The Disappointments and Failures of TrinityLabs Aluminatus

Since there is no thread about this wonderful printer, i wanted to share my experiences here at the forum.
I started to look for repraps in December last year and spent lot time in collecting informations about 3D Printer.
4 months ago, I ordered an Aluminatus 3D Printer by Trinitylabs, as it was recommended by some people in #reprap irc and mentioned it is a new fabulous 3d printer.



One of these guys was Ezra ZYGMUNTOWICZ, it’s his company and after lots of online chatting, he made a winning statement: "Cause of the Simo leadscrews, there is no printer in the world under 20K that print as well as an Aluminatus by Trinitylabs", and he mentioned that "This printer comes ready out of the box!". Just to highlight that during this sales pitch period, it was very easy to get in touch with Trinitylabs.
At first, I was abit afraid to make the commitment to buying the printer, some people said that Trinitylabs is not 100% serious and in the past there were some troubles with shipping on time.


But, EZRA ZYGMUNTOWICZ promised me, in his own words, "this happened in the past and is long time ago. Your printer is going to be shipped at 20.Feb.13" So I ordered at 5th February my printer.


My Aluminatus arrived on 23.may. This was 3 months beyond the promised date. It was very well packed and after a long waiting time I was really happy that it has finally arrived.
The reason, given to the buyers was for the delay was to remove issues that will allow the 2nd batch Aluminatus to run out of the box.
So let’s have a look what the “specials” included in the printer:
Aluminatus by Trinitylabs is built with 2 leadscrews instead of belts. As Ezra explained me, this variation is much more exact, no ringing effect anymore and printing and of course the possibility to print much faster than any known belts based 3D printer.
This printer is built for long life.
The second batch Aluminatus was shipped with a hotend designed by TrinityLabs that is called “Magma”, so you can print almost all materials for repraps much faster and change nozzles really fast.
The promised time from assemble to build for the Aluminatus was supposed to be 4 hours and took for me 3 days! And I could say I am not a fresh builder for 3D printers, as I already have a few sitting on my workspace.

Let’s have a look what kind of issues i have/had:
- The base coverplate was scratched and looks nothing like what was shown in Trinitylabs Homepage and -Googlegroups.
- Y frame was not drilled correctly
- Cables for X-End homing was too short thus making it not possible to home
- Cables for the Heatbed was too short
- All printed parts are not to par with other printers I have bought, I would go to the extent to say, that it was the worst printed part from a printer supplier, I have had.
- The whole construction round about the couplers is wobbles a lot, creating ribbing.
- Heatbed requires 35min to reach 100 degree, batch 1 required like 2 minutes.
- My glass for the Heatbed shipped bowed to be fair I was happy that Tlabs shipped a G10 plate in this batch, this one is fine. Which made it ok.
- The nozzle heater cable was connected incorrectly, and from my understanding this can cause fires
- 2 holes of my gantry connection were not drilled correctly
- The printer was to come with a printer manual which was made available after the first batch of buyers, complained about it. But, when Trinity released the second batch they conveniently didn’t update that manual. Leaving the printer without an updated assembly instructions.
- a printed part was not shipped, the flag for the x Endstop (printed with my Mendel90)
Finally and the most awesome unforgiving errors :
- both Endstops were fixed wrong and cable of X-Endstop was to short to place correctly
- simos are making terrible noises, no other A1 owner online have this as far i know.
- the vent of the PSU was closed by a sticker (written: switch PSU for international)
- and last but not least, both of my magma Hotend dont work. They just clog. No matter wich material i use. PLA and ABS either, they clog in seconds. Ezra told me to drill the chambfers of the S-barrels. I tryed and both hotends were killed. Im not the only one who tryed to drill them.
Also there is no way to change noozles as promised by Ezra, as on their website !


