elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

2023-01-03 12:32:11

【Disassemble the old screen】①Using the socket head wrench(M2) to disassemble the screws which fix the cover; ②Unclasp the screen wire and take it off. ③Tear the fixing tape down gently. Note: If your screen can work normally, do NOT tear off the fixing tape on the surface at will, otherwise the scratch-resistant film may be torn off together, resulting in the loss of screen protections as well as resin leakage into the interior of the machine. ④Please wear gloves before the operation to avoid leaving fingerprints and other dirt on the screen. After that, apply the art knife to gently pry from the corner of the screen. Once you take the screen and the bottom glass off together, kindly follow the steps in the video to separate the two films.

【Installation Preparation】①First clean the SEKISUI tape in the installation slot and the glass. ②The glass can be wiped with a dust-free cloth moistened with alcohol. ③Stick the new tape around the installation slot (for the glass), then install the glass. ④After installing the glass, please clean the dirt from the glass in time to avoid affecting the printing. ⑤Stick the tape around the glass, to prepare to install the new LCD screen.

【Install the new screen】①With the side showing the word "LCD" facing up, attach the wire to the snap-in new screen as instructed in the video. ②Using the tape to fix the screen. Note:the wider side of the tape will be glued to the inside, and take care to cover the slot position when taping. ③Install the wire back then clasp it. ④Assemble the cover back and lock the fixing screws.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

Ever since the release of the in 2018, the Mars series 3D printers have reaped the benefits of countless customers" love. We are really happy to learn from the feedback of many of our customers that our printer plays its part in their lives, whether it"s just for a spare-time hobby, a money-making business, or a professional day-to-day job. While enjoying the fun and convenience of the , a lot of our amazing customers have even designed and shared many 3D printable add-ons to make the printing experience easier for people with different needs.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

Compared with ordinary 2K LCD 3D printers, its printing volume is 37% higher than Mars 2, XY accuracy is up to 35 microns, 30% higher than Mars 2 series, higher printing efficiency, more stable performance, and less maintenance.

It is the first time to adopt a copper tube heat dissipation structure in ELEGOO resin 3D printer, which greatly optimizes the heat dissipation performance and reduces light decay.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

PJ V5 Screen:Click to download:V4.4.3-Z1_LCDZ/3840X2400/F15.26 ( If there is a line in the middle of the LCD screen, please rollback the firmware toF15.24: Click to download)

*Caution: Please make sure whether this firmware matches your printer, wrong update across different printers may turn it unusable. If you run into any problems with the firmware please contact our support team at 3dp@elegoo.comwith the batch number labeled at the bottom of the printer, we will try our best to help.

③Restart the machine, the update file .LCD will be updated automatically, after the successful update there will be a beeping sound and restart the machine

Caution:The.LCD file will be automatically updated after restarting the machine in the shutdown state. Please do not update repeatedly to avoid being prompted "Same Firmware already exists!"

Note: If you mistakenly updated this firmware, please contact our support team via 3dp@elegoo.com with the batch number labeled at the bottom of the printer.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

Returns Policy You can return most new, unopened items fulfilled by Amazon AU within 30 days of receipt of delivery for a replacement or full refund of the price you paid for the item if you change your mind - see About Replacements and About Refunds.

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New electronic items fulfilled by Amazon AU can be returned for change of mind, for a replacement or a full refund of the purchase cost of the item within 30 days of receipt of delivery.For information about returning faulty electronics please see Returning Faulty Items.

Returns Policy If fulfilled by Amazon AU, this item is non-returnable due to hygiene/health and personal care/wellness/consumable nature of the product. In some circumstances, these items may be eligible for a refund or a replacement (for example, if you receive the wrong item due to an Amazon AU error or if the item is faulty). Please Contact Us and see About Items That Can’t Be Returned.

Returns Policy You may return most new, unopened baby items fulfilled by Amazon AU within 90 days of receipt of delivery for a replacement or full refund of the price you paid for the item if you change your mind - see About Replacements and About Refunds. Change of mind returns of baby items fulfilled by Amazon AU will qualify for Free Returns shipping if the item detail page includes "Free Returns" messaging. Otherwise original shipping fees for change of mind returns are not refunded.

Returns Policy You may return most new, unopened items fulfilled by Amazon AU within 30 days of receipt of delivery for a replacement or full refund of the price you paid for the item if you change your mind - see About Replacements and About Refunds. Amazon AU offers free returns shipping for change of mind returns on eligible items. Look for the "Free Returns" messaging on the detail page of an item to confirm if it is eligible for free returns. Please also see About Free Returns. Otherwise, original shipping fees for change of mind returns are not refunded.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

The Elegoo Mars 3* is one of the most accurate resin 3D printers. Due to the 4K resolution, it achieves an extremely accurate XY pixel size of only 35 µm. In contrast to its quasipredecessor, the Mars 2 Pro, the print volume was also increased by about 36% to 143.36 x 89.6 x 175 mm.

The Mars 3 comes as usual from Elegoo in a very compact but well-protected package. The 3D printer is completely pre-assembled and is protected by foam from transport damage.

Except for paper towels, resin and isopropyl alcohol, everything you need for your first test print is included. I think it’s very good of Elegoo to already include all the necessary tools and a few of the consumables like gloves, masks and filters. Fortunately, this standard has spread among the resin 3D printer manufacturers.

(you can read about which resin types are available in this article. The Mars 3 is compatible with 405 nm resin. I can recommend the plant-based resin from Anycubic*).

