Elegoo has simply unveiled their first-ever coreXY 3D printer: the Centauri Carbon. Elegoo despatched me a unit to guage, so let’s bounce proper into the evaluation!
Specs
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is an FFF (fused filament fabrication) 3D printer with coreXY kinematics, that are recognized for enabling high-speed printing. The official specs record the utmost velocity 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 in the marketplace.
It has a construct quantity of 256×256×256mm and that has change into one thing of the “normal” for client printers on this section.
The Elegoo Centauri Carbon is absolutely enclosed, with a metal chassis and a shell fabricated from aluminum and glass. Built-in filters reduce down on fumes and odors. An enclosure fan (along with the half cooling fan) helps to control chamber temperature.
As I’ve come to anticipate on fashionable printers, this has a versatile magnetic PEI construct plate. It’s textured on one aspect and easy on the opposite.
Of notice, each the extruder gears and nozzle are hardened metal. Collectively, these make the Centauri Carbon appropriate for printing abrasive supplies, comparable to these containing carbon fiber. The new finish can attain 320°C and the mattress can attain 110°C, additional rising filament materials choices.
Software program
Most customers will need to reap the benefits of 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 is predicated 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 an identical GUI, with comparable options and efficiency.
I usually discovered ElegooSlicer to be nice to make use of and don’t see any motive to make use of one other slicer. The built-in profiles labored properly and the “machine” tab offers entry to the printer’s net interface.
Customers may also entry that net interface from any machine on the identical native community because the printer by an online 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 by-product. That’s a superb factor, as Klipper’s enter shaping functionality is implausible. Nevertheless, I haven’t discovered an apparent solution to entry the Klipper configuration if that’s the case. The online interface appears to be like much like many Klipper interfaces, however doesn’t present configuration entry.
That gained’t matter to most individuals, however it’s value contemplating for those who wish to tinker along with your printer.
Options
The Centauri Carbon has the entire options I wish 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” coloration touchscreen. There’s 8GB of inner EMMC storage, which is loads for holding a historical past of all of your print information.
Nevertheless, as a extra budget-friendly mannequin, Elegoo didn’t outfit the Centauri Carbon with all of the sensors you would possibly 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 a bit of irritated with the highest lid of the enclosure. Elegoo recommends taking that off when printing with PLA, which suggests you might want to put it someplace. It might have been good if they’d added hinges so customers may merely carry 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 excellent. I carried out checks in PLA, PETG, and ABS, and it dealt with all of them properly.
All of my check prints in PLA turned out nice — even when printing at “ludicrous” velocity. There was sometimes some very mild stringing and shadowing, however that’s on-par with the preferred printers on this section.
I printed the identical Buggy mannequin in all 4 modes: silent, balanced, sport, and ludicrous. I’d be laborious pressed to discover a high quality distinction between the primary three. Ludicrous had barely poorer high quality, however it 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 nearly 50% extra time to print.
ABS additionally labored properly, although I did expertise the anticipated warping with a big rectangular half.
The one solution to keep away from that with ABS is with both excessive adhesion or chamber heating. On this case, the warmth from the mattress and sizzling 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 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 tip.
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 advantageous 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/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 possible iron these out with future firmware updates. However all I can do is base this evaluation alone expertise with the unit I evaluated.
And that is nitpicky, however I used to be additionally irritated by the velocity mode (silent, balanced, sport, ludicrous) setting. For those who don’t wait till the printer truly begins printing, that setting gained’t “stick.” For those who set it whereas the printer remains to be within the preparation (leveling/calibration) section, it would revert to the default when the printing begins. The result’s that you must sit there for a number of minutes ready for the preparation to finish earlier than you possibly can change the setting.
Worth
Data on the official retail value 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 anticipate the worth to be very engaging.
With the coreXY kinematics, the complete enclosure, and the entire different options, I’d have anticipated the Centauri Carbon to have a value barely beneath the Bambu Lab P1S. Nevertheless it appears that it’s going to truly be considerably decrease than that, which may very properly make the Centauri Carbon one of the best worth in the marketplace.
That value data ought to change into out there on February seventeenth and I feel it would make some waves within the 3D printing neighborhood.
Closing ideas
As I wrapped up my testing, I got here away with a agency opinion of the Elegoo Centauri Carbon: that it has excellent {hardware}, however unreliable firmware that wants some work.
I don’t need to overstate that final bit an excessive amount of, as a result of the problems had been rare. And, as I mentioned, it’s totally attainable that Elegoo will repair the bugs earlier than the Centauri Carbon reaches client palms. However it might 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 recognized for his or her resin printers, as a result of their Neptune collection of FFF printers hasn’t precisely caught on very properly. However the Centauri Carbon may positively change that and make Elegoo a serious competitor on this house.
