I like this machine so far, I would like to see how easy it is to upgrade firmware and how well it works with Octoprint as some printers firmware don't have all the Marlin commands activated, it would be nice to see a 350X350X400 model of this printer as splitting models and gluing them is a pain
Updating the firmware is super easy, I already did it. John st download the proper file, copy to SD card, insert it into printer and turn it on. It will update both: mainboard and display. I didn't test the octoprint yet
- I've had mine since December 2021, based on the Aurora Tech channel review, united states voltage model so it has the "n" firmware. Was nice. Filament got stuck a lot. The fan outlet is exceedingly poor and results in poor low speed PETG cooling and PLA stringing. It feels like the temperature settings for the hotend are merely a suggestion the machine usually ignores. I now believe the machine is no better than an Ender 3 with similar modifications to what is offered on the Magician X. -I asked Mingda for assistance in printing PETG since my layers just would not stick. And they sent me the PLA cura profile only renamed "petg #2" I don't expect the world to understand English, but I'm fairly sure even Google Translate can convey words of distress. I did not expect assistance for the hotend reassembly I had to undergo.. -The power supply (120-240 v) voltage switch is in the tool tray behind foam in case people were curious. The power supply, is honestly a fire hazard :) it is non branded and in my unit is just a cage of metal plates surrounding the capacotors and circuitry (like a microwave oven kind of apearance). I can hear it buzz when the unit is idling :D -I had a lot of filament blobbing on the nozzle and I had to take apart the hotend to clean the nozzle out of the default supplied filament until I ran out of it. Was not easy since the reason it got stuck to begin with is because the factory testing Mingda did left their dark PLA filament to clog the nozzle. The machine turned off twice on overvoltage because the black PLA was essentially burning in the hotend. Noice. I did not see any smoke, but I could smell burning tires. I used most of the supplied filament trying to figure that out. -There is no documentation on how or where to place the hotend in relation to the metal fork that holds the silicone sock and hotend block. I still do not know if the metal fork is even a part of the bed level sensor. I placed the heatsink relatively high above the fork, relatively close to the silicone sock, because I thought the pressure sensor would be relative to the fork. I thought the less the nozzle has to move the less the stepper motors have to move. Maybe how Mingda sent it to me. It apparently is not and now my machine grinds on the bed. Aparently the hotend can also be set with a slight angle in any of the x-y and z planes. This is due to the heavy metal shround. The hotend and filament sensor use screws that hold the entirety of the hotend assembly and metal shroud to the gantry. The whole assembly rattles :D -The little bumps on the bed can confuse the sensor too since the little dimples on the surface range in heights of .03 mm to .2mm. Even between levelings and printings. The machine will not check more than 12 spots across the 230x230 bed. The belts connecting the bed to the motor esssntially vibrate too much. My belts may be old and thus the tension knobs are worthless since I cannot tighten them any more. -I was and still am a beginner. I am still trying to level the hotend and swapping out nozzles. Changing nozzles involves removing the silicone sock, so this process involves removing the hotend every time. Wonderful. But the hotend just wont sit like the factory had it set up. I thought this was stuff only the most entry level budget 3d additive printers would have to deal with. Either my luck is exceedingly poor or my machine was just barely able to escape Mingda's quality control. I think I would have learned more little by little with an Ender 3/Aquila than the face slap I got with the Magician X. The only successful print to date that I have had was the vase. I cannot return the machine since the return shipping is about $140 usd, or about half of what I paid for the machine ($319 usd). There is no other place to learn about the machine either. There are non existant forums that mostly deal with complaints. Anything Mingda posted relating to support is about 2-3 years old as of 2022 and most "reviews" are about prerelease models or "updated models that Mingda will ship soon." I feel like a guinea pig. Except this is not Apple or EA, Sony or Microsoft. No amount of bad publicity will probably ever make Mingda provide more to their customers about the mechanical workings of their machines.
