Mars 2 Pro: A New User's Anecdote

[plate-of-shrimp]

Hi folks!

I just got a Mars 2 Pro and am setting it up today.  I'm going to chronicle how it goes.  Having gone to ELEGOO's forums, I understand why a forum about these products would be popular and why it's important for the user base to build a knowledge base.

It would be nice that, at the end, some synopsis can be written. It may reveal universal gotchas or other useful things.  Maybe other people will run into problems I do.  

Signed,
Must Get Prepared When Ordering from Shenzhen Next Time

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1. Attached build platform and leveled according to manual.
2. Tested screen according to manual.
3. Loaded rook object from USB drive.

Touchscreen showed 1% for about 13 minutes, and plate never descended into the goop.

4. Cancelled that, went to Chitubox 1.7, which had no preset for Mars 2 Pro, so authored one based on the manual.
5. resliced, saved that, and went back to print that.
6. Same result as 3.
7. Installed Lychee Slicer Free, set the printer to Mars 2 Pro, which _does_ exist in this app, and sliced a model from Thingiverse.
8. Printing that now. 25% in.

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While waiting, realized that "ELEGOO" is "LEGO" with an "E" and "O" tacked to the ends.

[plate-of-shrimp]

9. 53% in it's clear that nothing adhered to the build plate apart from maybe a couple of blobs. I think other ppl had that problem.

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Before anybody repeats anything that's already been posted: I see a number of postings relevant to my particular state.

10. Reading some postings.

[Van Valen]

I’ve found that if I use light supports the model will tear away every time. I’ve started using medium to heavy supports with good success. I also get good results using Prusa Slicer saving it as STL With Supports and importing that back into Chitubox and slicing. Another trick that worked for me was to level the plate with 2 “TWO” sheets of paper instead of the 1 “ONE” sheet mentioned in the user manual. Good luck.

[plate-of-shrimp]

Thanks @Van Valen!

11. Resin settings in Lychee were very optimistic.  Set Base Layer Time to 60s and Normal Layer Time to 8s.

This yielded a successful test piece (a little cube guy).

12. Created a custom piece in OpenSCAD, exported an STL, imported to Lychee, created .ctb, printed that.

Success. Need to clean it off. Don't start without isopropyl alcohol handy!

[plate-of-shrimp]

13. Got the piece off with the plastula, about which I was pleased.  Maybe didn't mar the plate.
14. There is no IPA around here.  For not the first time, I wished I had some vodka handy.  Wiped the piece off, it's mostly flat.
15. Set out for a solar curing.  I wonder how long that will take.

[plate-of-shrimp]

16. Listerine Cool Mint is 30% alcohol and leaves your prints smelling minty fresh!
17. But got acetone, which works better.
18. Depending on the piece, the metal scraper is necessary.

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https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Mz5m7S6...sp=sharing
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1N43OlXC...sp=sharing

It's pretty cool.

[plate-of-shrimp]

19. LCD died, getting a replacement from ELEGOO. Theorizing if I contributed to the failure.

[plate-of-shrimp]

20. replacement LCD arrived. Memory already fades but I'd estimate about 11 days to ship. Below the outside estimate of 20 days from ELEGOO.

Looks like I had a leak in the FEP. Resin was leaking into the same horizontal position where the LCD matrix started to fail. So chalk this one up to PEBCAK, not the vendor.