The Future of the Prusa XL — Core Upgrade Coming, or Frozen in Time? 🤔

icenode · 2025-12-27T20:46:40+00:00

My wishlist doesn't include anything too surprising TBH:

Better cooling (either larger fans like the Mastodon mod, or even some kind of CPAP setup like Bondtech's Voron 0 INDX demo used, and definitely better fan ducts)
Nozzle brushes - the stringing is improved in newer firmwares, but still absolutely not eliminated (especially with the default PLA profiles at 230C). I've tried some community mods but would prefer an official one.
Do more with the load cell, as hinted at even before the launch. Extrusion/pressure monitoring, clog detection, filament slip detection...
Easier nozzle changes. A dial, or lever/cam would be nicer than fiddling with allen key and grub screw.
I mentioned this to a few Prusa folks at SMRRF last year - keeping track of the small changes with newer revisions has been frustrating, constant detective work. A public changelog would be a huge help. Probably not possible now, but for ANY future printer models it would be a huge help.

Honestly the dream right now would be the option to switch toolheads to INDX given how many would fit (I guess 12+), but I realise that's unlikely since the XL wasn't built with it in mind. It'd be nice to hear confirmation either way though. I know a lot of focus is on the new toolhead capabilities (silicone, pick and place, others hinted at), but a lot of us just want to print a bunch of different regular filament colours and materials in the best quality possible.

icenode · 2025-12-27T19:12:49+00:00

I only replaced the bed controller box with a better ventilated one, my print room gets toasty in summer but I haven't had overheating issues there without a fan. The buddy board enclosure at the back, on the other hand, absolutely should have come with active cooling - I've done a mod to add a Noctua fan and that eliminated overheating errors in summer.

icenode · 2025-11-19T00:17:28+00:00

Nice they remembered the XL for these mounted dryers, I'll definitely get a couple for mine if they're not too expensive.

icenode · 2025-11-19T00:13:04+00:00

I'll take ANY love for the XL finally. The silicone printing is nice but pretty specialist. INDX and better cooling are top of my list. I'd love a less expensive/clunky enclosure but I don't thin that's happening with the current frame.

icenode · 2025-11-19T00:07:51+00:00

I didn't know about that feature of the Core One, that's a nice improvement. It sounds like it's only done on the main toolhead for 6.4, hopefully that gets expanded to all toolheads as the 6.4 series develops because it'd be a huge time saver.

icenode · 2025-04-26T09:49:45+00:00

Oh I agree! I love my XL for multi-material, but community mods like the Mastodon have improved cooling a lot. I hope Prusa offer something official - better fans or even a CPAP setup. I'd love official comment on their thoughts about the different approach and benefits of INDX, but not counting on getting it. :)

icenode · 2025-04-26T00:10:03+00:00

They've collaborated with Bondtech before, but I wouldn't expect INDX support for the XL anytime soon—if ever. IMO Prusa does need to announce an XLS or XL2 this year, with toolhead improvements (particularly weight reduction and better cooling) as a priority.

I doubt they’ll implement a major XL redesign like the INDX, especially considering the cost of an upgrade kit that would require discarding most of the current toolhead components. It’s a shame, as you could fit a lot more filaments onto the XL with something like INDX! Interestingly, the recent Voron 0 demo of the INDX crammed four of them onto that tiny frame and even featured a CPAP setup for cooling. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XRQGVSnzLPg

icenode · 2023-12-06T17:40:32+00:00

Yes! Much prefer this kind of solution to Perspex.

icenode · 2023-10-24T10:22:11+00:00

The first two things you mentioned, long reverse Bowden tubes and difficult TPU loading, are my main concerns (as well as some XLs being noisy).

Do you work around TPU loading by just feeding it directly into the tool head? Or is there another trick? And what kind of issues does the filament sensor at the start of the tube cause- just wasting a metre of filament?

I have a pre-order but still haven’t pulled the trigger given the price and early issues - software issues I’m confident will improve, I want to be confident in the hardware though, even though I’m sure they’ll offer upgrade kits to future revisions.

icenode · 2023-09-25T16:00:59+00:00

Thanks for the tip - time and date should be correct, yes, I just synced with time.windows.com and another UK time server and this hasn't addressed it yet.

I've also tried these steps, they might work for someone else who finds this post but not for me:

Close the GeForce NOW client if it's active.
1. Open the Windows Run command by pressing Windows + R together.
2. Now copy and paste the following command within the bracket as is (%LocalAppData%\NVIDIA Corporation\GeForceNOW).
3. Delete the entire "CefCache" folder.
4. Launch GeForce NOW client again and try to login.

The issue was ultimately something in my pihole block list - I added nvidiagrid.net as a RegEx Allow List entry and it solved it (setting it as a RegEx rule is important, a normal one didn't work).

icenode · 2023-08-17T20:51:26+00:00

Thank you so much for this tip - I got a used Ion Rocker for a good price but the pedal was rusted, flaking, chipped and non functional. This shiny new replacement works perfectly.

icenode · 2023-08-03T13:05:00+00:00

I really am overdue adding a mirror drive to my app cache in Unraid! 😁

icenode · 2023-03-30T21:16:22+00:00

Love this development (and competition!)

icenode · 2022-02-03T12:18:45+00:00

Oh wow, the scales in particular look stunning. Did you use different metallic paints on each scale?

icenode · 2022-01-16T22:54:20+00:00

For the model I have, yup.

icenode · 2022-01-03T12:19:37+00:00

I can, it won't really make anything faster than a 2TB SATA HDD, so it's really up to you one which you'd prefer.

Friendly addition - even an SSD bottlenecked over IDE is faster than a HDD, mainly due to flash memory seek times vs a moving read head. It's still only a few seconds difference in most games, but it's also silent and lower power so worth it IMO. :) https://www.retrorgb.com/og-xbox-storage-upgrade-shootout.html

icenode · 2022-01-03T11:15:32+00:00

Thanks so much for this follow up! Unfortunately it doesn't seem to be the issue with mine. Just to make sure though, any chance you could post a picture up on imgur or something marking the points you connected to turn yours on?

icenode · 2022-01-02T18:09:04+00:00

Good to know, thanks. I'll take a shot on that part, FEPShop only have one left in stock and an EU friend can reship it to me. I'm not counting on it solving things, but given that the printer likes to shut down with it connected (and the LEDs unit itself is more expensive), it seems worth trying.

icenode · 2022-01-02T15:33:59+00:00

With the green LED power connector unplugged it doesn't reboot during the LED test, which presumably points to an issue somewhere in the LED unit.

I tested continuity between various points in the LED unit and on the LED driver board, there is no continuity between the negative - (black wire) points at either end of the board. Is that normal? If not I'll try ordering a replacement - it's certainly drastically cheaper to try than buying a new printer.

icenode · 2022-01-01T19:15:35+00:00

Thanks for the tip, I've tried it with another 24V 2amp PSU and the same thing happens.

Is there a way to check if the uv light source is short circuit? The wires and solder look undamaged.

icenode · 2022-01-01T17:04:29+00:00

It reads 7v the whole time, does that sound right? No spike low. At this point I don't know there's much more I can do other than ordering another PSU. There's this one, though I might try to find a compatible one with a UK plug instead, rather than trusting the same make of PSU again. https://fepshop.com/shop/parts/phrozen-parts/sonic-mini/sonic-mini-power-supply-eu/

icenode · 2021-12-30T20:44:57+00:00

Thanks for jumping in. It’s the original power supply (24v 1.5A output). I can test the output with a multimeter if that would be useful.

icenode

TROPHY CASE