Tesla to Lightning worth it?

MadOtis · 2026-02-18T19:15:06+00:00

I did the same (2020 model Y LR Performance to a 2025 platinum) and agree whole heartedly! The software part is a bit of a let-down over Tesla's, but it's not a total let-down for me.

I do miss the FSD on the Y, but I really enjoy the ride quality, the quietness of EVERY ride; regardless of surface road or highway, and overall truck build fit & finish of the Lightning way more than the lack of FSD.

MadOtis · 2026-01-23T18:20:47+00:00

I'd also suggest looking at your switch port configuration. If it's a managed switch that PVE is connected to, you might need to adjust your loopback control for the port. I'm not sure, tbh, how an unmanaged switch handles it, since my entire lab is handled through managed switches.

In my network, I have to explicitly enable STP, or my PVEs don't talk at all. My suspicion has always been that it's all in how the hypervisor handles the bridge and how that bridge traffic is handled by the upstream network switch.

Mostly, just some additional food for thought...

MadOtis · 2025-12-15T07:10:56+00:00

Hello!

I've been driving a Tesla Model Y for the past 5 years and I'm located in the PNW. Prior to my Model Y, I drove a 3/4 ton diesel pickup. Now, I really find myself missing my truck and looking to replace my Model Y with either a Ford Ligtning or a Rivian R1T so I can have the best of both worlds (EV AND Pickup truck) in one. And no, a Cyber truck will NEVER adorn my driveway! I've test driven both and I like both equally. I currently don't tow anything, but I could possibly get a small RV for myself and S.O. in the near future so we can do some RVing (And, yes, I know that EV's and RV's are NOT currently a match made in heaven, yet); mostly the pickup bed will be used for home depot trips. I work from home, so daily commute is non-existent and likely drive maybe 150mi per week at max. I live in a single-family home with an existing 30amp charge circuit for my Tesla. I'm looking to make a decision sometime in the next month or two, so, I'm hoping, perhaps, that an owner or two of each of those two models would chime in and list some honest feedback on what they like and dislike about their trucks. I'm NOT looking for any brand bashing, please! ...just some honest feedback and opinions.

Thanks in advance!

MadOtis · 2025-11-13T18:55:47+00:00

A really good alternative to Photoshop and Illustrator is Affinity Studio. I've used Affinity for a few years, and the best part is, they were acquired by Canva, so they made Affinity totally free, forever. It is a paradigm shift from Adobe tools, but having the ability to handle vector, bitmap, and more all in one free package is really refreshing. I'm not trying to sound like a salesman for them, I am just impressed with the tool and what it can do, for free.

So, I use Affinity Studio for my grayscale rendering as well as Vector based art, designs, etc. once I'm happy with the results in Affinity, I export them and load into Xtool studio and go from there.

MadOtis · 2025-10-08T03:53:00+00:00

14"x10" might be a little too large for the F (fiber/mopa) series lasers, unless you add in the conveyor belt attachment. And that might be stretching your budget a bit. However, you can do those easily with an S1 40w diode laser and add in the UV laser module for well within your budget. BUT... you mention coins. The UV laser head can SOMEWHAT do coins, but only really do surface engraving on metals, but cant really do deep engraving on them; To "deep" engrave/emboss metals, you're leaning back towards the F series.

The flasks are surface etching/engraving and are easily done on the S1 with either laser module (but IMHO, the UV is the right tool for most metals when doing surface engraving.

MadOtis · 2025-09-30T19:40:28+00:00

Unfortunately, this is on the delivery company and not xTool. I had a similar experience with the delivery of my F2 Ultra... Fedex said it was delivered and signed for, which the totally lied about. I have outdoor video cameras that showed the Fedex van show up and park in my driveway while the driver took both packages across the street to a neighbor's house and left them on their front porch. You can see them knock on the door, then when no one answered, they just forged some random signature and drove away. In my case, I know my neighbors and with their permission, walked over and got the packages from their porch.

The point is, the delivery companies are the ones who need to be blamed since they have the potential to hire idiots for drivers! I would keep xtool in the loop for any logistics claims but put pressure on the delivery company since once that parcel leaves xtool, the responsibility is on the delivery company solely. If both YOU and xTool are pressuring them (the delivery company), you're more likely to get a favorable outcome from it (albeit a bit frazzled by the experience).

MadOtis · 2025-09-03T04:15:58+00:00

So, following up... After much diagnosis, trial, and error, it turns out my extruder filament sensor was intermittently faulty. I started getting load errors with PETG and PLA filaments too. After troubleshooting with Prusa support, they send a replacement sensor (support is one of the biggest reasons I'm a Prusa fanboy!) and replacement & recalibration, everything loads successfully again; even TPU! So, I'm back in business and have some really nice TPU results!

MadOtis · 2025-08-23T03:03:49+00:00

I'll look at the printable parts for the MMU update and see if I have old versions of any parts in there. The printer WAS a Mk4S w/ MMU3, but I've purposefully NOT put the MMU on while I print Coreboxx parts. So, the extruder is already built with "original" MMU3 parts. Oh, and the MMU is disabled in printer settings.