You can also get specialized wash & cure stations. Currently, there are very good ones from Elegoo (link to product*) and Anycubic (link to product*).

The assembly of the Elegoo Mars 3 is very simple and quick. The enclosed manual explains the complete process in understandable language and with sensibly placed graphics.

With the USB slot and on/off switch located on the front of the 3D printer, you can move it right up against the wall to save space. With a space-saving design that minimizes the horizontal dimensions of the resin container and Z-axis, the Mars 3 can fit anywhere.

The print bed leveling of the Elegoo Mars 3 is the same as with most modern resin 3D printers for the hobby sector. The leveling is supported by the menu. The inclination of the printing plate is adjusted manually with a paper, the Z0 position is set via the menu.

Place a piece of paper on the LCD screen. The paper should cover the screen completely and be about 0.1 mm thick (this is the standard thickness of normal paper).

Do not be afraid that the printing plate could collide with the LCD screen and damage it. You have loosened the two screws beforehand, so the printing plate can give way and not cause any damage.

This way you define the tilt of the printing plate and adjust it to the tilt of the LCD screen. This method is so simple and fast that you will find it on every resin 3D printer by now.

Before you can start printing, you should test the LCD screen. In the menu (Tool -> Exposure) you can set the time how long the test exposure should last. If you can see the complete text “ELEGOO TECHNOLOGY www.elegoo.com ” on the screen, the UV light source is working properly.

The Elegoo Mars 3 is the perfect complete package for beginners in resin 3D printing. It is fast, very accurate, has a relatively large print volume, comes with a 1-year license for ChiTuBox Pro and has other features that make it interesting for advanced users.

The new rounded design of the Mars 3 is noticeably different from the previous models in the Mars series. The Mars 3’s predecessors were very chunky and angular, where the Mars 3 now looks more rounded and modern.

What I myself was very pleased about is that all the controls, i.e. the USB slot, the on/off switch and the touchscreen, are placed at the front of the printer. This makes the operation much more comfortable and you can also place the printer in places that are a bit more cramped.

Since the last great revolution among hobby resin 3D printers, the monochrome LCD screen, the next revolution is now becoming standard: 4K resolution!

With a 4K resolution of 4098 x 2560 pixels, the Mars 3 gets a pixel size of just 35 µm. Not only does it have a larger print area than its predecessor, the

With the monochrome LCD screen, its high resolution and the larger print volume, it gets all 4 criteria of a good resin 3D printer with its low price.

Among the small Hobby Resin 3D printers, the Mars 3 is the largest! Due to its high resolution 4K 6.6 inch screen, it can afford a slightly larger print area and still maintain its very small pixel size.

For comparison, the print volume of the Mars 3 of 143.36 x 89.6 x 175 mm (= 2.25 l) is about 36% percent larger than that of the Mars 2 Pro with 129 x 80 x 160 mm (= 1.65 l).

With this relatively large print volume, you can print medium to large objects in one piece with the Mars 3, in addition to the smallest objects with a high resolution. In terms of print volume, however, it can by no means compete with a large-format 3D printer such as the Anycubic Photon Mono X 6K. But it doesn’t have to, since it’s in a completely different price range. Depending on the field you are in, you may not have a use for such a large printer and are even better served with a small printer like the Mars 3.

Another advantage of the new technology is the longer lifespan and the lower heat development. Nevertheless, the heat development is not negligible with the high performance, which is why the Mars 3 has been given a new, more efficient cooling system than its predecessors.

A resin 3D printer does not need a very complicated menu. Therefore, the Mars 3 has a very tidy and intuitively understandable menu which you can operate via the color 3.5-inch touch screen.

The improved FEP film of the Mars 3 has a thickness of only 0.127 mm. This makes it thinner than most other FEP films, allowing for even better print bed adhesion and more accurate print results.

The print plate of the Mars 3 has a rough, sandblasted surface and thus creates an extremely good print bed adhesion. The adhesion is so good that you have to lever the 3D prints with the metal spatula from the printing plate.

The resin tank of the Mars 3 is a bit higher than those of its predecessors. This is due to the fact that the print volume in the Z-direction has also become larger. Due to the larger print volume, larger objects are possible, which in turn consume more resin than smaller objects. So that you do not have to refill resin during printing, the edge of the container has been raised.

A disadvantage of the resin vat of the Mars 3 is the missing pouring corner. With many other resin 3D printers, there is a bulge at one corner that is intended for pouring. This would make pouring the remaining liquid resin much easier and it would not run so much down the edge of the container.

The operating noise levels of the Elegoo Mars 3 are in a normal range of 35 to 45 decibels at a distance of about 1 meter. Here, the fan volume is around 35 decibels and the combined volume of the fans and the moving Z-axis is 45 decibels.

According to Elegoo, the printing speed is 1.5 to 3 seconds per layer. Thanks to the monochrome and very powerful UV light source, the individual layers can be cured very quickly.

The Mars 3 can print layers from 0.01 mm to 0.2 mm thickness. Accordingly, an object printed with a layer thickness of 0.01 mm takes 20 times longer than an object printed with a layer thickness of 0.2 mm. But the longer time is definitely worth it because the details at 0.01 mm are impressive!

UI:The operation of the Elegoo Mars 3 is very simple. The menu is intuitively understandable and simple. The only criticism I have with the operation is that you can not move the Z-axis completely to the maximum by pressing a button.

PRINTING:Printing with the Elegoo Mars 3 is very comfortable. The print bed leveling lasts a very long time, so printing is basically just filling the resin container and starting the print.

