I3 Omega from Diytechshop

I've ordered an i3 Omega from Diytechshop and am currently getting all the parts I need together so that I can get it up and running as soon as it gets here. I ordered it set up with a .4 nozzle and set up to use 1.75 filament. I also ordered their nichrome heater kit with glass for it.

I've already got a corsair 430 watt power supply and a couple rolls of filament. One of them made in the us, so I hope it's pretty good stuff.

I've downloaded pronterface to run it with.

Anything else I should have on hand to run this thing, or that I will need to set it up? This is my first printer so any advice would be appreciated.

Pronterface doesn't come with the latest Slic3r version. Check for the latest stable version of Slic3r. Or you can try Cura.
Depending on what filament you ordered (PLA or ABS) you will want to have something to help adhere your prints to your bed. Such as some kind of glue, Acetone, or Kapton tape.

The filament I have on hand is PLA.

I just downloaded the newest version of Slic3r and it sure looks easy to use, thanks. I'm going to give it a try.

To get the prints to adhere I was thinking about using blue painters tape.

Thanks for the advice.

Did they tell you how long the kit takes to arrive? I'm also considering ordering this kit tomorrow. Will be giving them a call. I also want to order 1.75mm and .4mm nozzle.

I ordered from them on Feb the 9th and was told it would ship on Feb 17th or 18th. Now it's been pushed back to sometime next week. I tried calling them today to figure out whats going on with part of my order but no one picked up and I'm waiting on a call back. I'll update this thread when I know what's going on.

As an update I emailed and called diytechshop on Thursday. No response yet. Guess I'll try calling them again on Monday, this is starting to sound just like all of the other negative posts I've seen on this forum.

I ordered an i3 Omega from DIY Tech Shop on 2/6 and received it yesterday, on 2/21. That took almost exactly the two weeks their Web page said it would take. I also called them on the phone and left an email message from their Web page menu. It seems they don't answer the phone, but they responded very satisfactorily to my email message, although it took them a few days. Yes, I was worried about sending hundreds of my dollars off into the void to a company I knew nothing about. It was encouraging to see that they updated their Web pages about the day after I placed my order. It seems their new Web page sign-on is not backwards-compatible with existing customers, but the old pages still work.

I want to make some positive comments rather than the negative complaining we see so much. I figure that a small company fighting to be successful in an industry that is on fire with prices dropping quickly and technical improvements being made weekly has no choice but to stick to several critical business priorities. Now, I know nothing about DIY Tech Shop other than finding it on the Net and placing my order. But I figure DIY Tech Shop must put a huge percentage of its labor and cash resources into sales, shipping, and design changes. They probably respond to their phone messages and email every few days. I find that frustrating, but I understand. I am looking forward to building the i3 Omega. I have never built or even used a 3D printer, so it is going to be an adventure.

"They're not that bad really "..says anonymous new user, first post.

I may be cynical, but unfortunately this sort of post is indistinguishable from astroturfing.

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The kit comes with a small amount of Kapton to wrap the hot end, but you may want to buy a roll of tape.

I used Ultra copper RTV to secure the heater to the hot end, on my last printer, so that might be handy.

Some isopropyl alcohol, windex and a can of hairspray to prep the glass.

Make sure your bed is level and your gap is small...

I'll pick up some kapton tape. Thanks for the advice. Luckily I have all the other stuff on hand.

Thanks!

Good to hear everything came through. Still debating on my purchase. I've found another good deal but it's only the 8"x8" build volume. Another round of decisions to make.

Good news! I can retract my comment that DIY Tech Shop does not answer its phone. This morning I called them and the young lady who's voice we hear on their recording answered. She was very nice and helpful. They have all of their 3D printers working full time to print parts, and they have decided to go to ouside sources to keep up with their orders. Also, unfortunate personnel issues resulted in some orders getting messed up in February, and they are working to catch up to resolve things for those customers. Overall it sounded like the company was growing and that they would smooth out remaining bumps in the road shortly.

I was told mine will ship today, so let's hope it does. I'm not seeing a tracking number yet!

I've got a tracking number and they say it is going out today. Should have it on Thursday. They've also fixed the other problems we were having. Things are looking up now.

To me all companies make mistakes, it's how they fix them that counts. As of right now I'm pretty happy with them, of course that's factoring in the fact that their machines are a ton cheaper then most others.

