BIQU Kossel Plus kit

Thinking about building a delta to play with in addition to my Prusa I3. Any info about the BIQU kits. I've seen several YouTube videos with unboxing and buildup but not much else.
I assume that like all the others there's good and bad points.
Anyone build one?

Thanks

Check the Facebook group

Sorry for posting this nearly a year later, but perhaps this info might help others considering purchasing this kit.

Assuming one has some prior experience building and calibrating printers, I would definitely recommend this kit with unreserved enthusiasm--however, the usual caveats regarding the finer points of proper delta machine calibration apply to this product, as well.

Perhaps I shall start a new thread with my personal review of this product, but here's the gist of my experiences so far:

I would give this machine an overall rating of 4 out of 5 stars--I would have dearly liked to give it a 4.5 or 5, but mine came with a 24 V hot end, which unfortunately doesn't work with the standard 12 V supply included in the kit, so I had to use a spare hot end I had lying about. Moreover, the LCD display connector had its pin-outs reversed, an admittedly common and known issue with the 2004 display wiring from many suppliers, not just this one.

A brief note on electrical safety--the kit comes with a very sturdy power cord with fairly thick wire gauges, but the plug is for the Asia-Pacific region (China, Australia, NZ, etc.). Whilst they included a travel adapter among the many generous extras, it lacks a ground connection. I therefore strongly recommend ordering the appropriate universal adapter for your country off eBay--they tend to be quite cheap. Make doubly sure the adapter includes a ground prong, and that it also passes it through internally. As for the adapter included with the kit--use it for its intended purpose as a travel adapter to charge phones, tablets or other small devices that typically don't require an earth ground connection on the AC side.

Another minor quibble is with their advertised print volume dimensions--the bed glass is closer to 240 mm than 250 mm in diameter, and with the hot end they included, the maximum print height at the centre is just a smidge over 360 mm, nowhere near the advertised 380 mm (or even 400 mm on some websites). I'm not sure who is to blame here, the engineers or salespeople for the misleading figures. I was tempted to ding them over this, but then came to the realisation that it's still a very large print volume, and considering the outstanding quality of the prints, I suppose I'm willing to let this one slide.

Mechanically, this machine is top-notch; to this day I remain quite impressed with the overall quality and sturdiness of the build--my printer has been churning out high quality prints for nearly a year now without needing much by way of mechanical tweaks or re-calibration. During the build, there was the occasional bolt whose threads stripped easily, but no matter, they provided plenty of spare parts. Ideally, quality control could be improved a bit, but if it's ultimately cheaper for them to provide slightly lower quality parts in larger quantities, then so be it--just chuck the bad part in the rubbish bin and try another one.

The build manual deserves some praise as well--it's definitely the best 3D printer instruction booklet I've come across to date, and moreover it was completely free of technical errors if I am remembering correctly. Whilst there was the occasional mistranslation or instance of broken English, it was very well organised and easy to follow nevertheless. The pictures could be improved, however, and I hope they have addressed this issue--the resolution was much too low, but they were still fairly legible. Higher resolution images can also be blown up slightly bigger, leading to less strain on the eyes.

I opted for the latest version of Marlin at the time over the older firmware fork that BIQU provided, which might explain why I could never get auto-levelling to work. No matter, I prefer the manual method anyway, but it bears noting that manual calibration of deltas requires a patient and systematic approach. Once completed, however, the results are nothing short of breathtaking.

Last but not least, this machine is both whisper quiet and fast. Add the beautiful print quality and generous build volume on top of that, and it all makes for an irresistible combination at a price tag in the $350 to $450 range.

In conclusion, as stated at the beginning, I give it 4/5 marks due only to the wrong hot end being included with my order. Otherwise, this is an excellent kit that can be put together very easily, and once properly calibrated, it blows several $1000 to $3000 "unbox, plug and play" printers clean out of the water.

Edited 14 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2018 12:42PM by scndctr.

I'd have tested BIQU's customer service too, because that's also to consider. How would they've reacted to your 24V hotend issue?

Good question; perhaps in hindsight I ought to have at least reached out to customer support, but I ended up taking the lazy way out.

That would have also allowed me to compare the quality of their E3D clone to the one I had on hand, oh well.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2018 08:29AM by scndctr.

I have a Biqu Kossel Pro..crappy printer, I threw money unnecessarily .. selling it will be difficult

Quote
kyoday
I have a Biqu Kossel Pro..crappy printer, I threw money unnecessarily .. selling it will be difficult

What issues are you having? They might be solvable.
This machine is actually very solid mechanically given the price point, and the latest Marlin firmware pairs well with the hardware.