Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K Review - One Step Back

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right then I'm just going to say it I
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think the satin 4 ultra 16k is probably
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going to be the absolute best pick for
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hobbyist printers and by that I mean
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people printing things for their hobby
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rather than the people whose hobby is
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resin printers many of its changes have
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significantly enhance the overall
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product from its predecessor but there's
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one thing about this that leaves me
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wanting to bang my head against the
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table actually there's two but can you
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tell what the first one is yet if you've
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been here a while you can probably guess
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if you're new here hi I'm Ross and this
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is F Hammer videos for those who've been
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eager to hear my thoughts around the
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time the product launched I'm sorry for
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the delay I've had some issues with this
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one that we needed some extra
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investigation and we'll come on to that
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but I've also had some external family
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stuff I've had to deal with over
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Christmas and just wanted to make sure I
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could do this video with a clear head if
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it's not obvious the printer was
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provided for free by eler review and as
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you're very clearly about to see as you
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watch through my thoughts as always are
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very much my own right no time to waste
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this new printer is the satin 4 ultra
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again with some enhanced changes I have
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to assume this could be the first video
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of mine you're watching but at the same
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time I don't want to waste your time if
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you already know what the satin 4 ultra
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is I could repeat a lot of what I've
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already said in my last review or I
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could spend your time diving further
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into the new stuff I'm choosing the
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latter but if you aren't already aware
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of its great features here they are now
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it looks nice it's got an up and over
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lid power and USB sockets are on the
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right side near the back it's got a vent
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hole in the back to connect up
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extraction dual linear rails and a lead
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screw build plate attaches to the arm
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with a clamp it's got a large vat which
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is able to hold just about one entire
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bottle of resin the build plate is daed
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because it's got this big gap in it
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which is annoying to clean out it says
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it's self-leveling when it's technically
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not but it is autozeroing it's got
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adjustable feet has a tilting vat which
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has some benefits and some drawbacks and
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was capable of some of the sharpest
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prints I've ever seen on any home
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printer did anybody noce I said was yeah
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we'll get to that all in all despite a
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few flaws the satin 4 was received
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incredibly well and I'm still confident
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was probably the bestselling printer of
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2024 by a clear margin in fact based on
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my own video views interest in the four
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Ultra has eclipsed any other similar
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Machine by nearly four times if you
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haven't already seen the satin for Ultra
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review please check it out because now
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as I said I'm going to focus mainly on
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what's changed and the first things are
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external you now have the 16k moniker on
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the front of the lid woo but only a few
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people have noticed the profile of the
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machine has slightly changed too in that
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there's no longer any sign of an
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external Wi-Fi antenna yet the printer
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is still fully Wi-Fi capable as I
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mentioned it in my best and worst resin
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printer features video I would have
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liked to have seen an Ethernet socket
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included personally just for the sake of
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print Farms wanting to use this the
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first main change is the build plate now
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this is identical to the last but now
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includes two plastic tabs on top in
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order to help with its lack of grip but
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yeah the rest of the plate is the same
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and after a print can get resin stuck
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between these two tiers but thanks to
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the popularity of these machines there
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are now dozens of printable adapters you
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can get to help deal with that for me
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I've just resolved to putting a silicone
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baking tray under the plate and above
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the vat and then scrape my models off
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whilst leaving the vat in place is this
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the safest way to do it no probably not
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if you're going to copy this i'
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definitely practice some caution to
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ensure you don't end up with bits of
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dried resin in your vat yes the pressure
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sensing features of the build arm should
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detect some pieces but it's still a risk
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I'm conscious of and overall this method
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works well enough for me I'll leave an
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affiliate link for these baking trays in
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the description for anyone who wants to
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try one or you can just go on Amazon and
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search silicone baking tray they are
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useful for cleaning your models on too
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now when it comes to leveling this
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printer there has been a change and the
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printer now has a manual leveling
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function which I would hope they would