The Elegoo Mars 3 has a very good print quality with layer thicknesses of up to 0.01 mm (10 µm) and an XY pixel size of 0.035 mm (35 µm). Slight edge smoothing via the slicer creates objects that are comparable to injection molded parts. Individual layers are not visible.

But even without edge smoothing, the results are really impressive! Where 50 µm pixel size in the XY direction was groundbreaking some time ago and then quickly became the standard, this resolution is now getting even smaller. The move to a 4K screen has definitely been the right decision by Elegoo.

The Elegoo Mars 3 is currently only compatible with the ChiTuBox slicer. There is also a predefined profile for it in the current version. You only have to adjust the settings for the exposure to your resin.

The free version of ChiTuBox is very popular and is compatible with a wide range of resin 3D printers. The slicer has all the standard features you need to create finished STL files for the Mars 3.

The Mars 3 also comes with a 1-year license for the Pro version of ChiTuBox. With this Pro version, you can customize the support structures, define multiple profiles in one file for different objects, repair defective surfaces, split models into multiple parts, measure sizes and distances and much more.

There are also special devices that can wash and cure. Two of them are the Elegoo Mercury Plus* and the Anycubic Wash & Cure 2.0*. You can check out a comparison of the two devices in this article: Elegoo Mercury Plus vs. Anycubic Wash & Cure 2.0.

Another useful accessory for the Mars 3 is a reusable resin filter*. The scope of delivery includes disposable filters that provide you with filters for a while. In the long run, however, a reusable filter pays off, as it not only saves you money but is also good for the environment as less waste is produced.

Due to the higher resolution of the LCD screen, the Mars 3 has an XY pixel size of only 35 µm. This is a noticeable jump from the 50 µm of the Mars 2 Pro. The high resolution of the LCD screen also allows the print area to be increased by about 25% – without sacrificing much of the XY pixel size.

Due to the larger printing plate and the extension of the Z-axis, the printing volume of the Mars 3 of 143.36 x 89.6 x 175 mm (= 2.25 l) is about 36% percent larger than that of the Mars 2 Pro with 129 x 80 x 160 mm (= 1.65 l).

Aside from the better resolution and larger print volume, the Mars 2 Pro still seems to have a few more handy features than the Mars 3, so the release of a “Mars 3 Pro” in the future is very likely.

Pouring corner in the resin container:The Mars 2 Pro has a pouring corner on its resin container at one of the four corners. This recess is missing from the Mars 3’s resin container. While this is not exactly the most important feature, it does reduce some of the mess when pouring out excess resin.

Built-in air filter:Next to the Z-axis of the Mars 2 Pro is the opening for the built-in air filter. Through this opening, the toxic resin fumes are extracted and somewhat mitigated by a built-in filter. The Mars 3 does not have a built-in air filter, but I didn’t notice that with the plant-based Eco Resin from Anycubic*.

Rubber seal:The protective cover of the Mars 2 Pro has a rubber seal, which encapsulates the inner volume even better from the environment. This allows even fewer gases to escape. The Mars 3 also lacks this feature, which would be handy for more aggressive resins. However, as long as you wear an FFP2 mask when in the same room as the 3D printer, this should not be a problem.

A 3D printer needs to print quickly and accurately – with as much volume as you need at a low price. If accuracy and print volume is more important to you than a few practical features, you should definitely buy the Mars 3!

The Mars 3 is not perfect because it lacks some comfort features (like the missing air filter or a WiFi connection), but convinces with its high resolution and the large print volume at a low price. And that is exactly what is important in a resin 3D printer!

The price-performance ratio is also increased by the 1-year license for ChiTuBox Pro. So if you were already thinking about trying out the Pro version, the bundle of the Pro version and the Mars 3 would be perfect for you.

The Phrozen Sonic Mini 4K* has a 4K resolution with a pixel size of 35 µm. With a print volume of 135 x 75 x 130 mm, it is much smaller than its competitor, the Elegoo Mars 3, whose print volume is about 70% larger at 143.36 x 89.6 x 175 mm.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

Users that have an Elegoo Mars can sometimes go through failures and problems. Many of these are fixable if you have the right methods, so I decided to look into some ways to fix various Elegoo Mars troubleshooting solutions.

I’d recommend taking a look at your bottom layer settings and making sure they are adequate. A good number of bottom layers to have usually falls between 4-6, while the bottom layer exposure depends on your printer and the UV power. For a 4K LCD printer like the Anycubic Photon Mono X, a bottom layer exposure of 30 seconds usually works well.

Another issue that I have noticed while resin 3D printing with Elegoo Mars printer is that only supports are printed. It can be disappointing when you have gone through the process of modeling and printing to see that only the supports are getting printed.

The first thing I’d do to fix your Elegoo Mars only printing supports is to increase the number of supports or support density as this will improve the foundation for the actual model to print properly.

It’s not uncommon to experience your Elegoo Mars not printing anything at all, often caused by very insufficient curing times or by low quality resins.

If you have just gotten your Elegoo Mars and it is not printing at all or your old one just suddenly stops printing, here are methods you can use to troubleshoot the issue

Check that your LCD or UV light display is working properly, by checking the exposure/detection tests on your resin 3D printer. It may need to be replaced if you have been printing for several hours, or had a resin leak.

Another thing that can cause a failed print with the Elegoo Mars printer is when your build plate is not well leveled. The build plate is what the raft, support or model sticks to while resin 3D printing so it should be well-positioned to not have your print falling off your build plate.