I have a mendel90 Set from nopehead and paid less then 700€ for but this printer is a completely other world
As common logic would dictate, I contacted Ezra the owner of TrinityLabs and wrote him some mails, but .... No answer ! i called at the office, not once,...about 20 times.
After several, “No answer” attempts, finally I reached him via irc and he gave me some bad excuses and not helpfull instructions at all and told me, wait 10 minutes “I’ll be there for you and….” No answer.. and pulled a Houdini.
My computer is 24/7 online and I waited for a long time for this guy. I’m still online right now and everytime i get the owner of trinitylabs, Ezra, he gives me few words and tell me to wait for few minutes and he is gone.
So .. 3 weeks ago (the day i got my printer) Ezra gave me a statement.
- you get a new coverplate or a description how to polish the coverplate
- you get a new simo and send me the old one back (ok i will)
- you get 2 new hotends and shipp the old back ( ok i will ezra)
- you get a new glass + a piece of Schott Duran
- we will send u a shipping confirmation
- an online meeting via chat with live help with regards to my bed (guess who did not show up, even after waiting the whole day or the next 5 days ?)
What happened ?
Nothing !
No shipment, no or just short answers and "ahh... i have someone at the door, be back in 10 min"
My Finale Conclusion... buying Aluminatus was a mistake. If this was an isolated incident, then I would be insane to put it up for discussion. But it is not, the first batch of buyers had issues, the second set of buyers had issues. The first batch, were like alpha testers and the second batch are like beta testers. Only problems, the problems don’t get fixed by TrinityLabs. Most of the buyers, had to resolve to buying additional equipment or even buying completely new reprap boards to resolve some of the issues with Aluminatus.
On my part, I have tried to swap the noozle from my Mendel90 and get it connected. There was way a lot of Z-ribbing and always when I want to start a print, i have new problems - the last one is a bad heatbed connection at the board. For this i have to take the completely ramps board off...so this will be a never ending story.
I’m sitting here for 3 weeks. no running printer, waiting for anwers, shipments and explanations..nothing !
And why this post? So people don’t through hell the way I did, and still going through when purchasing a Aluminatus.


Why posting this here ?
Cause this is a open source reprap forum, Ezra is registered here. I found also here informations about Aluminatus and i believe people should know also about this bad things.
for example about his hotends: [forums.reprap.org]
or here : [forums.reprap.org]
Nice posts but...this guy doesnt care about his costumers, and treat them like shitt.

Might be that ezra is a big number in Reprap -Developent, but not for me and not for some of his costumers i know.
Why people dont make their troubles official ?
I believe they wait for parts and are afraid not to get them or.. i have no idea.

Most of this i have documented on my computer.
I am "not" working for 3dPrinters/Reprap Business, just a costumer that was f***ed.
Also i am not sitting in U.S. im living in Europe/Germay and payed alot of tax and costum for this printer, almost 3000 Dollar for a 3D printer that doesnt work at all.

There are people runnning this printers, maybe they had more luck. maybe they invested more money, time or whatever.I think 3 weeks should be fine to get even one small nice print.

My Mendel90 is also working fine, took me few days for built and some small troubles that were really fast fixed by nopehead.
I dont see Ezra gonna shipp me my parts or help as promised, finally not after writing this thread here. but who cares ?
I gonna try to sell parts of the printer via Ebay and look for a new one.



And here some photos and videos. i have also chatlogs and mailcontact, if there is a need i will publish them to.

Here some pictures and videos:

1) my coverplate [i.imgur.com], [i.imgur.com]
the one shown at trinitylabs.com
[i.imgur.com]

2) my simo
[www.vidup.de]?

3) my bowed glass & to short heatbedcable
[www.vidup.de]

4) PSU sticker
[www.vidup.de]

5) 2 damadged hotends after drill
[imgur.com]
[imgur.com]

6) to short cables at X-bar
[i.imgur.com]

7)Quality of the printed parts black Aluminatus / white mendel90 by nopehead
[imgur.com]


And finally what this printer is suppose to be:
(to find here [trinitylabs.com] and here: [trinitylabs.com]
"The Aluminatus TrinityOne ships by default with a true Borosilicate print surface for the flattest, highest quality print surface available for 3d printers"



" The TrinityOne ships as a kit but has been mostly pre-assembled and tested before it arrives at your doorstep. The estimated build time form unboxing to first print is only 1-3 hours!"


"While we had some shipping issues in the past, those days are over. This new Aluminatus platform is not only optimized for print quality and speed but supply chain and volume shipping on our side."



