supporters!
> 
> We’re back from CES and we have so much fun stuff to share with you! We had an amazing show and we’re excited to give you an inside look at the festivities. As we told you in previous newsletters, the MOD-t was a 2015 CES Innovation Award Honoree! We’re so proud to have won this award for the MOD-t’s beautiful design and original mechanics.
> 
> 
> Proud Papa!
> 
> 
> A look at the MOD-t's home during CES2015!
> ...


The booth looks kinda sparse, but I suppose it's sparse in a good way.  The update also contained fan-photos (which were tweeted with the #MODtSelfie tag), and they were pretty good, it looks like the place was packed with people. (I felt bad enough about copying over three of the official photos from the update, putting all the selfies in would have streched the page out.)

And congrats on the Innovation Award, (and just as importantly, all the good press,) it was well earned.

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## curious aardvark

great - just need to get a uk distributor, otherwise it'll cost more than the flashforges, by the time the bastards at inland ravenue have charged you £10 for the privilege of paying 20% tax. And postage from the states is criminal.

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## Feign

> £10 for the privilege of paying 20% tax.


Oh wow, that's terrible.  Though I'm pretty sure there are similar import taxes here too...

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## curious aardvark

dunno - tax in the states seems to depend very much on the state you live in. 

The really weird thing I find is that vat isn't added to an item untill you get to the checkout. So you have no idea what something will actualy cost based on it's price tag. 
You dollar stores - aren't. 

In canada they claim this is for the indians, who don't pay tax. 

Surely it would make more sense to add tax to the price of everything and then just discount for the indians at the checkout.

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## Feign

Wow, sorry I missed last weeks update, though there's not a whole lot of technical stuff in it, now it's a bit eclipsed by one of the beta tester prints that just got reported on.  (pretty darn cool light switch cover, I must say.)



> Now that CES is over, the prototype machines have made it back home safely and are printing away tirelessly. We’ve repurposed our booth furniture as a prototype display area. Optimization of operational parameters continues (speeds, temperatures, displacements) in effort to make the quality of the prints very good.
> 
> 
> _All systems go! The perfect space to monitor all prototypes._


So hey, that CES furniture is getting put to good use.  I consistently get the impression that these guys just have a habit of saving money and avoid spending on trivial stuff, which I like.

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## Feign

Okay, so this was a pretty huge update, and I'm going to apologize in advance for all the huge pictures, but they're worth it for the nice close look at print results.



> This week, we wanted to give you an up-close and personal look at some of our prints. You all very well know that our MOD-t prototypes have been printing day in, day out for optimizing the print parameters for different geometries, filaments, print bed and to improve the quality and repeatability of our prints. So we wanted to give you an update on how the 3D prints are holding up after it’s been running for kilometers. Here is a closer look into the latest and greatest prints so you can judge the quality yourselves.



First up is a light switch plate, which gives some good example of top layer resolution.  It has a few blemishes on the ribs, but overall not bad.


Next a can holder, showing some pretty good quality on the thread and texture.  Looks about as good as anything I've seen come off my friend's Makerbot.

Of course, the can holder also has a lid, and the quality on that is pretty good as well.  It looks like they used a pretty light infill, which shows through the top layer just a little bit.

Frankly, I've never been a great judge of print quality through photos, but if these are really the results one can consistently get out of the MOD-t, then I'll be quite happy with it.

Oh, hey, also they're hiring (I haven't looked at the positions myself, as they're kind of on the other side of the country from me, and probably need a different field of expertise than I could provide.)

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## Duck

This looks spectacular - wow!

What are their plans for releasing to the public after the Indiegogo campaign is completed?  I'd be very interested in picking one of these up!

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## NewMatter

New Matter will be accepting pre-orders for the MOD-t pretty soon on the New Matter web site (you can sign up for e-mail notifications now), and should start shipping those orders shortly after the Indiegogo campaign units are shipped.

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## curious aardvark

Any ideas on timescale before you get an EU shipping point ? 

Otherwise between the horrendous postage from the states and the criminal import tax into the eu, they're just not worth buying. 
You're looking at - probably - double the actual us cost.

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## Duck

I had to look it up on the indiegogo site, but it suggests April/May 2015 for shipping to backers - can any backers confirm?

