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Anycubic Kobra S1 Review - Owww, it bit me!!
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Apr 1, 2025
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View Video Transcript
0:00
it's close it's so close but once again
0:03
there's some daff things that slow this
0:05
machine's potential at reaching a far
0:07
larger market than it's capable of this
0:10
will still sell and people will probably
0:12
have a very good time with it in the
0:14
most it's a great printer but unless any
0:18
cubic address some of these missing
0:20
elements which are things that could or
0:23
at least should be very easily resolved
0:26
then the user base they're targeting
0:28
with this product can roll their eyes
0:29
along with with me when we get to it hi
0:32
I'm Ross and this is f Hammer videos now
0:35
don't get me wrong I like this machine
0:36
or at least I like its potential how
0:38
could I not after all this is so much a
0:41
copy of the bamboo X1 that when I first
0:44
saw it at form next last year I actually
0:46
joked with other creators it should be
0:48
called the clonea X1 rather than Cobra
0:51
S1 but the difference here is this is a
0:54
very obviously more budget friendly
0:57
approach which for many people I would
0:59
say is a good thing in fact at half the
1:02
price of a bamboo X1 there's a lot of
1:04
good here and you can immediately see
1:06
the cheapness where they've kind of gone
1:08
with lower priced elements in how
1:10
plastic it is internally there's a metal
1:13
frame but all of the external panels are
1:15
incredibly plastic including both the
1:17
lid and the door and I half expected all
1:20
these plastic elements to cause
1:21
vibration noises but I was pleasantly
1:23
surprised by no rattling at all where
1:26
the noise can come from though is when
1:28
you're printing in basic filaments like
1:30
pla or petg now it's generally
1:33
recommended with these corx y machines
1:34
to keep the door open to avoid excess
1:36
heat buildup within the chamber which
1:38
could in turn affect your prints yet
1:41
I've spent hours printing for a large
1:43
project and then some on this machine
1:45
with the door closed and lid on without
1:47
any obvious shrinkage or warping issues
1:50
now when it came to unboxing and setup
1:52
this is very straightforward mostly pull
1:54
it out of the box though I did have to
1:56
rip the foam to release it from the base
1:58
and the version that any cubic sent me
2:00
for review is the combo which means it
2:02
comes with an AC which is any cubics
2:05
multimaterial changer I'll come on to
2:07
that later believe me that is something
2:09
I very much want to talk about But
2:11
continuing with this assembly and setup
2:13
once it's unwrapped I needed to remove
2:15
the a which has its own retaining bolts
2:18
but separating this from the bed is also
2:20
a large plastic Riser which also needs
2:22
to be unbolted and I got a bit excited
2:25
that this may actually serve as some
2:27
kind of riser for the AC system you know
2:30
so you can set it on top of the printer
2:31
when you've got the lid removed but no
2:33
once I removed it it appears to just be
2:35
a very large very useless waste of
2:37
plastic and having just said that out
2:40
loud yeah I understand the irony of
2:42
winging about plastic waste in a hobby
2:44
where we are literally generating
2:46
plastic waste for the sake of our own
2:48
Amusement but still unless I've missed
2:50
something obvious I can't use this for
2:53
anything and I think it would have been
2:54
nice if this had a secondary function
2:57
like a riser maybe somebody out there
2:59
can make a mod for it so this becomes
3:01
useful or I've missed something anyway
3:04
once that's out uncp some cable tires
3:05
around the hot end unbolt the bed itself
3:07
and you're ready to go the only
3:09
installation left to do is either the
3:11
filament reel holder which is rather
3:13
daftly on the back of the printer you
3:16
know where it's least accessible or
3:18
install the AC which as I said I'll come
3:20
back to later but what you have now is a
3:23
pretty decent core XY printer which has
3:25
a build volume of 250 mm cubed now I'm
3:29
going to winge about these Dimensions
