101Hero, The World's Cheapest 3D Printer

Rarely has a technology attracted both enthusiasts, professionals and the general public as did the 3D Printing technology. It will most certainly take decades until we see machines printing a Hamburger or car manufacturers mass producing vehicles entirely in 3D printing as some have imagined. Nevertheless, no one can deny that a revolution is in progress with this technology. That being said, the 3D Printers market is becoming more and more flooded and seems to go into a saturation with tons of new 3D Printer brands we see every day. It's becoming harder and harder to choose a 3D Printer that will fit your needs from this pile of 3D Printers that are making their way to the consumer market with distinct specifications, new features, different types, etc. We have published an article on how to choose a 3D printer 2 years ago but since then, hundreds of 3D Printer brands have emerged. Lots of the 3D printers we presented are priced over 1,000$. However, what about the people who are attracted to 3D printing technology but who are not willing to invest a lot of money to get started? We, at RobotShop, are happy to announce that we might have an appropriate 3D printer for them with the 101Hero 3D Printer.    

Specifications

The 101Hero is a Delta Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM) 3D Printer kit that costs only 109.99$ and that is accessible to everyone, including children and beginners. It has a 0.4mm Nozzle diameter, 100³mm printing volume and up to 205°C heating temperature inside the extruder. The printer can print using 1.75mm ABS and PET, however PLA filament is recommended by the manufacturer. The printer comes with two 1.75mm small rolls of PLA but if more is needed, our PLA generic filament will work just as good. As for connectivity, printing can be done using either an SD Card or USB. Other General Specifications :

• XY Accuaracy : 0.15mm
• Maximum Build Volume : 1.50L
• Minimum Layer Thickness : 0.05mm
• Dimension : 327 x 219 x 253 mm
• Weight : 1.8Kg

What's included

The 101Hero 3D Printer includes the following packaging includes the following parts :

• Controller board in a plastic casing
• 3 plastic side structures with 12V Unipolar steppers
• Top and base plastic structures
• Glass building plate
• Extruder assembly
• SD Card Module (SD Card is not included)
• 12V/3A Power Supply
• 2 x PLA Filament Rolls
• Mounting Hardware + tape
• User manual

 

101Hero Package

101Hero What's included

 

Printing

101Hero 3D Models 3D Printing with the 101Hero is relatively straight-forward. The easiest method to print with this printer would be to use an SD Card. The printer's controller can only read GCODE files named only "101hero". 101Hero provides some 3D Models that can be downloaded via this link. To print a 3D part from the 101Hero website, download and save the model in the SD Card. It should be named "101hero". Then, insert the SD Card in the SD Card module and plug the SD Card module in the controller. Switch ON the controller and press the button on top. The nozzle will start heating until it reaches about 205°C and start printing after approximately 2 minutes. 101Hero 3D models take an average of 3 hours to finish printing with the default configuration of the printer. Print your own 3D models You can also print a 3D model from sites like Thingiverse or print your own 3D models by using Cura. Cura is a slicer that converts an STL 3D file into GCODE to be used on the printer. It can be downloaded for free through this link. Make sure that you have downloaded the correct version which should be 15.XX. 101Hero confirms that any update of the version 15 should work. You will also need the Cura Config File that can be downloaded here.

• First, open Cura, then click on the "File" tab and "Open Profile"

   

• Select the config file you have downloaded and click "Open". Then, the configuration parameters of the 101Hero should be loaded to Cura

• Click on "File" ->  "Load model file" to open an STL 3D model file

 

• Select your STL file that you want to print and click "Open". The 3D model will be loaded into Cura.

 

• You can modify the scale of the model to enlarge the model (or make it smaller)

• Click on the "Save toolpath" button to select to export the GCODE file for the printer

• Rename the file to "101hero" and save it into your SD Card. Note :  The SD Card should have only one file.

  Now, you have a file that is recognizable by the 101Hero Printer. Same as with a 101Hero 3D model, you can print your file by plugging the SD Card into the SD Card Module and press the "Print" button on top of the controller. And here is the final print that took about 2 hours :