I haven't seen any videos on YouTube yet other than the prototype running from way back when.

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## Feign

Just ran a search on Youtube for "New Matter CES 2015" and it came up with several videos of the MOD-t printing, as well as some tech blog interviews and stuff like that.

Here's a good example from GamerHub:

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## curious aardvark

Ah - so the bed moves x&y. 
And on screws by the look of it. 

I like it. 
Although why they were using that level of infill is beyond me :-)

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## Duck

> And on screws by the look of it.


Not quite, they are straight-cut gears (think of a spline shaft), just very long. The bottom of the bed contains a rack making up one half of the rack and pinion.  If you only spin one of the two shafts, it the opposite direction's rack will just slide along the gear with no translational movement.  It is a great idea - it makes both guidance and locomotion all in one simple system with very few moving parts.

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## curious aardvark

That makes more sense - and very neat.

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## Feign

Sorry I'm a bit late on it, last week's update was introducing one of the NewMatter Store's 3D modellers, and going over the printed pencil-top toy.  I've been paring down the updates to just the details on the progress with the printer itself (the actual email updates each have a small bio on one member of the New Matter team to accompany the technical portion).

This latest one however indicated that there might be a whole series of updates that are introductions to the artists populating the New Matter Store.  So while technical content is a bit light, they at least have some interesting previews of pieces that will be in the store.

Pencil Top by Hugo Pilate.

Oh, also they got an article in USA Today, which isn't a bad thing at all. :Smile:

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## Feign

Well, this week's update was huge and has several parts.  (which I'm presenting a bit out-of-order, and one part is already covered in Eddy's post on the $6.5 million in Series A funding that the company just received from investors.)

The main part of this announcement from a technical perspective is the factory tour and the first parts off of the production tooling. As a first part, the goal here was more to assess the manufacturer and get a realistic view of their capabilities moving forward.  Consider that while injection molding a part takes seconds, manufacturing the molds for each part takes from three to six weeks.  Thankfully, not _every_ part of the MOD-t is injection molded, but there are almost certainly a few more molds for this factory to make before mass production goes forward at full speed.


> These are non-cosmetic sample parts, meaning they’re not in the final color of plastic, but are instead being used to validate that the molds produce parts to our geometric specifications. My experience is that these first shots rarely turn out right the first time, and molds always require some touch-up. But these parts were gorgeous – far better than my expectations. This really confirms that we’ve got a competent partner fabricating these components, and gives me a lot of confidence moving forward with the many more tools the MOD-t requires.



It also thoroughly and definitively answers one question that's been on lots of minds:  "When is the MOD-t getting delivered?"  Well, I'll just skip all the details and go right to the meat of this.


> The dates above also reflect eight weeks for shipping (roughly five weeks on a ship and another three to get through customs, to the warehouse, and distributed to your address).


There are reasons for the delay almost entirely on the manufacturer's side of the process.  In the manufacturing world, a miscalculation (aka, a factory overrating their ability while trying to get a client) of about three to six months is _pretty common_.  I'm not happy about it, (And I'm sure the New Matter team isn't either) but I'm not at all surprised.

Lastly, while it wasn't a specific bullet point, it was mentioned that the MOD-t will very likely hit retail later this year for close to $400 (I would assume that means $399)  If it seems like a price jump from the crowdfunding price, consider that these guys will have to pay their investors, distributors and retailers in addition to the cost of simply making the product.  Bits like that add up pretty quickly.

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## curious aardvark

What's the point of announcing retail if they're not even shipping the early models till september ? 

The general public like to buy thing and get things. Not buy things and then wait a few months. 

This could well be the first mainstream home 3d printer, but not if they announce retail before it's ready to ship in quantities.

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## Feign

Well, they haven't exactly announced a retail date, just "later this year".  And the context of the statement was along the lines of "If you need to get a refund due to the delay, remember that it will cost just under $400 at retail later this year, so your patience is saving you some money."  Not so much an _announcement_, as a matter-of-fact statement that leaked some information.

I doubt they'll even have them up for pre-order until _at least_ the All-Star pledges have shipped.

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## Robotico

Hi Feign,

What do you think of the last few updates? I'm also a contributor and thought that update #30 had some interesting technical content.

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## Duck

Can you share some of the technical content?