"PBC Linear (TrinityLabs co-developed them to precise specifications), are taylor made for the absolute highest quality and speed of prints."



"This means the MetalMagma hot end can print Nylon, Polycarbonate, PLA, ABS, LayWood, PVA, HDPE and just about any type of filament there is currently available on the market and many more to come in the future. This is truly a future proof nozzle and will last you a long time with its rugged CNC machined construction"


"And did we mention the nozzles are incredibly easy to change without taking the hot end off the extruder body or the printer? Just let the hot end cool off to room temperature and take a wrench or some needle-nose pliers and unscrew the nozzle from the heater block and screw the new sized nozzle back in its place and then you are ready to heat up and start printing again, literally a 2 minute operation."



Sorry for mistakes & Greetings
Repper

Edited 10 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 07:00PM by Repper.

It is good of you to come out with this story, I also have a bad experience with a certain vendor, but was afraid to tell this vendors name, indeed for the same reason as you.
My vendor wasn't Trinitylabs, it was another one, and I was afraid to complain too much because I still wanted to have the option of claiming replacement parts from this particular vendor.

I have written an article about my machine in the 'Dutch' channel, not naming the vendor, but I got PM's about people guessing his name correctly, so I guess I was right about the vendor.

I hope that after your message Trinitylabs will understand that they need to change their approach to these kind of problems.
Good luck!

I am amazed by what is considered acceptable with 3d printers. It won't change unless people speak up LOUDLY!

I'm a 3D printer and parts reseller Ive waited 7 weeks for hotends to be delivered by Trinity labs after 2 weeks I started to sell the hotends as I expected them to arrive any day. I also sent a number of complete machines overseas without hotends after about 4 weeks of waiting. I was told by Ezra that he would send 3 hotend directly to the customers in the States on his way to makerfaire I also got a PM on IRC saying that he had the hotends were with him and that due to the stuff up he was sending them for free. After 2.5 weeks I started to ask for a tracking numbers this went on for nearly 6 weeks until I asked for a refund on the hotends, PTFE sliders, Lead screws, 24V PSU, Smoothie boards, 320x320 Boro sheets and 290x290 heaters, a fully assembled Mendel Max and other items. I was told all this stuff had been sent. On getting my refund I told Ezra I would pay for the items once they arrived.

Well its now week 7 I'm still getting emails from my customers asking whats going on with there orders and I've also received an email from my customer in the States asking where his 3 hotends were just today the one's Ezra told me he would send on his way to makerfaire. This has really annoyed me as he straight out lied to me all the nonsense about his shipping guy stuffing up orders well this was the third parcel that he was meant to send to me or for me and well it never left I doubt any of the parcel were sent.

I asked Ezra could he confirm when the Mendel Max was sent with a number of other items this was meant be be shipped prior to makerfaire 3 day before it I was told the parcel was packaged but missed out on being shipped then I stayed up all that night to catch Ezra on IRC so I could remind him to send the parcel 24 hours later he told me he couldn't talk as he was on his way to buy a CNC machine he found on craigslist he should of been looking for my tracking number if he had time to be checking out CNC's. Well he also told me he couldn't talk as he was driving this is the log:

[2013-05-15 12:42:06] <ezmobius> im so gonna buy these
[2013-05-15 12:42:08] <ezmobius> [portland.craigslist.org]
[2013-05-15 12:46:57] <delusr_> ezmobius: I really need that tracking number
[2013-05-15 12:47:39] <***> ezmobius: can i have
[2013-05-15 12:48:03] <ezmobius> calm down guys im in the car and dont have anything on me this moment
[2013-05-15 12:48:05] <***> that mill is nice
[2013-05-15 12:52:10] <***> too-many-toys
[2013-05-15 12:52:59] <ezmobius> never
[2013-05-15 12:53:08] <ezmobius> these toys make toys for all you girlsd and boyz
[2013-05-15 12:53:12] <ezmobius> want me to have less?

