Printed paradise

Elegoo Centauri CarbonRating 45Pros Great price fast printing reliable outputCons No AMS yet a little rough around the edges software setup requires tweakingPrice Rs 39999Bambu Labs has been the king when it comes to consumer 3D printers their X1 Carbon paved the way for easytouse fast and reliable printers blowing every other 3D printer out of the arena With their P1P model they made this more affordable However some time early this year Elegoo launched a competitor called Centauri Carbon which was so cheap through a Kickstarter campaign that it was almost unbelievable That was till they started delivering at that priceIt was a complete clone of the Bambu Labs P1S mimicking many of its specs the only thing missing is their AMS system which at the time of writing is still missing Why is this significant now Well 3Dprinting as a hobby has slowly but surely exploded in India with Bambu Labs officially selling its printers here and Elegoo also offering the Centauri Carbon I have used all the Bambu Labs printers available in India except for the latest H2 series and the updated P2SUnboxing and setupAs far as unboxing goes this has been the easiest by far other than the Bambu Labs printers Setting up the printer is painless and the instruction manual is straightforward In the box you get the printer a spool holder power cord USB drive scraper blade screws spare nozzle wiper screw driver allen keys touch screen and an unclogging pin The printer was pretty much fully assembled and I had it up and running in under 30 minutesThe software setup took almost 45 minutes including time to set up the printer run a selftest connect to the WiFi and update the printer It does most of this with very little user intervention and even then instructions are available in video form online along with the provided documentation It was a pleasant experience Though it vibrates and makes a lot of noise during the test similar to the Bambu Labs printerPrintingThe first print I did was the included benchy it finished printing an almost flawless benchy in under 15 minutes The same print on my Creality Ender 3 Plus took nearly three hours This speed is consistent with what a P1S printsOver the month that I have been testing this printer every print has been consistent and nearly flawless The few glitches I had were when I changed the filament and didnrsquot set the correct settings and another when I tried a novelty print plate with holograms I would chalk these down to user errorBut Whatrsquos the CatchNow letrsquos not get carried away here A printer that looks like a P1S walks like a P1S and even prints like one surely it canrsquot be all good right Wellhellip yoursquore right There are a few compromises here Most notably the AMS Automatic Material System The piece de resistance of the Bambu Labs ecosystem is absent For the uninitiated the AMS lets you use multiple filaments think different colours or types in the same printItrsquos been promised by Elegoo teased on their website and mentioned in hushed whispers on forums but at the time of writing it hasnrsquot been launched yet I enquired with Elegoo and they said it will launch soon this year a timeline that is quickly running out of runway So suppose yoursquore dreaming of rainbow octopuses and dualmaterial phone stands In that case yoursquoll have to hold that thought or manually swap filaments like itrsquos 2020Then therersquos the software While Elegoorsquos proprietary slicer is functional it lacks the polish of Bambu Studio You can however use OrcaSlicer which works well with the Centauri Carbon But it does take a little fiddling and you may need to dive into Reddit and Discord to get it dialled in Not a dealbreaker just part of the charm of this hobbyVerdict Should You Buy OneThe Elegoo Centauri Carbon is a solid choice to expand your 3D printing hobby in India without mortgaging your organsSuppose yoursquore looking to start or expand your 3D printing hobby in India without mortgaging your organs In that case the Elegoo Centauri Carbon is a solid choice It prints fast and reliably and it looks snazzy on a desk You get about 80 per cent of the Bambu experience at less than 50 per cent of the price and thatrsquos not a bad tradeoff Sure you lose out on the Bambustyle AMS system but at this price do you even care In a world where 3D printing often feels like a dance between price and performance Elegoo may have waltzed into the spotlight