So... Awhile ago I mentioned I was going to buy a cheap chinese UV printer to play with braille - I knew what I was getting into, and expected it to be a paperweight sooner rather than later... but it was for fun, and to test out braille before buying an expensive printer. I've had it for a few weeks now, figured I'd post my experience.... It'll be a long one as it's been an interesting few weeks!
TLDR; It's as expected. Way better in some ways... hillarious in others, It's a fun toy to play with, but wouldn't recommend anyone buy one as their main source of printing.
It's an interesting device! It prints really nice... way better quality than our (Albeit older) CET Q500, or FB500 printer - It's a bit slow, but the ink adhesion is insane as well. I can print on alupanel, acyrlic, or styrene...products which our printer struggles with, and you can take keys to it without it scratching at all - all with no promoters. The only thing I can think of is they don't have as much environmental standards as NA Does.... so whatever theyre using in their ink bites better.
It feels like someone took a desktop printer, and converted it to UV ink - Which is pretty much what they did. I wouldn't ever use it in a production environment... unless You buy a couple for a backup, because its not a matter of if, but when it will break and need repairs. For the price buying extras isn't out of the question at least. But you get the "Desktop printer" feel from the printer... I'd compare it to a cricut, it can do what it says it can well... but you know it's not built to last.
The only issue I've had so far is the software - It comes with "rii print / printexp", or whatever they're calling it... It seems to be popular on all the chinese printers, but this version doesn't have the needed dongle... And you can tell it's an older, cracked version which makes it glitchy.
The instructions for the machine suck - so when I was first trying to print braille I learned I could just tell it to print 50 copies, and it'll print a copy... run a cleaning, go back to the beginning and print another copy over it... run a cleaning, etc. It worked... but it was running so many cleanings, so I dug into the software and found a way to turn cleanings before printing off.... which worked... but it also turned the UV lamp off. I contact support and tell them... and their reply was "turn it back on, it doesnt use much ink dont worry about it" and they completely ignored the issue
I found the proper way to do it in the software by increasing the ink by like 400%, so I didn't care too much... and kept pressing them on wanting the dongle.
Support... don't even get me started on that. It's all through We-chat, the chinese app. The techs do not speak english... So what you do is type to them... they hit translate, they type back in chinese... I hit translate... reply to them... they hit translate, etc. Obviously it's odd hours - the first night I was up until 4 AM talking to them... I asked about how to do braille properly... And they spent like 6 hours remoting in and calibrating my printer... which consisted of them running alignments... me taking photos and sending it to them... them entering the values... It didnt matter how many times I said I've aligned 8 head printers before, aligning this 2 head printer is simple and I didn't need help... They just kept pushing and doing it... was funny, but would be frustering if I didnt expect it to happen!
Then a few days later... all of a sudden the white ink auto generation stopped working - a bit of googling and testing... and it looks like after a few days of "Trial" the software blocks white ink use. So I e-mail them again... insisting on wanting a dongle... To which they said the software is legit, doesnt need a dongle... and the printer acts as a dongle. So I bring up the white ink auto generating not working... and they tell me not to touch stuff in that setting again...and to do it through photoshop. Which let me tell you, is a pain in the ass. It can be done... but I'd rather not use the printer than to do it through photoshop!
