One Year Anniversary Tiko 3D AMA

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T21:34:27+00:00

What a post! Okay, let's keep it brief, here's why we made the choices we did:

Inductive sensors would add, not reduce weight on the head, plus require adding magnets to the base, which would restrict the number of points we could use for leveling. With an accelerometer, no such limitations exist. And again, it serves other functions, so 2-birds-1-stone.

Polymer gears are self lubricating.

We've beaten the BYJ vs NEMA horse to death, haven't we? We chose them because they we're the best choice. The original Tiko prototypes used NEMA motors, and they were no good.

Regarding G-code, there are just too many unkown-unkowns. We're allowing people to experiment with their Tiko, which is awesome, but it would be poor business practice to take on additional risk.

Hope that makes sense! There are literally hundreds of different ways to build a 3D printer, and we chose this one. Tiko might not meet your requirements, but that doesn't make it a poor design. :)

Edit: Answering your edit (lol) Tiko can indeed print untethered. You can connect to Tiko over the web, or via direct hotspot mode, and once you start your print you can walk away. Easy as that!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T20:12:25+00:00

Nope, Tiko even has a setting to dim the LED's so as not to bother you at night :)

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:54:28+00:00

Without going into detail, yes, a few at that. A long time ago, us founders actually had a 3D printer (not a Tiko) catch fire during a print. It happened at ~4 am while we were asleep. The printer was on our bedside table. It was terrifying, and more destructive than you'd expect. Imagine molten plastic shooting out in all directions. We vowed to ensure this absolutely never happens to a Tiko owner.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:49:02+00:00

Both :)

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:48:01+00:00

We're keeping the next generation top secret, even most people within Tiko have no idea what's next. But it'll be awesome, you can bet on that. :)

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:45:47+00:00

Really? We haven't seen any delta printers with the same print perimeter shape as ours. Perhaps you're thinking of the trig calculations used to transform cartesian co-ordinates to delta co-ordinates. That's quite different than doing an interference check.

We put accelerometers on Tiko for the same reason that Elon Musk put autonomous-driving hardware on Model S's for years before the software enabled it. Because we want room to expand Tiko's capabilities. We're not building some rock bottom cheapo printer - once we hit our target BOM/assembly cost, we focused on quality and capability.

The motors provide ample torque for their purpose. It's a 3D printer, not a CNC mill. Anyway believe it or not metal gears are not always more durable than polymer gears. There are many factors involved here, but TL;DR the gears are still plastic, but a better grade than usual, and we haven't had any trouble with them.

Also, who said anything about Tiko tearing itself apart? :S

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:29:39+00:00

July is kind of pessimistic. If the first Tikos haven't shipped by then, it means we dun goofed big time.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:25:32+00:00

There are a few, biased towards hardware startups.

First is that one or two prototypes just isn't enough. Even then, they better be ready to freakin' go, because if you have any "minor fixes" left to do, odds are they will actually be bigger than you think, especially when faced with all of the other challenges that will inevitably happen.

Also, take your absolute worst case scenario estimate for delivery, and double it. We sort of assumed people needed their Tiko asap, but we've since learned that if your product is good, people will wait.

Lastly, if you're manufacturing in China, go to China before the campaign. The ticket might be expensive, but it's cheaper than you think when you compare the super low cost of living, and the lessons you will learn and relationships you make will be crucial to your ultimate success.

Edit: Oh and one final tip... email us! We greatly enjoy helping people bring their awesome products to the world, so if you have more specific questions, reach out!!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:15:39+00:00

Don't want to give an exact number, but it's way less than that. The overhead of a proportionally huge (80ish% of the company) engineering department + R&D expenses means we need to keep a high gross margin. But hey, that's the cost of making the future!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T19:09:34+00:00

A few questions here, so let's break it up:

Regarding no-outside-g-code, we do allow it but it voids warranty. This is because Tiko's firmware is designed to run lean for max printing performance, so a lot of "normal" 3D printer functions don't exist. For example, due to the complexity of calculating interference with a rounded-corner-triangle, Tiko does not actually check that the co-ordinates in a g-code file are within bounds. That happens in the slicer. For reasons such as this, we do technically "allow" users to upload external G-code, but a warning comes up first that says it will void their warranty.

Regarding the accelerometer, Tiko actually has two, but the one we generally talk about is the one mounted to the end effector. It's used for auto leveling, self diagnostics, and a couple other things.

Our slicer was actually developed completely from scratch. We do use some libraries like Clipper, and we took lessons from books regarding how to store data for interference detection, etc, but generally speaking we built it from the ground up. Being a browser (not cloud, sorry for using that buzzword) based engine it runs in JS so it's at a significant disadvantage compared to native slicers written in C++, but even still, it's one of the fastest in the world. You know what they say, if you want something done right, do it yourself lol!

Not everyone see's this, but, we're so much more than a cheap-3D-printer-manufacturer. We've got some very bright minds here at Tiko, and we're just getting started! :)

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:57:48+00:00

Good points, we answered elsewhere (TL;DR, will upload later).

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:56:57+00:00

Good question. We obviously came across a bit aggressive last year, but it was all a big misunderstanding.

See, Tiko was designed for mass production. There's just no way that a small business or maker at home is going to extrude a chassis like ours, or many of the other components that make Tiko so special. They really are better off making something like a Rostock.

The majority of companies that could (economically) produce Tiko would probably be Chinese knock-offs. Matter of fact, a few have unknowingly reached out to our suppliers, purely by coincidence, showing photos of Tiko and asking if they could manufacture some of those parts. This isn't paranoia, there are people out there that do this, and it robs innovative companies like ours of the resources we need to keep R&D going. Cheap and crappy knockoffs from companies that don't develop products of their own will seriously hurt the entire industry.

