The $500 - CTC Bizer series Dual Nozzle 3D Printer

Picked up one of these last week on ebay from CTCprinter2014.
Attachment 6588
Fast shipping, all looked well until I saw a USB dongle.

The Dongle says filament usb+
Attachment 6589
Attachment 6590

There is a nice yellow sticker that both the seller and the CTC site do not show or mention is the description. It is a proprietary count down timer that runs off the usb. ( Do not plug it into the computer as it will fry it )
Attachment 6591

so basically you are screwed into waiting for them to ship you overpriced filament after every 150 hours of print time.
What a scam...
I thought id share my frustration and warn any new potential buyers that they are about to be scammed by the beginning of the DRM / HASP


but there is hope... for only $10 every 1 hour you can print with extra usb keys! that you can then again wait another week+ for delivery for.
http://www.ctcprinter.com/product_detail.php?ProId=20
Product specification:
Printing time:1 hour
Weight: about 0.1 kg
Package Size:19 x19x8.5cm
Filament diameter variation:less than +/-0.1mm
Print temprature range 170 - 230 celsius(PLA)

I thought id also mention I have emailed the CTC website about this issue and false advertisement / entrapment. Of-course no response... The ebay seller responded and could only offer a discount on the 1 hour usb keys. 4 hours for 35$. It was a nice gesture but im not paying anything more for a lie.

I see CTC is on this forum so hope they can chime in on a workaround or an explanation for the bait and switch.

Today im working on a way to disable or bypass this, if I find one I will update the topic.

Update: seller is willing to send me the old board that doesnt have the USB+ anyone know if there is any incompatibility with new layout vs old models? for example lets say the older model without USB+ didnt have a heated bed. so would i loose the heated bed? any help would be supportive.

sneaky bastards.

So how does a usb stick stop you using different filament ?

OR does it disable the printer after 150 hours.

Either one doesn't sound like ctc. They're usually pretty decent.

Very odd.

This may be a daft question - but have you actually tried to load some filament without the dongle inserted ?

Well that sucks

So how does a usb stick stop you using different filament ?
It doesnt. Just counts down from "150 hours" when you run out, you cannot operate the printer anylonger other than to home, and level.

OR does it disable the printer after 150 hours.
Yes

Either one doesn't sound like ctc. They're usually pretty decent.

Very odd.

This may be a daft question - but have you actually tried to load some filament without the dongle inserted ?
Yes, I have used 4 colors now, and they all work great. Today I got a replacement ATmega1280 Board no issues without sending out the old first ( make sure it works ) and ill return the USB+ one tomorrow. New "old style" board is printing well. No issues. So I would suggest asking and VERIFYING that the one you intend on purchasing is indeed NOT USB+

Seller ctc3dprinter2014 Was A+ In Resolving the issue. Went from furious to happy. Back to making mods!

Well I would not buy one if I knew it had the usb+ socket fitted, don't ctc realise people want to make their own choice of filament brand they should learn off the inkjet printer suppliers or people will just come up with a workaround for it.

wow i was about to buy one of these printers from ebay also good to know about this before i ordered it

Mine didn't come with this USB restriction, glad it didn't!

Please contact our service department for free replacement of the printer or motherboard if you have USB+.

Kind Regards,

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CTC-USA

Please contact our service department for free replacement of the printer or motherboard if you have USB+.

Kind Regards,

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some constructive criticism that was a bad move to implement the USB+ restriction
i was literally gonna order a ctc printer as my first printer until i came on here and read about the USB+ fiasco and ended up ordering something else
the only thing that came to mind was...wow what a greedy company for doing that
but at least there is some hope for people who got scammed i might buy one if i can find one without the USB+ as it does seem like the printers are solid

What a terrible system they came up with. USB+ ? What were they they thinking...

Im happy to say I bought a CTC 3D printer from ebay for just $600 AUS and it doesn't have this USB+ thing....what a scam...

We also bought a CTC Bizer , on eBay, for $500. US, and had No problem like that.
It's been a Great printer !

I see that this thread was started months ago, so hopefully no one is pulling this scam anymore.

Are they still making printers with this, or was this a failed experiment? I am looking to buy a CTC, but the possibility of getting a UBS+ version has me worried. Is there any way to be guaranteed to get a proper unit w/o USB+. If not, I will look at other brands.

Pretty sure they got rid of them due to so many complaints. I got mine just ubder 3 months ago and so usb.

But what I would do is ask the sellers, if they really are different seller, if the printer comes with plastic gears and pulleys or metal ones.

mine came with plastic ones.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by err404

Are they still making printers with this, or was this a failed experiment? I am looking to buy a CTC, but the possibility of getting a UBS+ version has me worried. Is there any way to be guaranteed to get a proper unit w/o USB+. If not, I will look at other brands.

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The USB port in our CTC-Bizer's motherboard is a USB-2.0 port.
It connects directly to computer and works Great !
( as far as I know there's nothing different or unusual about it
but maybe some new design is different ?? )

Quote:

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Originally Posted by EagleSeven

The USB port in our CTC's motherboard is a USB-2.0 port.
It connects directly to computer and works Great !
( as far as I know there's nothing different or unusual about it )

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Thanks for the feed back, but refer to the first post on this thread. There are models of the CTC printer that include a DRM lock that requires the filament be purchased through CTC only.

Are we sure this wasn't just a scam being perpetrated by that eBay seller? I went to that CTC site link and it was just a placeholder item...I did some googling though, and so far any time USB+ is mentioned and somebody says where they got their printer, it's from that same seller. You'll note they don't seem to have an eBay account anymore. I would like to think that CTC themselves would know not to pull something like this, because they make a good reliable printer that I've been happy to recommend to everybody who asks, and to do something like this would be a tragic misstep. Either way, I'm still looking forward to buying another at some point.

I wish I knew for sure. CTC has not commented, other than to offer a main board replacement as a fix. Maybe they are just being extremely generous and taking action to correct a scam. It just seems odd to not make any further statement.
In any case, this seems to no longer be an issue. I ordered one the other day and am excited to try it out.

Well, when the firmware is open source, sadly people do naughty things with it, like this for example. CTC printer might be cheap, but I doubt any sane company would try and trick any one into that. Sounds like a rogue ebay seller who's good with arduino code :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by CTC-USA

Please contact our service department for free replacement of the printer or motherboard if you have USB+.

Kind Regards,

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Are you still doing the fixes?