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## Robotico

> Can you share some of the technical content?


Hi Duck,

I guess I can. I just didn't want to take over Feign's thread since he was posting updates about the New Matter contributor updates. On update 30 they talked about a "secret sauce" coating on their guide rods and also showed some close-up pictures of the rods.

Here is a copy and paste of that section of the update:
---------------------------------------------------------------
One of the things that will make the MOD-t so awesome and easy to use is that it is going to require minimal maintenance! The machine will not need to be lubricated or maintained by the user – it’s essentially “lubed for life”. This means that the vertical guide rods and pinion rods will not need to be greased or oiled. Eliminating oil or grease from the rods will keep the machine and user clean and will prevent the accumulation of dust or grime (and who's got time for that?).


_The MOD-t's guide rods on the left and pinion rods to the right. Close up shot to see the shiny protective sauce (click to enlarge).

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
_
Seems like pretty cool stuff.

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## Duck

Looks like electroless nickel or nickel flash. No magic.   :Smile:   Just picking the right surface finish.

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## Feign

Hi guys, I'm really sorry I suddenly went quiet the way I did.  I got a new job (which I might have time to post about tomorrow) that has kept me quite busy alongside other aspects of my life suddenly moving at a much faster pace and this thread (and the board in general, to be honest) kind of completely slipped from my mind in all the chaos.

As for the update, the coating does look quite slick and stylish, it'll definitely show off the pinion action as the printer operates.

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## curious aardvark

so have any of these shipped yet ? 

The micro may be crap - but it is almost shipping and there are demo models out there.

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## Feign

I'm one of the super-early-bird pledges and last time they contacted me they said September.  I'm actually inclined to believe them.

Their last  update (last week) had some pictures from their factory in China.  This one being the latest:

IMO, it looks like a nice assembly line, though they have a little way yet to go with it (tools, parts stock, people, etc.).  The update also talks about their testing and QA line in Pasadena, but no pictures yet.

They also mention that they're reaching out to beta testers.  I don't expect to be on that list, since I work for another 3D printer company (though IMO, the MOD-t and the Hyrel printers aren't really competitors, being in completely different market categories).

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## curious aardvark

lol no definitely no competition between hyrel and new matter :-)

so when did you sign up for your printer ? 
ie: if it is delivered in september - how long would it have taken ? 
Given that new matter are one of the most proifessional looking outfits to come out of the crowdfunding 3d printer scene. Curious to know how long even the business savvy companies take to get up and running.

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## Feign

If everything had actually gone to their schedule, I would have gotten mine in April, so that's four months late.  On the other hand, it seems like the _entire country of China_ took a two month vacation during this year's Chinese New Year, which caused something like a traffic jam in the entire global manufacturing industry.  I'm not gonna get mad at China though, they've been _needing_ a vacation for a while.

And hey, since it _is_ Friday, there was a new update with some bios on a few more 3D designers for the store and a picture of the first MOD-t off the actual production line.

Don't get too excited, it still has to go through QA, calibration and probably some final software debugging.

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## curious aardvark

Yeah, but look ! 
it printer a complete tablet computer :-)

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## Feign

Haha, cute.  I think the implication was that it plays nice with iPads...  For whatever that's worth.

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## curious aardvark

seems to have gone a bit dead over new matter way. 

With it's main rival - the micro - now shipping and getting good reviews, you'd think new matter would be ramping up the pr in preparation to their production start. 

Weird.

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## Robotico

Have you not been getting their weekly updates? #41 was pretty informative.

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## curious aardvark

feign usually posts the updates. 
Had a look on their website and that's pretty quiet as well. 

Just seems like with  a few months before they start shipping - and with the plethora of sub $400 machines popping up they'd be making a bit of noise in the industry in general.  

Mind you when you've got that kind of crowdfunding startup - they don't need to do much marketing for a while.

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## Feign

Gah! Sorry!  The updates keep coming but I've been much too busy to give my commentary.

_Please_, if there are other backers that would like to give their commentary on the updates, feel free to speak up and post about it.

I'm not even sure off the top of my head which update I commented on last time.

Yeah, update #41 had some pretty funny parts among the tech details about their stress-testing process...  There's the perfect commentary for the drop test of a full unit in the shipping packaging:



> "Everybody cringe in 3...2...1!"

