ThreeDee

05 February 2020

Last year in May 2019, I was gifted by mysterious big box. After inspection, this box contained parts and pieces for 3D printer Alfawise EX8 Upgraded. Finally, now was to great time to build it up.

Mysterious Box

Alfawise EX8 is a clone of well-known Anet A8 printer, and you can benefit from huge knowledge and user base. Also, there is a room for improvements, and I will definitely do some of them.

Building

Content

I was a bit worried with build, but it was easy. Even when there are only two not-so-detailed manuals and one 20 minutes video on YouTube (fast-motion).

Chasis pieces
Chasis done
Before wiring

Chassis with stepper motors took me around two hours to build and the rest - wiring etc. - around another three hours. I was really cautious with the connections as there are huge current going from motherboard to heat-bed and heat-end, but everything was fine.

Before wiring
Before wiring
Before wiring

Printer started without any problem after connection to power end I started with calibration. It took me another one hour, but I was able to print my first model provided on SD card. I’m still not sure, what is it, but it took around 4 hours to print it. I was really surprised with quality of print, even with provided piece of filament and without any special tuning.

Printing…​
First print

Now I’m a proud owner of 3D printer and thinking about some improvements.

Security and other Improvements

  • Use MOSFETs for powering heat-end and heat-bed.

  • Install fused power switch.

  • Upgrade power source to at least 350W.

  • Install Raspberry PI with OctoPrint on printer and power it from its power source.

  • Install WebCam and connect it to OctoPrint