It's things like this that give machines a bad name, being a new proprietary part this hot end/extruder should have come with its own build/repair manual. it's obvious the user is going to get a clog at some point and will need to dismantle the hot end. I got sick of being disappointed with the Creality machines I have bought with bad quality parts and vowed never to buy another Chinese printer, I have my name down for a Prusa XL knowing full well any issue I may encounter I can pick up the phone and within a minute or so be talking to an expert who will guide me through the fix procedure
Great tip when I don't need it, but sometimes I need that Z-hop (I use it when I have some bigger overhangs, and I can expect some curling up of the material, so the nozzle don't hit it)
I'm currently debating this and the Neptune 3 as my 1st printer, similar machines but that one has a steel sheet but is a bowden setup (and cheaper). I do plan on flexibles and know that either can do the job with the right settings. This is hard!
I just got one, brand new. It crashes at the start of ever print. Updated firmware, same. Perhaps the worst printer I have ever used. Support has been zero help. I need a refund or replacement. I suspect it has a faulty mainboard. I suspect it may be in the garbage this weekend. That's a few hundred I won't be getting back.
just received my printer. Setup, leveled, extrude filament. Started "Deer" print. Base layer got about 1/2 done and then nothing will come out of nozzle. Stopped print. Tried to extrude again, nothing. Can't get anything out of the nozzle. Using filament that came with printer. Even pressing load, the filament does not feed
Proprietary hotends/extruders/ABL that hardly anyone knows how to disassemble/reassemble when something goes wrong like a clog is not the domain of a beginner
I got a Magician X recently. It is a total piece of garbage. It does not work and Mingda support refuses to replace or return it. I am an engineer, I take care of about 10 printers on top of my regular job at work and have 3 at home. When I say the Magician X is a terrible printer, I really mean it. I suspect the only way I am getting my money back is via my credit card company. The printer hasn't managed to start a single print. Support is terrible and I really can't warn people any more than this, do not buy a printer from these people.
@@omegadeepblue1407 I had to return it at my personal expense. I had to get PayPal involved to make it happen. So at my personal cost, £70 to send it to China. That won't ever be refunded. I then waited weeks and PayPal gave me the $200 dollars back. It was more the principal of the thing by that point. So, I only got that money back about 2 weeks ago. So, terrible service from Mingda. The bit that galled me was the printer was originally sent from Germany and I live in the UK. They wouldn't let me send it back via Germany, it was clearly an effort to try to get me to give up and just swallow the $200 loss. It never worked and they are the least profesional 3D printer manufacturer that I have ever dealt with. I have bought an Ender 3 S1 as a replacement. You need to print a cable guide bracket as the ribbon is easily damaged. Once you have that done, no problem. But you must print one or the ribbon will fail at the hot end, it's a know issue. With that said, it's a fantastic printer. The Cura profiles work perfectly without any tweeks out of the box. I am getting some of the best prints I have ever seen out of the S1. Also, I use the additional 420 gcode added to the script after g29 in cura. This allows you to manually level. It uses the auto-level info saved to memory but does not do it every time. I get more consistent 1st layers this way. Auto leveling is ok but it can be a bit inconsistent. So, I auto-level occasionally to male sure it's compensating in general relatively well but I then use the wheels to fine tune. It's a great printer. Highly recommend the Ender 3 S1 or any variant. For home, the S1 is perfect with a 229 x 229 bed. The Max has 300 x 300 if you need larger. I would avoid Mingda like the plague. Perhaps THE worst support I have ever dealt with.
I bought this magician x and the first thing it did when I pressed print is go down and it kept going down and bent the bed all up and knocked both axis out of whack. GARBAGE PRINTER!
Many thanks for this thorough review Igor! Looks like I keep liking Mingda. :))
I like this machine so far, I would like to see how easy it is to upgrade firmware and how well it works with Octoprint as some printers firmware don't have all the Marlin commands activated, it would be nice to see a 350X350X400 model of this printer as splitting models and gluing them is a pain
Updating the firmware is super easy, I already did it. John st download the proper file, copy to SD card, insert it into printer and turn it on. It will update both: mainboard and display. I didn't test the octoprint yet
It works well from OctoPrint. I haven't run across any commands not active.
the bency was quite nice if you account the OLD filament... nicely done!