After following these steps, your build plate should be leveled successfully. Here is a video by Elegoo official that you can watch to further simplify the process involved in leveling your build platform for you.

Horizontal lines showing up on your print is a common issue that can be troublesome when printing with your Elegoo Mars resin 3D printer. Horizontal lines on your print are often confused for layer separation but they are not the same.

Using PrusaSlicer instead of ChiTuBox can be a good fix to prevent failed prints with the Elegoo Mars resin 3D printer. One user who tried PrusaSlicer instead of ChiTuBox found that the supports held on much better throughout the printing process, leading to successful prints.

Some people recommend to place some tape on the borders of the screen to reduce the space created between the LCD and FEP film. This can help reduce the print from sticking to the FEP. It is also a good measure to prevent resin from leaking inside the screen.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

Not too long ago, a couple of boxes arrived at my door directly from China: the brand new Mars 3 MSLA printer and Mercury X Bundle Washing and Curing Machine from ELEGOO. The Mars 3 is the latest iteration of the Mars series printers; I previously reviewed the Mars Pro in October 2020. As all three machines work together, I figured I might as well do one big review, showing how well all three of them work together to produce resin 3D prints.

There are essentially two types of printers available, stereolithographic (SLA) and fused deposition modeling (FDM). FDM models use a heated filament (most frequently PLA plastic) to build up a model, adding layer after layer until the model is complete. SLA printers use light to solidify a layer of resin at a time, creating the model. In the case of the Mars 3, which is a masked stereolithographic (MSLA) printer, it uses light specifically from an LED array combined with an LCD photomask.

If you’re new to 3D printing, this can all seem a bit overwhelming. Don’t worry, I’ll be explaining more as I describe my experiences with the Mars 3. In the meantime, think about it this way: SLA printers like the Mars 3 and Saturn are best if you want to print smoother, more detailed figures such as tabletop miniatures for Dungeons & Dragons, while FDM printers excel at printing larger, less detailed parts and objects, such as cosplay armor pieces and weapons.

The ELEGOO Mars 3 is an MSLA printer using an Ultra 4K mono LCD screen, with roughly a 30% improvement in print accuracy over the 2K screen in the Mars 2. It also boasts a faster cure time and slightly larger build plate than the Mars 2, as well as a host of other changes.

Much like any of the other printers I’ve gotten from ELEGOO, the Mars 3 comes nestled in firm foam packaging, ensuring that it stays immobile and protected during its journey from the ELEGOO factory. As with the ELEGOO Saturn, the Mars 3 has foam packed inside of the lid as well, to hold and protect the build plate, resin tray, and LCD display.

After assembling the printer, I thought I’d see how it looked side by side with the other ELEGOO MSLA printers I’ve worked with, the Mars Pro and the Saturn. Here are all three:

As you can see, the Mars 3 has a similar footprint to the Mars Pro but adds a bit of height for larger prints. The Mars 3 is also significantly lighter than the Mars Pro: 11.5 pounds versus the Pro’s 16.5 pounds.

ELEGOO continues their excellent practice of including a robust tool kit with their printers. Besides the power supply for the printer, you’ll find Allen wrenches, a metal scraper to remove prints from the build surface, a plastic scraper to remove resin from the FEP film, disposable filters for pouring resin back into the bottles, nippers, and even a few nitrile gloves and face masks. The gloves certainly won’t last you for more than a few prints, but it’s enough to get you started. Sadly, my tool kit was missing the USB drive that would normally accompany an ELEGOO printer. However, as I have plenty of USB drives from previous printers, this wasn’t a big deal. I did inform my contact at ELEGOO, and had I been a customer, they would have gotten a replacement drive to me right away.

Also of particular note is that the ELEGOO Mars 3 comes with a 1-year license of Chitubox Pro slicing software, a $169 value. In addition to all the features found in the free, basic Chitubox software, the Pro version allows you to cut 3D models into separate pieces for printing, repair damaged model files, and also gives the user finer control over the placement of supports for printing. While I did appreciate the extra features, there are currently some known bugs with the Pro version of the software. I myself had frequently been getting the dreaded, “program unresponsive” message, so I went back to printing my models using the free, basic Chitubox slicer, which has worked flawlessly. As this free trial for Pro is only for a year’s duration, if you purchase a Mars 3 you may want to hold off on redeeming the year of Pro until Chitubox has fixed their software.

Setting up and leveling the Mars 3 was a breeze, much like any of the other MSLA printers I’ve worked with from ELEGOO. There was no dedicated leveling paper like you’ll find with the ELEGOO Saturn. However, you simply place a normal sheet of paper between the screen and the build plate for setting the level. Following the simple instructions, I had the Mars 3 leveled and ready to print in just a couple of minutes.

As I didn’t have the USB drive, I decided to forego downloading and printing the standard ELEGOO rook chess piece demo model. Instead, I jumped right into printing some models that I’d acquired previously.

For all of my prints, I decided to use the ELEGOO water-washable ceramic grey resin, which I’d also used testing out the Mars Pro. I added both supports and a print platform for all the models when slicing in Chitubox.

When I was ready to begin, I inserted my USB drive containing the files I’d sliced, powered up the Mars 3, and selected the file I was going to print first.

Before we get too deep in the weeds with the quality of the prints from the Mars 3, let’s take a look at the Mercury X Bundle. After all, washing and curing are integral steps in finishing your resin prints.