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## Feign

Ah, okay, the last update that I commented on was Update #38 (the one with the first pic of the first production unit).

#39 was an update about the technical details of the final hotend.
#40 was about the software side of the MOD-T and the New Matter Store.
#41 was the 1 year anniversary, the endurance testing of the motors and the drop test mentioned above.
#42 (this week's update) is one of the "Meet the designers" series.

They've been anything but quiet.  :Cool:

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## Feign

Well, I've forgot to post the update from last week, but it included their printer testing farm and their shipping plans.

This week's update has their plans for going to CE Week in New York, but more importantly *preorders for non-backers open next week!*

Pre-ordered printers don't ship until all of the Indiegogo printers are shipped, so there is a 16-week delay on them.  So that answers one additional question pretty definitely.




> Earlier this week we received a shipment of 18 MOD-t’s from the factory, part of the second sample run as we ramp toward production. Of these 18 units, 15 will be shipped to Beta customers as soon as they’re inspected, tested, and have their firmware updated here in Pasadena.


Oh man, I think mine might be somewhere on that shelf...  It's happening.

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## Duck

So are they still a few months away from backers getting their rewards?

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## Duck

How is this project coming along?  I'd really like to buy one of these but want to see some in the hands of real people first.

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## curious aardvark

yep - realisticaly you're probably looking at early 2016 until you can just order one from the site and expect to get it reasonably quickly,

And yeah i think we're all looking forward to seeing these working.

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## Duck

What was the last update they sent out? Like what are they doing now? Has anyone seen a video of this thing printing aside from the 2 that show up on YouTube that are like a year old?

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## Robotico

https://twitter.com/newmatter/status/630886379862425600

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## curious aardvark

shouldn't these things have started shipping to early adopters by now ?

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## Duck

That twitter post is from 2 weeks ago.

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## masterl85

They just sent out an email claiming an unknown delay... What happened to shipping every unit by Sept 30?  This is the main problem with kickstarter and indiegogo.  I guess goals have no meaning anymore.  This is Obama's America after all.

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## curious aardvark

actually most kickstarter delays seem to be linked to the chinese factories attitude towards deadlines (they're for other people), rather than the company itself. 
And if you want it cheap - you pretty much have to get it built in china.

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## curious aardvark

so any more news on these machines ? 
You'd have thought they'd have made an effort to get something buyable by christmas.

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## jlferullo

Check out their FB page. They are pretty close. I am an IGG supporter and just as happy to wait for them to debug the firmware and release a solid printer. I use a MBI Rep2 at work and have been following online the horror show that the fifth gen MBI's seem to be having so I am willing to wait for the thing to be mature :^).

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## Duck

They keep showing off retail packaging on twitter.  I would have thought that they would have shipped all their Kickstarter rewards first before making it available to the public, no?  It says 6 weeks delivery on the site if you go order it there.

I find this surprising because if you go on YouTube and search for "new matter mod-t" and sort by Date Uploaded, the newest video is from 3 months ago.  There should be dozens of videos from backers by now...

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## jlferullo

They just shipped the first 60 units to backers a couple of days ago. There should be more reviews by real users soon.

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## curious aardvark

cool, should be interesting :-)

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## Feign

They just sent me a tracking number for mine, so it looks like it _is actually happening_.

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## curious aardvark

woo hoo ! 
let us know when it arrives :-)

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## JCrump

> woo hoo ! 
> let us know when it arrives :-)


Mine was delivered by DHL about an hour ago.  It's going to be a long afternoon before I can get home and unbox.

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## Feign

My wife just informed me of my Mod-t's delivery...  And she unboxed it for me...

I have the sneaking suspicion that if I don't get home early, she might do a first print on it without me.  :Stick Out Tongue:

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## Duck

New Matter just uploaded a whole whackload of tutorial videos on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/user/newmatterinc/videos

This is looking really good.

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## JCrump

> Mine was delivered by DHL about an hour ago.  It's going to be a long afternoon before I can get home and unbox.


And now is about 8 hrs later.  After a delicious dinner, I set about unboxing.  It was really packaged beautifully and was very easy to setup.  

During first connection, my pc (Win 10) didn't see the MOD-t, so I used the FAQ (http://support.newmatter.com/custome...e-installation) and got it going.  

