SeeMeCNC - Newbie Death Sentence

Hi John and SeeMeCNC,

I have found your SeeMeCNC kits to be made of good quality materials at a good price.

Unfortunately, I have been disappointed by:

*Poor build instructions (poor accessibility, available late after printer release)
*Your past use of traditional CNC Control Boards over RAMPS, SANGUINO etc.
*Lack of a SeeMeCNC release of Sprinter/Marlin Firmware Specific to your printers
(ex. RepRapPro has a RepRapPro Specific Marlin Firmware RepRapPro Marlin Firmware)

I would like to know how you will combat those issues for your Rostock variant...

Especially since a Rostock Printer will need special firmware; Johan (Rostock Creator) was explicit that his firmware was a temporary/hacked Marlin amalgamation to prove the concept of his design.

---

My SeeMeCNC H1 Experience:

Last year, when I was still a RepRap padawan, I contributed to the original SeeMeCNC IndieGoGo Campaign and received one pre-built H-1 printer and one DIY H-1 kit.

SeeMeCNC IndieGoGo Page



I got their BIG perk:

"$450
H-1 Assembled Tested
The H-1 assembled, calibrated, and tested for use with Mach3. Used with a PC that has a parallel port. Instructions for Mach3 setup will be available on our website. We'll have a link for Mach3 configuration used with our electronics. For packaging purposes, there will be minor assembly required."

The printer I received looked nice, and seemed to be made of good quality parts. The motors and extruder were not wired up however; which I thought was strange. How could the printer have been tested if the heater resistor(s) and thermistor had no wires attached to them?



When I received my H-1 kit(s), build instructions were not yet complete (i think there was a partial draft). I have since seen instructions trickle into the SeeMeCNC RepRap Wiki Page though, which is nice.

I consider myself a fairly smart guy (my wife might agree or disagree depending on her mood )... but even with a fully assembled (not wired) SeeMeCNC H-1 machine, and no instructions, I was not able to get printing and bust into the RepRap project. I simply did not know what to do with the machine...

I especially did not know what to to with the included old-school CNC control board; On the SeeMeCNC site I was only able to find a few Microsoft Paint edited images (from the bucket of H-1 info files) encouraging me to de-solder a few diodes and pluck out a bunch of opto-couplers from the board



Apparently this thing was not going to work out of the box.

Even on the current SeeMeCNC RepRap Wiki Page there is nothing that would get me into action with that CNC board.

The H1's use of a traditional CNC controller (vice a more common ramps or sanguino) complicated matters; many RepRap hobbyists can't provide insight on using programs like MACH 3 etc.

BTW- The SeeMeCNC concept of producing a low cost 3D printer that runs on $175 MACH3 software ( MACH 3 Purchase Page) seems... odd...

I ended up putting my SeeMeCNC project printers on hold and instead assembled a DIY Huxley Kit from RepRapPro.

RepRapPro's full color step by step instructions where by no means perfect, flawed in fact... but they described the entire process: building, wiring, commissioning, installing software, updating firmware and even guided me through my first print.

Thankfully, after being "RepRap indoctrinated" by my RepRapPro kit; I was able commission my H-1 printer using a RAMPS board from RepRapDiscount

---

Much Lost For Lack of a Little More

As a simple RepRap platform, the SeeMeCNC kits are AWESOME. The quality of the physical platform itself is very nice; high quality plastic injection parts, etc

As for my IndieGoGo experience; I thought I would have my H-1 plugged into my parallel port and have her dancing around in no time. Unfortunately, it would be many months before I would successfully commission her with hardware I bought elsewhere.

For anyone who knows the workings of a RepRep, I would have no problem telling them they could consider buying a bare bones kit from SeeMeCNC and buy their electronics elsewhere.

Considering that during the IndieGoGo campaign, I was also able to pick up a barebones kit (no electronics) for $100 (they are $189 now) I consider myself lucky to have gotten aboard the SeeMeCNC pain-train earlier than later.

For those who have never built a RepRap, I would recommend that they run for the hills!

The original H-1 kit experience was a "Hobby Death Sentence" for the uninitiated.

I only escaped my grim fate by a reprieve from Adrian Bowyer himself.

P.S.