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bring to the original satin 4 and to do
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this you need to clean the bill plate
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have no vat in the printer and using
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four pieces of paper you test the level
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of each Corner if any corner of the
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paper is loose where you can both pull
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and push it rather than just pull but
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not push you slowly loosen that corner
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screw by turning it counterclockwise
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eligo have now also put threadlock on
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all the screws to encourage them to stay
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in their new positions now looking at
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the website elu are still saying that
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this mechanism is auto leveling and
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whilst yeah it should be that's really
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only the case if the printer is
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perfectly calibrated from the factory
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and there was no shifting during
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shipping and my issue with this is less
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about the mechanism just more with the
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specific marketing words it's not Auto
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leveling because it doesn't level itself
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and that's a fair statement to make
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right now one potentially handy tip I
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want to get in is because I know some
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people actually tried this method
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previously on the older Saturn 4 ultra
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after watching geek detours tear down of
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the Mars 5 and the Saturn 4 but another
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tip that was given to me by one of my
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Facebook followers Chris is that if you
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still have trouble with this leveling
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mechanism you can actually just remove
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each bolt put some M6 washers in to give
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the internal posts more height clearance
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which could help because the distance
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between the top of the internal post and
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the top of the plate is very tiny but
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considering we're now essentially just
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leveling the printer in a similar way to
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how we always have by adjusting some
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screws I still struggle to see the value
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of this two- tiered springy posty
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mechanism I mean I'll take it because I
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have to but I don't have to like it
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other brands have done better plates is
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all I'm saying the next new addition is
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the vat now visually this is almost
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identical but now with a seamlessly
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integrated vat heater and I did want to
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do a test out in the cold but there's no
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point now because there's already a
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fantastic video by Blake 3D cake showing
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this machine printing outside at nearly
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minus5° that is awesome I've always said
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I love a bat heater in a printer so this
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inclusion is fantastic and coupled with
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the tilting mechanism this should not
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only keep the resin warm but keep that
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warmth mixed throughout the resin in
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throughout the print however you can't
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actually adjust the printer's
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temperature Beyond on and off you can
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change it between Celsius and Fahrenheit
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if you like but the vat heater itself is
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a fixed 30° the printer will preheat and
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mix before a print starts and it'll
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continue heating throughout but during
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the print the temperature is actually
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maintained at 25° which is more than
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fine for the vast majority of resins but
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it may not be warm enough for some of
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the more technical things people are
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using however for those of us printing
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in cold environment this feature is an
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absolute necessity and let's be fair
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even if we could adjust the temperature
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we'd all just Wang it up to the max
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anyway yeah now then the new
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screen so moving from 12K to 16k now
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gives us a resolution of
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15,120 by
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6,230 and therefore a new pixel size of
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14 by1 19 microns the smallest on any
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printer I've seen yet but does this mean
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I could see a difference in the XY
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exposure from the machine yes and it was
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actually worse now I always print the
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same XY exposure test and typically the
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same resin the same Aqua hyperfine resin
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as a basic way to compare printers for
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accuracy so when I saw overexposure in
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my initial test print still using that
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same Aqua hyperfine I always use because
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it's sharp I could actually see areas of
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both underexposure and overexposure from
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the new 16k display and I've got to be
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honest the built-in multi-exposure test
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helped with this process so if you want
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to know how that works I've got a
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separate video on that feature too but
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this is where the video was delayed
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because I spent some time head
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scratching around this problem wondering
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why a higher resolution screen was worse
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than a lower resolution screen I tested
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this in both fast and Standard Printing
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modes no change I printed a version with
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a 5 met base underneath just to see if
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it was a compression issue like I had
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with the Mars 5 and no change I printed
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a lot of versions of this test it was
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only when reducing the UV power or pwm
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through chitubox that was able to get a
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result close to what I had on the older
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12K Saturn and this was at the same one
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second exposure time too for 30 Micron
