At last a solution for alternative filaments
My Sindoh DP300 has given me reliable, good quality 3D prints since I purchased it in 2017. The DP200 was probably one of the best printers around at that time and had a reputation for simple out of the box operation for those with little or no 3D printing experience (aka me). As a result of this I recommended it to friends and family and collectively we have a number of DP200s in service.
The only frustration we have had since then is the inability to use 3rd party filaments. My understanding is that being an early machine, Sindoh was cautious about the prospect of owners trying to use more advanced filaments and potentially damaging the extruder nozzle. This would have opened the floodgates for warranty claims. Sindoh’s solution to block the use of third party filaments was to issue each reel of their own branded filament with a small PCB personality card. This needed to be mounted in the filament cassette and verified that the filament was legit. The PCB module also recorded the consumption of filament from the reel. I can understand why Sindoh opted for this approach. We did not have an issue with this. Sindoh filament was not dramatically different in price and was readily available and always delivered good quality prints.
As time has progressed, Sindoh has relaxed this restriction on their later models allowing third party filaments to be used. This left the DP200 a little isolated and totally dependent on sourcing the Sindoh filament. During lockdown there was a heavy demand on filament from all sources and like others, their filament went up in price. It also became very difficult to source. This problem has continued albeit not quite as extreme, but it has certainly become difficult to source at a realistic price. As mentioned we have a number of DP200s within family and friends so this has been a continuing frustration.
Out of idle curiosity, I recently emailed a query about this to the Sindoh support team. In my experience they had always been very efficient in responding to cries for help. To my surprise there was a message in my inbox next day with two firmware updates for the DP200 to allow Open Material operation.
On completion of the update process we now have our DP200s able to take filament from the internal cassette or from an external feed box without the need for the chip card. The upgrade was well documented and easy to do. We are very grateful to Sindoh for this support.
There are disclaimers associated with this upgrade. Sindoh is rightly cautious about offering this as a general release. The upgrade infringes the DP200 warranty and use of anything other than PLA and ABS is clearly not recommended. Sindoh also request that the upgrade is not made freely available as a download so I’m sorry that I cannot offer it via my blog. I get the impression that each and every request for the upgrade seems to be treated on its own merits by Sindoh.
From our point of view we are more than pleased to be able to source third party filament for use in our DP200s. I got the impression that my DP200 had perhaps gone into a big sulk when my Qidi ifast arrived. Hopefully the workshop karma will now return.
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