How the f**k can you drive and be on IRC? this was my turning point now I new he didn't give a shit about supplying customers but just wanted my money so he could buy CNCs I had been up for 24hrs trying to catch him and I got this reply I crashed out the the following day just before he left to goto makerfaire I asked him for the tracking number and he told me Rose was now handling it but she was even harder to get in contact with then him and only responded to one of my emails and in that she said she was looking for my tracking number and was sorry for the stuff up. He also told me he stayed at home that day and never got onto IRC but that the parcel was sent and that he would sent 3 hotends to my American customer for the stuff up.

During makerfaire Ezra was completely un-contactable and the week after it was the same upon his return to IRC he blamed shipping for the stuff up well this wasn't a shipping issue it was a management issue he had numerous options to find a tracking number resend the items I even said if he resent the items and the first parcel was to turn up I would paid for the extra items.

On receiving my refund knowing that I still had to pay for the goods when they arrived I asked for the date the items were sent and I was told they were not because I got a refund. They were meant to of been sent weeks prior to this.

So the moral of the story is don't always blame the resellers for stuff ups its the supply chain that causes issues and blatant lies about product being sent when it hasn't only compounds these problems and causes undue stress. Ive posted this here so I can now refund my customers and send them this link and they can see the shit some people have to put up with. I should of made this post its own thead but post here will show not only you guys are suffering. I go the extra mile to ensure my customers are happy. You could say I shouldn't of started to sell the items until I received them but after 2 weeks to assume there going to arrive and being a small business I have to turn product over to make money.

I am so sick of this bullshit the way you treat not only your customers but your resellers and all the lies! Its crap like this that making open source hardware a joke. How can we compete with commercial printers with this nonsense going on.



Edited only to keep the spelling/grammer nazis happy.

Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 04:06PM by Shannon-create3D.

Unfortunately, if you read the TrinityLabs forum (https://groups.google.com/forum/?fromgroups=#!forum/trinitylabs-talk), reppers comments are right on target for this printer, with many others having most of the problems he mentions plus other major issues, and support has been practically nonexistent.
It does not live up to the manufacturers glowing claims, and if the problems are not solved soon, TrinityLabs will probably become a historical footnote.

This is interesting. I actually have bought a few things from them, some have been great, some have flat out sucked.

I was really intrigued by the aluminatus, and strongly considered buying one.

At the end of the day I just thought it was too much money, and was nervous by the few things I bought from them that sucked.

I am sorry to hear some people are unhappy with them, these are very expensive printers.

I will add that when I did have a problem, the support was non-existent until I started screaming via emails, and then I got some help.

I think there are many good engineers (professional or otherwise) who can build a very good printer given plenty of time and money. Unfortunately, manufacturing, selling and supporting bulk quantities to a high standard and in a timely fashion is quite a different thing to building a good "one off", and requires different skills and knowledge. These are usually not things they teach you in engineering school, so unless you happen to have worked in the industry and picked up these skills, the only way to find out is by trying.

If you don't even realise what skills are needed, it is a journey into the dark. This applies to all business start ups really, whatever the field. The realities of dealing with suppliers, putting things in boxes, dealing with customer queries, properly recording accounts, are all things that can overwhelm small businesses. If you are also trying to manufacture parts and do new R&D, then it is simply impossible. Hiring staff means taking time to train, manage and find space for them, so is not a slam-dunk way to quickly expand capacity.

Perhaps for these reasons, 50% of start up businesses fail in the first 5 years. Successful entrepeneurs rarely make it big with their first venture, it often takes several attempts to learn enough to get it right.

A great feature of the web is that it gives access to billions of potential customers. That also means you can get flooded with more orders than you can handle. Unless you are very strict about batch sizes, it is hard to refuse orders. After all, all businesses need cash flow to keep operating.

So unfortunately, the story above will be repeated over and over again. As a customer, the only thing to do is prefer suppliers with an established track record. Don't commit large amounts of money to unknown traders, if you don't want to lose it.

I looked at the Aluminatus web site a while back, and did not get a good vibe. Too much sales hyperbole for my liking, some of the claims barely believable, and too expensive to take a punt.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 04:03PM by bobc.

