I purchased my A30T from the Geeetech Online site back in February 2021. The unit was quickly shipped and I received the unit here in the US about a week after ordering the product. The unit was badly damaged in shipment but Geeetech made everything whole for me minus the fact I had to completely disassemble the printer to replace the damaged platform (box that houses the electronics, display, bed, etc.). In the end the product was up and running within a few weeks and I started to evaluate and see what kind of results this printer would yield.
I was familiar with Geeetech since I had purchased the Geeetech I3 Pro back in March of 2016 (yes, I am a repeat customer!) The I3 Pro works great and it only needed one mod to get really good printing results (I added the Z-axis isolation buffer to the unit). Knowing the I3 Pro printer but I wanting a larger print area, the A30 series seemed to be the choice of my next purchase. The only option was do I purchase the single extruder or the T version that supports color mixing from three extruders. My option was the T version.
I stuck with the recommended Cura slicer for the A30T and used the Geeetech Facebook group and this forum to help me get up to speed on this platform using the recommended slicer. What I found was this platform has a much steeper learning curve than my I3 Pro. Stringing and plate adhesion were the two biggest issues for me to overcome. The adhesion issue was overcome by using hair spray much as I had been doing with my I3 Pro. I did purchase the Geeetech “super plate” with the printer but honestly this seemed like eggs on the Teflon frying pan; filament did not stick! I used hair spray on the super plate and then all was good. Using hair spray on the stock plastic build plate would probably do just as well as the super plate. After a year of using the super plate I’ve found only a small amount of hair spray is required on the super plate to help with adhesion, in fact I only spray on the plate perhaps once every 10 or so prints.
The stringing issue with the printer was not as easily solved. Not getting good results from the Cura slicer, even with all the great inputs from Bruce Greenleaf via the Facebook group, I decided to split from Cura and give Prusaslicer a try. After a month using Prusaslicer, my print results were improving. While not quite up to the I3 Pro, printing results were getting better. The Prusaslicer forum and help files were so much better than Cura and questions raised on the Prusaslicer forum were answered very quickly. I was sold; Prusaslicer is a superior slicing engine for use with the A30T. On top of being a great slicing machine, the tool is free!
I was still getting minor stringing hairs on prints even while using Prusaslicer but much reduced from Cura slicing. So I scoured the internet looking for solutions and eventually I found an A30T user on Thingiverse that came up with a solution to reduce stringing. It seems the stock Bowden tubes lengths don’t transfer all the retraction/detraction movement set in the slicer to the filament(with any Bowden tube 3D printer you have to have a little pull back of the filament prior to nozzle movement to another area to prevent oozing which is the cause of stringing). In fact you can see this on the stock printer, the Bowden tubes move when the extruders retract and push back the filament, which transfers to less filament movement than intended. The solution is to shorten the Bowden tubes which means you have to move the extruders. I made the necessary modifications to my A30T printer to implement this change and stringing is now virtually eliminated. I also added angled supports for the Z-axis (a 420mm long Z-axis will wobble ever so slightly during large vertical printing so adding this brace eliminates this issue).
My conclusion of the A30T printer, after burning through about 11kg of filament is;
• This printer, taking into account print volume (size) and cost, is a great value for the money.
• This printer has a steep learning curve and not recommended as a first 3-D printer.
• Geeetech customer support on replacement of damaged goods is great.
My thought to Geeetech for improvements to the printer and support structure for this printer
• Many A30T users have complaints logged on the Geeetech forum site but very little official Geeetech responses are given. This is a problem if
Geeetch expects to keep customers.
• Auto tuning the hot end is not supported in firmware, a major drawback. I’ve seen my hot end vary by +- 2C which is unacceptable.
• Marlin firmware supports M301 command for Auto Tune. Geeetech should investigate implementing this support in the Smartto firmware OR
create a Marlin firmware update for the A30T (many users have asked for this).
• Could stringing issues be resolved by using a smaller diameter nozzle, perhaps a 0.3mm vs the stock 0.4mm nozzle?
• Color mixing results aren’t true. My thoughts of mixing was the colors would actually be blended together to create a new color on the bed.
My results are more of brindled pattern with one edge of an object having more of one color than another edge. Could this be resolved by
adding a second heat block fan where the touch sensor is located? This would then keep the entire hot end at a uniform temperature verse the
stock set up where the fan only cools one side of the hot end heat block.
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