The Moai was attractive to me for a couple of reasons. First and foremost because while I have enjoyed the Wanhao D7s they are not as dependable as I would like. Second, because of the positive reviews from its small but enthusiastic user community. Third, for the price point. Fourth and finally, because the laser spot size of 67um.
Following is a brief review of my experiences with this printer in three sections: the kit experience, design and component quality, and finally operation.
The Kit Experience
I was not sure what to expect from this kit but was very pleased by the experience. The parts were all clearly labeled and the instructions were relatively easy to follow though I strongly recommend augmenting them with this video guide. A five hour assembly is promised but I did not expect that to be the case (for me anyway). It probably ended up taking me ten hours which is more to my slowness than anything to do with the kit. I have subsequently read a post where someone actually beat the five hour estimate on a first build!
I think the printer looks good against a background of Ultimakers! I don't have much else to say about the Kit Experience. It was a pretty straight forward process and proof was in the pudding after doing a test print almost straight out of the "box".Design and Component Quality
It is not fair to compare my Wanhao D7 experience with the Moai given the price difference but I will anyway with that caveat. As you would hope the Moai is a world apart from the D7. I would put the quality of the printer closer to that of my Ultimakers than I would to any of the three "clone" printers that I have owned. One major difference to the D7 is that people seem to be able to reliably share profiles for resins as there is not the wild variability between lasers as we see between UV LED arrays. This suggests a tighter attention to quality control for the Moai components in general.
On the hardware side, the frame is solid and further stiffened by the exterior plexiglass panels. Everything seems to be well designed and well engineered to fit together to provide a sturdy and rigid structure. The enclosure does, however, seem to be a fair bit larger than it needs to be for the size of the components stuck inside of it! This all adds weight which goes to my first concern about the Moai.
Leveling the printer is slightly complicated by the process that starts with "turn the printer over"! This is a printer, btw, that weighs nearly 20 kilos. I am not sure how the leveling process should be done but it feels, to me at least, that this is a distinct area of improvement for the Moai.
On the hardware side, the frame is solid and further stiffened by the exterior plexiglass panels. Everything seems to be well designed and well engineered to fit together to provide a sturdy and rigid structure. The enclosure does, however, seem to be a fair bit larger than it needs to be for the size of the components stuck inside of it! This all adds weight which goes to my first concern about the Moai.
Leveling the printer is slightly complicated by the process that starts with "turn the printer over"! This is a printer, btw, that weighs nearly 20 kilos. I am not sure how the leveling process should be done but it feels, to me at least, that this is a distinct area of improvement for the Moai.
Operation
Operation of the printer is very straightforward. You insert an SD card, click on print, select a gcode file generated by Cura, and you are off to the races. Beautiful print on the way.
This is, of course, unless you are switching resins and want to change the laser setting. You have to do this via the firmware menu? Wtf? Why does this not come to the printer as temperature on gcode is beyond my paygrade to understand at this time though I have asked on the forum. This is not at all a show stopped it just adds a cumbersome step to your workflow that does not need to be there.
The bottom line is that the firmware that drives the Maoi is not as advanced as the hardware. Don't get me wrong, it works and seems to work well, it is primitive! The above is the biggest example but there are other things that could be improved:
My first wish, as stated above, would be for the laser power to be adjustable via the gcode print stream. Extruder temperature? And while that is being done do the same for the other settings that are adjustable and have an impact on print quality
My second wish would be to have an estimated print time displayed
Third wish would be for the knob to be reversed so that turning it clockwise results in a change up...as I believe is standard with most things?
Fourth is to add a menu for printer action controls. Home, Print Position, Peel (Up and Down), Peel (Leave Down), Jog Platform Down, Jog Platform Up.
Finally, given the above, a whole new menu structure would be nice! Maybe three main items, "Print", "Setup", and "Control"?
My first wish, as stated above, would be for the laser power to be adjustable via the gcode print stream. Extruder temperature? And while that is being done do the same for the other settings that are adjustable and have an impact on print quality
My second wish would be to have an estimated print time displayed
Third wish would be for the knob to be reversed so that turning it clockwise results in a change up...as I believe is standard with most things?
Fourth is to add a menu for printer action controls. Home, Print Position, Peel (Up and Down), Peel (Leave Down), Jog Platform Down, Jog Platform Up.
Finally, given the above, a whole new menu structure would be nice! Maybe three main items, "Print", "Setup", and "Control"?