Let’s go back to that first print I produced on the Mars 3. After allowing a bit of time to let the resin drip off the models into the tray, it’s time to wash the prints. With the Mercury X, you have two options: you can either remove the print from the build plate and use the metal basket, or you can submerge the entire build plate, using the included metal bracket. The bracket is sized in such a way that you can fit up to two ELEGOO Mars 3-sized build plates at a time or one ELEGOO Saturn build plate.

Aside from the issues with the Chitubox Pro software (which, to be fair, is a Chitubox issue and not an ELEGOO one), I’ve found my time working with all three of these machines to be a delight.

Let’s start with the Mars 3. Like all of the ELEGOO printers I’ve worked with, operating the Mars 3 is easy and intuitive. But with this printer, not only have I gotten probably the best resin prints I’ve made to date, but they’ve also printed the quickest. That very first set of models I printed took less than 3 hours.

The Mercury X Bundle was also very easy to work with. I appreciated that I could move the build plate directly from the Mars 3 to the Mercury X Washing Machine to clean my prints. And once I got a printing workflow going, I found that there were times that I was using both the washing and the curing machines at the same time, so having them both operating off the same power supply was very convenient. Not to mention that both machines were sized large enough to wash and cure models from any Elegoo printer up through the current size king, the Saturn. ELEGOO has an even larger printer, the Jupiter, coming to Kickstarter next month, but at this juncture, it’s hard to say if the Mercury X Bundle will accommodate prints from the Jupiter’s 12.8″ build plate.

As of this writing, both the Mars 3 and Mercury X Bundle Washing and Curing Machine are sold out from their initial preorder on the ELEGOO website. I fully expect ELEGOO is working hard to get more of these new machines built, as there’s sure to be high demand. The Mars 3, with an MSRP of $300, is a phenomenal printer, as you can see from the models I’ve produced. And at $150 for the Mercury X Bundle, the washing and curing machines will make your resin printing workflow much more efficient and convenient. You can also keep an eye on the ELEGOO store on Amazon for these machines to hopefully become available soon.

I highly recommend both the ELEGOO Mars 3 and the Mercury X Bundle Washing and Curing Machine. Using all three machines, you’ll quickly be producing some amazing, highly detailed 3D prints.

elegoo mars lcd screen replacement free sample

The Elegoo Mars 2 Pro is a compact 3D resin printer that produces incredibly detailed 3D prints that almost look injection moulded. And despite its impressive build quality it is reasonably priced at around £250 or $250.

Liquid resin sits in a resin tank on top of what is essentially a smartphone screen. The bottom of the tank has a thin clear plastic film made of FEP or Fluorinated ethylene propylene which is a non-stick material like Teflon. The models are printed upside down with a build plate that lowers on a single axis into the resin tank.

The build plate starts at the chosen layer height above the FEP film. UV light is shone through the LCD screen which displays each layer as a mask. The resin is cured or hardened by the UV light, but only in the unmasked areas. The build plate then pulls this hardened layer off the non-stick FEP film and then moves back down, this time one layer higher, building up the model one complete layer at a time. There are far more expensive SLA printers that use a laser to draw the layers, but the Mars 2 Pro, like most common resin printers, is more accurately referred to as a DLP or Digital Light Processing LCD resin 3D printer.

The main advantage of resin printers is the incredibly fine detail they produce. They have much higher horizontal resolution compared to FDM printers, which have to physically move a print head around. The horizontal resolution is based on the resolution on the LCD panel and for the Mars 2 Pro is 0.05mm.

You also have less choice of resins to print with compared to FDM printers, which can also print engineering grade materials like Nylon and Polycarbonate. So for structural parts, an FDM printer may still be a better choice. But I will be using a supposedly stronger ABS like resin from Elegoo in this review and also try mixing this with a tougher resin from Siraya Tech. So we’ll see what sort of results we can expect shortly.

The Mars 2 Pro has a 6.08” monochrome LCD screen with a 1620 x 2560 2K resolution. The monochrome LCD screen has a longer life than earlier printers with RGB screens and the mono LCD screens enable faster printing too with better UV light transmission.

The printer build volume is 129mm x 80mm with 160mm maximum height. Dividing the horizontal dimensions by the resolution of the screen gives the horizontal resolution of 0.05mm: 129mm divided by 2560.

Shake the resin bottle and fill the tank around a third of a way. Put the cover back on, insert the USB drive and select the Rook.ctb file and tap print. The LCD screen displays a thumbnail of the print files and the screen is quite responsive. It is quite dim though and you do need to look directly at it to see the icons.

I’m using the Elegoo Mercury Plus Wash and Cure Station to post process the prints, and quite honestly if you’re going to get a printer like this, I’d budget for one of these too. You don’t absolutely need one since you could wash the prints off in a tub with some IPA alcohol and a toothbrush and leave them out in the sun to fully cure or buy a cheap UV lamp if you live on Dartmoor. In this review I’ll be using this wash and cure station.

Apart from a little damage removing them from the build plate, the Rook models look very impressive in the grey Elegoo ABS-Like resin I’m using. This resin is meant to be tougher than their standard resin and since I like to print mainly functional parts rather I want the extra strength. And it’s about the same price too but it’s still a lot more expensive than rolls of filament – weight for weight it’s about twice the price. And since you need to add lots of supports for most prints there’s more wastage too. Not to mention failed prints.

Which brings me nicely on to my next print. Our shower rail broke a while back so I designed a replacement bracket in Fusion 360 which I’ve previously printed on an FDM printer. To convert the model into something the printer understands you need to slice it, just like with a filament based printer.

