mostfun Pro: World’s First Intel Inside Desktop 3D Printer Set to Launch on Kickstarter

August 7, 2015 by Sarah Goehrke 3D Printers 3D Printing Business

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“A good 3D printer should be reliable and easy to use,” said Lvzhou Chen, CEO of mostfun. “It should require no manual to go through to get it started and should always deliver steady performance over the long term. This is exactly what we want to bring to you with the ‘mostfun Pro’.”

Chengdu, China-based mostfun S&T Co., Ltd. is getting ready, following 16 months of development and with feedback from more than 400 users, to roll out their all-new mostfun Pro FDM desktop 3D printer. While we’ve seen quite a few desktop 3D printers introduced recently, this one stands out for one very important reason: the result of a collaboration between mostfun and Intel, the mostfun Pro is the world’s first Intel Inside desktop 3D printer.

And next week, it’s launching on Kickstarter.

The mostfun Pro features an aluminum construction, offering a sturdy machine weighing in at only 12 pounds and designed for optimal plug-and-print use. The printer can use ABS, HIPS, PLA, and TPU filaments, and can even make custom candles, as it can print with wax material. From the hardware side, the key to this machine lies in its newly developed extruder, the BAU.

“The extruder is the part we have spent the most amount of time on during the development process,” mostfun says in their Kickstarter campaign video. “Not only does it print with high precision, it can also print 5 centimeter bridges.”

The BAU extruder is designed to be easily removable, for speedy and simple maintenance. Upon starting a print, sensors in the BAU reach out to the four corners of the print bed to determine the levelness and adapt accordingly–it’s able to produce normal prints even with the bed noticeably slanted (they demonstrate a well-formed print produced on a 14° slanted bed).

With the physical machine seemingly quite user-friendly, the biggest draw of the mostfun Pro is clearly its use of the Intel Edison module. Benefits here, says the mostfun team, start at the beginning, in that with the Edison technology included, there’s no need to install any further drivers or software for the 3D printer. Its use can also be shared on a peer-to-peer or local network basis.

Further capabilities of the mostfun Pro include wireless accessibility. By scanning the printer’s QR code, you can have full smartphone control of a print from start to finish, selecting the design and controlling the printer via phone. Once a print job is completed, it will automatically email you to let you know. Additionally, the printer contains an auto-resume function in case of power loss mid-print, putting an end to worries about untended prints being ruined in a blackout.

“Last but not the least, ‘mostfun Pro’, with Intel Inside’s reliability and technology guarantee, is priced very attractively on Kickstarter,” says the mostfun team in a press release. “Each product is an exercise in the evolution from raw technology to product maturity and user friendliness. Backers will gain a new and rewarding experience from the maturity of ‘mostfun Pro’ 3D’s technology and the stability delivered by Intel Inside.”

The Kickstarter campaign will launch on August 11th, with the company seeking a $50,000 (CAD) funding goal. Early bird backers can get the mostfun Pro 3D printer for a $599 CAD pledge–and the company intends for guaranteed delivery, set for Santa to be the good guy here because “you can get [your] printer before Christmas night.” Once the 50 early bird printers have been scooped up, backers still wanting an Intel Inside 3D printer can pledge $699 CAD to get their own. Delivery is still listed as December 2015 (though no Christmas guarantee), and these printers are set to include a 1kg spool of 1.75mm PLA filament.

The specs of the mostfun Pro 3D printer are:

Technology: Fused Deposition Modeling (FDM)
Printer Size: 13″ x 13″ x 15″
Build Volume: 7.8″ x 7″ x 6.3″
Extruder Nozzle Diameter: 0.4mm
Resolution: 100µm
Layer Resolution: 50µm
Power Requirements: 100-240V 2.2 A
Connectivity: WiFi

“The biggest challenge lies before us comes from the uncertainty in software development. Because we have dozens of software-based feature, it is going to take a lot of efforts to kill the bugs and refine them until it can be delivered,” mostfun notes on Kickstarter of potential risks to the campaign. “We have our solution to this: in case the software development were behind the schedule, you could still have all the promised features by updating the firmware later.”

Is this a 3D printer that you’d like in your home? Let us know if you think this Chinese company will pull out all the stops in the Intel Inside mostfun Pro 3D Printer forum thread over at 3DPB.com.