Insult to injury, I left home for an overseas deployment (U.S. Navy) before the printer arrived. Getting home to play with the printer was something that kept a smile on my face. I was seriously dissapointed when it did not meet my expectations

Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 05:08AM by Idolcrasher.

Idolcrasher, John here. I totally understand your frustration. When we started SeeMeCNC, 3D printers were new to us too, and our success took us by surprise a bit in selling 100 machines. No excuse I know, but we struggled to get the documentation done faster, I'm sorry you didn't get the experience you were hoping for on that end. We did get a great manual done, just a bit slower than you or I would have liked. The second issue you had, was our use of MACH3 CNC software. We now offer, and for newbies recommend, RAMPS and the RAMBo board from UltiMachine. Now, I myself have been involved in the CNC community online for 10 years. When we started to think about building a 3D printer, nobody in the CNC community had one, built one, or knew how. They all thought it was a mystical fairytale nerd-beastly thing that they could never accomplish. We knew we had to make it work with Mach3 then, and we did, brigning the two worlds a "little" closer. The majority are very comfortable with Mach3, and arduinos and allegros and firmwares, those were all too scary for them. The chinese stepper driver boards we use did have an issue. The thing is, not everyone has the problems. First, Mach3 only runs thru parallel port, unless you want to use a $150 usb breakout board, so although it is "old-skool" in the sense it uses a parallel port, so do the "new school" Gecko G540 drives that are the norm in the CNC world. The opto isolators on the board we received were the main problem. They were meant to be driven with a 5v signal, and not all P-ports have a strong signal. So, we found a fix to the problem (We, as in our great member-driven community at the time on a yahoo group, Mike "electronrancher"). It was unexpected, and sucked yes, but we found a fix, and kept on moving forward. To this day, I do not know of a better way, hardware wise, to take a guy that has built his own CNC router/lathe/mill and ran it with Mach3, than how we do it, at least cost wise. A Gecko 540 is $300, and that's just too much. But now, as I said before, we offer RAMPS and RAMBo electronics for the 3D printers as well, and ONLY ramps/rambo on the Rostock MAX as Mach3 doesn't do delta (yet). On that note, your third item you listed was our lack of releasing specific firmware for our machines. Hmmm, sorry, nobody has ever asked for it, and as far as I knew, there was still a bunch of "dialing in" no matter what with firmware? It all depends on the end result of the user, as to what microsteps he wants to run, what wiring he used, etc... etc.... etc.... I have always, always made myself available by email, our forum, on here or in person, to help anyone with any problem. If you would like, I will upload my repetier and marlin firmwares that i'm running here shortly when I get to my shop. As for the Rostock firmware, it runs the same as Johann's, the only modifications are steps per, rod length dims. and your own flavor of accell settings.

So, long story short, how are we promising that we are doing better on our Rostock MAX?

1. I have been uploading as much information as I can to the wiki page, and thingiverse, as I can. I will have an assembly manual before we ship the first customer kits. Now, we have a few that are going to go out to some special people, and those will prob. be before the manual is written, but they are aware of their status

2. We are exclusively using the UltiMachine RAMBo boards on these. Mach3 will not be in the picture. As much as that satisfies your statement above, realize it also alienates some. I don't like that, and will be working on getting Mach3 to run one of these too. We have shipped over 500 pritners with Mach3 as the control, so we can't ignore them, and shouldn't because they are unsure of the "firmwares" that we speak of on here.

3. Specific firmware for our Rostock MAX will be forked off and I will try and maintain a better job on that front. I see your point on it, especially with this one, as we have made some fairly large changes in terms of affecting the firmware for this. Look for it to be posted soon on my github, or our forum.


Last but not least, I didn't remember seeing any emails from you. I recognized your username from on here, but maybe you had a different one on the yahoo group or forum? Honestly, call/email/post anytime, It's 6:00 AM here, and I'm up reading this and re-postinng because I care about guys like you and getting their printer running. Skype, IRC, however, I've helped a bunch of people that struggled, even people that aren't a customer! Hell, makerbots have problems too right?

NO hard feelings at all, and thanks for giving me the chance to clear some of this up with you.