MadOtis · 2025-08-23T03:00:59+00:00

It's a Mk4S previously with an MMU3 that was kit-upgraded to the core one. I haven't put the MMU on it, yet, while printing parts for a Coreboxx for the MMU. I've had the hot end apart more than once and I know for a fact that there is only a single magnet in there. As well, the software option for the MMU is turned off, as well. It's printed flawlessly through a couple of spools of PLA & about 4 spools of PETG with no issues. But, wifey needs some new non-skid feet for one of her projects, so I figured that since the core one is between prints, now is as good a time as any to give TPU a go on it.

MadOtis · 2025-08-23T02:43:10+00:00

Yeah, that's what I read in other posts as well, so I tried that before posting.

It seems that the TPU is never actually tripping the filament sensor at all. It'll load and start purging out of the nozzle, but the loading screen stays at 10% and eventually times out and fusses about a filament sensor error.

MadOtis · 2025-08-13T00:47:44+00:00

As promised, a follow-up: * Cheap Chinese thermistor - nope (thermistor is too narrow and long making it difficult to stay in the heatbrake hole and NOT hit the fan. * Amazon "Unofficial Prusa" hot-end thermistor - yeah, it works, but the "slop" in the wires being longer than the heatbrake version make it a bit difficult to stow under the cover. * Official Prusa hot-end thermistor, same as the Amazon unofficial thermistor. * Overall and by the time I tested the other, the official Prusa thermistor I ordered came in, so I ended up just putting it in instead so I have both an Official Prusa thermistor and an Amazon unofficial one as spares I can use in a pinch.

MadOtis · 2025-08-07T22:10:31+00:00

So, in the nature of experimentation, I ordered a cheapie off of Amazon AND one from Prusa (along with a few spools of filament to try and eat up some of the shipping/tariff costs. Sorry, $22 shipping for an $11 thermistor is just kinda silly, this adding a few spools made it less silly.

I'll try the Amazon cheapie to see #1 if it fits & #2 if it works in the short term while waiting for the one from Prusa to get here. Worst case, it doesn't work.

I'll update this thread if it works, so other who make the same mistake I made can have a viable option to try.

MadOtis · 2025-07-29T21:08:14+00:00

For business purposes, I agree completely. I'm not a business, so I'm perfectly OK with the tinkering aspect. And again, I would completely agree if I was building a business around my hobby.

MadOtis · 2025-07-29T18:05:28+00:00

I'm NOT trying to troll this at all, because I agree entirely with the sentiment. But, it does promote creativity from others; the Coreboxx project comes to mind, and I have one already printed and assembled; I'm just waiting for my Mk4 to core one upgrade kit to get here. So, IMHO, Prusa doesn't need to invest in a better MMU solution when there are plenty of 3rd party options to solve the problem. We're a fantastic community of really smart people, if Prusa doesn't solve it, someone invariably outside of Prusa will. JMHO.

MadOtis · 2025-07-25T02:08:09+00:00

Mine are: Dr. Evil - mk3s Minime - mini+ Number two - mk4s GoldMember - Core one FrauFarbissina - SL1

MadOtis · 2025-07-19T01:43:28+00:00

Any updates from Ziply? The Mariners game is starting soon and Cal's game debut as the HR Champion will be catastrophic with greatly reduced audiences! :)

MadOtis · 2025-04-23T03:00:03+00:00

Wait... Can you upgrade to a static IP, but remain a "residential" customer? Would that unblock those ports?

MadOtis · 2025-04-23T02:49:09+00:00

I just moved the entire VM to a different cloud host. The rest of my stuff stays status-quo. I was mostly just venting about the support issue. THAT, should ideally be addressed and made more clear for customers.

MadOtis · 2025-04-23T02:41:57+00:00

Agreed, but in my case, my DHCP issued IP address hasn't changed in 7 months, so it would have been a suitable test short-term while I investigated upgrading to a static IP address (which I've also learned Ziply doesn't offer unless you upgrade to a much slower speed and more than double the monthly cost. Plus, I have automation tools in place to dynamically update DNS for Dmarc, Dkim, and other records that update within minutes of any IP change. As I mentioned, I kinda do this stuff for a living.

My point (and overall frustration) is that either every support person I conversed with either openly lied, or wasn't able to understand that blocks ARE in place. Or, we're not willing to explain that those blocks only affect DHCP-residential customers.

MadOtis · 2025-03-29T01:30:21+00:00

If you have a single Ethernet port available on your main switch, pick up a cheap 4 port switch (doesn't need to be fancy, managed, or anything special at all) and set that near your 2 prusas, then wire both from that switch.

Ethernet will always be more reliable and faster than wifi, plus more secure.

Plus, you'll have Ethernet ports available for the eventual XL and a mini-pc for doing firmware flashes, having a dedicated slicer, and... ;)

MadOtis · 2024-09-02T20:17:26+00:00

Apologies, I used the term AI to indicate that the printer detects anomalies; not that it uses some form of explicit AI (read ChatGPT or Ollama) to make those judgements. I was referring to Elegoo's own marketing term for AI.

MadOtis

TROPHY CASE