Hey everyone Patrik CK here with part 2 of my review of the Monoprice maker Pro 10 mini.
In part one we assembled the MP10, if you haven't seen it I'll leave a card linking
to that video.
Today we will turn the MP10 on and try out a few prints to see the quality out of the
box and explore some of its unique features.
We will be comparing the results to the V2 to see just how much better the MP10 is or
not.
Let's jump right into it by installing the included micro SD card.
Popping in the SD card is straightforward, it’s spring loaded here which is different
from the simpler slide it in of the V2 but like the V2 you insert the SD card with the
connectors facing up.
Not sure why this orientation feels so weird because it’s pretty common with other devices.
Just pop it in and it’s secure, I prefer this setup over the V2.
Next up let’s load the filament.
I was going to use the provided filament but it was too tangled and I didn’t feel like
messing with it so I threw on a fresh 1 kilo spool.
Loading the filmant into the MP10 is significantly different from the V2.
After mounting the roll you feed the filament through this block which houses the filament
sensor, more on that later.
From there slide it into the feed motor which unlike the V2 is located on the vertical frame
instead of on top of the print head.
Partially compress the release lever as you feed through the filament, don’t try to
completely squeeze the lever because it will push the tip of the filament away from the
next opening.
Now comes the interesting part, you have to feed the filament through this tube that leads
down to the nozzle.
You just have to feel your way as you feed the filament until it hits the end.
I’ve noticed a small bump at the end that tells you you’re at the nozzle, that and
you won’t be able to push any more filament in.
I’m not sure how I feel about this setup.
I do like that the feed motor is directly aligned with the filament spool and the tube
makes sure the filament doesn’t scrub against other components but swapping out the filaments
will be more tricky than the V2 since you can’t see how much filament is in the tube.
I’ll have to investigate the best way to get that done.
Subscribe to make sure you don’t miss out on that videos!
Before we turn this thing on let’s remove the warning label from the bed.
It should peel off nice and smooth.
Let’s fire this thing up.
On the right side of the PSU is a large red power switch, you may have to slide the bed
out of the way to reach it.
The position of the switch is a little cumbersome to get to but I guess there’s not too many
other places on the PSU that’s any easier other than possibly on the back.
Just be careful if the bed is hot.
With the printer on we get to check out the completely different UI from the V2, it’s
much simpler and of course touch screen!
But unlike the touch screens on our smart phone this is a resistive touch screen which
means you can literally use anything to press the icons.
It is a little finicky when using your finger so I would recommend using a pen or even the
included scrapper to navigate.
Let’s take a quick tour through the screens.
Move, is the most interesting screen so let’s start there.
From this screen we have the ability to retract or push the filament, move the print head
left and right, up and down, and move the bed back and forth.
The home button moves the print head to its home position at the front left corner of
the bed.
We were able to do all of this with the V2 using the knob in a little more clunky way.
What we weren’t able to do on the V2 is what we find under the Tune button.
This screen helps adjust the printhead to correct for the leveling of the bed.
This doesn’t mean you don’t have to adjust the bed manually, as you may have spotted
there are still dials on each corner of the bed to make adjustments but these are there
to help level the bed and not necessarily to change the height of it like with the V2.
All I did was install one of those bubble levelling apps on my phone, laid it on the
bed and put the bubble dead center.
Then came back to this screen and hit the Auto Leveling button.
The auto leveling process moves the print head to certain spots on the bed and adjusts
the height for any discrepancies automatically, at least I think that’s what’s happening.
Either way you can even further adjust the height using the Close and Far buttons.
Close moves the head closer to the bed and Far moves it further.
What’s really cool is that you make these adjustments on the fly while you are printing!
One thing to remember when making adjustments in this screen is that it won’t take effect
until you hit the check mark and confirm, so don’t keep mashing the button assuming
nothing is happening.
We’ll see this is in action in a moment.
If we back out of the Tune screen and then go into the Preheat screen we are presented
with a few options to preheat the printer.
I like this setup because you can choose the exact temperature you want to heat the nozzle
or bed instead of choosing a material default like the V2, although the model data dictates
the temperatures anyway.
Lastly if we go back to the home screen and go into the Print screen we see the list of
files on the SD card.
I’ve already added a bunch of new models.
Originally only cat.gcode was installed.
Just select a file and it’ll automatically get going.
While the print screen has fewer details than the one on the V2, which included details
like the coordinates of print head, I guess that’s not ultimately very useful.
So narrowing down what info is presented works here.
Plus we have three more buttons we didn’t have on the V2.
Obviously the Pause button allows you to pause and resume a print.
You can use this feature to, for instance, swap out the filament if you want a different
color.
The tune button takes us to the screen we saw earlier to fine tune the nozzle height
while you’re printing, which again is awesome!
If you start a print and notice it’s not adhering to the bed or the filament is too
squished you can make those adjustments on the fly instead of having to cancel the print
all together to make adjustments like you would have to with the V2.
Like I said earlier though those adjustments won’t take effect until you confirm them.
Lastly we have the Cancel button which is self explanatory.
One thing that threw me off at first was the lack of a print percentage reading that I
was used to seeing with the V2 until I realized there’s a progress bar above the buttons
that tells you how far along the print is and at the end it tells you how long the print
actually took, neat.
So now the reason why you probably clicked on this video.
How do the prints from the MP10 compare to the V2.
I used two models to make the comparison, the good ole Benchy tugboat and a model I
made for a future project.
These are both gcode files sliced up in Cura 4.6 with draft quality.
First up the Benchy and the comparison is striking to say the least.
Many aspects of the Benchy have improved with the MP10.
The hull is definitely smoother, not perfect but a lot better than the V2.
Then there’s the improved definition of different parts like the holes for the anchor
and the frames around windows and doors.
The cabin in general is better defined and smoother than the V2, also there’s almost
no stringing across the gaps compared to what we find on the V2.
Again it’s not perfect but for a print out of the box with a sub $300 printer it’s
pretty impressive.
Let’s take a look at the other model.
This miniaturized cityscape of downtown Atlanta is tricky to print due to the constant transitioning
from building to building which typically leads to an horrific amount of stringing between
each building.
But as we can see the MP10 model turned out great compared to the V2.
Just like the Benchy, all of the surfaces are much smoother and it printed much faster
because of the improved print speed of the MP10.
It’s pretty obvious based on these two models that the stock MP10 is superior to the modified
V2.
The special features of the MP10 like the assisted bed leveling and being able to adjust
the print head level on the fly makes this my new go to printer.
I’m not sure if I should keep trying to improve the V2 or wholly move my main project
prints to the MP10.
There’s no harm in trying so we’ll see.
At the same time modding the MP10 will only improve it further.
More on that in the future.
For now I’m going to keep playing around with the MP10 to truly understand it’s capabilities
and discover anything I might have missed in this video or the last.
A link to buy your own MP10 will be in the description.
That’s it for the video, if you enjoyed please leave a like and share so others can
find this content in the future.
Until next time this has been Patrik CK, goodbye.