Idolcrasher Wrote:
> Firmware Specific to your printers
> (ex. RepRapPro has a RepRapPro Specific Marlin
> Firmware RepRapPro Marlin Firmware)

I'm not sure this is all that great. If a new release of Marlin comes out you then have to either wait for RRP to release their version or you have to patch it yourself. That gets increasingly difficult the more changes RRP make that don't go back into the main Marlin development.

> RepRapPro's full color step by step instructions
> where by no means perfect, flawed in fact... but
> they described the entire process: building,
> wiring, commissioning, installing software,
> updating firmware and even guided me through my
> first print.

I ran into a problem with RRPs instructions. I posted a simple question on their forum back on July 7th. Still no answer from them...

Andy

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 08:15AM by ajayre.

I've spent many long nights on the computer via skype helping totally new guys with their machines too. And ya know, we've just under 600 machines since December, no small task for a couple guys who still have a day job. We're working harder and harder so I hope you see us improve and grow.

John, good luck with your product development and launch. Doing both while keeping up forums and wikis is ambitious.

I see you answered the criticism in the middle of the night.

How were you informed of the post? just curious.

Dave

It is simply nice to have a groomed up firmware for when you are getting started; yes, of course it will need calibration either way, it is simply helpful. In the beginning, when you are getting started (and have no idea what you are doing) it can be pretty difficult to fight with temp tables, and calculate steps per mm based on micro stepping values etc. Keep in mind, a mass produced kit will (likely) use the same heater resistors and thermistors for all the kits; the calibrated steps per mm values will be "in the same ballpark" for all of them as well.

A pre-prepared firmware and guided instructions and how to calibrate it are the hallmarks of a kit that will successfully "get the newbie printing."

Switching over to a main branch firmware is much easier once you are "indoctrinated."

> > RepRapPro's full color step by step
> instructions
> > where by no means perfect, flawed in fact...
> but
> > they described the entire process: building,
> > wiring, commissioning, installing software,
> > updating firmware and even guided me through my
> > first print.
>
> I ran into a problem with RRPs instructions. I
> posted a simple question on their forum back on
> July 7th. Still no answer from them...
>
> Andy

At least there were instructions for the RepRapPro Kit at all

My SeeMeCNC kit came without instructions (not on the net or otherwise), a CNC board (not ready to use), and ran on $175 proprietary software.

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 02:54PM by Idolcrasher.

Davew, unfortunately, the middle of the night is the start of my day. I am lurking on here, our forums, and the 'net' in general at all hours of the night. Where would we be without smartphones and 4G and wifi, OH MY! That, and clicking on the "follow topic" that emails whenever there is a new post helps too!

Idolcrasher, as for our machine running on "proprietary" software, that's just totally untrue. If you ordered the parts and hardware, you could run it with anything capable of driving 4 stepper motors, and control the temp standalone like we do with our mach3 machines, or any of the reprap electronics, such as RAMPS, sanguino, printrboard, RAMBo, Azteeg, I've seen them all used on our machines. Yes, mach3 is proprietary software, in the sense you have to pay for a license (Only if you want to run more than 500 lines of gcode, which printing needs, but basic routing/milling doesn't, so then it's free?). Also, since Artsoft (Makers of Mach3) include everything you need, and encourage you to "hack" their software to fit your needs, but don't want you to re-sell it, it's kinda like buying an open source printer kit with an NC clause, isn't it? I mean, they give you the tools, support, instructions, and the code to do so? That's a lot more than some "Open-Source" companies do, right or wrong? Now, I'm not "Pitching" or selling mach3 to you, you know what it is, but I ask you treat it fairly for what it does, and can do. And, it is only $148 if you buy a machine from us. BTW, there is an open source program called EMC2 which is refined enough to have an Ubuntu distro that will run our electronics, and a 3D printer, for free for that matter. It's a little more awkward to set up, but it's basically like mach3, only I guess more "open" in that you don't have to pay for it, the software that is?

I'd like to echo that I think SeeMeCNC are one of the good guys.