I printed new one (with new filament) it looks great, no stringing
- I've had mine since December 2021, based on the Aurora Tech channel review, united states voltage model so it has the "n" firmware. Was nice. Filament got stuck a lot. The fan outlet is exceedingly poor and results in poor low speed PETG cooling and PLA stringing. It feels like the temperature settings for the hotend are merely a suggestion the machine usually ignores. I now believe the machine is no better than an Ender 3 with similar modifications to what is offered on the Magician X.
-I asked Mingda for assistance in printing PETG since my layers just would not stick. And they sent me the PLA cura profile only renamed "petg #2" I don't expect the world to understand English, but I'm fairly sure even Google Translate can convey words of distress. I did not expect assistance for the hotend reassembly I had to undergo..
-The power supply (120-240 v) voltage switch is in the tool tray behind foam in case people were curious. The power supply, is honestly a fire hazard :) it is non branded and in my unit is just a cage of metal plates surrounding the capacotors and circuitry (like a microwave oven kind of apearance). I can hear it buzz when the unit is idling :D
-I had a lot of filament blobbing on the nozzle and I had to take apart the hotend to clean the nozzle out of the default supplied filament until I ran out of it. Was not easy since the reason it got stuck to begin with is because the factory testing Mingda did left their dark PLA filament to clog the nozzle. The machine turned off twice on overvoltage because the black PLA was essentially burning in the hotend. Noice. I did not see any smoke, but I could smell burning tires. I used most of the supplied filament trying to figure that out.
-There is no documentation on how or where to place the hotend in relation to the metal fork that holds the silicone sock and hotend block. I still do not know if the metal fork is even a part of the bed level sensor. I placed the heatsink relatively high above the fork, relatively close to the silicone sock, because I thought the pressure sensor would be relative to the fork. I thought the less the nozzle has to move the less the stepper motors have to move. Maybe how Mingda sent it to me. It apparently is not and now my machine grinds on the bed. Aparently the hotend can also be set with a slight angle in any of the x-y and z planes. This is due to the heavy metal shround. The hotend and filament sensor use screws that hold the entirety of the hotend assembly and metal shroud to the gantry. The whole assembly rattles :D
-The little bumps on the bed can confuse the sensor too since the little dimples on the surface range in heights of .03 mm to .2mm. Even between levelings and printings. The machine will not check more than 12 spots across the 230x230 bed. The belts connecting the bed to the motor esssntially vibrate too much. My belts may be old and thus the tension knobs are worthless since I cannot tighten them any more.
-I was and still am a beginner. I am still trying to level the hotend and swapping out nozzles. Changing nozzles involves removing the silicone sock, so this process involves removing the hotend every time. Wonderful. But the hotend just wont sit like the factory had it set up.
I thought this was stuff only the most entry level budget 3d additive printers would have to deal with. Either my luck is exceedingly poor or my machine was just barely able to escape Mingda's quality control. I think I would have learned more little by little with an Ender 3/Aquila than the face slap I got with the Magician X.
The only successful print to date that I have had was the vase. I cannot return the machine since the return shipping is about $140 usd, or about half of what I paid for the machine ($319 usd). There is no other place to learn about the machine either. There are non existant forums that mostly deal with complaints. Anything Mingda posted relating to support is about 2-3 years old as of 2022 and most "reviews" are about prerelease models or "updated models that Mingda will ship soon." I feel like a guinea pig. Except this is not Apple or EA, Sony or Microsoft. No amount of bad publicity will probably ever make Mingda provide more to their customers about the mechanical workings of their machines.
Obviously, you are the unlucky one XD. My Magician X is super.
Mingda asked me to copy their reply: If you met any problem, feel free to contact their after sales service via support@3dmingda.com
It's things like this that give machines a bad name, being a new proprietary part this hot end/extruder should have come with its own build/repair manual. it's obvious the user is going to get a clog at some point and will need to dismantle the hot end.