Things were smooth for a while, but during calibration, the build table moved very noisily through the x-axis for several minutes.  Sounded like it was crushing rocks.  I was about to unplug to save it from eating itself when it settled in. 

I had it start the test print of the NM logo.  It wiped off the nozzle on the right side, but some extruded filament strung into the print.  I picked out what was loose and let it keep going.  At 27%, the print broke loose from the print bed.  I moved the piece out of the way so the nozzle kept extruding into space because the head had moved up about 2 mm (the thickness of the print).  I pressed the front panel button and it stopped extruding and the head raised up.

There is a rough spot on the bottom of the print, probably where the original extraneous filament was laying on the print bed when it started printing.  I think that is why it broke loose.

As I write this, the nozzle is staying hot (202C) and the fan is running full out.  I finally tried to resume, but the nozzle was still 2 mm up in the air.  I finally had to unplug power to get it to stop trying to resume.  It is now quiet.

I think I'll call it night and work on it again tomorrow.

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## NewMatter

Hi, JCrump. I’m so sorry you’re running into some issues. This is not the usual set up experience a MOD-t user should be having. Our customer support staff will be happy to help during our business hours: 9AM-6PM Pacific Time, Monday through Friday. Please contact them via email, phone or live chat, all of which is available at http://support.newmatter.com. We apologize for the frustrating experience and hope that we can help you resolve it when you’re ready.

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## Feign

I've also had some problems with setting up my MOD-t since it arrived, though at least for now it appears to be my fault.  The machine requires a wifi signal, and I don't have one in the workshop where I was hoping to set it up.

Also, while I didn't have any significant problem getting the test print going, the interface completely lacks a "stop current print" function, so if it does fail, the only way to cancel the print completely is to unplug the machine.

Also, I noticed the print had a lot of acceleration and deceleration.  Is that handled in the firmware, or is it something I have to account for in my slicer?

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## NewMatter

Hi Feign, 

If no Wi-Fi is available, the desktop app may be used to manually upload g-code via USB to your MOD-t. Our Customer Support team will have a guide on how to configure Cura to make g-code that will work on the MOD-t very shortly. Since you are what we would consider a power user and you may want to run your printer off-line, please contact customer support so they can help you get your MOD-t up and running with the latest firmware and software. 

With regard to stopping a job: Pressing the front panel button while printing will pause the print job and move the carriage up. This process can be used when a job has failed for some reason before unplugging and plugging back in. 

The accelerations are handled by the firmware. We plan to quickly improve and revise the firmware to make the accelerations more consistent.

Thank you for your support and your continued patience! We sincerely appreciate it.

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## curious aardvark

good to see prompt responses. 

I'm not sure that wanting to be free of a wifi signal constitutes being a 'power user'. 
Could just be someone who wants to take their printer somewhere other than where they set it up. 
Friends house, garage, workshop etc.

Sounds like something that ought to be optional during setup.

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## JCrump

> good to see prompt responses.


I totally agree. I have heard from New Matter via this forum and email.  Support has been excellent.

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## Duck

Still no user submitted videos on YouTube that I can find.  Bummer, I'm really looking forward to seeing it print since New Matter haven't really released any "raw' videos just showing in detail how it looks/sounds.

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## drewdsu42

> I totally agree. I have heard from New Matter via this forum and email.  Support has been excellent.


it really really is awesome. 
my enclosure showed up cracked and the build plate got messed up by the extrude head.
they are sending me free replacements.

im thrilled

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## drewdsu42

> Still no user submitted videos on YouTube that I can find.  Bummer, I'm really looking forward to seeing it print since New Matter haven't really released any "raw' videos just showing in detail how it looks/sounds.


ill try to get something up soon. even if its just a short clip

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## Feign

Well, I moved the printer into the house with reluctant agreement from the wife, and it has been printing pretty much nonstop all day Sunday (all things for her rather than for me...  that free starter filament is very VERY pink.)
While I don't have the time to put up a youtube video anytime soon, a good description of the sound would be a "rumbling and grumbling" rather than the usual printer noises of "whining and whistling" with about the same amount of noise a running microwave.