3:31
far more than it matters but I want you
3:33
to tell me if I'm wrong about this for
3:35
anyone who's seen both printers how
3:37
obvious is it that this is a budget
3:40
bamboo X1 it is so similar in so many
3:43
ways that if I were a teacher marking
3:45
this machine as homework having seen
3:48
somebody hand me the X1 last year I'd
3:51
know instantly who copied who it it
3:53
literally has like 90 odd per the same
3:56
features it's a corexy design
3:58
multimaterial though this only supports
4:01
up to eight colors with two AC units not
4:03
16 colors like bamboo it has got a poop
4:06
shoot on the rear a hole inside for a
4:08
carbon filter easy accessible components
4:11
in the hot end thanks to the face plate
4:13
that just easily Clips off and even has
4:16
a proper quick swappable nozzle
4:18
something that the bamboo X1 doesn't but
4:21
where it's also similar to the bamboo
4:22
machine even the nozzle wiper is the
4:25
same flexible block rather than a more
4:27
toothy rubber star that we've seen on
4:29
newer printers including the Cobra 3 and
4:32
I was actually trying to do the filming
4:33
of the nozzle wiping against this thing
4:36
but when I was moving my lights around
4:37
inside the printer whilst it was on I
4:40
had the hot end move so fast that it
4:41
pushed my hand out of the printer I
4:43
actually scraped a chunk of skin off on
4:45
the inner plastic frame of the door
4:47
leaving me to reel back screaming ah it
4:49
bit me you know in the similar style to
4:52
Forest Gump look the long and short of
4:54
it is don't be a dumbass and put your
4:56
hand inside of a printer when it's in
4:57
the middle of printing leave that to
4:59
idiots like me anyway as I was saying
5:02
since this is such a blatant copy
5:03
machine why not just use the same bed
5:06
dimensions of 256 mm like other brands
5:09
have done and I know I'm winging about a
5:12
difference of 6 mm and as a print volume
5:14
difference yeah it's enough that it
5:16
doesn't matter but one I'm married and
5:19
this channel is my only Outlet to feel
5:21
validated by anyone so please agree with
5:24
Point 2 there are so many models 3mf
5:27
files and multibed projects out there
5:30
that are designed around this bed size
5:32
of 256 mm this difference does make some
5:36
of those projects marginally less
5:38
accessible because well you've got to
5:40
move them around in the slicer yeah I
5:42
know I'm winging I did pre-warn you and
5:44
I also said marginally But yeah when
5:47
you've copied so much here why not just
5:50
adopt that 256 mm as a standard other
5:53
brands have done it or at least go one
5:56
up one up the competition and go for 260
5:59
moving on right now ports wise there's a
6:01
USB port on the upper right hand side of
6:03
the machine the power socket is on the
6:04
rear with a rocker switch now the rear
6:07
also has the ports to connect up the AC
6:09
unit but I'm sad to see there's no
6:11
ethernet which is something else that
6:13
says to me this is more for the home
6:14
user than print Farms that may actually
6:16
want an ethernet connection the printer
6:19
does have Wi-Fi however which you set up
6:21
during your out of box sequence on the
6:23
display and from here you can connect to
6:25
the any cubic Cloud which lets you send
6:27
prints wirelessly from the slicer along
6:29
with remotely monitoring the printer in
6:31
the phone app which I've got to say I do
6:33
find Handy that is something that any
6:35
cubic have got pretty consistent with
6:38
and I like having this app now you can
6:40
also get time lapses from the camera
6:42
though these are very low resolution at
6:44
only 640 by 480 they look kind of
6:46
terrible but that only really matters to
6:49
people creating content like me and they
6:51
will also only save to an installed USB
6:54
drive now I managed to get one initially
6:57
but after that I must have then
6:58
overfilled my USB drive with all the
7:01
prints or something because that drive
7:03
is now dead and I can't actually read
7:05
the drive at all on my PC even with a
7:07
file recovery app anyway regarding Wi-Fi
7:09
from what I understand though there's no
7:11
way to natively send files via Lan it
7:14
all has to be done through any cubic
7:16