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layers so I'm inferring a hypothesis
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based on what I've learned from a few
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more technical users regarding these
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higher resolution screens we're starting
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to see and that is that they are denser
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so what it means is we need more
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powerful UV light to penetrate through
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them and at least in the case of my
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machine it appears that that UV light
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was turned up a bit too high which is
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why reducing it helped soften the bloom
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and the overexposure so where I'm still
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scratching my head is that I'm
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struggling to understand the benefit of
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changing to the slightly smaller higher
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resolution screen yeah this screen is
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smaller but it's only by 7 mm on the x-
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axis and five on the Y AIS it's not a
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lot but it's smaller now for anyone
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who's seen my satin 4 Ultra review
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you'll know I was proud of eligo stick
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with the 12K in the Saturn 4 when other
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brands were jumping on the equally
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pointless 14k upgrade bandwagon but now
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that we have a slightly smaller screen
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than we had before with no visual print
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quality improvement another hoop I had
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to jump through just to match that print
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quality and the increased UV power
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needed genuinely concerns me regarding
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comparable panel longevity yeah I do
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feel that this is a step backwards or at
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the very least a step in the wrong
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direction but does this Di finish the
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overall package for someone looking at
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this as their new printer well I already
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said I think that this is the best
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hobbyist machine in the intro but I'll
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come back to this in the conclusion the
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last thing I want to talk about is the
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built-in light for the AI camera this is
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Handy at least now I can actually see my
9:44
time lapses no matter what time of day
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they're recorded and whether you create
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content online or not I personally still
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find these quite therapeutic to just
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watch however this light is another
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feature that is simply on or off rather
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than the light coming on at the start a
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print or lighting up to capture a
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picture during each layer the thing I
10:03
want to call out more to just cover my
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own ass is that I've had a few comments
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on my satin 4 ultra video where I
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installed my own light saying that doing
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so could actually begin to cure the
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resin in the vat now this makes sense
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considering I've seen other brands only
10:18
ever use orange lights or use orange
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filters on their lights so I'm just
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going to say I hope elu have done some
10:24
testing and made sure this light doesn't
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do that but if you do have any
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indications that the light is affecting
10:30
your materials please let me know in the
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comments so that other people can be
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aware but if you want to be safe yeah
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just cover it with a strip of capton
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tape to turn it orange as other brands
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have poorly done I think in conclusion
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I'm going to say the same as I said
10:43
about the satin 4 ultra I think this is
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a great printer and a good step forward
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this is a decent Midway upgrade to its
10:50
predecessor and one that shows that elu
10:51
are willing to listen to and respond to
10:54
community feedback and since that's the
10:56
case here's some more also if you agree
10:59
or disagree with any of this please let
11:01
me know in the comments I think it's
11:02
high time we had an elgu Phone app so we
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could actually monitor print progress
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and things like the camera remotely
11:08
rather than relying on chit box on a
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computer I know they've released their
11:12
satellite slicer now which seems good
11:14
because it shows they're taking control
11:16
of the software development which I
11:18
honestly feel is going to be the Main
11:19
Avenue open to progress on 3D printers
11:22
going forward but a phone app is
11:24
something that other brands have and
11:26
eligo just don't and the other thing
11:28
which is something I think people should
11:29
be keenly aware of is that screen swaps
11:32
in these tilting printers require almost
11:34
a full tear down of the printer now
11:36
considering LCDs are consumable Parts it
11:40
is somewhere I think many of us would
11:41
like to see more focus when it comes to
11:43
the inevitable satin 5 because I suspect
11:46
this current process will put some
11:48
buyers off and if that's you again
11:51
comment section let me know but overall
11:53
yeah I think this takes so many boxes
11:56
for the average user with its form
11:58
factor usability quality and speed and
12:01
it's got a decent heater yes the bill
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plate can be annoying but as I've said
12:05
in a few videos now it just doesn't
12:07
annoy me enough to put me off I've found
12:09
and shown workarounds I just wish it was
12:11
better as I said and the screen even
12:14
that still only really bothers me in
12:16
comparison to the last printer and that
12:18
it's another sign of a brand chasing the
12:21
wrong thing I would personally prefer to
12:23
see manufacturers try to put more effort
12:25
into making longer lasting screens
12:28
rather other than more higher resolution
12:30
screens the resolution in these screens
12:32
has already gone well beyond what most
12:34
home resins are even capable of
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rendering and to be fair most of us
12:38
printing models and Miniatures would use
12:40
much softer resins anyway for example
12:43
this RPG resin which was sent to me by
12:45
Frozen and I do like it I think it's
12:47
really good but even when we use this we
12:50
then apply anti-aliasing and make our
12:52
prints even softer and this was still
12:54
more than good enough to print
12:55
incredible looking trench Crusade
12:57
Miniatures and I did two great looking
12:59
forces on just three and a half Bill
13:01
plates and I printed those in just over
13:03
a day so yeah much like the satin 4
13:06
ultra as a hobbyist I really do like
13:09
this printer I just personally preferred
13:12
they kept the 12K screen and called this
13:14
the satin 4 ultra plus or maybe more
13:16
amusingly the satin 4.5 Ultra I don't
13:19
know if you've got any other names pop
13:20
them down in the comments I want to say
13:22
thanks for watching and a huge Thanks
13:23
goes out to our members who are on
13:25
screen now please consider joining them
13:27
to support the channel get your name up
13:28
in live along with Early Access and
13:30
exclusive videos don't forget to join
13:32
our Discord server which is linked in
13:34
the description as always there will be
13:36
affiliate links before this video which
13:38
you can click before you make a purchase
13:40
I will make a commission at no cost to
13:42
you thanks again for watching until next
13:44
time it's only a flesh wound faux hammer
13:47
out
13:52
[Music]

Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K Review - One Step Back

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Elegoo Saturn 4 Ultra 16K Review - One Step Back

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