I got sick of being disappointed with the Creality machines I have bought with bad quality parts and vowed never to buy another Chinese printer, I have my name down for a Prusa XL knowing full well any issue I may encounter I can pick up the phone and within a minute or so be talking to an expert who will guide me through the fix procedure
Good points
Thanks for sharing your experiences with all of us :-)
Disabling Z-hop in the slicer should get rid of the ticking noise.
Great tip when I don't need it, but sometimes I need that Z-hop (I use it when I have some bigger overhangs, and I can expect some curling up of the material, so the nozzle don't hit it)
I'm currently debating this and the Neptune 3 as my 1st printer, similar machines but that one has a steel sheet but is a bowden setup (and cheaper). I do plan on flexibles and know that either can do the job with the right settings. This is hard!
If you want to print TPU (flexible filament) go with direct drive extruder for sure
I just got one, brand new. It crashes at the start of ever print. Updated firmware, same. Perhaps the worst printer I have ever used. Support has been zero help. I need a refund or replacement. I suspect it has a faulty mainboard. I suspect it may be in the garbage this weekend. That's a few hundred I won't be getting back.
just received my printer. Setup, leveled, extrude filament. Started "Deer" print. Base layer got about 1/2 done and then nothing will come out of nozzle. Stopped print. Tried to extrude again, nothing. Can't get anything out of the nozzle. Using filament that came with printer. Even pressing load, the filament does not feed
Hm, sorry about it, not sure what is the problem. They may be several reasons. Try Mingda support, they should reply quickly.
It seems perfect for beginner. seems more profeesional then the other brand 3d printer. More like use the direct dirve extruder.
Proprietary hotends/extruders/ABL that hardly anyone knows how to disassemble/reassemble when something goes wrong like a clog is not the domain of a beginner
I got a Magician X recently. It is a total piece of garbage. It does not work and Mingda support refuses to replace or return it. I am an engineer, I take care of about 10 printers on top of my regular job at work and have 3 at home. When I say the Magician X is a terrible printer, I really mean it. I suspect the only way I am getting my money back is via my credit card company. The printer hasn't managed to start a single print. Support is terrible and I really can't warn people any more than this, do not buy a printer from these people.
Hi, what happened after all this time?
Since you work with 3D printers, can you recommend me one?
@@omegadeepblue1407 I had to return it at my personal expense. I had to get PayPal involved to make it happen. So at my personal cost, £70 to send it to China. That won't ever be refunded. I then waited weeks and PayPal gave me the $200 dollars back. It was more the principal of the thing by that point. So, I only got that money back about 2 weeks ago. So, terrible service from Mingda. The bit that galled me was the printer was originally sent from Germany and I live in the UK. They wouldn't let me send it back via Germany, it was clearly an effort to try to get me to give up and just swallow the $200 loss. It never worked and they are the least profesional 3D printer manufacturer that I have ever dealt with.
I have bought an Ender 3 S1 as a replacement. You need to print a cable guide bracket as the ribbon is easily damaged. Once you have that done, no problem. But you must print one or the ribbon will fail at the hot end, it's a know issue. With that said, it's a fantastic printer. The Cura profiles work perfectly without any tweeks out of the box. I am getting some of the best prints I have ever seen out of the S1. Also, I use the additional 420 gcode added to the script after g29 in cura. This allows you to manually level. It uses the auto-level info saved to memory but does not do it every time. I get more consistent 1st layers this way. Auto leveling is ok but it can be a bit inconsistent. So, I auto-level occasionally to male sure it's compensating in general relatively well but I then use the wheels to fine tune. It's a great printer. Highly recommend the Ender 3 S1 or any variant. For home, the S1 is perfect with a 229 x 229 bed. The Max has 300 x 300 if you need larger.
I would avoid Mingda like the plague. Perhaps THE worst support I have ever dealt with.
did you check e steps?
I bought this magician x and the first thing it did when I pressed print is go down and it kept going down and bent the bed all up and knocked both axis out of whack. GARBAGE PRINTER!