I ordered the same kit in late January. It has mostly arrived. Mostly.

I am not pleased with the service I've received so far. Mostly, it's a lack of communication--I've had to phone them to get any real response. I got the hardware but no plastic initially, without any note or anything. After calling, they gave me the explanation of problems getting something printed and promised to send out the parts post-haste.

I got most of the plastic parts. There are some really irritating design issues, mostly revolving around the curved frame on the Omega. I still don't have a fan mount, and their solution for mounting the electronics is adhesive and a piece of acrylic.
The plastic parts I did get look serviceable, if ugly as sin. They did require reaming (as expected), but I did have to pull out the Dremel to clean up the places for the bushings on the Wade's extruder -- there were blobs everywhere in there. There was some other issues with countersunk bolts. The parts themselves look like they were made too fast to me.

So far as I know, they don't have complete build instructions for the Omega, and check to make sure that you have all 4 Y bushings. I got sent 3 and needed to call in.

Additionally, there (as of writing) isn't a complete listed BOM for the Omega. It's very similar to their I3xl, but the upper/lower supports are different. I also apparently am missing a pair of bolts for the supports (once I figured out what they were for). There's also some clip-like components that I have no idea what they are for.

[i41.photobucket.com]

What I will do for a heated bed myself is put together a Sharpie holder and etch a PCB.

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cfy7
I've got a tracking number and they say it is going out today. Should have it on Thursday. They've also fixed the other problems we were having. Things are looking up now.

To me all companies make mistakes, it's how they fix them that counts. As of right now I'm pretty happy with them, of course that's factoring in the fact that their machines are a ton cheaper then most others.

Between them having production/supply problems and the weather, I waited for something like two weeks after getting a tracking number for it to actually get to me. Getting delayed from supplier problems is one thing, but not notifying people who have already placed orders is irritating.

Friends of mine ordered a i3XL kit from them a few days before I did. They got a box with most of the hardware, but no plastics or electronics. They got a note in the box saying the rest would be on its way... which was just most of the plastics. As of today, I believe they are still missing their Arduino/RAMPS board.

At the end of the day, it's still a Prusa i3 variant at a good price. Pity you have to deal with them to get it.

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wmalloy5
Did they tell you how long the kit takes to arrive? I'm also considering ordering this kit tomorrow. Will be giving them a call. I also want to order 1.75mm and .4mm nozzle.

The hot end looks servicable enough, but the Budaschnozzle 2.0 from Lulzbot fits just fine and it comes fully assembled. I got a .25mm nozzle with mine.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/27/2014 03:38AM by lordofhyphens.

lordofhyphens, do you have any more pictures of your machine? They would be really helpful with my build since they only have that one tiny picture on their site.

For instructions they sent me the ones for the I3X, so they're close, but not close enough if the BOM is going to be different.

I'll get my dremel ready to go, good advice there.

I plan on printing out most of the important plastics once I get the machine nice and slow and keep the ones that came with it as spares.

Have you printed anything yet? How is the quality?

Thanks for the response.

I am still missing parts from the kit, and while I have a tracking number, nothing from the third batch has shipped yet. Luckily for me I have a friend with a thingomatic and the local library has a replicator 2. So mine isn't finished yet. I'll put photos up when it is.

The top-support in the design looks like it bolts to the frame, but there aren't any bolts. M8 bolts are too large for the holes in the frame, use M6 instead (M6x1.0 should be available at the local hardware store).

The X-carriage has some issues: the M5 nuts don't fit in the slots (necessitating either a lot of filing or something).

The only things that are different is the electronics mounts (friend and I are going to take a shot at getting a workable mount on that fscking frame) and the supports, in my experience.

Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 02:18AM by lordofhyphens.

I ordered the i3 Alpha from DIYTechshop last weekend. On this past Monday I noticed it said it was "pre-order". I called and left a message, and sent e-mail seeing when my estimated ship date would be. Never got any response (surprise!). Now it still says pre-order, but they added a line that all printers will ship 10 days after order unless otherwise noted. So we'll see what happens. I'm really anxious to get this and get started, especially if there's going to be some back and forth to get all the parts right.

When do they usually provide the build instructions? When I check on the website it still tells me that I don't have any downloadable orders. Do they only give you the instruction after shipment?

Bruce

Bruce, there isn't a manual odor the omega, and I assume there isn't one for the alpha either.. I called a couple of times and eventually they emailed me the manual for the I3X. Pm me with your email if you want and I'll send you it.

