Creality Halot One Plus review

I’ve change into one thing of a 3D printing addict over the previous few years, however the Halot One Plus is my first foray into resin printing.

For these new to 3D printing, or simply to resin printers, it’s vital to grasp there are main variations between resin printers and FDM printers (the kind that print utilizing a spool of filament), such because the Creality Sermoon V1 Professional.

This isn’t the place to match the 2 applied sciences, however it’s price figuring out from the outset that with a resin printer just like the Halot One Plus, you’ll want a ‘wash and treatment’ station as properly. Not like an FDM printer, when the Halot One Plus has completed printing, this isn’t the tip of the method: uncured resin should be cleaned from the print (together with helps), then it should be cured utilizing UV mild.

Attending to the Halot One Plus itself, it’s the flagship mannequin within the Halot One vary, which additionally consists of the Professional and Halot One. It has the most important construct quantity of the three, the largest LCD and highest decision.

It’s no shock that it’s dearer, however the query is whether or not it’s price shopping for. Let’s discover out.

Options & design

• 7.9in monochrome LCD
• Proprietary mild supply
• 4.9in touchscreen
• 172 x 102 x 160mm construct quantity

In comparison with an FDM printer, the Halot One Plus is pretty compact and fully enclosed. It measures 236x243x418mm and weighs just a little below 7kg. The duvet is required to guard your eyes from the UV mild, and it’s such a darkish shade of blue it’s onerous to see by it.

Fortuitously, the massive shows progress so you possibly can see how a lot print time is remaining and what number of layers have been printed (out of the full). It’s a capacitive touchscreen, like a telephone, and this makes it easy to navigate menus, change settings, select fashions to print and enter your Wi-Fi password.

Subsequent to the display screen are two USB ports, one for a flash drive containing print recordsdata and a type-B port for direct connection to a PC.

The built-in Wi-Fi  means wired connection is one thing you’re unlikely to make use of, and there’s even entry to Creality’s Cloud service that means that you can obtain prints on the printer itself. The Halot One Plus can then slice these fashions and print them.

I’ve seen lots of people declare that among the fashions obtainable are “stolen” and are breaking copyright, so if you wish to keep away from inadvertently printing one thing you need to have paid for, it could be finest to supply your fashions elsewhere.

Below the duvet you’ll discover a steel resin tray with a clear FEP sheet screwed to the underside. There’s a spare included within the field, which is useful.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The tray has markings for 250, 450 and 650ml and likewise has captive screws so you possibly can’t lose them. On two reverse corners are lips that permit unused resin to be poured extra simply again into the bottle.

The aluminium construct plate has 4 Allen bolts that have to be loosened earlier than levelling. This can be a easy course of (in comparison with an FDM printer) which requires you to position the calibration sheet on prime of the LCD display screen, then tighten the bolts as soon as the construct plate has been lowered on prime of the sheet.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The highest of the construct plate is angled to assist resin run off, however actually wants a steeper pitch as some resin stays after printing, and will get caught across the bolts.

The 7.9in LCD has a decision of 4320×2560, which is larger than a whole lot of resin printers. As with graphics, the next decision means a smoother-looking print, whereas a decrease decision means prints are blockier. This is without doubt one of the causes the Halot One Plus prices greater than lower-resolution resin printers.

Nevertheless, as a result of resin 3D prints are created by shining UV mild by the display screen, it’s vital that this mild is even throughout the display screen. Many resin printers use a UV LED matrix, however Creality has developed its personal ‘integral mild supply’ which it says can attain over 90% “evenness”, in comparison with round 50% for resin prints utilizing ‘parallel emission’.

Additionally, as a result of it makes use of far fewer LEDs than a matrix, there are supposedly fewer issues with damaged items throughout the matrix.

The Halot One Plus can print 0.01mm layers and has an XY axis precision of 0.04mm. It has twin rails on the Z-axis which ought to assist guarantee no deviation for tall prints.

It’s good that firmware updates are potential over the air by way of Wi-Fi, and Creality says that its staff is engaged on including webcam help. Confusingly, there are references to cameras within the menus already, however what actually threw me was that the ‘Digital camera password’ within the Digital camera Monitor settings is definitely the password (token) it’s essential set if you wish to print over Wi-Fi from a PC.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Having webcam help could be good if the duvet wasn’t so darkish that’s isn’t potential to see clearly what’s being printed, because the digicam must be positioned outdoors of the duvet.

With two followers, one for the UV LED and a second for the activated charcoal filter, the One Plus is comparatively noisy because the followers run constantly whereas printing. Utilizing Creality’s personal resin, the odour wasn’t too unhealthy, nevertheless it actually appeared that the filter wasn’t capable of neutralise the scent fully.

There aren’t many equipment included within the field: only a plastic scraper, a single paper  filter (for pouring resin again into the bottle) and some Allen keys. There are not any flush cutters for eradicating helps, nor any gloves, so these and a few IPA (isopropyl alcohol) to wash prints are the extras you’ll have to get at the least.

You may additionally wish to purchase Creality’s UW-02 washing and curing machine which prices $219 / £179.

