Filastruder KickStarter – Update 1

I backed a Kickstarter for the Filastruder  back in March and I finally received it.

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I have been busy since I received it so I have yet to test it.  That actually turned out to be a good thing.  I received an e-mail from the author saying there was a miss-wiring when they assembled it and it would need to be fixed.  I scraped together a bit of time this weekend and was able to repair the miss-wiring but I was not able to test the unit.  Couple other issues that I had are as follows:

  • I was able to fix the wiring as described by the e-mail from the author.  No issues
  • When I open the box I notice right away one of the leads to the thermocouple was disconnected.  I was able to reconnect it.20130630_145921
  • The leads on pin 2 also popped off due to the motor negative being extra short and me jostling it round (I decided to replace the lead to make it longer).  I was not able to put all three leads back to pin 2 on due to the connector ends taking up too much space.  I ended up soldering all but the heater line together so that I only had two connections to shove on to the terminal. A followup from the author said they are fixing the connectors to use better ones.
  • The 80 mm fan was damaged in shipping.  One of the corners broke off (the piece was not in the box).  The fan is still usable as only one side of the corner was damaged.  See picture.20130630_143314
  • When putting the filament guide together the upper section of the 3D printed part that holds the vertical filament guide broke off.   See picture.  The author responded to my comments with a redesigned part that I will print as a replacement.20130630_143353

So far my impressions are good.  I like what they are doing and its encouraging that they are actively still working on it to resolve the problems.  This is after all a somewhat beta product and I would expect issues such as this.  So far the issues have been minor and have not prevented the use of the thing (only my lack of time).

I will post and update once I get some time to power the thing on and make some filament.  The prospects of this happening this week look bleak since the 4th of July is coming up.