I ordered my kit so that the students I will be teaching in a 3d printing course a week from now would have a chance to build the printer before the course started. I learned a lot about printing from building my P-M i2 and most kids never get an opportunity to do something like that. It would have been enormously valuable to them.

My kit was delivered a week ago (late) without plastic parts. Over the weekend I ran my i2 continuously printing the missing parts so that we could start building on Monday. (Thanks again to the member who PM'd me the parts and manual for the i3x) I decided to throw in the towel when I realized there were several critical non plastic parts missing including the hot end. It would not be a problem if I knew that they would ship the parts to me promptly, but they were not responding to email, so I had no idea if I would get the missing parts on time, or ever for that matter. My i2 was also feeling the strain of running flat out for 20 hours. Y-axis belt clamps warped and slipped as did the (PLA) extruder body. I had to stop and reprint those parts (In ABS) .

In the end I wound up sending my kit back and asking for a refund. I actually got a response within a few days with a return shipping address. I also received a very apologetic note from the owner asking what he could do to make the situation right and offering to pay for return shipping . Despite his good intentions, the opportunity cost has already been paid. The students won't be able to work on the printer next week so I will have to build it myself, while I am backed up with end of term grading and I will never get the time I spent printing the parts back.

I decided to shell out the extra money to order an Ordbot Hadron platform kit from Design Technologies which arrives today. An extruder from NW reprap (who I recommend highly) and an electronics kit from. Ultibots. All of them responded immediately to email and phone calls and shipped the same day I placed the order. Aaron Dale at NW Rep Rap was particularly helpful offering to sell me their electronics package which they don't usually sell separately. Nice to know that there are some good guys out there.

D Wes, I just checked out that machine. It looks very well put together and I love how securely they package it. I feel that diytechshop has a great opportunity right now, and if they can get everything figured out, train their staff and ship out complete kits they'll do well. For their sake I hope they're at a turning point. They've got an awesome price for their kit which is why I went with them, it gets here today so I'll finally be able to see if they're any good or not. I'll be taking plenty of pictures and turn this into a build thread. Maybe it can help some people out since diytechshop does not currently have a manual for the omega. Instead they give you one for the i3x.

What do you like about the hot end from nwreprap? (I tried to look it up on my iPad but it won't open, classic iPad)

I've been researching some just incase the one included (or not included according to several posts on here, lol) doesn't work well. Hopefully they've checked their hotends since the thread came out on this forum.

Hi Cfy7

There were several reasons why I chose the extruder.
First, it is the extruder on my i2, so I know it well at this point.
They use an Arcol Hyena hobbed bolt which has a good rep.
The hot end seems to be a good quality.
They have changed the way the hot end attaches so that it is a collar/plate rather than two screws.
The plastic was well printed and printed to a 70% fill factor.
I can swap between the two printers If I need to.

Hope things go well when your kit arrives!

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cfy7
D Wes, I just checked out that machine. It looks very well put together and I love how securely they package it. I feel that diytechshop has a great opportunity right now, and if they can get everything figured out, train their staff and ship out complete kits they'll do well. For their sake I hope they're at a turning point. They've got an awesome price for their kit which is why I went with them, it gets here today so I'll finally be able to see if they're any good or not. I'll be taking plenty of pictures and turn this into a build thread. Maybe it can help some people out since diytechshop does not currently have a manual for the omega. Instead they give you one for the i3x.

What do you like about the hot end from nwreprap? (I tried to look it up on my iPad but it won't open, classic iPad)

I've been researching some just incase the one included (or not included according to several posts on here, lol) doesn't work well. Hopefully they've checked their hotends since the thread came out on this forum.

cfy7, double-check the length of your Z support rods. I ran into another issue where the threaded Z support rods (reaching from the backplate down to the Y axis frame) aren't quite long enough, and the plastic parts provided would have the wrong angle. They'd be correct for the i3x or i3 Alpha. The simple math for the triangle says the Z support threaded rods need to be around 390mm, assuming a 170mm spacing between the frame and the motor.

I've heard good things about the Budaschnozzle 2.0 hotend, and it does bolt right onto the Wade's extruder. Only issue with it atm for me is that its default filament size is 3mm and the PTFE tube that Lulzbot sells to make it work for 1.75mm filament is out of stock.