I too have been waiting 10 weeks for parts I ordered from Ezra. The first order was for glass that I was told would take 2-3 weeks to get, I was fine with that and paypaled him the money directly and expected to wait. While I was waiting I ordered a batch of 20 magma hotends from Ezra and paid for them through his site, the order was supposed to include a sample piece for myself to test out. I received an email saying that a shipping label had been printed may 11th but the order showed only 20 pieces. I emailed their contact, Jeff, about the extra piece. I received one email back from him on the 12th saying that he would amend the notes on the order to add the sample and that "We are working on fulfilling the order currently.", I never received another response from him again. The tracking number shows that nothing was shipped to this day. I have talked with Ezra once since then and he wanted to talk to me about options for sending me my order. I told him to email me the options but that I don't know what options there really are, I just want my order or a refund. I have been very patient as I know how hard it can be to startup a company, the parts ordered were supposed to be the first parts for products in my own store. The fact is that this is way beyond a reasonable amount of time and now I am just worried I won't even get my money back, which I really cannot afford to lose. Now that others are saying they are having problems I am even more concerned

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 05:15PM by jzatopa.

deleted

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 11:22PM by ThanhTran.

I've actually had good luck with TrinityLabs - both with delivery and with support. I ordered a Smoothie controller board which arrived in a couple of days. I also had to modify the source to create a non-Cartesian kinematic solution, and have received quite a bit of help from Arthur at Trinity, both via IRC and e-mail. I guess their mechanical hardware is an entirely different story. Bobc is pretty much on point that running a production business is far different from doing the engineering.
-Jeff

I understand how frustrating it can be dealing with Trinity Labs, and with Ezra, but when my Aluminatus finally arrived, he called when I got in trouble, and the printer is now working very well. When I was having problems with my hot end, he researched the problem, and offered to send me two replacements, overnight. It turned out that this was not necessary, but I was impressed by his offer. That said, he has ignored at least 5 emails in the last week or two. He is perpetually too busy, perpetually working on too many projects at once, and perpetually apologetic. But I do like my Aluminatus.

reprapper, please package up your Aluminatus and I will get you a fedex account number to ship it back to me and refund your money. I've already spent so much time holding your hand that I don't think you will ever be happy so I'd rathjer take back the printer and refund your money then have you upset with the product. Get in touch to make arrangements.

-Ezra

> [2013-05-15 12:42:06] <ezmobius> im so gonna
> buy these
> [2013-05-15 12:42:08] <ezmobius>
> [portland.craigslist.org].
> html
> [2013-05-15 12:46:57] <delusr_> ezmobius: I
> really need that tracking number
> [2013-05-15 12:47:39] <***> ezmobius: can i
> have
> [2013-05-15 12:48:03] <ezmobius> calm down
> guys im in the car and dont have anything on me
> this moment
> [2013-05-15 12:48:05] <***> that mill is
> nice
> [2013-05-15 12:52:10] <***> too-many-toys
> [2013-05-15 12:52:59] <ezmobius> never
> [2013-05-15 12:53:08] <ezmobius> these toys
> make toys for all you girlsd and boyz
> [2013-05-15 12:53:12] <ezmobius> want me to
> have less?
>
> How the f**k can you drive and be on IRC?

"In the car" isn't the same thing as driving now is it? feel free to rip on mne as much as you want here guys as I own my mistakes but I'm a smaller stratrtup and I'm working 24/7 trying my best here which is all I can do. Not as an excuse but the last two weeks have been especially chaotic as upon returning home from makerfaire we foiund a note on our warehouse door letting us know that our shady landlords sold the whole complex and gave all 16 tennants until june 8th to vacate. So 4 people including myself have been tasked with moving not only tons of inventory but many tons of machine tools which has interrupted shipping and support as anything left in the warehouse after tomorrow night will be lost. So take your shots but I pay my debts and haven't ripped anyone off here at all. Read between the lines and show me another printer manufacturer that still refunds or buys back machines months after folks have taken possession and done god knows what with them.

Shannon I have refunded all of your money already haven't I? And i never said you would have to pay for the hot ends if/when USPS delivers them I just said we would deal with it when the time comes.

At this point just keep em for free and we'll just forget about the rest of what we were discussing last night.

jzatopa- I missed the post with your order (all of it) today but it will go out first thing tomorrow and I'llk get you tracking and there is quite a bit more in the box then you ordered to make up for the late shipping but this batch of glass took longer then others to recieve and I have been quite busy here so appoligues but you will have your goods by the weekend If not monday latest.