I built mine from the exploded diagrams before the manual shipped and although painful it was doable, I did have to reassemble the extruder a number of times, because it was difficult to see how it fitted together, the current situation with the manual is much better.
My build was interrupted by a business trip and when I returned, my cat had decided to play with some of the parts and hide them (notably a press fit nylon Xl gear), at the time none of the individual parts were available for sale, I contacted SeeMeCNC, and John sent me replacements at his expense, something I didn't even ask for.
My general test of any merchant is what happens when things go wrong, and I couldn't have asked for a better outcome than that.
Originally I bought the kit to use with Mach, I already have a seat, so there would be no additional cost for me, in the end while I was building it and decided that standalone printing was what I really wanted and purchased a ramps board (before SeeMECNC supplied them), I got up and printing relatively quickly, and the quality was and is good.

Now onto what I think were the shortcomings of the H1, many of which may have been addressed in the H1.1
The plastic ildler bearings used to route the X and Y belts, I think $10 to include some 608 bearings would have been the single biggest improvement to the kit quality.
The injection molded plastic table, would have been nice to get something more rigid.
The lack of any mechanism to clamp the belts on X and Y to the carriage and table respective, this just seems to be a design oversight.
FWIW I also think they should have used LM8UU bearings from the start but the plastic 3 way bearing blocks work surprisingly well though

The 3.3V parallel port vs 5V parallel port is the bain of running Mach3 or EMC2 on anything using the parallel port as a driver. There is literally no way to tell if your parallel port will work with the particular breakout board, and worse some just kind of work. In the CNC world for a mill of any size the expenditure of replacing the driving PC is basically nothing, it's a bit different in the 3D printing world when you're trying to minimize costs.

I've been reading through Sublimes tantillus threads, watching him do a great job if dealing with his "new/none technical" customers, and I can only imagine what a shock dealing with 100+ of those at launch was. It shouldn't be an excuse, but as I said IME when things were not right SeeMeCNC did the right thing, John seems to have learned from the mistakes with the H1, and I personally would have no issue ordering another printer from them.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 11:51AM by Polygonhell.

> Last but not least, I didn't remember seeing any
> emails from you. I recognized your username from
> on here, but maybe you had a different one on the
> yahoo group or forum? Honestly, call/email/post
> anytime, It's 6:00 AM here, and I'm up reading
> this and re-postinng because I care about guys
> like you and getting their printer running.
> Skype, IRC, however, I've helped a bunch of people
> that struggled, even people that aren't a
> customer! Hell, makerbots have problems too
> right?
>
> NO hard feelings at all, and thanks for giving me
> the chance to clear some of this up with you.

Hi John,

Thanks for the candid reply.

I do indeed use a different username on the SeeMeCNC Yahoo group. We have talked plenty before actually.

I was one of the top 5 contributors to your origional IndieGoGo Campaign, and even contributed to your more recent campaign to pick up one of your nifty blue heat beds.

I was certainly disappointed by my experience, but at the same time can't help but think that you guys could really take this hobby by storm with a few tweaks. I certainly wish you luck on your future endeavors.

I think that posting the firmware that you are using for your machines would be a good first step.

I think that creating guides on how to set up that firmware will help the newbies that come your way.

If you want to go over the top and really pull in the new guys, you might consider making some instructional videos showing assembly, commissioning, printing etc.

One good video might eliminate 100 questions on your yahoo group; meaning less late nights

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 12:06PM by Idolcrasher.

MACH3 is proprietary software. Your kit came with a board ment to run on MACH3.

Yes, I am familiar with Ubuntu and Linux and general, and yes I am aware of EMC2 for Linux.

And yes, your printer can run other electronics. I employ a RAMPS board on my H-1, and the CNC board I recieved sits bubble wrapped on my shelf.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/07/2012 12:12PM by Idolcrasher.

All good points Idol, and appreciate it. We are going to be doing a video assembly of the rostock for sure, it goes together MUCH faster than the H printers do. I'm posting my firmware as we speak.

johnoly99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> All good points Idol, and appreciate it. We are
> going to be doing a video assembly of the rostock
> for sure, it goes together MUCH faster than the H
> printers do. I'm posting my firmware as we speak.

Nice. May we have a link please?

I am just going to throw in my 2cents and be done with this subject.

One word describes the entire CNC community and SeeMeCNC is no different from the [bleep] over at CNCZone -- Stoic.

