The Elegoo Jupiter – let’s give it a review, Hey guys,
The Elegoo Jupiter is Elegoo’s largest resin printer yet, and it’s a big boy.
It has a sturdy carrying handle on each side and trust me, these are needed as this predominantly
metal machine is heavy, and ideally a two-person lift.
Everything about the Jupiter is solid.
Nothing seems flimsy or weak.
The all metal cabinet houses all the peripherals on the right hand side, including the power
socker, a chunkier than average switch and the USB port.
But there’s no sign of an ethernet port or Wi-fi capability.
Something this size needs a permanent home and Elegoo have very cleverly fitted adjustable
feet, so you can level the printer on an unlevel worktop – a sensible and useful feature.
The touch screen menu is large and easy to use, with big friendly buttons that make operation
simple.
The screen is pitched as being 5 inches, and the opening would certainly accommodate that,
but only 3 inches or so of this screen actually displays the working menu.
Access to the interior is granted by a single door, and this would be fine if it opened
fully.
Unfortunately the hinges swing back maybe 100 degrees, which causes an obstruction and
hindrance to those who are right-handed.
The capacious interior is lit by two LEDs which can be turned on or off at your pleasure.
I love this feature as it lights up the black gloom and helps you see how your print is
coming along.
Build volume is the name of the game here and Elegoo gives us plenty, with an impressive
print height of 300mm, and very nearly the same in width.
For that, of course, we need a big build plate and this metal monster has two carry handles
for good reason.
You can lift it with one hand, but you certainly don’t want to drop something this heavy,
and attaching the plate to the Z Arm can be fiddly thanks to this bolt and washer arrangement.
The Z Arm is certainly built for the task, looking wholly industrial.
It rides quietly and smoothly on a high-quality ball screw, and uses four sliders to provide
stability on the dual rails.
Levelling the build plate is a strange affair and one I personally don’t enjoy.
It’s the standard paper method, using the instruction card which comes with the printer.
Loosen everything, drop the plate, then carefully adjust these hex bolts until they’re snug.
Don’t overtighten as you might just push through the screen below.
And when all four are snug, tighten this lever.
It does work, though it made me feel a little uncomfortable.
But I’m sure it’s just a case of getting used to it.
The metal resin tray has this strange addition is to incorporate this weird contraption.
It simply replaces the lid of an ordinary resin bottle and with a gentle push and twist,
locks smartly into place, creating a resin autofill system.
And I like the simplicity of this affair.
With the tray primed with resin and a print underway, it’s easy to add the auto-fill
bottle, which trickles in maintaining a constant level.
After 16 hours of printing, this was the resin level that I found, which for me was excellent,
proving that the system works.
Simple is sometimes best, and it shows here.
Inside the cabinet there’s also a USB port which for a moment had me quite excited.
However, it’s purpose is to run this carbon-filled air purifier, helping to reduce offending
resin odours.
Unfortunately I’m reliably informed that this port has a very low current rating and
under no circumstances should you plug anything into it other than the provided air purifier.
Plug in your phone charger for example, and you might just blow the circuit board powering
your printer.
Now this is a great shame as Elegoo missed an opportunity here.
This printer is much too big for my normal workspace and had to be homed in my garage,
which is very cool, certainly nowhere near the mid-20’s Celsius that resins typically
print well at.
So I had to fit an internal heater.
Now this one was sent to me, free of charge, by Peopoly, who sell it for their printers
and it works great, but it’s hard to find if you want to buy one.
So come on Peopoly, make them available, eh?
Why of why didn’t Elegoo put more current to this USB socket and maybe give us the option
of an internal heater instead of an air purifier?
The heart of this printer is a 12.8 inch, 6K LCD monochrome screen.
This is the biggest K-resolution I believe Elegoo offers at the moment, and if my maths
is correct, it should give us a printing resolution of around 50 microns, which is comparable
to the Mars 2 or the Saturn.
Elegoo provide a ChiTuBox Pro license with every purchase, but the printer is compatible
with third party slicers, if ChiTuBox isn’t your thing.
For print testing, I used the Elegoo Standard Grey resin, and stuck with 0.05 layer height
and no anti-aliasing.
The prints came out well, adhering without issues to the plate.
Small prints are quicker to do than tall prints, so that was my preference, and detail shone
through as well as you’d expect from a 50 micron printer.
I loved this miniature by Printed Obsession and for the fun of it, decided to scale it
up.
I cocked up a couple of supports, but it came out brilliantly.
So what are my thoughts on the Elegoo Jupiter?
It is a capable, large volume printer.
It’s not the biggest on the home user market.
For that I think we have to look at the Phrozen Sonic Mega 8K, which prints 100mm taller.
But that of course costs $400 more, so Elegoo maybe aren’t competing, but aiming instead
for customers with smaller needs.
The construction of the Jupiter is excellent, almost fully metallic and very robust.
The plate is a little awkward to fit, but with practice it would get easier.
I love the addition of the lights, the air purifier will please many, and the adjustable
feet are a great touch.
I think the resin autofeed system is excellent.
It’s simple and it works, with no concerns of overfilling or running low on long duration
prints.
It’s not something I personally will use, as I like to stir my resin every four hours
or so to prevent separation.
And again this is something we’re missing.
Autofeed is great, but without something to autostir the resin, we still need to manually
keep an eye on things.
But who knows what future features will bring.
The prints are good and detailed.
I can’t claim to be overwhelmed as it’s a 50 micron printer, and we’ve already seen
35 micron printing from Elegoo with the Mars 4K.
And of course Phrozen’s Mega 8K has a resolution of 43 microns, so it’s more expensive, yes,
but it gives bigger and just that little bit more detailed prints.
So yes, the Jupiter is big, though not the biggest, and it prints well, but not the best.
However, it’s construction is excellent and it’s pricing is more affordable and,
critically, I suspect that Elegoo are up to something very very clever here.
If we look at their website, we see that Elegoo are making a big deal about how easily and
quickly the Jupiter can be taken apart and reassembled.
And look at this, “Then you can easily upgrade the Jupiter with the expansion kits (you can
increase the height of the Z-axis to 500mm for example).”
Expansion kits?
Easy assemble a disassemble?
If you can increase the print height, I’d be willing to wager that Elegoo may soon be
releasing an 8K screen of their own, and maybe even 10K as time goes on.
Maybe the USB port can be upgraded and a heater fitted.
Maybe this 5 inch space is intended for more than just a 3 inch screen?
So every time there’s a leap in printing quality, you could just buy the upgraded part.
Imagine that.
That should be a lot cheaper than buying a new printer each time.
And theoretically, if my speculation is right, that is a very, very clever concept and makes
the Jupiter a printer to look at more closely.
So how would I sum up the Elegoo Jupiter?
I’d say it prints as well as the Saturn, but it’s better built and prints much, much
bigger.
And maybe, just maybe, it can be expanded to something even more impressive.
And on that thought guys, that’s the end of this review.
So take care guys, and thanks for watching.