EDIT: Now that I'm home from work, some other notes and first impressions:
I really wish I could take a look under the hood of their slicer, particularly the way it does infill seems counter-intuitively effective.
I didn't notice until seeing it in action that the z-axis screw doesn't ever turn.  The motor for the z-axis is in the top portion of the machine and turns a nut that the head rests on.  It's a really odd design decision, but considering how much the stringing (or in the case of this pink PLA, plastic cotton candy) gets on everything, I can understand the benefits of the system.
Seriously, stringing alone is reason to keep the lid on this thing.  The fan in there blows like a tornado and those strings get _everywhere_ if you run it without the cover.
The pinion x-y system does indeed make a very distinctive texture on the print, but it's so subtle that it doesn't even interfere with mechanical movement.  But if you know what to look for, a MOD-t print is instantly distinguishable.
The slicer seems to default to 100 micron resolution for uploaded parts, with no option I could find to decrease resolution...  For the vast majority of what I'm printing, that's an arduous slowness.

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## hsus

> Pressing the front panel button while printing will pause the print job and move the carriage up.


On a side note: Can this pausing feature be used to switch filament mid-print (and thus make dual color prints, as showcased on your instagram) ?

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## Doctor Heckle

Been playing around with my MOD-t for a week now and I'm absolutely in love. It's my first foray into 3D printing and it's left a great impression; the thrill of turning .stls into tangible objects is an excellent experience. The brown-sugary smell of it printing is a welcome plus.

Mostly, I've been satisfied with the prints themselves. The test print and the duck from the store came out flawlessly. The phone stand printed well, but has a glob near one of the cosmetic holes in the back part.

Problems arose when I tried to do custom prints from things I've downloaded form Thingiverse. I tried the iPhone 6 + Watch stand combo, and while the print completed, halfway through the print translated back and to the right. It makes for cool glitch art, but sadly things like "being able to feed a charger in from beneath" and "using the speaker amplification area" are disabled. Twice when I tried to print the articulated octopus, once for the head and once for a set of the joints, the filament broke and stopped feeding into it, resulting in two bad prints. Eventually I got them to print with great detail, but sadly they don't join together. I think that's more of a PLA vs. ABS problem than it is a MOD-t problem.

The last concerns I have is that it frequently shows up as being disconnected, which results in me having to go power cycle it so it's picked up by the site when I try to print. I can't get the offline printer utility to find the printer either, despite it getting picked up by the store in my web browser. It also gives no indication of how long a print has left to complete, a feature I expected since it gave an estimate during the test print.

Overall though, I'm happy with my purchase and with the promise of continued firmware support, I'm very excited to see how my clean little cube comes along in reliability and print quality! It'd be nice to have an official announcement page to obsessively check for when firmware updates go live.

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## NewMatter

> On a side note: Can this pausing feature be used to switch filament mid-print (and thus make dual color prints, as showcased on your instagram) ?


Pause and switch filaments is on the roadmap for the near future with a new firmware release. We've done that on MOD-t prototypes & previous firmware versions and they came out beautifully. See example here: https://instagram.com/p/68SpRPJOGY/ We're confident that we can get that feature implemented for our users. 


Right now, the pause feature can be used to put something into the print mid-build or to just pause for some other reason.

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## Duck

Has anyone found any YouTube videos yet from users?  I can't find any except ones from the official New Matter channel.  Was hoping to see some "raw" footage to hear what it sounds like and get a feel for the real unit, not so glossy, if you will.

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## jamesarm97

Just received mine about an hour ago  :Wink:  very nice design, packaging and information. I only have one issue so far I am trying to diagnose. I cannot get it to connect to either of my wifi networks at work. Both are 802.11-N. I think one is setup to do B/G+N. Any others having this issue? Did the firmware update out of the box and tried their only suggestion online (power off and disconnect the usb and try again).

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## jamesarm97

It is a little noisy (different than my other very noise (fan) on the I3). The rack and pinion definitely isn't quiet. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GXMHi39zncQ

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## jamesarm97

I cannot connect to wifi for some reason so pointers for that would be appreciated. I do not use Cura or Slicer so any settings that would help with Simplify3D would be appreciated. I can probably convert the Cura settings if you post the meat of what is needed.

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## jamesarm97

What exactly does the Temperature Calibration do? At first I thought it was broken because it looked like it was printing but nothing was extruding. It looks like the nozzle parks just above the surface then moves back and forth many times slowly lowering? until it hits the bed then raises up and starts to heat and print.