This takes the 3D models and divides it into slices or layers that the printer understands, based on your chosen layer height. Elegoo includes Chitubox which is fairly easy to use, although to use the latest version I also had to update the firmware on the machine. I’ll link to instructions on how to do this below.

There are plenty of tutorials online on how to use Chitubox and again I’ll link to a couple I’d recommend watching below. But I’ll cover some basics. Click on Settings and add the Elegoo Mars 2 Pro. For most Elegoo resins you shouldn’t need to change anything but for their translucent resins you’ll need to increase exposure times – that is how long the UV light comes on for for each layer. You can set that up here referring to this table.

Switch back to the File List tab and click Slice. You’ll get an indication of the print time which is always at least 30 mins quicker than the actual print time in my experience. And the cost in resin if you’ve entered the correct price and currency in Settings. There’s also a preview of the layers that will be sent to the LCD screen. A handy little feature here is the “Show isolated island layers”. Give it a minute or two and it’ll highlight in red any layers that will be printed in mid air – something you don’t want. Even if this doesn’t result in a failed print, it will mean resin stuck to your FEP sheet which means cleaning the resin tank before your next print. Save the .ctb file to your thumb drive and print.

When it’s completely clean, I gently also clean the LCD screen with a microfibre cloth and place the tank back in the printer. A little camera air blower is handy for making sure no dry particles remain in the FEP sheet.

So I attempted to improve the release of the FEP sheet by rubbing in some PTFE lubricant with a dry soft paper towel – a tip I saw in aYouTube video from Bluebrain. I still had issues with prints sticking a little too well to the FEP sheet so I tried replacing the FEP sheet – Elegoo provide a couple of spares and a step by step tutorial on how to do this.

I found I could go a little lower than the default 2.5s – 2s gave slightly better results. And interestingly Lychee slicer uses 2s for this printer. Lychee slicer is an alternative to Chitubox and can still export .ctb files that can be printed off the Mars 2 Pro. I found it easier to use compared to Chitubox and it has more features in its free version. Although there is a 20s ad on the free version when you export a file.

My Garmin 1000 cycling computer’s power button has worn out so I printed out a replacement button off Thingiverse. This worked perfectly and although I’d printed this on my Prusa FDM printer before, it came out much better with the Mars 2 Pro.

I printed a belt buckle to see how much flex the Elegoo ABS-Like has. It came out quite nicely and there is plenty of flex, but it’s still brittle – the edge of the buckle broke after a few insertions.

Since I’d still like to use this printer mostly for functional prints, I started experimenting with tougher resins. There’s far less information about this online but I tried mixing the Elegoo ABS-like resin with Siraya Tech’s Tenacious resin which is tough and slightly flexible but also very expensive.

I tried a 3:1 ratio of Elegoo to Siraya Tech which brings the cost down, and should make for tougher prints with better impact resistance. I printed the exposure test again to confirm I didn’t need to adjust exposure times and went about printing two parts for the bumper of my son’s RC car which had broken off.

There are quite a few consumables you need for this printer or any resin printer as well as the resin itself. The FEP sheet will need replacing if it gets scratched or becomes cloudy. You definitely don’t want it tearing, since that could be very messy. As I mentioned the printer comes with 2 spare sheets and you can get a replacement set of 5 for around £20 or $20. Another option is some spare resin tanks which already have the FEP sheet installed and come with lids so handy if you want to print in different resins without having to empty and clean the tank.

The LCD screen is also considered a consumable but should last a fair bit longer although I couldn’t find any details on how long it should last with this printer. Prusa quote 2000 hours for their mono LCD screens. These aren’t too expensive – they’re currently listed at just over £30 or $30 on Amazon.

It’s difficult to find many faults with the Mars 2 Pro from Elegoo. Nearly everything about it is well built, from the base to the resin tank to the build platform. This is especially impressive considering its price. Although I really would budget in the Mercury Plus cleaning and curing station or something similar, to try and minimise contact with the resin and speed up post-processing. You do need to be very careful with the resin and follow all the safety precautions, but I wouldn’t let this put you off trying resin printing.

I would like to see a slightly higher quality FEP sheet that didn’t require manually coating with PTFE if at all possible, which I’ll come back to in a minute. And I don’t like the active charcoal filter not being user-replaceable. Ideally it’d be far more convenient if the covers for both the Mars 2 Pro and Mercury Plus were hinged in some way. Finding somewhere to put them is not always easy. And a resin level sensor would be a nice addition too.

If you want to dip your toes in resin printing though, I think this printer is an excellent option. There is also the Mars 3 that Elegoo has just released. It has a higher 4K resolution and a slightly larger build volume. And it has an upgraded FEP 2.0 sheet that I’d like to try on the Mars 2 Pro, as I alluded to earlier. But it’s their non pro version and doesn’t have the built in carbon filter. And it’s more expensive.

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The LCD used for printing on Elegoo Mars is RGB – there are three subpixels – red, green and blue. Since the backlight LED produces a quite narrow range of wavelengths (peaking around 405nm), only the blue filter passes the light. That means that 2/3 of the backlight power is wasted to the LCD. Also, it means that only 1/3 of the pixel is exposed and the rest is hardened only via exposure bleeding – the effect we, on one hand, want to eliminate, on the other hand, it is essential for properly working screen. Aftermy modification, which removed the protective glass, you can see on my prints under a microscope the effect I mentioned – 1/3 of the voxel is nice and sharp, the remaining 2/3 are smudgy.