Stoic - 1. of or pertaining to the school of philosophy founded by Zeno, who taught that people should be free from passion, unmoved by joy or grief, and submit without complaint to unavoidable necessity.

That bold part is what kills me about all of these 'projects'.

Good guys? Bad Guys? All I know is that having to set something up people want it done like they were setting up their brand new TV. Quick instructions that in 15 mins you are up and running and feel good that you, the buyer, did it all yourself. Having phone support to walk you through something is nice but should be as a last resort not part of the process.

Good luck.

Hmm, Dark Alchemist. I beg to differ, and we are NOTHING like what you described above. So, what part of our 'projects' as you say makes you feel that way? We're new, we all have our problems, but I still will bet we have the best customer service out there!

And honestly, in response to your comment about a consumer wanting the new TV analogy? Do you really think that reprap is to the point of refinement that TV's and DVD players are? I havn't seen it yet. If you know of one product/service in our realm that is of that level of finesse, save for makerbot maybe, let me know, and I'll say good job.

I have not purchased a kit from SeeMeCNC nor am I affiliated with the company in any way. I have checked up on what they offer from time to time, since they started producing kits. You can look at some our original discussions in the Mach3 forum.

On the points originally raised:

*Poor build instructions (poor accessibility, available late after printer release)
*Your past use of traditional CNC Control Boards over RAMPS, SANGUINO etc.
*Lack of a SeeMeCNC release of Sprinter/Marlin Firmware Specific to your printers
(ex. RepRapPro has a RepRapPro Specific Marlin Firmware RepRapPro Marlin Firmware)

First point: I didn't have much to go on when I scratch built my kit a couple years back. Its interesting that in a very short time folks think that this technology is ready made, out of the box, and you don't have to think technical at all. Its gotten easier but a complete idiot can't set one of these up properly. Let me know if someone pulled that off

Second point: I don't believe SeeMeCNC ever hid the fact that they were using standard controllers driven by Mach3. Is the problem in this case that a non technical person had no clue what a controller was in the first place and didn't feel it important to research? And only now, after total frustration, are they researching what this is all about?

On the third point and I think the entire purpose of the original SeeMeCNC concept: Originally it was about attracting the CNC hobbyist that had a copy of Mach3. I've since tried using MACH3 on my second printer, because of John, and it actually works great. Is it for everyone with a Reprap? NO, not everyone has or can justify a copy. But I believe that there are more copies of MACH3 vs all the sprinter and marlin firmware put together. $175 is actually a great deal for a rock solid CNC product. No bugs, proven out and used throughout the world.

In my opinion this wasn't a flawed business approach as the tone of this thread suggests. Low cost mass produced controllers, injection molded parts, Mach3, made in the USA with good US support, a manual that is far better then anything out of China.... I believe the approach taken by SeeMeCNC deserves no apology. Its just too bad companies can't choose their customers.

Ok guys. First off, I apologize for not posting the link to the firmware sooner, It's saturday, and if you check our youtube channel, you'll see I uploaded a new video of the Rostock MAX we're working on. Just got the RAMBo board all firmwared up, and fired up all the axes together for the first time. What's AWESOME is that even after ~600 printers, I still get all goofy ass when one comes to life for the first time. It's as they say, the most fun with your clothes on!

So here's the link

[reprap.org]

I see our wiki page is a little out of date, I made a few changes to it here and there, but I guess I need some help answering a question of mine. Aren't wiki's supposed to be community edited, and not maintained by the product/content's creator? I know wikipedia frowns on it, but does the same hold true here? I did a lot of that wiki page at the request of others, but also in the hopes I wasn't "being sneaky" or whatever when it comes to wiki-correctness?

And lastly, Idol, I'm still truly sorry for your bad experience, and If there's anything, anything at all I can do to maek it right, you name it. We've struggled as any would, but I feel like where we are better is our service afterwards, so I'll make you a deal right here. If you pack up your kit, whatever the condition it currently is in, hell burnt to the ground, and ship it back to us, I'll give you your money back. I appreciate your opinion, and I STRONGLY believe in everyone having a voice, no matter whether I like what they're saying or not. In the end, those are your feelings, so nobody is going to convince YOU any different, the only thing I can do is extend a hand in helping make you feel like you got what you deserve, and that we did our best.