All I can do is keep going here and try to make up for mistakes but I do own them and make up for them at least while at the same time spending a lot of money on open source development I give to the community withought expecting anything unfair back. So appolgies to anyone unhappy, get in touch and I will try to make you happy or just get the goods out of your hands if you are one of those folks who are impossible to please so there is no ill will floating around.

Sincerely
Ezra

Ezra,

I think we're all prepared to cut you some well-deserved slack, but you have to *tell* us what is going on. Tell us you have 3 days to move your entire operation to another warehouse, and that this will delay shipments. What really concerns people IMO is this black hole of information when it comes to dealing with you and TL.

[groups.google.com]

crispy1 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Ezra,
>
> I think we're all prepared to cut you some
> well-deserved slack, but you have to *tell* us
> what is going on. Tell us you have 3 days to move
> your entire operation to another warehouse, and
> that this will delay shipments. What really
> concerns people IMO is this black hole of
> information when it comes to dealing with you and
> TL.


I think that goes back to what Bob mentioned earlier in the thread about being able to manage all aspects of the business. I see a link was posted from two days ago though I think that announcing what was happening at the top of the move rather than two weeks into the process. It's part of having a small business and many of these small businesses won't be around in the long run (not speaking specifically to Trinity, just in general terms). This segment of business is now at a point where it is going from hobby to full time or at least a larger scale for some. In many cases it looks like inventory management is an issue as are lead times and over promising and under delivering. That's true in many if not all segments at some point, not just this one. When the market goes from enthusiast to more or less a general technology consumer they dynamic of the expectations of the customer change.

If someone buys something, particularly a higher ticket item, and you don't have it and don't effectively communicate any lead and back order your customers aren't going to be pleased. Some can say what they will about Chris Anderson (former Wired now DIY Drones) but his book Makers is a good read and has some basic business tips for those that are starting Reprap based business.

after chatting with ezra, he promised to shipp my parts.
Hopefully i have them end of this month here.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/04/2013 10:39PM by Repper.

""But, EZRA ZYGMUNTOWICZ promised me, in his own words, "this happened in the past and is long time ago. Your printer is going to be shipped at 20.Feb.13" So I ordered at 5th February my printer. ""

I was going to leave this alone but I just can't let some blatant exxageration and non truthiness go un-replied to here. So I will just paste my irc logs of PM's with reprapper about his order and delivery which don't match what i've quoted.

reprapper__2013-03-31_freenode.txt >>
03:09 reprapper_: money is out
03:09 reprapper_: finaly
03:16 ezmobius: cool
03:16 reprapper_: i#ll send rose the reception. but money shpuld be on your account anyway, before prin
03:17 reprapper_: ters ar rdy to ship
03:20 ezmobius: i trust you so will not hold up the shipping if it comesa time and the wire hasnt completed yet. will just get it out the door as soon as its turn in line comes
03:25 reprapper_: oh, i just sent you the receipt.
03:25 reprapper_: thanks ezra
03:25 ezmobius: welcome

And he received his printer on May 15th accoding to him, 6 weeks after payment. The initial batch of 50 printers originally scheduled to ship on Feb 20th was sold out first week of January and his printer is serial number 99 which is the tail end last one out of 49 batch 2 printers. I'd usually just let it lay rather then argue in forums but this is just a blatant huge exageration I felt I should correct at least, I'll leave it at that and let you work out the truthiness of the rest of the post.

The vast majority of the first 99 printer users are happy with their machines and getting high quality prints. I'll freely admit that selling this printer 85% pre-assembled and letting the customers do the last gantry setup and then tuning/calibration was the biggest mistake here. This is why we no longer sell it as a kit but only fully assembled and fully calibrated turnkey at a price point that allows us to focus more time on each printer and not need to handle as large a voilume of units as each printer were talking about here is close to 35kilos of metal and custom fabricated and manufactured parts with significant lead times that can easily get out of control as i've learned here the hard way ;P

I still stand behind this printer and my customers and I'm still here working with anyone who has issues until they are sorted out and honestly have paid more myself for these 99 printers then the 99 customers did because it was a beta new platform with bleeding edge tech and design that needed real world use to be ironed out into a battletested machine. The first 99 customers paid less for the printer then they could buy just the components alone in single quantities as a loss leader because I knew I would have issues to work out on a newly birthed platform. Nothing is ever born 100% perfect without real world user feedback and I had to get that somehow which is why the cost was significantly lower then if it were a completely perfect platform.