I point out the software auto generates white ink behind images, and a spot channel (Not even color, but a whole ink seperation way in photoshop) isnt the way I want to use the printer - They cant tell me why it doesn't work, just that the software is legit. So I remember when playing around before talking to them I got it to pop up an error saying the software needs a dongle and isnt genuine...so I play around and get the error to pop up again, and send them a photo - Turns out its when making a color profile, the software checks for the dongle and they didnt crack that part. so I send them a photo... and get told "Oh...that feature not included. if you need dongle its $350 usd plus $150 shipping"
At that point I sent them all their manuals from their USB Device that say to setup the white ink the way I was, but it didn't work - Photos of their own manual saying a dongle is needed and must be plugged in at all times... Videos of the UV lamps not running if auto ink cleaning isnt on... Lots of stuff to show I'm not just going to accept using cracked software.... especially ones that dont work. And I got told theyre on holiday for a week...and if I want dongle id have to pay, but techs will help with the issues im having when theyre back. So I submitted a claim through Alibaba about it being pirated software, and said I wanted a full refund and to return it... the seller responded with "Not sure what they mean cracked software... we no promise any software just printer" So I uploaded all the usb documents... photos of the listing, etc... And a day later got a reply from the seller "is this manual from us? i dont have it. if it is i will send you dongle. now I understand, if it says dongle is included i will send you one free when we back from holidays"
Thats pretty much where I am now. I still have my claim open, so we'll see what Alibaba says - They say they'll send a new dongle... My only issue is not liking cracked software, and the problem with it being a chinese printer is I can't find any other software that works with it. I reached out to Hosonsoft / Riiprint company to buy it from them because I dont want to buy a $150 dongle off ebay when it's probably not legit, and havent heard back. I'm sure if I wasn't going through Alibabas trade protection which usually favors the buyers, they wouldn't be sending me a dongle.
All the horror stories you see about chinese printers are true, The support sucks... I can just feel it's going to break any moment, it has the made in china, will last 1 moment past warranty vibe... etc. I still dont regret getting one, as I expected this - It's actually been better than I expected - I was up and running in 20 minutes. all I had to do was remove the support brackets, add the ink, pull the ink through the tubes/damper, run a few cleanings...and it was working. Not something most shops would want to do, but something most people who arent afraid to do their own repairs are more than capable of doing.
The braille is great - bonds to anything... I was expecting it to print non compliant braille, but it does the rounded top, and you tell it how many layers... so once you spend a bit of time and get the "how many layers to print xx height" down pat, it's simple to do. Braille software isn't included... so you have to have your own software - which we do for our router, so not an issue.
Same can be said for Tactile - It can print images / text pretty high up. It's super easy to do in the software.
White ink - It's nothing like our Latex white ink, but its... good enough? Varnish is awesome as well, being able to add an additional layer of scratch protection as well as gloss. The software for white ink sucks... but I think thats because its cracked, once I get the legit version either for free, or coughing up for a dongle on ebay, it'll go back to being as easy as it was the first few days.
Adhesion - As I mentioned I've never seen or had UV adhesion be this good before. I've printed on glass, acyrlic, metal, powder coated metal, woods... you cant scratch it off unless you're using a knife. You can take keys, and as hard as you can scratch at it...and while you can see indent/scratch marks, it doesnt remove the ink. I had to bring home 10 powder coated plates that we usually screen print, because the customer who supplied them used a different powder coater - And Enamel ink, 3M ink, GV, GP, even Thermal set ink would not bond to it, you could just scratch it off with a finger nail - our flatbed was the same... I took it home to test it in my printer... And it bonded good. we had our screenprinter wash of all the test inks... and she couldn't get my "test" text I printed with this flatbed off You had to take a knife and cut it at an angle to get it to go away... it's crazy, never seen anything bond like this. I dont know how well it'll stand up outdoors... I printed a small sign and threw it up, so we'll see.
So far I've "made" about $500 off of it in the week I had it - I say "made" because I'd have made it without the printer. Stuff I normally print on our Latex with white ink, apply to acyrlic... laser cut, I just shifted over to the flatbed to save materials and test whether its worth it or not. It gives a better image doing W/C/W On the UV than on the latex and cutting it... on the Latex the clear film leaves a little bit of a burn mark when lasering it out, where as the UV printer doesnt. I'm going to utilize it until its un-usable. I want to get a 24" x 36" Model or bigger... And if there were better software options, and I knew the machine was built better... I'd probably buy a chinese one.... but as fun of an experiment as this was, I'd rather drop 50K on a 24x36 logojet than drop 10K on a 24x36 chinese flatbed...or even 5 of them and have that many backups / spare parts... simply for the software. Even with fully functional software, its 1/100 as comparable as Onyx is... so being locked into software like this really destroys workflow. For my home printer when I'm using it once or twice a day I can barely deal with it... if it were a work printer thats in use 8 hours a day, It'd be in the garbage already.
