New Matter MOD-t Indiegogo launch

New Matter is going to launch an Indiegogo campaign on May 28 for a new sub-$300 printer aimed at the consumer market. They've got a very interesting drive mechanism and have released a couple of videos:

http://youtu.be/pmn9BIwsE1w

http://youtu.be/eqscOkfifoE



It'll be interesting to see the specs when they launch. You can sign up to be notified of the launch at www.newmatter.com.

(Full disclosure: I've done some consulting for New Matter and worked with a couple versions of their prototypes.)

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/20/2014 10:27AM by LoboCNC.

The New Matter MOD-t Indiegogo campaign has launched today:

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/new-matter-mod-t-a-3d-printer-for-everyone

The initial batch of 500 for $149 sold out pretty quickly, and they're moving through the next batch of 1000 at $199 at a pretty good pace. After that it's up to the regular price of $249, which is still amazing for a pretty polished looking printer.

The x and y axes mechanism looks pretty interesting. I'm guessing no bed leveling is required, just a calibration of the z axis height. Also, does anyone know what they are using for the motors? From the animation on their Indiegogo campaign it looks like they are not standard stepper motors and that they could be encoded.

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woolfe
The x and y axes mechanism looks pretty interesting. I'm guessing no bed leveling is required, just a calibration of the z axis height. Also, does anyone know what they are using for the motors? From the animation on their Indiegogo campaign it looks like they are not standard stepper motors and that they could be encoded.

That's right - as long as the table itself is flat, no bed leveling is required. Regarding motors, they will be using DC servo motors with optical encoders for feedback. This eliminates the problem of shifting layers due to lost steps, and the servos are also cooler and quieter than steppers.

Definitely looking forward to getting one of these, though it's a shame it's PLA only (though I understand why). Any chance of the option of adjusting the hotend temp for the more adventurous users who want to try PET, HDPE, or Delrin (I'm pretty sure these three don't need a heated bed)?

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Feign
Definitely looking forward to getting one of these, though it's a shame it's PLA only (though I understand why). Any chance of the option of adjusting the hotend temp for the more adventurous users who want to try PET, HDPE, or Delrin (I'm pretty sure these three don't need a heated bed)?

A lot of the specs listed for the MOD-t (materials, layer resolution, etc.) have more to do with what will be supported by their design store (with pre-sliced models) than with the actual capabilities of the printer. In all likelihood, the extruder will end up being rated for up to ~250C, and there's nothing preventing people from experimenting with other filaments. I've printed with ABS, PET and Nylon on one of the MOD-t prototypes without issue (aside from the warping you get without a heated bed). The controller will accept standard g-codes, so you are free to slice your own models with whatever parameters you like.

One thing to note about the New Matter people is that they are industrial engineers and are very conservative in the specs they promise. You'll get no BS about an X-Y resolution of 0.005mm just because that's the theoretical microstep size.