"Aren't wiki's supposed to be community edited, and not maintained by the product/content's creator?"

Yes John, ideally that's the case. Usually though it falls to the few who are most personally invested in whatever topic is at hand

Post Removed By Author -

I did not see John had written to make a mends.

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 01:58AM by Idolcrasher.

> And lastly, Idol, I'm still truly sorry for your
> bad experience, and If there's anything, anything
> at all I can do to maek it right, you name it.
> We've struggled as any would, but I feel like
> where we are better is our service afterwards, so
> I'll make you a deal right here. If you pack up
> your kit, whatever the condition it currently is
> in, hell burnt to the ground, and ship it back to
> us, I'll give you your money back. I appreciate
> your opinion, and I STRONGLY believe in everyone
> having a voice, no matter whether I like what
> they're saying or not. In the end, those are your
> feelings, so nobody is going to convince YOU any
> different, the only thing I can do is extend a
> hand in helping make you feel like you got what
> you deserve, and that we did our best.

I accept your apology and I will drop the subject.

I did not see that you had apologized at the bottom of your last post.

If I had, I would not have blasted your company again with my last post; I will go ahead and delete that post.

I was especially sore, because I was overseas on deployment when the H-1 arrived at my home. I felt slighted; I felt that I had come home to see my trust was betrayed while I was away.

I saw that you carry a mini kit that turns a H-1 into an H-1.1; I would like one of those please. I would consider everything "peaches and gravy" for a upgrade kit

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 03:31AM by Idolcrasher.

johnoly99 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hmm, Dark Alchemist. I beg to differ, and we are
> NOTHING like what you described above. So, what
> part of our 'projects' as you say makes you feel
> that way? We're new, we all have our problems,
> but I still will bet we have the best customer
> service out there!
>
> And honestly, in response to your comment about a
> consumer wanting the new TV analogy? Do you
> really think that reprap is to the point of
> refinement that TV's and DVD players are? I
> havn't seen it yet. If you know of one
> product/service in our realm that is of that level
> of finesse, save for makerbot maybe, let me know,
> and I'll say good job.
There are a few printers right now that are not RepRap that are setup within 15 mins. I don't like that you must get a code to make it work because that is too much control for me but they are extremely consumer friendly. My analogy to 15 mins and a new DVD player or TV was just to show that people like to set something up without undue pain OR without the need of calling you up. I know I have worked in the consumer market for a few years and customer honestly get ticked if they have to call anyone to get something running that your web site makes it sound like you will pull it out of the box and within minutes you are off an printing. I am just saying that you need to make it clear they could suffer pain and suffering when trying to set this up but we are here for you when you do, and inevitably you will.

Idol laid it out pretty well before he removed his post so I will not rehash what he said but he was spot on. Listen to this man and what he said.

Idol, if he follows through with what you asked then he really is a good guy just naive about the marketing aspect of all of this and how consumers expect what they expect when money is involved.

Dark Alchemist Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------

> Idol laid it out pretty well before he removed his
> post so I will not rehash what he said but he was
> spot on. Listen to this man and what he said.
>
> Idol, if he follows through with what you asked
> then he really is a good guy just naive about the
> marketing aspect of all of this and how consumers
> expect what they expect when money is involved.

Don't tempt me to talk about it any more

He apologized and said he would make it right; i accepted and promised to take off my war paint

In my opinion the indieGoGo perk I got did not live up to what I contributed for; that's all.

But hey, he says he will make it right and even offered a refund.

I would like their $65 H1.1 upgrade kit. I think that's a good deal for everybody. They keep my money, and I get to improve the printer.

If they don't go for that though, I will take the refund offer.

I wouldn't hold it against them if they sent me a commissioned printer

Hell, I would trade the o'le H-1 and her CNC board here for a complete RAMPS or RAMBO H-1.1 setup, commissioned or not

I would do that in a heart beat.

Hmmm,

No answer yet on email or on the forum.

Maybe cause it is Sunday?

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/09/2012 09:09PM by Idolcrasher.