Long post - but hopefully someone who comes on here asking whether it's worth it to buy a chinese printer for 4K instead of a proper printer for 50k reads it and can make a better decision for themselves!
TLDR; It's as expected. Way better in some ways... hillarious in others, It's a fun toy to play with, but wouldn't recommend anyone buy one as their main source of printing.
It's an interesting device! It prints really nice... way better quality than our (Albeit older) CET Q500, or FB500 printer - It's a bit slow, but the ink adhesion is insane as well. I can print on alupanel, acyrlic, or styrene...products which our printer struggles with, and you can take keys to it without it scratching at all - all with no promoters. The only thing I can think of is they don't have as much environmental standards as NA Does.... so whatever theyre using in their ink bites better.
It feels like someone took a desktop printer, and converted it to UV ink - Which is pretty much what they did. I wouldn't ever use it in a production environment... unless You buy a couple for a backup, because its not a matter of if, but when it will break and need repairs. For the price buying extras isn't out of the question at least. But you get the "Desktop printer" feel from the printer... I'd compare it to a cricut, it can do what it says it can well... but you know it's not built to last.
The only issue I've had so far is the software - It comes with "rii print / printexp", or whatever they're calling it... It seems to be popular on all the chinese printers, but this version doesn't have the needed dongle... And you can tell it's an older, cracked version which makes it glitchy.
The instructions for the machine suck - so when I was first trying to print braille I learned I could just tell it to print 50 copies, and it'll print a copy... run a cleaning, go back to the beginning and print another copy over it... run a cleaning, etc. It worked... but it was running so many cleanings, so I dug into the software and found a way to turn cleanings before printing off.... which worked... but it also turned the UV lamp off. I contact support and tell them... and their reply was "turn it back on, it doesnt use much ink dont worry about it" and they completely ignored the issue
I found the proper way to do it in the software by increasing the ink by like 400%, so I didn't care too much... and kept pressing them on wanting the dongle.Support... don't even get me started on that. It's all through We-chat, the chinese app. The techs do not speak english... So what you do is type to them... they hit translate, they type back in chinese... I hit translate... reply to them... they hit translate, etc. Obviously it's odd hours - the first night I was up until 4 AM talking to them... I asked about how to do braille properly... And they spent like 6 hours remoting in and calibrating my printer... which consisted of them running alignments... me taking photos and sending it to them... them entering the values... It didnt matter how many times I said I've aligned 8 head printers before, aligning this 2 head printer is simple and I didn't need help... They just kept pushing and doing it... was funny, but would be frustering if I didnt expect it to happen!
Then a few days later... all of a sudden the white ink auto generation stopped working - a bit of googling and testing... and it looks like after a few days of "Trial" the software blocks white ink use. So I e-mail them again... insisting on wanting a dongle... To which they said the software is legit, doesnt need a dongle... and the printer acts as a dongle. So I bring up the white ink auto generating not working... and they tell me not to touch stuff in that setting again...and to do it through photoshop. Which let me tell you, is a pain in the ass. It can be done... but I'd rather not use the printer than to do it through photoshop!
I point out the software auto generates white ink behind images, and a spot channel (Not even color, but a whole ink seperation way in photoshop) isnt the way I want to use the printer - They cant tell me why it doesn't work, just that the software is legit. So I remember when playing around before talking to them I got it to pop up an error saying the software needs a dongle and isnt genuine...so I play around and get the error to pop up again, and send them a photo - Turns out its when making a color profile, the software checks for the dongle and they didnt crack that part. so I send them a photo... and get told "Oh...that feature not included. if you need dongle its $350 usd plus $150 shipping"
At that point I sent them all their manuals from their USB Device that say to setup the white ink the way I was, but it didn't work - Photos of their own manual saying a dongle is needed and must be plugged in at all times... Videos of the UV lamps not running if auto ink cleaning isnt on... Lots of stuff to show I'm not just going to accept using cracked software.... especially ones that dont work. And I got told theyre on holiday for a week...and if I want dongle id have to pay, but techs will help with the issues im having when theyre back. So I submitted a claim through Alibaba about it being pirated software, and said I wanted a full refund and to return it... the seller responded with "Not sure what they mean cracked software... we no promise any software just printer" So I uploaded all the usb documents... photos of the listing, etc... And a day later got a reply from the seller "is this manual from us? i dont have it. if it is i will send you dongle. now I understand, if it says dongle is included i will send you one free when we back from holidays"
Thats pretty much where I am now. I still have my claim open, so we'll see what Alibaba says - They say they'll send a new dongle... My only issue is not liking cracked software, and the problem with it being a chinese printer is I can't find any other software that works with it. I reached out to Hosonsoft / Riiprint company to buy it from them because I dont want to buy a $150 dongle off ebay when it's probably not legit, and havent heard back. I'm sure if I wasn't going through Alibabas trade protection which usually favors the buyers, they wouldn't be sending me a dongle.