There were recently announced printers with monochromatic LCD. They feature low exposure times (around 2 seconds) with less power than Elegoo Mars. However, their LCDs have poor resolution.

First, I examined the LCD. I figured out that the two most outer layers are the polarizer. They are not glued, they hold similarly like to protective glass. Then there is a bottom plastic film with the pixel electrodes (I am sorry for not providing pictures, however, I was not able to take them from the microscope). Then there is a glass layer – on one side (the top side) it is covered by ITO – a conductive clear coating. On the bottom side, there is a layer of color filters. Between the glass and plastic film is a layer of liquid crystals, more specifically between the plastic film and the filters.

Having experiences with disassembling LCDs before, I know how to separate the glass from the plastic film. Just use a fresh Xacto knife and slide it between the layers, move along the perimeter and the layers separate:

You can see that the glass got much more transparent. Then I cleaned it properly and put the LCD back together. Unfortunately, I was not careful enough and I got some dust particles to the crystals. Therefore, I got polarizing patterns on the LCD:

So – it is possible to do! To fix the issue, I separated the layers again, cleaned them both with IPA using a paper towel, put liquid crystals I harvested from an old computer screen between them. I got LCD without dust particles, but with strange, colorful, patterns:

To do more experiments, I am looking for screen donors – I look for people willing to send me their LCDs with dead pixels. Doing these experiments on brand new displays seems to be wasteful to me. So if you have such a display and you live in Europe, please contact me!

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This is not a cheap 3D printer. It’s a very affordable 3D printer – but unlike filament-based printers, the story doesn’t end there. So while the Elegoo Mars is an incredible, high-detail resin printer, you can’t just it to any other machine that costs under 300 bucks. So today, we’ll look at whether Elegoo are actually managing to democratize printing or if you should just stick to FDM.

For some reason, when Elegoo introduced the Mars for around 280 bucks, the internet just went crazy over it. But it’s not like the Mars did anything really new and there were already machines like it out there. Even in a very similar price bracket, depending on which machine was on sale at what time. My experience has mostly been with FDM so far, filament-based printers, but I did have a Wanhao Duplicator 7 SLA printer for a good while now, and even though it seems to be practically the same machine as the Mars, I never really managed to warm up to the Duplicator 7 for many different reasons. So my take on the Mars is going to be from that perspective, too. And I do actually like the Mars a lot more than the D7.

But let’s start out with the specs, and they, too, are going to sound very familiar. At its core is a 5.4” 1440p smartphone screen that gets you a 12 by 6.8cm print area with a 50µ pixel size. The Z-Axis does 15.5cm, which I think is more than enough for the build area – when you’re printing busts and stuff, you’re mostly limited when it comes to how large you can scale them up by the 6.8cm maximum depth.

Now, the resin the Mars is printing with cures through quote-on-quote UV light, but technically, the 405nm wavelength is deep blueish purple and not UV, you definitely won’t get a sunburn from it. So inside the printer, there’s a large UV LED in the bottom that shines through that LCD screen, the LCD masks all the areas that shouldn’t get exposed and cured and than with every layer, the print surface just moves up a bit, lets some fresh resin flow under it and then cures the next layer below the last one. This printer actually prints all your parts upside down, but you can just flip them once they’re done.

One of the great features of the Mars is that it has a touchscreen interface and a USB port built right in. With the early cheap resin printers you’d basically run the masking LCD directly as a second screen from a computer, which was just horrible. If you’d leave your mouse cursor on the wrong screen, you’d actually get just an extruded mouse cursor column just printed next to your actual part, the computer couldn’t go into standby, windows update messages would screw things up, you know, the whole deal. Here, you just save your print file to a USB thumb drive and the printer handles the rest.

So, what did you see there? The yellow prints were done with Wanhao resin, the clear and grey parts were Elegoo’s own resin. And there is a massive difference between the two. I was never happy with the Wanhao D7, possibly because I only ever used the Wanhao resin with it. The prints with Elegoo resin on the Mars are clean, crisp, detailed, have only minimal warp, while the prints with the Wanhao resin warped a lot, supports broke off during the print and actually, I could never get the parts to fully harden and cure, even leaving them out in direct sunlight. These still feel tacky and soft, even after two days of curing. When I did the exact same thing with the parts printed from Elegoo resin, they actually turned pretty brown. What I’m told is happening here is that the partially cured resin, as it comes directly off the printer, instead of curing to a clear, strong plastic, actually breaks down from the more violent UV rays that are a natural part of sunlight – the same ones that give you a sunburn. Supposedly, once parts are fully cured under the “normal” 405nm light, they are much more UV resistant and won’t turn brown as much anymore, which is why I’m building a curing station with these mains-powered 405nm LEDs.

Overall, the print quality from Elegoo Mars is damn impressive. I don’t think I’ve had a print actually fail with this printer yet other than when it was clearly my fault for for example not setting the bed correctly, they’ve all come out looking really great. The only thing that stood out as artifacts are these lines that appear every now and then, I have no idea what they are. But overall, detail is great, reliability is great and resin prints just always look fantastic.

There are a few newer resins that either don’t smell… as much, or human noses just don’t pick it up, the Wanhao stuff smells horribly, the Elegoo resin is a bit less smelly, but compared to printing PLA, it’s still really bad. I’ve actually installed a fresh air ventilation system here in the studio with an ERV so that I could use these resin printers at all. With the fumes just lingering in here, my throat would start aching and my nose would start burning, so really not something you’d want in your living room. There are also “plant based” resins now, but as always, just because something is “natural” doesn’t really mean anything, the resin is still nasty stuff.

