Anycubic Photon

[PiperguyUMD]

Found this this morning. I might give this a shot, curious to see what TRW hive-mind thinks.

[Lemosteam]

^^^ Incredibly BAD idea to do this by hand, with no reliable fixture to set the slide bars parallel, 1; to each other and 2: to the original riser.  This should be done in a machine shop with accurate capabilities.  That guy just added about 10-15% inaccuracy to his printer.  Tell me I'm wrong @narrowminded ?   

[PiperguyUMD]

Assuming one has access to a shop to set the sliders parallel, good idea?

[AlwaysSolutions]

Assuming one has access to a shop to set the sliders parallel, good idea?

If I had any problems with the quality of my prints related to z wobble I would totally do it.  As it is, both of my machines don't have this problem so for me it would be a "ain't broke, don't fix" kind of thing.  So if yours is wobbling, go for it!  Otherwise, don't you dare! lol

[Lemosteam]

Assuming one has access to a shop to set the sliders parallel, good idea?

Well of course.  I was referring to how the guy was showing how to do it DIY, not whether the mod was good or bad.

Slides like this are very accurate and are used in gauging and fixtures all of the time.  They require very accurate installation or they can cause binding and misalignment as they are not forgiving, especially while in movement.

[wcfn100]

"If you pop them out, they're really not hard to put in"

Assuming you can find them once they fall out...  I've repacked hundrends of THK's,  difficulty aside, not a fun job.


Jason

[AlwaysSolutions]

Anybody willing to risk their finely tuned Photon to upgrade firmware to enable anti-aliasing?  Or has anyone done it yet?  "Beta" firmware is available on the Anycubic site: http://www.anycubic3d.com/support/show/594032.html  (click the firmware icon)

I'm on the fence on whether I want to risk it - although, my oldest Photon isn't a performer like my newer (non "S") machine so maybe I can put the risk on that one since I don't use it as much.  Will have to think on this, but I'm excited to see if AA will really do much to improve quality on our prints.

[Chris333]

Hey Mark has 2 he can risk it 

I haven't printed anything in a while. I knew about the AA, but didn't even know you had to update the machine...

[Mark W]

Hey Mark has 2 he can risk it 

I haven't printed anything in a while. I knew about the AA, but didn't even know you had to update the machine...

I have yet to see a single comparison showing a notable improvement in with AA enabled.  Of course, none of them have been a well positioned, hi resolution, well lit comparison either. 

I'll wait until the next version, or my 3rd printer.

[AlwaysSolutions]

Ok - so the first review is in on AA for the Photon.  On the plus side, it does appear to work.  On the negative side it only improves smoothness in the X and Y but does nothing for the Z layers.  So if you were to have a curved roof piece (say, for a passenger car) and wanted to print it horizontally to reduce the print time, the stepping on the roof would not be improved.  I do wonder though, if that's just because they haven't tweaked the software to handle it, or if there is a physics variable to that equation that makes it not doable.  Can't say that I've had any complaints with the x and y resolution so still on the fence on the upgrade.  Theoretically if you tipped the "roof" example at an angle, or print it on its side, I suppose it could improve some of the resolution.

video review:

Anycubic's example:

[ Guests cannot view attachments ]

[Mark W]

Anycubic's example:

Anyone notice the two separate focus points? 
Look at the square base, heck just look at the shadow.  The "Before" is focused right on the top layer of the egg, about 3/4ths up the base edge.  Yet the "After" is focused on the bottom layer of the egg, about 3/4th down the base edge.  No wonder it looks so smooth blurry.

Still waiting for the side by side where the two parts are in the same picture, with the same exposure and same lighting. 

[Chris333]

Didn't know Anycubic did the new software, thought it was an independent guy...

[AlwaysSolutions]

Anyone notice the two separate focus points? 
Look at the square base, heck just look at the shadow.  The "Before" is focused right on the top layer of the egg, about 3/4ths up the base edge.  Yet the "After" is focused on the bottom layer of the egg, about 3/4th down the base edge.  No wonder it looks so smooth blurry.

Analyzed this for 5 minutes trying to see the focus points but my eyes just aren't good enough to see what you're seeing.  If it matters the image was a screen print from a video of their tutorial.  I don't get the impression that they're trying to fool anybody otherwise they'd be hard-selling this feature.  As it is we've had to pull teeth to find out anything about it.  At either rate it does not appear to be the holy grail for our purposes - maybe for the folks that print a lot of organics.  It is an advancement though, and for that I'm appreciative.

[Mark W]

I don't get the impression that they're trying to fool anybody otherwise they'd be hard-selling this feature.  As it is we've had to pull teeth to find out anything about it.

I wasn't meaning to imply they were misleading.  For all we know, the 'comparison' photos are the way they are unintentionally.  My theory though, is that they released AA in reaction to popular demand, rather than because it actually does anything 

At either rate it does not appear to be the holy grail for our purposes - maybe for the folks that print a lot of organics.  It is an advancement though, and for that I'm appreciative.

Agreed.  Except maybe for extreme cases, once we put a layer of primer, color, and clear, we've effectively 'anti-aliased' the model with paint.  And if 3 coats of paint is not enough to 'anti-alias' a model, then neither is AA print software. 

[Thunderhawk]

Anti aliasing works very well. However for the type of models we are generally doing (flat sides) one must change the orientation to get the full effect. Sometimes getting the best orientation can cause support problems.

The thing to remember is the AA doesn't do anything on the Z axis, hence the need to angle parts.

I've been running AA since before Anycubic released it as it was on the Epax far earlier. All of my machines are running Epax firmware.

I'll try and get some pics but I just use my phone so it can be difficult to get focused to show the difference.