All the horror stories you see about chinese printers are true, The support sucks... I can just feel it's going to break any moment, it has the made in china, will last 1 moment past warranty vibe... etc. I still dont regret getting one, as I expected this - It's actually been better than I expected - I was up and running in 20 minutes. all I had to do was remove the support brackets, add the ink, pull the ink through the tubes/damper, run a few cleanings...and it was working. Not something most shops would want to do, but something most people who arent afraid to do their own repairs are more than capable of doing.
The braille is great - bonds to anything... I was expecting it to print non compliant braille, but it does the rounded top, and you tell it how many layers... so once you spend a bit of time and get the "how many layers to print xx height" down pat, it's simple to do. Braille software isn't included... so you have to have your own software - which we do for our router, so not an issue.
Same can be said for Tactile - It can print images / text pretty high up. It's super easy to do in the software.
White ink - It's nothing like our Latex white ink, but its... good enough? Varnish is awesome as well, being able to add an additional layer of scratch protection as well as gloss. The software for white ink sucks... but I think thats because its cracked, once I get the legit version either for free, or coughing up for a dongle on ebay, it'll go back to being as easy as it was the first few days.
Adhesion - As I mentioned I've never seen or had UV adhesion be this good before. I've printed on glass, acyrlic, metal, powder coated metal, woods... you cant scratch it off unless you're using a knife. You can take keys, and as hard as you can scratch at it...and while you can see indent/scratch marks, it doesnt remove the ink. I had to bring home 10 powder coated plates that we usually screen print, because the customer who supplied them used a different powder coater - And Enamel ink, 3M ink, GV, GP, even Thermal set ink would not bond to it, you could just scratch it off with a finger nail - our flatbed was the same... I took it home to test it in my printer... And it bonded good. we had our screenprinter wash of all the test inks... and she couldn't get my "test" text I printed with this flatbed off
You had to take a knife and cut it at an angle to get it to go away... it's crazy, never seen anything bond like this. I dont know how well it'll stand up outdoors... I printed a small sign and threw it up, so we'll see.So far I've "made" about $500 off of it in the week I had it - I say "made" because I'd have made it without the printer. Stuff I normally print on our Latex with white ink, apply to acyrlic... laser cut, I just shifted over to the flatbed to save materials and test whether its worth it or not. It gives a better image doing W/C/W On the UV than on the latex and cutting it... on the Latex the clear film leaves a little bit of a burn mark when lasering it out, where as the UV printer doesnt. I'm going to utilize it until its un-usable. I want to get a 24" x 36" Model or bigger... And if there were better software options, and I knew the machine was built better... I'd probably buy a chinese one.... but as fun of an experiment as this was, I'd rather drop 50K on a 24x36 logojet than drop 10K on a 24x36 chinese flatbed...or even 5 of them and have that many backups / spare parts... simply for the software. Even with fully functional software, its 1/100 as comparable as Onyx is... so being locked into software like this really destroys workflow. For my home printer when I'm using it once or twice a day I can barely deal with it... if it were a work printer thats in use 8 hours a day, It'd be in the garbage already.
Long post - but hopefully someone who comes on here asking whether it's worth it to buy a chinese printer for 4K instead of a proper printer for 50k reads it and can make a better decision for themselves!