Idelcrasher

Maybe you can calm down for a minute and help explain the time line in all this.
A simple search of you posts shows that you started posting just before thanksgiving last year.
You are in the states.
At that point you ordered a Huxley from Reprappro (for Christmas)
than no more posts until April.
I'm assuming thats when you got called to duty. Between Thanksgiving and the beginning of April.
April second you posted that you put together the Huxley. Great. No mention of the purchase of the H-1. Above you mention you stopped working on the H-1 to build the Huxley.
Talked about buy 5 Kg of PLA for a crazy cheap price in May. Hows that working in your Huxley?
Series of good posts then 5 weeks ago you talked about Rostock. Isn't that what John's is promoting?
A lot of posts in various directions, some on complex topics.
Then this SeeMeCNC – Newbie Death Sentence post.
I'm just skimming these results but no mention of ever ordering a printer from SeeMeCNC. Nothing like I'm having problems, can you help.
Just the Newbie hit the wall post. Although from your past posts you don't look like a newbie.

Your posts to this point have been very credible until now. Did I miss something?

Just got an email from John.

They are sending me an upgrade kit. It's a sweet gesture

Then he really is a good guy after all just naive but that isn't a crime yet (well, I never looked in the Patriot Act so it might be in there, lol).

Yeah, sorry aboit the slow reply idol, had to go fishing for steelhead, in Indiana haha. Back home in washington, salmon is all over, and when I heard they stock the st. Joseph river near me, Im there every sunday theyre running now. Anywho, ill get that out to you. Dark, yep. We were def a bit naive when it came to selling that many kits. We were hoping like 10 or so, so the success was a bit of a challenge. Not as bad as printrbot got alammed, but still, two guys worked some stupid crazy hrs getting those all out. Idol, we dis assemble and run your machine w our setup at the shop. It wasnt until a few ppl reported problems with the boards that we learned about the 3v vs 5v pport problems, and then electronrancher posted the opto jumper mods to fix it. We assembled and ran every machine with a hot end setup, but chose to ship with new hotends.

We def learned a lot, and im sure theres more to learn, but hey, if you dont ever do it wrong, how do you know when you do it right?

Rostock MAX will be a much better beast. Sooo many less parts, and sooo easier to assemble (read easier for us to get the imstructions polished off ). Just got home, steve ran the molds for the arms today, and I had to go see how they turned out. Freakin awesome!

Yeah 3.3v vs 5vdc as laptops run the 3.3Vdc and most desktops I ever worked on had 5Vdc on the IEEE-1284 port.

@dean448

Here is a link to the SeeMeCNC campaign I contributed to:

[www.indiegogo.com]

Scroll to their biggest perk, and you can see I am a contributor to their campaign.

It ended at the end of December and I contributed to it before the campaign expired.

I lived in Guam last year, I live in California now.

You are semi accurate on my deployment dates; I was on a few shorter deployments last year, and a longer one at the start of this year.

Sorry if I confused you with the title; I am not a newbie anymore; or at least I would not consider myself to be one anymore. In the post, I did talk about how I returned to the SeeMeCNC printer after I was indoctrinated into the RepRap hobby.

The SeeMeCNC H-1 is the first printer ever touched. This post was about my experience with the H-1 as a newbie.

Before now, I did not feel a need to drudge up my bad experience with SeeMeCNC. I was actually pretty embarrassed to make such a bad investment, and did not want to make a post about how I was taken for a ride.

But when I saw the SeeMeCNC post for a Rostock Printer they would be selling, a type of printer I have told people they should consider trying out, i felt compelled to share my experience. I wanted you guys to know how my SeeMeCNC experience went.

Some people here listen to my advice, and I did not want those people to be taken for a ride as well.

It looks like SeeMeCNC has improved their game over time; they even wish to make a mends with me.

It's your call if you give them your business or not. If you do, you should come back and post about it. It would be good to know if they are straight shooters, and if you would give them your business again.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/10/2012 01:15AM by Idolcrasher.

I don't have a company.

I have never sold any reprap items (though I do have a spot on my dinky web page, where offer to print parts for people; no takers yet)

I didn't write this post because I thought it would get me something; this was a "heads up" to anybody who would care to listen.

In a cool way, this post was cathartic for me; myself and SeeMeCNC are all "sunshine and bunnies" now.