I still have seen some of the best FFF prints roll off these printers then the majority of open hardware printers I've built and encountered in person and I am proud of this design. No it isn't perfect yet but are there any perfect 3d printers out there yet under $5k? Or even more money? Not that I've seen as this is a very young rapidly advancing tech we're all playing with here. Just felt the need to express this, back to your regularly scheduled bashing if you must

Thanks
-Ezra

hello ezra,



5.2.13
4:17 me: if i order today, when the printer will probably get my printer ?
4:17 ezra: if you order today you are still in the batch that will begin shipping on feb 20th
4:17 me: perfect
4:17 ezra: so your printer would ship definitively before the end of february


*same day 6 hours later i had trouble with ezras shop


11:46 me: we are trying to pay with paypal
12:09 ezra: hmm
12:09 me: sorry for trouble
12:22 ezra: we can do a bank wire transfer
12:59 me: ill send you in few minutes a mail


9.2 .13
11:18 me: Whats going in with my order. Still have no answer
11:24 ezra: hey there. my fault i have been in bed since wednesday with the worse flu ive had in years
11:24 ezra: and i have been offline and not checking mails


so ezra send this mail to rose in trinitylabs office at 12.2
Rose-

Denny here has had nothing but trouble trying to use multiple credit cards with our paypal gateway and has tried at least a few cards many times and paypal never lets it pass but just redirects back to paypal with no error message.

He hs listed out brow what he wants to buy and I have promised him one of the $1899 printer spots. Can you please work with him to arrange a direct bank wire or figure out another way for him to pay so we can get his order in the system ASAP?

Thanks





8 days later at 20. th feb i got this mail from rose:
Hi Denny,

Sincere apologies for the delay! No worries though, we have you on the list and at the stated $1899.00 price.

Please see our bank info below and let me know if you need any further information from me.

Thank you for your patience and we look forward to you printing on your new Aluminatus TrinityOne Printer!

Shipping will be approximately $200 - $400 but we won't have a confirmed price when we ship.

Bank of America
Portland OR 97211

Phone: 503-275-1495

Routing: xxxxxx
Account: xxxxxx


-------


so i tryed transfer the money but rose didnt sens me a iban/ibac number..
In Europe we need this number and my bank told me to ask for ibac. so i calles in US many times and they gave my 3 different types of numbers.

finally i wrote rose again a few mails, for example this one here:



hello rose,

im trying to send you the money via bank transfer, but i need a bic code to do this (not the swift code).
i tryied already to find out this number of your bank (Bank of America xxxxxxxxx) but its not possible to find the number !
i also called your bank but they dont know (couldnt believe).

please rose, could you send me this number so i can tranfer fast the money ?
best regards

.
.
.
or this:
27.march

hello rose.

i tryied to call and sent mails.
i still need the bic code to send you the money for my printer.

please answer.


or here 28. march ezra via irc:

[i.imgur.com]

finally i made another few calls to U.S , just took one of those 4 iban numbers per luck.
printer arrived here at 15.5. correct.


I just dont understand why you go here with this ?
My problem was not the delay ! As i wrote in the first post here "... and i was happy that my printer arrived and it was very well packed"
The problem is alot of issues. lazy build ezra (my vents from the psu were closed by tape, just crazy !) . and finally a not nice behavior to me like here:


4.6.13
19:55 ezra: i have someone at the door, i will be back in 10 minutes
3:37 me: ezra, should i wait longer now ?
8:58 me: no answer again !

after you made houdini 5-6 times to me .. it was just enough and this was the reason to post here !

best regards

Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 06/05/2013 12:39PM by Repper.

Only one question remains:

Why did you not send the printer back?