Cloud at least for now it is Loosely
7:19
indicated on any cubic Wiki for this
7:21
machine that they are going open source
7:24
which could allow for some modifications
7:26
to enable this function if they don't do
7:28
it themselves and they've said that
7:30
going open source is part of the plan
7:33
but when or if this happens is
7:35
completely up in the air I'll update the
7:37
video description regarding this and a
7:38
couple of other things I'll come on to
7:40
when or if this happens now I must say I
7:44
like the flip up screen it's neat it's
7:46
tidy but mainly it arrived attached and
7:48
unlike other printers I didn't need to
7:50
install it myself yeah it's the simple
7:52
things for me the UI is nice and
7:55
generally has the exact same interface
7:56
we've seen on most other corxy printers
7:59
lately nothing to call out here nothing
8:01
to write home about pretty much
8:03
everything you need is where you would
8:04
expect it and as for print quality as a
8:07
general printer user this is more than
8:09
fine I've actually been working on a
8:11
very large project lately for element
8:13
games who are opening retail stores
8:15
across the UK and they wanted some of
8:18
the Bolter style props that I used in
8:19
one of my videos from last year so I've
8:22
had three printers running to churn out
8:24
six of these and even when that project
8:26
was completed I realized Tam grips the
8:28
creator of the files had some new
8:30
designs out on Colts 3D so I printed a
8:32
couple of the new bolters too and I had
8:36
absolutely no issues with the print
8:39
quality I did however have some issues
8:42
with the printer so here's three things
8:44
that any cubic need to sort out and it
8:46
should be simple to do now with the AC I
8:49
do like this it's easy to install
8:51
because it's rather obvious where all
8:53
the cables go and if not the instruction
8:55
manual guides you through it nicely
8:57
Mount the USB hub to the back of the
8:59
printer connect the PTFE cables from the
9:01
AC to the hub and plug in the data
9:03
cables because this has a heater it also
9:06
needs its own power cable now this does
9:09
color changing and I've seen color
9:10
changing everywhere but I've said in a
9:13
few videos now I'm personally just not
9:15
the biggest fan of purge waste yes color
9:17
changing is fun but little more than a
9:20
nice to have for me what I like is how
9:22
these systems make filament easy to load
9:25
and how they should be able to
9:26
automatically swap to the next filament
9:29
if one runs out mid print should in my
9:33
experience with the AC on the Cobra S1 I
9:36
could not get this to work at all now
9:37
initially I thought it was because I'd
9:39
actually loaded three of the same
9:40
filament and maybe I confused the AC as
9:43
to which it should pick next because I
9:45
came down the next morning to find the
9:47
machine had been just constantly purging
9:50
black filament out of the back of both
9:52
of the spare reels so I tried again with
9:54
only two reels yet I had the exact same
9:57
constant purging issue so finally I
9:59
tried with just one reel and actually
10:01
let the AC run out so I could manually
10:04
change it mid print but even after the
10:07
change it just continually purged the
10:09
new reel rather than continue the print
10:12
even forcing a restart to try and engage
10:14
power loss resume wouldn't fix it so I
10:18
had to put Less on my bill plate so one
10:21
reel of filament wouldn't run out or use
10:23
a different printer this is something
10:25
any cubic needs to sort out even though
10:28
I never had this issue on my Cobra 3 and
10:31
as I said I was printing a big project I
10:34
obviously naturally favored other
10:36
machines over the S1 because with others
10:38
I didn't have these limits I didn't need
10:40
to worry that I'd get a truncated waste
10:42
of a print that I couldn't finish and
10:44
the next thing is well it's the
10:46
Automatic Heating I actually said in my
10:48
Cobra 3 review this was a bit too manual
10:51
back then having to tell the AC via the
10:53
printer when to heat and how long for
10:56
completely independent of any printing
10:58
activity you could either tell it to
11:00
heat or tell it to print this is
11:03