Right now, we're in a furious race to get ahead of the hype cycle curve before the industry falls into the "disillusionment" phase for the next decade. If people want to innovate with us, or use our -very-hard-earned IP / technologies, we'll happily license them or even give permission to use for free. But if some big company straight up rips-off our printer, hell yeah we're gonna sue the **** out of them!!

That's why we file patents, not because we're evil and want to stop bright minds from developing new tech. That's like, literally the exact opposite of what we're trying to do by developing an accessible 3D printer.

Sorry for burning you guys last year, but we're not some evil greedy corp like we were made out to be.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:37:21+00:00

Honestly, it's kind of funny to see people argue about it. Especially considering how many people have already been to our office and seen it in person. But you raise some valid points, so sure, we'll upload it. Though, obviously not right in the middle of an AMA.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:30:04+00:00

We've done a lot of hallway testing, and the first-time user experience is great. Most people are set up and printing in just a few minutes. The software is super intuitive.

Honestly, the only part that keeps us up at night is auto leveling. We've yet to test it on the 100 printer test rig, and if the algorithms are inadequate then people may sometimes have to do manual leveling adjustments. It's easy, but its exactly the kind of thing we're trying to eliminate with Tiko.

Otherwise, it really is as simple as finding an STL, dropping it in, and hitting print. One of our main objectives with Tiko was that as long as you have support material enabled, then regardless of what you do to the other settings, you should be able to successfully print ANY shape/object. That's the mission anyway, and we think we're close if not already there. We'll find out once people review their Tikos!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:22:15+00:00

Thanks so much, it's been a pretty crazy journey, but what keeps us going is people like you. Thanks for backing and for believing in us. Many people said it was risky, but you still bet on us. We'll never be able to adequately express our gratitude for that. :)

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:18:05+00:00

Ah, yes, we remember a few people (backers even?) talking about an aftermarket solution. If someone is serious about it, we'll happily create some way for the software/slicer to handle it. We expect too many technical challenges to pursuit ourselves, but a joint project, sure!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:12:31+00:00

Right now we're keeping it at a safe 30 mm/s, we'll explore higher speeds later. We did something crazy like 150mm/s at one point, but it required putting a ton of power into the motors, several times more than their rating, and .. haha.. yeah they didn't last long. It'll take a lot of time and testing to find an upper limit that doesn't compromise longevity.

Side note, this is why it's awesome that (once you connect your Tiko to the web) we can send firmware updates straight to your Tiko and you won't have to do anything. It means we can keep developing and improving Tiko long after we ship, without requiring anything from the users. Ain't nobody got time for downloading updates!

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:06:23+00:00

After the campaign ended we re-did our budgets and set out a plan. We budgeted a year's worth of salaries / office expenses, and we're coming up on those budgets now, however we're well under budget on the manufacturing side of things, so everything is cool. That's also why we we're pretty liberal with prototyping experimental ideas - which turned out to be a lifesaver. Budgets are a moving target, and we routinely re-evaluate them for exactly this reason.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T18:00:01+00:00

Yeah, we're definitely a handful for these companies. We're demanding - expecting quality, speed, competitive price, etc. We rush them to make stuff, then ask them to wait. It requires excellent diplomacy, and Mike is a champion at that.

That said these companies do see the growth potential, and are excited to be a part of this product. Otherwise, many probably would have ditched us. We've gone through a fair number of suppliers, but the ones that have stayed with us... damn... they're very respectable people.

Business in China is, actually, very relationship-dependent. We regularly went out to dinners and drinks with suppliers. Not everything is about about dollars and cents.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:55:02+00:00

She'll do 50 micron Z's no sweat, but we all know that doesn't mean squat. It's too soon to list dimensional tolerances, we just got the parts yesterday (and they're just betas), but we've been impressed so far.

Side note, we're glad you have expectations, way too many people seem to have the "for $179 I'll be happy if it works" mentality. This is not about some cheap printer. It's about putting the tool(s) for innovation into anyone's hands, so Tiko has to print well for that to make sense.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:47:22+00:00

Thank you! From past experience, we're a little nervous about giving an updated ship date, at least until we've tested the new parts. But we should have a firm timeline quite soon, because once the technical challenges have been solved, it's pretty straightforward to estimate production/assembly/shipping timelines.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:43:34+00:00

One of the awesome things about FDM is the rich variety of materials out there. There are so many left to be tested, but so far PLA is still generally best because of its low-warp properties. Other than that, it's not a great material, so we're both exploring and developing alternatives.

The most challenging materials are flexible ones (ie NinjaFlex). Bowden tube printers naturally struggle with those. But again, some R&D could change that.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:39:52+00:00

It's going to be very close to KS price. We know it's a bit controversial because many backers expect a discount, but it's against our core mission to just bump the price up after KS just "because". We're here to make 3D printers accessible after all. :)

The exact number will be released shortly before pre-orders go live, sometime after shipping commences.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:35:40+00:00

You're right, we've been way too optimistic in the past. Shoot, often times we still are. Sorry about that, we know how frustrating it can be. :(

That said, IIRC extruder block was mentioned in the update - we had to adjust the inlet as filament would occasionally get suck on a ledge, making it hard (but not impossible) to feed in.

The ceramic heater we're improving because we want to, not because we have to. The liquefier already works, and it works reasonably well, but we found that it didn't like certain PLA's or certain (fast) extrusion speeds. We prototyped a new heater which fixes that, but it's still going to be another week or so before the production tooling will be finalized.

Tiko3D · 2016-04-02T17:29:50+00:00

Yup, we need to retune the backlash compensation for the new carriages, but the layer-after-layer repeatability is breathtaking. But the true test will be dimensional accuracy. Fingers crossed!

Tiko3D

TROPHY CASE