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Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 3rd, 2018, 12:52 pm
by LePaul
A while ago, I was approached by Geeetech to take a look at their 3D Printers.

First, I am fascinated at the spelling of their name...so many E's!

Like most Chinese printers, it's largely a direct copy of something else...in this case, the Ender 3 (something I would be interested in checking out)

That said, they offered me a small discount from the $199 price tag to purchase one, try out and review.

It arrives next week and I am curious to see what it can do.

Print Volume is about the size of the Ultimaker (223 x 223 x 205 mm)...the A10 is 220 x 220 x 260

I'm curious if anyone has toyed with one yet? This one has a touch screen and wifi,

I'm hope the build quality is good.

Here's the link to Aliexpress for the make/model I picked up: https://www.aliexpress.com/store/produc ... _6047561.8

As my friend Tim Hoogland at TH3D mentioned to me recently, the frustrating thing with these printers from China is what is displayed on the order page can vary drastically from what you actually receive. He has purchased the same model printers a month apart and each have a wide variety of differences. Different setup of the rollers on the bed (staggered versus parallel), different hot ends and so on.

But at $199, it's pretty impressive to see where we are at the scale and size of printers in this price range from a year ago.

A year ago, a $200 printer would be a 4 inch by 4 inch print bed, no heated bed and probably something more of a novelty than a serious printer.

I'll let you guys know!

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 9th, 2018, 9:18 am
by LePaul
Got the A10 unboxed and setup

A fairly simple affair, although a few things weren't well described...such as the z bearing/z screw guide that goes up top and how to secure the ribbon cable that goes from the controller to the 20 x 4 LCD screen.

The controller knob is a problem, it takes a lot of turns (5 or more) to move on level in the menus. So...setting the temps manually won't be a lot of fun with the stock firmware!

The bed surface isn't much to write home about. The glass bed is glued to the aluminum heated bed, so that'll be fun to pry apart to upgrade

With the electronics incorporated into the frame, it has pros and cons.

Pro... printer takes less space
Con... Getting access to the bed leveling knobs can be a challenge

I tend to run multiple skirts around my parts so I can crank the bed leveling knobs up and down as needed. With the electronics under the bed, it's tough to access the rear knobs.

It has a single Z screw and I checked the X gantry to make sure it was level, measuring the distance from x-gantry to bed. It looked good

The test print included on the SD card...and it takes full size SD cards (yay!)...is a dog test print. It sets the bed to 50C and PLA temp to 210. I found 50 to be too cool and I had part of the print lift a bit on the front.

But over all, a decent print.
a10.jpg
I'm going to upgrade the firmware with the Unified Firmware TH3D offers (and supports the A10)...that should resolve a few things

The print head has a mount for an auto bed leveling device, which I intend to use. TH3D is working on support for it (XY offset, etc).

The bed was a challenge to level and I wish this 4 point leveling would mimic the Ultimaker's 3 point leveling. It seems the rear of the bed is never quite right. When it is right, the center is too far from the nozzle.

More soon!

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 9th, 2018, 4:51 pm
by Roberts_Clif
Where can I download the Dog.

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 9th, 2018, 7:06 pm
by LePaul
Not sure, I just have the gcode on the SD card

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 12th, 2018, 1:43 pm
by LePaul
Well...problems galore...

1) Bulge showing in one section of print, seems to indicate something is up with the z screw

2) Controller knob sucks. Dozens of turns to move through the menu items one by one. I'll have to remove the knob and see if that's any better.

3) Back cover for one of the rails came off in shipping. Not a big deal....just ugly.

4) Can't seem to connect via USB. Two different laptops, two different cables...right port, right baud rate..I mean, I've been connecting to printers for years. This one has something awry with it.

Worth $199? It's not looking like it. QA issues for sure.

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 14th, 2018, 9:31 am
by LePaul
Well Geeetech's initial enthusiastic response to repair the printer has suddenly gone silent...so much for customer service

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: November 21st, 2018, 2:52 pm
by LePaul
Well....here's the latest


Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: December 28th, 2018, 3:31 pm
by LePaul
Where do I start...it's been a few weeks...

They sent me some parts...a replacement motherboard, a lead screw/z screw, 3D Touch (rip off of the BL Touch), their wifi module and various washers and v slot wheels.

I took the printer apart and removed the bent lead screw The coupler was mashed too. I replaced the coupler with a much better model but it was significantly wider, so I had to grind the z motor aluminum mount. That's how the motor attaches to the frame. The set screw in the wider coupler also touches the x gantry, so the dremel cut out a section of that. The replacement lead screw was a lot taller...about 2 inches sticks up over the z brace now.

Firmware was upgraded...somehow the USB port on the board is working now (all I did was press the various components of the motherboard to verify everything was secure) It took a few tries and different versions. I had some Geeetech versions that would allow the movement on XYZ via the printers menu just fine. But connect via usb and move XYZ...then the thing was bashing and crashing into end stops. Thankfully a savvy firmware person was on one of my live streams and offered up a newer, better version. Alas! The thing seems to be working!

The z bulge on prints re-appeared and it seemed to be related to the v slot wheels being too tight against the frame, making the rolling upward too hard, thus the problem area once the wheel was able to turn. Adjusting the eccentric nut was the cure.

Since we were on a streak of good luck, i installed the 3d touch and the A10 has the connection built into the print head. Just plug it in Mount is already there too. Just setup the z offset and off you go.

Conclusion....the Geeetech is a pretty terrible printer. A simple test print at the factory would've shown this printer had problems. Support is largely non existent. I got the parts I received only by being persistent, even when bounced from person to person...the same people who couldn't wait to sell me a printer...but when I had issues, "that wasn't their job".

Did I just get a lemon? Many get these cheap printers and they work fine. But many have issues and I see their Facebook posts hoping for assistance.

And that's the rub. Everyone wants to pay as little as possible. Quality comes with cost and it seems not on the minds of most buyers.

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: December 28th, 2018, 9:50 pm
by GrueMaster
Welcome to the Walmart of 3D printing. I've seen people complain about the cost of a Raspberry Pi when suggesting using one for remote printing and monitoring.

So far, I have been happy with both of my 'cheap' Chinese knock-offs. They have given me exactly what I expected, and Hictop has been very supportive when I have had issues outside of my own screw-ups.

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: May 24th, 2020, 12:45 pm
by lonniemph
Geeetech A10 3D Printer is a good one and it's similar to the 3d printer AnyCubic Photon UV LCD which is a very popular when it comes to 3d printer for miniatures as it mentioned here https://replicatorwarehouse.com/best-printers-for-miniatures/

Re: Geeetech A10 3D Printer

Posted: May 24th, 2020, 3:57 pm
by LePaul
Well apparently some feel I was asking too much of Geeetech for the thing to work out of the box?

I’ve been seriously amazed at the response. Many people who had a similar experience as mine are disappointed at the fan boy mentality of some posts. I mean, had the machine I got been at least powered on a tested, the failures would have been pretty obvious.

Have they improved? Did me and others get the random lemon?