slightly better now because you can
11:04
actually tell it to heat for x amount of
11:06
time before starting a print but the
11:08
question a lot of people are going to
11:10
have is well how long should we heat it
11:11
for an hour 4 hours more you need to
11:15
heat it until the filaments dry so I
11:18
would have personally liked to have seen
11:19
them make this even more automated and
11:21
say heat until the internal AC humidity
11:25
drops below a certain value that seems
11:27
obvious right but that's assuming the AC
11:30
has a humidity sensor like the AMS which
11:33
I'm not certain it does Reports online
11:35
suggest it doesn't but it's this kind of
11:38
budgetary lack of forethought which
11:40
weakens this overall machine and systems
11:43
potential but the main issue I have with
11:45
this machine is around the slicer two
11:48
reasons now I am happy to see that since
11:50
my Cobra 3 review any cubic have now
11:53
ditched the old slicer and given us any
11:55
cubic slicer next which is now based on
11:58
Orca slicers that we all love but I have
12:01
to wonder why these Brands don't just
12:02
stop wasting their time making their own
12:04
slicer and just contribute to Orca maybe
12:08
that's something that Orca don't do it's
12:10
probably just cuz I'm from a resin world
12:12
where in resin you kind of have two
12:14
slices and everyone supports them rather
12:16
than everyone having their own slicer
12:18
anyway I guess with any cubic yes they
12:21
do at least have their own storefront to
12:23
embed maker online which well I'm sorry
12:26
to say it's a weaker version of both
12:28
printables and make a world but this is
12:31
a way for them to push that in your face
12:34
but it being weaker like the slicer I
12:37
don't think actually makes this a better
12:39
offering for anyone why spend
12:42
development time on this when that
12:43
development time could be spent fixing
12:46
actual issues and making the printer you
12:48
offer better now these branded machines
12:52
are all using continually outdated
12:54
versions of orca because the updated
12:57
version of orca needs to exist before
12:58
these are updated and it's honestly like
13:01
being back in the early 2000s with
13:03
branded Nokia phones that all have the
13:05
carrier's own crap on them rather than
13:07
the vanilla software that we all know
13:10
love gets updated and gets all the
13:12
support and feedback and fewer bugs but
13:16
I suppose we can at least take some
13:17
small solace in the fact that at least
13:19
they didn't change the UI the layout and
13:21
all the icons like some other brands
13:23
have done now the slicer works and it
13:25
works with the printer and it's all fine
13:27
and if you know orer you'll know this
13:29
but the main issue here and the one that
13:31
I think any cubic need to sort very very
13:34
quickly and is also probably the key to
13:37
the success of a particular larger brand
13:40
bamboo is the absolute lack here of
13:43
available profiles in this slicer now
13:46
the Cobra S1 here only has one nozzle
13:48
configuration the 0.4 that comes with it
13:51
and then there's only one height profile
13:54
for all of the material types they're
13:55
all at 0.2 layer height and I find this
13:59
insanely limiting like oh the reason
14:03
bamboo had so much success in their
14:05
early days was due to the fact that the
14:06
machines were so user friendly the
14:09
majority of profiles for the majority of
14:11
materials just worked and here these
14:13
profiles have just worked but they're
14:16
far too few and if I want a better
14:19
quality lower layer height print I've
14:22
now got to configure it for myself I've
14:25
said for a while there are two types of
14:27
printer user there's the more technical
14:29
Enthusiast who wants to Tinker and tweak
14:32
with a machine and then there's the
14:33
everyday user who wants the machine to
14:35
be more of an appliance that they can
14:38
just use click print and have something
14:40
done now this is very clearly aimed at
14:44
that second user because it's not
14:47
currently open and it doesn't have any
14:49
of the features or enhance ability that
14:52
the former user wants this is aimed at
14:55
those beginners who just want to click
14:57
