Xyzprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 Review In Few Words (Mini Review)
XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 is a great & affordable 3D printer for those who want to get started with 3D printing easily & quickly. It may have some limitations, but for the hobbyist use, it provides more than enough printing capabilities. To save you a lot of time solving some of the common problems, I included some Youtube videos below so that you will avoid many of these problems.
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Pros Of Xyzprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0
- An Affordable 3D Printer to get started with 3D printing.
- Relatively easy to setup & use.
Cons Of Xyzprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0
- Uses proprietary filament, which mean you can’t use many 3rd party filaments with it
- The propriety filament increase the long-term cost of owning the printer.
- You can’t use ABS filament with this printer, as that filament type requires a heated bed, something this printer doesn’t provide.
Technical Specifications
- Free XYZ maker design software
- Easy to use XYZware for 3D printing
- Easy Z-offset calibration, adjust your print bed with ease on the LCD screen. No time consuming 3 knob calibration needed
- Supports bio-degradable PLA plastic
- Product Dimension (W x D x H):- 16.54 x 16.93 x 14.96 inch (42 x 43 x 38 cm )
- Package Dimension:- 21.53 x 22.87 x 18.7 inch (54.7 x 58.1 x 47.5 cm)
- Gross Weight:- 33.07 lbs (15kg)
- Technology:- FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication)
- Maximum Build Volume (W x D x H):- 5.9 x 5.9 x 5.9 inch (15x15x15cm)
- Resolution:- Fine 0.1 mm (100 microns), Standard 0.2 mm (200 microns), Speed 0.3 mm (300 microns), Ultra Fast 0.4 mm (400 microns).
- Print Head:- Single Nozzle
- Nozzle Diameter:- 0.4 mm
- Filament Diameter:- 1.75 mm
- Filament Material:- PLA
- Display Panel Type:- 2.6・FSTN LCM
- Language:- Multi Language
- Connectivity:- USB 2.0, SD card (*Systems are compatible with SDHC cards up to 32GB in size).
- Software:- XYZware
- File Types:- .stl , XYZ Format (.3w)
- Supported Operating systems:- Windows 7 above (for PC), Mac OSX 10.8 above 64-bit (for Mac)
- Note about drivers:- Standard VGA driver on operating system, or a graphics card doesn’t support OpenGL 2.1, may cause unknown error in XYZware.
Hardware Requirements (for PC/Mac):- X86 32/64-bit compatible PCs with 4GB+ DRAM (for PC) – X86 64-bit compatible Macs with 4GB+ DRAM (for Mac)
Xyzprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0:- An Overview
XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 is aimed to be an affordable 3D printer aimed at consumers, it is a little bit tall for a junior printer. Unlike HICTOP Prusa I3 (reviewed here), it is a pre-assembled 3D printer, so it is easier & faster to use than such 3D printer kits, which requires you to assemble them yourself (though that has its advantages too).
XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 supports printing via USB cable, or without a computer by directly having the 3W files in the SD card slot.
There is a door on the front, which you can open to add the filament spool & do other things, And through the door you can see your print as it is being created.
Setting Up
While there is no assembling required to use XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0, some setting up is required before you could use it. Which I suggest you do to avoid any frustration possible.
There are basically 3 things you need to do before you make your first print, first, there is the Z offset calibration, which sets the extruder to a slight distance from the printing head. Second, there is the x-axis arm calibration. And last of all, there is leveling the printing bed. I have embedded videos for both the first two steps below to help you with them. If you are lucky, the printer will come pre-calibrated and ready to print your objects, but you can’t count on that. ^^
After you install the driver, you attach & load the filament spool (and again, I embedded a video for that below), once your filament is loaded. You can start your test printing. Then you are free to print objects to your heart content.
Note:- In case I lost you there, filament is the material the 3D printer uses to model the object, there are more than a kind of filament that are used with these printers, and I will talk more about that later in this review.
On the front of XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0, there is a LCD screen, which contains various options to help you setting your printer up, from calibrating the axis to loading filaments. There is also the option to print files directly from the SD card. Even though the LCD screen is low resolution, it pretty much does the job.
There are instructions in the SD cards that comes with XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0, as well as the drivers for both Windows & Mac. You may need to update the software & the printer as the version on the SD card may be outdated. But that’s not a big issue.
Printing
XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 is a quiet 3D printer in general, and it can create good 3D prints as well, the XYZ software that comes with it supports printing resolution of 100, 200, 300 & 400 microns, the less resolution you choose, the more accurate your 3D print will be, but that will come at the expense of the time it takes to print your object.
XYZ software also allows you to print your object with a raft, or base onto which the object is built, this is just a way to help printing objects without much of a footprint, like an animal with 4 legs.
The software also help you to add support, which are thin shapes to help the printer to print the difficult parts like hanging edges. Of course, you can remove both the support & the raft once you are done printing.
If you are new to 3D printing, it is important to know that it is important for the filament to stick to the printing bed while printing, or the end object may turn out not like you desired. To help you with that, XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 ships with 3 bed sheetscovered, which you could stick to the printing surface to help with that. Besides the sheets, you have the option of either buy more sheets, or use the other common methods, like using hair spray or glue sticks. Once printing is done, make sure you remove the printed object once the printing is done, as that’s the best time to remove it before it sticks too much.
One thing about XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 is that initially, you are only allowed to use their software for printing. Which is a bummer in case you want to try some other software. Fortunately, there is a workaround for that. But it requires you to be a bit tech-savvy.
Workaround On How To Use Xyzprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 With Other Slicer Software
In case you didn’t like XYZ printing software, or in case you wanted to try other popular slicers, like Cura & Slic3r. In the this GitHub page, you can obtain Python scripts that allows you to convert the GCode files from these two software into 3W file that can be printed with XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0. The link contains instructions on how to use them
Proprietary Filament
While XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 is a pretty great 3D printer so far, it has a little problem:- It only works with a proprietary filament provided by XYZPrinting themselves , that filament costs more than the normal filament for each spool. That being said, the long-term cost of owning this printer will add up compared to getting one that uses 3rd party filaments.
It is worth to note that the proprietary XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 filament is of the PLA type. Basically, there are two types of filament for 3D printers, PLA & ABS. XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 doesn’t support ABS filament at all, as it requires a heated bed. Something this printer doesn’t provide. Printing with PLA filament is totally fine if you don’t plan to put the objects you created on hot places (where they will melt).
Youtube Videos
Since following certain steps when setting up XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 can save you a lot of time & frustration. XYZ’s channel contains many good videos on that printer in case you decided to buy it. I included these videos below here for an easy access.
Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 – First-Time Printing
Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 – Filament Not Sticking Or Cutting Into The Print Bed? Check Your Z Offset
When the filament not sticking to the printing bed. Follow this video to calibrate the Z Offset of the printer, and use a piece of paper on the printer bed.
Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 – Change Spool
And Finally
While there are surely higher-end solutions out there. XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 still provides a good value for the price, giving how it comes pre-assembled & how easy to use it is. It is still a great way to start out in 3D printing, or in case you only need to print things sporadically.
I hope you liked my XYZprinting Da Vinci Jr. 1.0 review, and see you again in another review. ^^
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