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## jamesarm97

Question or feedback. My test print just finished but the desktop shows 9 minutes remaining and printer at 71% complete (status shows Printing). So there is a bug there. This is from the utility directly over usb.

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## NewMatter

> I cannot connect to wifi for some reason so pointers for that would be appreciated.



Hi, we're sorry you're having some difficulty trying to connect to wi-fi. Can you please reach out to our customer support team? They'll be happy to walk you through the process. We have Live Chat available at http://support.newmatter.com or you can call us toll free at 1-866-949-8722. Thank you and we look forward to helping you out!

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## jamesarm97

I was logged in and pretty much had the chat going all day. It connected but now the problem was anytime I tried to send a print via the cloud it started the sending then after a minute or so would show disconnected online and would never finish the load. I go the local test file printed but really, really could use some offline slicing settings because the cloud isn't going to cut it all the time. I use Simplify3d and tried to use the start and end code from the local test gcode file and it went through the motions of loading the file, waiting for the button press, calibration then moved up and said the print was done. For some reason none of the code past calibration seemed to be executed but I verified the file looked just about like the sample except for the in-between code. It didn't even print the "purge line" which I had copied over. Slicer settings please.




> Hi, we're sorry you're having some difficulty trying to connect to wi-fi. Can you please reach out to our customer support team? They'll be happy to walk you through the process. We have Live Chat available at http://support.newmatter.com or you can call us toll free at 1-866-949-8722. Thank you and we look forward to helping you out!

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## Feign

Well, this is just a pickle...  Apparently the latest Windows 10 update that installed (without asking, even though I have it set to ask me before installing updates) has put my laptop into a loop of BSODs (crashing straight from the login screen) that only stopped when I disabled wifi and plugged into the wired network connection.  Now after that, my MOD-t doesn't find any wifi connections available when searching in the Printer Tool, but I was able to connect to my wifi manually, so now it says it is connected to the wifi in the, but on the store site it consistently says the printer is disconnected.

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## curious aardvark

I dd say a while back that windows 10 was best avoided. And one of my main reasons was that you have no control of updates.

The best you can do is to disable all updates in a the administrative options section.
Frankly this should be the default setting for ALL versions of windows. No updates, ever !

basically you need to do a system restore to before the update - make sure you are OFFLINE. 
Then disable updates (look it up if you're not sure where they've hidden the administrative options section) and THEN reconnect the internet. Otherwise it'll just reinstall the same update.

----------


## Feign

Well, I've finally finished out my free half-kilo of _SUPER FREAKING PINK_ filament, unfortunately I wasn't paying attention at the end of the spool and I got to experience clearing out my first jam...

Long story short, it was a heck of a lot easier than with a Makerbot, the hot end unplugs from the head unit and simply unscrews (they even have an instructional video on youtube for it) after that it's a simple matter of plugging it back in, heating it back up while unscrewed and pushing the filament the rest of the way through (with proper protective gear, of course)  The whole process took about 5 minutes.

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## Robotico

> Has anyone found any YouTube videos yet from users?  I can't find any except ones from the official New Matter channel.  Was hoping to see some "raw" footage to hear what it sounds like and get a feel for the real unit, not so glossy, if you will.


Check this out:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_049B56ifQ

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## jamesarm97

Is there a firmware change log anywhere? It would be nice to know what each firmware release changed instead of guessing and looking for differences. (i.e. just updated to 0.2.0)

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## tastewar

Ditto! Your early users really need this. I attempted to print the 2-sided pumpkin from the store, and after something like 18 hours, it appears to have simply stopped. Is that something that's likely to be fixed? What about the wifi problems? Are they fixed?

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## Robotico

https://www.reddit.com/r/3Dprinting/..._but_detailed/

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## tastewar

Well, you specifically asked about sound, and I didn't include the sound, and it's sped up 8x, but here's something: https://youtu.be/K1uD0gRSx0Y

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## curious aardvark

lol love the way the printbed moves around.

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## KMToydarian

> Well, you specifically asked about sound, and I didn't include the sound, and it's sped up 8x, but here's something: https://youtu.be/K1uD0gRSx0Y


Looking forward to the day when that print speed is real time!

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