Slicers

You have got a selection of slicers. There’s Creality’s personal Halot Field, Lychee Slicer and ChiTuBox. As I hadn’t used any of those, I went with Halot Field.

Creality

It’s comparatively simple, although you will want to learn to add helps to resin fashions. The auto-generated helps weren’t positioned in essentially the most wise locations, so it’s price spending the time to manually add them the place you need them.

You may export the sliced mannequin to a USB drive, or print direct to the Halot One Plus over Wi-Fi, after setting and coming into the password, and the software program will estimate the print time and the way a lot resin might be used.

Printing

For the primary print, I downloaded a Minion mannequin from Creality Cloud and used the default print settings. Surprisingly, it printed completely with no issues by any means – the exact opposite of nearly each FDM printer I’ve reviewed.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The plastic scraper eliminated the mannequin from the construct plate and, since I didn’t have a wash-and-cure machine handy, I used a shower of IPA to wash the uncured resin after which left it outdoors within the solar for an excellent few hours.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Resin prints do change color when cured, so the white resin took on an nearly peach shade as soon as cured.

For the second take a look at, I opted for one thing far more tough: a mannequin of Captain Jack Sparrow which stuffed an excellent proportion of the utmost peak. This took just a little over 13 hours to print however, as soon as once more, printed efficiently first time.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Element was exceptionally good, with nice texture within the beard, jacket, wood flooring and twine.

Resin prints are just a little versatile earlier than they’re totally cured, and may change into brittle at that time, so it’s important to watch out to not snap items off, such because the sword. On this mannequin, one of many two chin braids snapped off when eradicating a help.

The principle drawback with this print was that it was caught so quick to the construct plate it was extraordinarily tough to take away. I needed to resort to a steel scraper, and even then, it was powerful to prise it off. Decreasing the first-layer treatment time largely fastened this for subsequent prints, although.

Yet one more take a look at was the difficult Tower of Pi. That is just about inconceivable on an FDM printer, which is why the designed created a model with partitions. However the Halot One Plus took it in its stride, printing nearly completely at 100%, which is 150mm tall and 85mm large.

Jim Martin / Foundry

The one imperfections had been a number of stuffed in holes in among the quantity 8s. You too can see stepping across the edge (on the left-hand facet of the picture above), although this wasn’t current all the best way round – some areas appeared completely clean, so it’s not merely the 0.04mm XY decision coming into play.

Importantly, there have been no points in any respect with Z-axis accuracy, and prints with vertical surfaces had been additionally good and clean.

General, print high quality is great, and the good mild uniformity means you need to use the total space of the construct plate with out sacrificing high quality.

After printing, you possibly can run a ‘cleansing’ cycle which cures a whole layer and may catch any small items which have fallen into the resin vat.

The default time of 25s wasn’t sufficient, so I ran it twice extra and was then ready to make use of the plastic scraper to take away the cured resin.

Jim Martin / Foundry

Worth & availability

The Halot One Plus prices $399 from Creality’s web site.

That’s $100 greater than the same Anycubic Photon M3. It isn’t similar: it touchscreen is smaller, it has a single linear Z rail and doesn’t have the Halot’s integral mild supply.

Within the UK, availability is extra restricted than within the US. You may’t purchase one from Creality’s web site, and one of many solely UK retailers itemizing it on the market on the time of evaluate was Expertise Outlet, the place it value £469.

For comparability, the Photon M3 prices £295, £174 much less, making the Halot One Plus look overpriced. Hopefully it’s because it’s model new, and costs will come down when there’s higher provide (and Creality sells direct to UK consumers, one thing that’s deliberate for the longer term).

Bottles of resin aren’t low-cost. They’re bought by weight and a 1kg bottle prices $35-40. Creality sells each water-washable and customary resin, in a wide range of colors.

Verdict

The Halot One Plus is an excellent resin printer general. In my testing, it carried out reliably and delivered high-quality prints with out fuss.

Like all resin printers, the method of eradicating helps, cleansing and curing after printing is a messy enterprise, however there’s no technique to keep away from this except you select an FDM printer as a substitute.

Apart from it being barely noisier than I’d like, the primary drawback with the Halot One Plus is the value. It’s significantly dearer than the Photon M3 and lots of first-time consumers will discover it onerous to justify spending the additional.

In case you’re not a newbie care about getting the best-possible print high quality, and really need the additional mild uniformity of the Halot One Plus’ integral mild supply, you would possibly have the ability to justify spending extra.

Specs

• Print quantity: 172 x 102 x 160 mm
• XY decision: 4320 x 2560 (4K)
• XY accuracy/pixel measurement: 0.04 mm (40 μm)
• Print velocity: 1-4s per layer (relying on the resin used)
• Z-accuracy / layer thickness: 0.01-0.2 mm
• Touchscreen: 4.9in colour touchscreen
• UV mild wavelength: 405 nm
• Energy provide: 100-240 V 50/60Hz
• Energy: 100W
• Dimension: 236 x 243 x 418 mm
• Weight: 6.9 kg