While the mounting holes at the top of the frame won't fit M8 bolts, conversation with someone at diytechshop revealed it to be an issue with the cut; they're *just* out of size. They can be redrilled or tapped if you have the tools, they offered to send me a new frame.

This looks like it will be an adventure for a first timer like me. Looking over the build instructions for the i3x, I can tell I'll be spending a lot of time here to try and piece it all together to get the alpha setup. The instructions basically get you through the mechanical setup, then that's it, you are on your own. No instructions on how to assemble the hotend, the heated build plate, running the wires, etc. Just a couple schematics of how things hook up to the boards. Hopefully maybe there are more instructions in the kit.

I'm just glad I have lordofhyphens and cfy7 blazing the trail ahead of me so I can learn from their experiences.

Bruce

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brucehvn
This looks like it will be an adventure for a first timer like me. Looking over the build instructions for the i3x, I can tell I'll be spending a lot of time here to try and piece it all together to get the alpha setup. The instructions basically get you through the mechanical setup, then that's it, you are on your own. No instructions on how to assemble the hotend, the heated build plate, running the wires, etc. Just a couple schematics of how things hook up to the boards. Hopefully maybe there are more instructions in the kit.

I'm just glad I have lordofhyphens and cfy7 blazing the trail ahead of me so I can learn from their experiences.

Bruce

Quite an adventure. If I get around to it, I'll write up a document covering the pre-assembly steps at least, if not a textual description of the assembly. For final calibration, the Lulzbot user manual looks pretty applicable.

The i3xl and i3 Omega don't come with heated build platforms. I'm curious myself as to the design of the build platform, although I've nearly got mine all worked out. Once I get things up and running for mine, I'm going to work on getting a functioning clamp-on electronics mount on that curved frame.

The hotend provided by DIYTechshop is the Little Brass Hotend. It looked very straightfoward to assemble.

Just to keep this thread up to date, I received the kit today. It had a few issues but I called up DiyTechShop and they've assured me they're taking care of it. I've talked with one of the owners and he's explained to me that there was pretty much a production hiccup that resulted in some delays and bad kits. He's assured me that they're doing everything they can to take care of the problems and I know that in my case they are. They've lost money selling me my kit due to the cost of fixing their mistakes, yet they keep fixing them.

I want to keep this thread positive, so I'm only going to mention one of the issues as an example of how they're fixing the problems. One of the issues with the kit is that I ordered the heater bed kit that they no longer offer. It included a glass bed with it, but it sounds like they stopped selling them because they broke too often in shipping. So due to some confusion in their transition it got left out. To fix the problem, one of the owners actually just went out and got a piece of glass cut and ground and is going to overnight it to me.

I spoke with their newly hired manager as well today. He made it sound like the number one thing he cares about is fixing the problems that people have mentioned on this forum.

They've also told me that they're taking the other thread on here about their hot end very seriously and that they're looking into it. I looked at mine and it looks pretty good. We'll see how it works when I push some plastic through it.

Finally, they've told me they will be putting the manual online for the Omega sometime tomorrow. Good news for those of us with these machines, or waiting on them.

I'll update this thread later tonight after I get this kit a little mo sorted out.

Nice, you ordered the LCD as well. I did too.

Thanks for the update.

Bruce

"It included a glass bed with it, but it sounds like they stopped selling them because they broke too often in shipping"

Hmm... I sell Borofloat glass and I have other equipment I make that comes with sheets of large and some small plate glass. Sold more than 1,000+ pieces and never had one break yet (well 1 did chip a corner but was still usable). It's all about proper packaging.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/28/2014 06:03PM by tmorris9.

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tmorris9
"It included a glass bed with it, but it sounds like they stopped selling them because they broke too often in shipping"

Hmm... I sell Borofloat glass and I have other equipment I make that comes with sheets of large and some small plate glass. Sold more than 1,000+ pieces and never had one break yet (well 1 did chip a corner but was still usable). It's all about proper packaging.

Well I know who I'll buy my next piece from!

Had some problems with my set of blue plastics from diytechshop. They overnighted me a new set of black plastics. They look much nicer then the blue and now I have a full set.

One thing to look out for if you're building their kit is that with the Greg's wade extruded body, their design gets rid of the mounting plate. The hot end slips right into the body. The blue set wasn't made to do this, and the black set is.

If you did order from them and are having any problems with your plastics call them up, I'm sure they'll help you out with your kit as well.