Sainsmart Genmitsu 4030 review – Unboxing, mods, and first cuts

Sainsmart Genmitsu 4030 Review

Karl here. This will be a long one but I haven’t had this much fun with a product review in quite some time. I don’t consider myself a complete noob with CNC routers but I have only scratched the surface. Learning new things really drives me and being able to make more permanent things is very satisfying. I have some experience with the Sainsmart 3018 CNC router. I had a lot of fun with it but the build volume was on the smaller side so really limited on what can be done with it. I still recommend it as a starter CNC router and as a good stepping stone to get your feet wet and the Genmistu PROVerXL4030 as the next step. I was able to make some cool things with the 3018 and I hope now to take it to the next level with the Genmistu 4030. Before we […]

Ender 3 Pro 3D printer in late 2020 – Build and first prints

Ender 3 Pro review 2020

Karl here. How does the Ender 3 Pro 3D printer stand up in late 2020? The short answer is pretty well. With just a few minor gripes it is a solid printer. According to All3dp the Ender 3 Pro came out in September 2018. Over 2 years ago. It is the successor to the most popular 3D printer: the Ender 3. I usually don’t do any research so I won’t be influenced by other reviewers but I did in this case so I could see what the differences are between the Ender 3 and Pro versions. It has been upgraded to a Meanwell power supply. Better mainboard layout. Wider extrusion for the bed to ride on, which should make the bed more stable. If you have done any research on 3D printers I would say it is impossible not to have heard about the Ender 3. With its low price, […]

Kywoo Tycoon 3D Printer Unboxing and User Experience Review

Kywoo Tycoon 3D printer review

Hey, Karl here. A lot of our readers know I do most, if not all of the 3D printer reviews for the site. I feel very fortunate to be able to review them. It does take quite a lot of time but sometimes a gem comes along. I was fortunate enough to be chosen to review and share with you a new printer from Kywoo. The Tycoon 3D printer ticks all the boxes I have been asking for. Easy assembly Direct Drive Linear motion (Rods and rails in this machine) Smooth filament holder Touch Screen Auto Bed leveling (Until now I didn’t know I wanted this…more on that later) Rock Solid frame There are a few shortcomings and I hope what I am sharing is addressed before the final shipment. I will go into more detail later on. As far as the physical printer I am super happy with the […]

Testing PTFE Tube for 3D Printing

PTFE Tube for 3D Printer

Karl here. I’m back with a short article on some testing that I did on PTFE tube. When I received the Sovol SV02 3D printer it came with some baby blue replacement PTFE tube. It came preinstalled with the regular white stuff that most Bowden style printers come with. I have also been thinking about different ways to use the Retraction Calibration Tool I created. I recommend reading it first to get grounded on what this tool does before going further. I have always heard that Capricorn brand is the best so I purchased some on Amazon. I will test 3 kinds. Generic white, Baby blue Sovol, and Capricorn XS tubing. (Now that I am finding the links to add to the article I see that it is through the Sovol Amazon store. This is just a coincidence.) For the uninitiated, this little tube plays an important role in 3D […]

Sovol SV02 3D Printer Unboxing and First prints

Sovol SV02 3D Printer Review

Hey, Karl here. Back in September of 2019, I reviewed the Sovol SV01 printer. I had a very good experience and still recommend it to this day. Fast forward a year and Sovol is back with a new version, the SV02. The SV02 is a dual extruder single nozzle printer. This will be my 3rd dual extruder 3D printer… The first 2 I did not have a very good experience with. Sovol sent over this printer at no charge for review purposes. I am going to share my experience a little differently this time. Instead of 1 long article, I will break it up into bite-size pieces. In this one, I will share my initial impressions and first prints. The new 3D printers I have been seeing have not been very exciting lately. They all basically have the same features and only minor differences and the SV02 is no different. […]

3D Printer Retraction Calibration Vol II – Calibration Generator Program Release

Calibration Generator Program

Good day. Karl here. It has been a while since I have submitted any articles. I got burned out and my normal day job picked up considerably. I have been keeping busy but not with anything I would share by itself. I will start out with an update on what I have been up to. You can skip to the 3D printer retraction calibration section with the release of the Calibration Generator tool if you are not interested. What have I been up to? First, I have been doing a lot of gaming. Been playing Fortnite, Red Dead Redemption 2, and some other random games. I am trying hard to keep up with my son. Unraid OS. So many things to explore and learn. Docker, VM’s, and storage. There is so much goodness in this OS. I was able to consolidate several services into one box. I had a standalone […]

How to Recover from a Bad Firmware Upgrade on Anet ET4 3D Printer

How to flash Anet ET4 Firmware

Hey, Karl here with a really quick how-to. This how-to is to help everyone who has bricked their Anet ET4 printer after upgrading firmware on the printer. Anet reached out for a review of the ER4 and I recently gave one printer to a buddy of mine and he showed a lot of enthusiasm. I thought it would be interesting to do a review from someone less experienced. I asked him if he would like to do it and he accepted. I wanted to help him with unboxing and initial setup so we fired up a YouTube Livestream. The build went smooth but because the UI is lacking finish I went searching for updates. It is not uncommon to flash firmware, and after a little googling I found updated firmware and was hoping to fix the UI. We followed the directions but the machine got hung at the logo after […]

Virtual Desktop and Oculus Quest Tips & Tricks

oculus quest

Hey, Karl here. I wanted to share some experimenting I did with the Oculus Quest we purchased as a family gift for Christmas. One of the features I was looking forward to was wirelessly streaming VR games from my PC.  It is not officially supported by Oculus but Virtual Desktop allows you to do this. Virtual Desktop is an app that can be purchased through the Oculus store. Unfortunately, there are a couple of steps that need to be taken to stream VR to the headset. Oculus forced VD to remove the emulated VR feature in its official store version. Once it is purchased you can then sideload the emulated VR version through Side Quest. Side Quest is a simple tool that makes sideloading apps easy and has a bunch of demo and games that aren’t in the Oculus store. The instructions are easy to follow on the Side Quest […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case