The resin itself is actually, I’d say, very reasonably priced now, these half-liter, roughly 500g bottles of Elegoo resin are 25€ and you can get them Prime shipped; and considering you’re not usually printing large, chunky parts completely solid with these resin printers, that’s actually not too far off from what filaments costs. It’s still more expensive, but very reasonable for being a less commoditized material I think. On the other hand, I’ve probably spent as much on nitrile gloves as I did on resin.

Speaking of parts that are hollow – the software. And I’m actually pretty happy with it! What Elegoo are recommending is ChiTuBox – which is a closed-source software that’s definitely not GDPR-compliant, that you can use for free for non-commercial purposes. There’s no option for anything but private use – yet, but down the road it looks like there will be a paid ChiTuBox Pro version with, quote, more features. The good thing is, it comes with a profile for the Mars that works really well out of the box – unlike the Wanhao D7 where I had to manually set up one of three different profiles in their software and none of the ones they suggested was actually “correct”.

Elegoo also offer a 4-pack of plastic vats for a very reasonable price, and I think it’s basically a must-have if you’re printing with more than one type or color of resin. Cleaning out the vat just to print with a different resin is really not fun, and in this one that has the clear resin in it right now you can still see some leftovers from the yellow Wanhao stuff even though I cleaned it out as well as I could.

And two more things on the topic of the UV LED – because apparently the Mars only uses a simple reflector to “spread” the light from the LED over the entire print area, I’ve been told that you can run into issues where the center actually gets exposed more than the edges of the print area, but I’ve not run into that; and supposedly the LCD screen used in here can or will fail at some point due to the near-UV light. I’ve heard anywhere from 1000 hours – which would be after just a few bottles of resin – to tens of thousands of hours. Just something to keep in mind, the screen may be a consumable, but thankfully, the actual screen part itself is only 30 bucks in materials if you can manage to swap it yourself. If not, well… too bad.

And of course, the LCD is right under the print surface, so if your Mars is missing that one retention screw like mine did, the aluminum bed will shoot straight down towards the LCD when you level the build plate for the first time.

The actual touchscreen LCD is right up front and makes the printer easy to use, there’s everything on there that you’ll need to run the Mars, you even get small thumbnails of the print you’re about to start, but the USB port is on the back, which, just like the Ultimaker having its spool mounts on the back, is kind of inconvenient.

So is the Elegoo Mars a good 3D printer? Yes. I’m really happy with it, but then again, it feels like a resin printer itself shouldn’t be hard to get right. I know everybody likes car analogies, so just comparing different resin printers is like comparing different car engines – it’s definitely the core part of a fossil-powered car, but there’s so much more to a vehicle than just the engine. Like, this is a good engine, but that’s all it is.

So, really, a good system for resin printing should also factor in some way of cleaning the parts, resin handling, which Elegoo actually does comparatively well at with the VAT packs, and it should also include a way to correctly cure parts. That makes it hard to compare a resin “printing engine” with a filament printer where you don’t really need anything else but the printer itself to produce parts.

But still, if you’re looking for just a resin printer, the Mars is a super solid choice right now. And if you’ve been watching my stuff for a while, I’m very cautious with saying something is “the best” one, because I usually haven’t thoroughly tested every single other machine there is, but this is definitely the best one I’ve ever used. Sample size 2.

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The Elegoo Mars Pro outclasses this original Mars model in many ways as it has several impressive performance and design enhancements that ultimately improve upon the overall great experience of its predecessor.

One of the notable performance enhancements is a fresher BGW15CA linear guide for the Z-axis which significantly improves the print accuracy. The other one is the improved light source (50W instead of the Mars 40W) which provides a faster curing speed. The Mars Pro also offers better light uniformity and a new build plate which has an upgraded 0.15mm CD pattern surface that provides better adhesiveness as well as easier print removal.

As for the design upgrades, Elegoo has moved the USB port to the front on the Mars Pro instead of the back like it was in the original Mars model. It has also included new features like a built-in carbon filter and a silicone rubber seal/gasket that’s put on the base of the UV cover to minimize resin odor leakage. The resin vat is equally larger than that of the Mars model.

Generally, the Mars Pro offers considerable improvements that make it a more competent printer than its predecessor. It’s far more accurate and easier to use. The print quality and level of detail were absolutely amazing – we printed at least 30 miniatures and we had very few fails. Here’s an in-depth look at what you can expect from it including a few setbacks that it has.

The Mars Pro is a resin (LCD/MSLA) 3D printer produced by Elegoo, a China-based 3D printer manufacturer that has been developing and producing resin 3D printers since 2017. It’s an upgrade of the company’s flagship model, the Elegoo Mars which was arguably amongst the best entry-level resin 3D printers on the market, competing with the likes of Phrozen3D, Anycubic, and many others.

The Elegoo Mars Pro has most of the design elements from the older Mars printer. It has the same small footprint, measuring just 7.87 x 7.87 x 16.14 inches. It takes up only a little space when placed on a desk. It also has the same red UV hood and a black base that sits on four anti-slip feet.

On the Elegoo mars, the port was placed on the back of the unit, which was a real hassle since you had to fumble around for the slot to insert or remove the USB drive or switch on/off the machine.

Elegoo has also shifted the position of the cooling fan to the bottom of the base unit instead of placing it on the inside like on the Mars model which allowed them to use a slightly larger, slower, and much quieter fan – the stepper motor runs quietly too and the rubber gasket helps to further cut down the noise when printing. You can barely hear

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