> jzatopa- I missed the post with your order (all of
> it) today but it will go out first thing tomorrow
> and I'llk get you tracking and there is quite a
> bit more in the box then you ordered to make up
> for the late shipping but this batch of glass took
> longer then others to recieve and I have been
> quite busy here so appoligues but you will have
> your goods by the weekend If not monday latest.

Ezra it's the 6th and you posted this on the 4th, I have not received and email or a tracking number.

As of last night Ezra has told me that he has already mailed out my first order of glass and that he will refund my money for the hotends I purchased and did not receive today. I will keep all of you guys informed of how things get handled.

I am going to keep this updated so you guys know how things go. Last night Ezra did refund me the money for my hot end order. I have not yet received a tracking number for my glass order but I do believe him when he says that it was shipped out.

Ive got a feeling he is going to take these issues, and learn from them. Ive seen people get overwhelmed when they are just starting out, and sometimes get dejected. With a little tenacity and perseverance, he will hopefully get better at the pre order busisness model.

Otherwise it might be time to wait until product is on hand and fully tested before any sales are made. I hope it works out for all parties involved.

I'm in NZ.
My problems with this printer:

Dead on arrival
Sent email to trinity support - no response ever
Filled out web support form - no response ever

Pulled machine apart and found amateur wiring. Power supply cables fell out of connectors. No crimped ends.

Assembly was difficult as instructions where not supplied. Instructions on web are different and it appearded that I had missing parts.
Missing crews in bed (6) with most others loose. Sloppy assembly work.
Managed to print a couple of test cubes before hot end resistor failed.
No instructions on how to tune it.
Only been able to print a couple of small test cubes before hot-end resistor failed. Been sitting on bench since.

Summary:
This is not a finished "product" and does not have proper support. One must become a nerd and visit forums and irc channels to get support from others.

I can see merit in the design but there are flaws such as the sideways wobble in the print bed.

I own my own company and have been an engineer all of my life and I would NOT recommended this "product" to anyone, especially someone not familiar with electronics or DIY. I will persist as I do see merit and I can fix things as I go but that was not the intention of buying this.

So I just shelled out several grand for a trinity printer and I have got to say I have never had so much trouble with any reprap I have ever used. I am embarrassed to say I still do not have it consistently printing ABS or PLA. PLA is a complete disaster and with ABS it usually gets about 50% complete with a small print and then jams up on me. I have read through this and several other of the forums looking for answers. On my setup the fan just stops turning - and will only start if I give it a flick with my finger like an old propeller airplane.

Would someone who has had the problem and fixed it - please post some clear instructions here - under "Troubleshooting" jammed filament so no one else ever has to deal with this:
[reprap.org]

UPDATE:

hey guys,
in true, there is no update.
Trinitylabs (Ezra) is going on with lying to their costumers.

4 weeks ago, when i started this thread, Ezra made again promises, as you can see here:
[i.imgur.com]
promised shipping date was 5. or 6.6.2013
What happened ?
Nothing. No Answer, No excuse, no shippingconfirmation. Nadda !

2 weeks later i catched him again in Trinitylabs-IRC and again promises:
[i.imgur.com]
promised shipping date was 21. or 24.6.2013
Nothing. No Answer, No excuse, no shippingconfirmation. Nadda !

Everyday i see people in Trinitylabs-Irc looking for Ezra and asking for their paid orders.
But there is nobody at home

Ezra, where is my stuff ?

I will update this thread...
Greetings

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2013 11:01AM by Repper.

I still only have one question for you:

Why did you not ship the printer back?

TL offered, in writing, in public to refund your purchase. That should be a perfectly satisfactory resolution of this saga for both parties.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/26/2013 12:41PM by lajos.

Why did you not ship the printer back?

hey,
again.

I paid 1899 dollar for the printer
i paid 250 dollar for shipping
i paid 520 dollar for costum/tax

who gonna refund me the 780 Dollar ?

Ouch. Make that a double ouch. I didn't realize you paid so much for shipping/customs. Just that would've bought you a really nice printer. Can you negotiate with TL to refund those costs?

If that's not possible, is there no way for you to fix some of the issues just so you have a working printer while you get parts from TL? Your videos show the printer moving, so maybe you could use a different hotend?