print and have the printed thing but
15:00
without even these profiles there it
15:02
just shows that this whole offering well
15:05
it just feels unfinished and I even
15:07
delayed this video a couple of months
15:08
because any cubic actually sent me the
15:10
S1 before Christmas and I wanted to see
15:13
if these updates arrived in a decent
15:14
time frame and I think at the point
15:17
where people actually start receiving
15:18
the machines that's enough of a time
15:21
frame so again as I've said don't get me
15:23
wrong I do like the S1 I like the
15:26
potential of the S1 as I said in the
15:28
intro but even now a couple of months
15:30
after release it is simply an incomplete
15:34
product there are acce bugs not enough
15:37
profiles they don't even have different
15:39
nozzle sizes available on the store to
15:41
buy for the machine though as this is
15:43
subject to change I will once again
15:45
invite you all to keep an eye on this
15:46
video's written description where I can
15:48
post updates as or well if they happen
15:52
this is still a nice machine the
15:54
hardware is mostly there mostly what you
15:57
get here is an all but cheap per bamboo
15:59
X1 just be aware that that cheapness
16:02
currently extends beyond the physical
16:04
Hardware to the software design and well
16:06
the overall forth thought in development
16:09
which is something I've talked about now
16:10
in pretty much every any cubic fdm
16:12
printer review that I've done so far any
16:15
cubic are a good strong resin brand and
16:18
these silly things are causing them to
16:21
miss the mark in fdm so I suppose you
16:23
can look at this and accept it for what
16:25
it is buy it at a great price and enjoy
16:27
it you can also hope along with me that
16:30
in a few months from now they will have
16:32
kept developing this and brought it up
16:34
to par I can say now I'd have loved this
16:37
more if the filament swap issue hadn't
16:39
pissed me off so much wondering if this
16:41
is a fair competitor to something like
16:43
the bamboo X1 well you're paying less
16:46
here but you are getting less any cubic
16:48
aren't pushing this forward and in the
16:51
one way that they have gone forward by
16:53
adding a heater to the AC the way it's
16:55
implemented and with the complete lack
16:57
of a humidity sensor it's pushed forward
17:00
in one small way but it's also once
17:02
again limited itself for the potential
17:05
it could have been so yeah I clearly
17:08
want to like this more than I do I I'm
17:11
not no I am I'm angry I'm disappointed
17:14
by it I'm frustrated to the point of
17:15
wanting to bang my head on the table
17:18
that these quirks aren't so obvious to
17:20
the brand that they aren't fixed already
17:24
or at least widely communicated to say
17:27
hey we're adding this on x date now if
17:30
you have one of these I'd love you to
17:31
tell me of your experience down in the
17:33
comments because I know many people
17:35
considering machines like this from
17:37
watching my videos will actually use the
17:39
comment section to see what these have
17:41
been like for all users after all I've
17:44
only just got one printer with a month
17:45
or so testing here and there and the
17:48
success of any product will be measured
17:49
by the overall longevity and Community
17:52
experience so please for the sake of
17:54
helping me with this Channel and helping
17:56
others use the comment section below to
17:58
tell tell people how you've got on with
18:00
your S1 for everyone else I want to say
18:02
thanks for watching and with a huge
18:04
thanks going out to our members who are
18:06
on screen now and please if you're new
18:08
here consider joining them get your name
18:10
up in lights along with Early Access and
18:12
Discord roles if you want to buy this
18:14
printer there is an affiliate link below
18:16
the video which you can use and that
18:18
will net me a commission at no cost to
18:20
you if this video was helpful if you did
18:22
enjoy it please click like Please
18:24
Subscribe and until next time be
18:26
excellent to each other and I know if
18:28
used that one a few times but I like it
18:30
anyway thanks for watching F hammer out
18:38
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