Elegoo has simply unveiled their first ever coreXY 3D printer: the Centauri Carbon. Elegoo despatched me a unit to judge, so let’s bounce proper into the overview!
Specs
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is an FFF (Fused Filament Fabrication) 3D printer with coreXY kinematics, that are identified for enabling high-speed printing. The official specs record the utmost pace at 500mm/s and the utmost acceleration at 20,000mm/s^2. These are respectable numbers that match what I see from different coreXY printers available on the market.
It has a construct quantity of 256×256×256mm and that has change into one thing of the “normal” for client printers on this phase.
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is absolutely enclosed, with a metal chassis and a shell fabricated from aluminum and glass. Built-in filters minimize down on fumes and odors. An enclosure fan (along with the half cooling fan) helps to control chamber temperature.
As I’ve come to count on on fashionable printers, this has a versatile magnetic PEI construct plate. It’s textured on one facet and clean on the opposite.
Of observe, each the extruder gears and nozzle are hardened metal. Collectively, these make the Centauri Carbon appropriate for printing abrasive supplies, equivalent to these containing carbon fiber. The recent finish can attain 320°C and the mattress can attain 110°C, additional rising filament materials choices.
Software program
Most customers will wish to benefit from the free ElegooSlicer software program, however that isn’t a requirement and customers are free to make use of different slicers if they like.
ElegooSlicer relies on Orca Slicer, which is an open-source fork of Bambu Studio, which is a fork of PrusaSlicer …which is a fork of Slic3r. Unsurprisingly, all of these slicers have the same GUI, with comparable options and efficiency.
I typically discovered ElegooSlicer to be nice to make use of and don’t see any purpose to make use of one other slicer. The built-in profiles labored effectively and the “system” tab offers entry to the printer’s internet interface.
Customers may entry that internet interface from any system on the identical native community because the printer by means of an internet browser. It has controls, print historical past, a reside webcam view (from the built-in digital camera within the enclosure).
Elegoo’s official data doesn’t say so, however I believe that the Centauri Carbon runs Klipper or a spinoff. That’s factor, as Klipper’s enter shaping functionality is unbelievable. Nevertheless, I haven’t discovered an apparent option to entry the Klipper configuration if that’s the case. The net interface seems much like many Klipper interfaces, however doesn’t present configuration entry.
That received’t matter to most individuals, however it’s value contemplating in case you prefer to tinker together with your printer.
Options
The Centauri Carbon has the entire options I prefer to see on a brand new printer. It has computerized mattress leveling by way of pressure gauges (121 factors). It has a filament run-out sensor and energy loss restoration, plus WiFi connectivity and a pleasant 4.3” colour touchscreen. There’s 8GB of inside EMMC storage, which is a lot for conserving a historical past of all of your print recordsdata.
Nevertheless, as a extra budget-friendly mannequin, Elegoo didn’t outfit the Centauri Carbon with all of the sensors you may discover on, say, a Bambu Lab X1 Carbon. I’m of the opinion that almost all of these sensors are pointless anyway, however they are often helpful.
I additionally discovered myself slightly irritated with the highest lid of the enclosure. Elegoo recommends taking that off when printing with PLA, which suggests you could put it someplace. It could have been good if that they had added hinges so customers might merely raise the lid up.
Efficiency and print high quality
Total, I discovered each the efficiency and print high quality of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon to be superb. I carried out assessments in PLA, PETG, and ABS, and it dealt with all of them effectively.
All of my check prints in PLA turned out nice — even when printing at “ludicrous” pace. There was often some very mild stringing and shadowing, however that’s on-par with the preferred printers on this phase.
I printed the identical Buggy mannequin in all 4 modes: silent, balanced, sport, and ludicrous. I might be laborious pressed to discover a high quality distinction between the primary three. Ludicrous had barely poorer high quality, but it surely was nonetheless fairly good. Silent was, sadly, not silent in any respect. To my ears, it wasn’t any quieter than the balanced mode — regardless of taking virtually 50% extra time to print.
ABS additionally labored effectively, although I did expertise the anticipated warping with a big rectangular half.
The one option to keep away from that with ABS is with both excessive adhesion or chamber heating. On this case, the warmth from the mattress and scorching finish weren’t sufficient to heat up the chamber to a excessive sufficient temperature to fight that. So, typical knowledge with warp-prone materials nonetheless applies.
PETG ended up being a little bit of an ordeal. I initially tried printing some older Prusament PETG that I had readily available and it labored, however the high quality was poor. So, I ordered some Elegoo PETG Professional and tried that. The standard was good, however the print failed in the direction of the top.
I nonetheless don’t know why it failed, because the error message was enigmatic and I couldn’t discover any {hardware} points. I attempted once more with the identical mannequin and settings, and it labored tremendous with good outcomes.
Points
That enigmatic error message was, sadly, reflective of a number of the frustrations I bumped into whereas evaluating the Elegoo Centauri Carbon.
To be clear: the printer labored because it ought to have most of the time. Nevertheless it wasn’t fully dependable.
Issues I encountered embrace: file add failures, interface connection errors, the printer’s display screen/management interface freezing, and that aforementioned thriller error.
It appears to me that these are all firmware bugs and that the {hardware} is okay. Elegoo will seemingly iron these out with future firmware updates. However all I can do is base this overview by myself expertise with the unit I evaluated.
And that is nitpicky, however I used to be additionally irritated by the pace mode (silent, balanced, sport, ludicrous) setting. If you happen to don’t wait till the printer truly begins printing, that setting received’t “stick.” If you happen to set it whereas the printer continues to be within the preparation (leveling/calibration) section, it would revert to the default when the printing begins. The result’s that you need to sit there for a number of minutes ready for the preparation to finish earlier than you’ll be able to change the setting.
Value
Info on the official retail worth of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon isn’t but out there. Nevertheless, based mostly on what Elegoo’s consultant advised me, I can say that I count on the worth to be very attractive.
With the coreXY kinematics, the total enclosure, and the entire different options, I might have anticipated the Centauri Carbon to have a worth barely beneath the Bambu Lab P1S. Nevertheless it appears that it’ll truly be considerably decrease than that, which might very effectively make the Centauri Carbon the most effective worth available on the market.
That worth data ought to change into out there on February seventeenth and I feel it would make some waves within the 3D printing group.
Closing ideas
As I wrapped up my testing, I got here away with a agency opinion of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon: that it has superb {hardware}, however unreliable firmware that wants some work.
I don’t wish to overstate that final bit an excessive amount of, as a result of the problems had been rare. And, as I mentioned, it’s fully attainable that Elegoo will repair the bugs earlier than the Centauri Carbon reaches client arms. However it could be dishonest if I didn’t point out them.
And the {hardware} is fairly good — wonderful even, if the worth finally ends up being as little as I’m anticipating it to be.
Elegoo is most identified for his or her resin printers, as a result of their Neptune sequence of FFF printers hasn’t precisely caught on very effectively. However the Centauri Carbon might undoubtedly change that and make Elegoo a serious competitor on this house.
