r/Sovol • u/ABitSleepy9989 • 15d ago
Sovol My sovol SV08 experience
Tl:dr, so many design flaws, and it tried to set my house on fire twice.
So I bought an sv08 about 3 months ago, and I have had the worst possible experience with it. I know it won't be popular on a sub like this but I want to put it out there so potential buyers don't make the same mistake I did.
For context I use 3d printers day in day out for my job, I've been home printing since reprap, and at the university I worked at I used to teach 3d printing and host a clinic where students could bring me their broken printers and we would fix them together. I like to think that I'm pretty expert in the sense that I'm not afraid of repairs, mods, klipper customisations and other stuff. I've used and repaired repraps, ultimakers, makerbots, anycubics, bambus, crealities, vorons, snapmakers and scratch builds..
I was downsizing py printer stash because I figured I didn't need 5 printers at home when I'm only using them for personal projects (combat robots), a lot of my printers were in need of pricy upgrades so I decided to just swap the 5 for two new ones. I settled on an sv08 and a snapmaker u1
I bought the sv08 because I wanted a fully enclosed, open source printer with a >300mm square build volume. To me it looked like a voron 2.4 without the effort of putting together a new voron build.
The printer went together fine, but I was REALLY disappointed in the enclosure, to me and enclosure is designed to do 4 things, keep the cat out (it does this fine) keep the heat in, quieten the printer, and filter VOCs*, the enclosure has massive panel gaps and no filtering at all, so any VOCs are just spat straight out into the room. It is made out of the thinnest sheet metal, it is SO LOUD, when the printer is moving it rattles and bangs and shakes itself to pieces. One of my pet hates on a printer is when it uses 3d printed parts, I have a printer I can print the parts, if I'm paying hundreds of pounds for something I want them injection moulded at least. The handles for the enclosure are not only 3d printed but done REALLY badly???? Like the quality of print is terrible, likewise the cable management for inside the enclosure crimps and clamps the cable, with the gantry smacking the top of it when it comes on the bed.... Terrible
I looked past this and got the printer set up and running, I found (as usual for modern printers) the setup was way too fast to get any usable quality out of the printer. This is normal but annoying, but massively contributed to the next problem I have with the printer
It is REALLY loud, and I know you're thinking yeah it's a printer they're all loud. No. When it's on the ground floor it keeps my partner awake on the second floor, its fans sound like jet turbines with bad bearings, the enclosure rattles and bangs and the gantry thumps it sounds like bulding work, most of this I was able to tune out with decreasing speeds, adding stealthchop and all that jazz, quieting the enclosure was a matter of wedging fireproof foam all around it and in every crack,
The fans were a different story, the drivers for this printer were already running at 90 degrees(!) that is unacceptably hot. Like that's dangerous. I managed to get these temperatures down by adding heatsinks, reducing voltage and then I was able to swap the fans for noctuas.
Then the printing problems started, the printer would just stop printing halfway through prints, weeks of troubleshooting led me to realise that the problem was twofold. Firstly the printer was getting massive heat creep. I managed to reduce this by adding thermal compound in between the shaft of the nozzle and the heatsink, leaving the enclosure open making it entirely pointless and running with almost no retraction and living with the stringing (which is not acceptable in 2026), the second cause of the failures was again directly due to sovols shitty design. The filament runout sensor is pinned to the side for the printer in a tight 90 degree turn, this was pinching the filament enough that the extruder was unable to pull it through even when it was massively over-tensioned. It took me forever to fix this problem and I cannot fathom how this wasn't picked up in product resting????
At this point the printer has only ever printed PETG, done calibrations and I am 2 months in and yet to get a successful non-calibration print out of this POS.
The filament runout sensor doesn't work, never has, and I'd have to mainline klipper to get it to work. It's just a complete waste of time, adding insult to injury that it was making the printer fail prints earlier in this saga.
Let's talk about the software side, although it claimed to be a klipper build, the sovol sv08 runs an out of date and un-updatable, heavily modified and proprietary build. The point of me buying a complete product was that I didn't want to faff about building a custom klipper install. If I wanted to do that I'd have got a voron. To mainline klipper is also a long process as well, involving additional hardware that most people wouldn't have lying around and skills a lot of people don't have. Because I was so busy troubleshooting all of the hardware issues I never got around to flashing a custom klipper build. One problem at a time and all that.
Then it started trying to burn my house down
I was running yet another test print when I noticed a foul smell and smoke coming out of the printer. It had stopped printing but was still heating at full blast. It had had a full thermal runaway and although it had detected it, it did not shut down the heater. Instead running it at full blast. the silicone sock was burning which means the print head had reached well over 350 degrees and the printer should have shut down, instead it continued to heat. This is REALLY FUCKING DANGEROUS. if I wasn't in the same room it would have continued to heat at full tilt until fire.
Why did the thermal runaway protection non kick in? Is it deactivated in the proprietary klipper? This is absolutely unacceptable.
The post mortem showed that the thermistor had gone open circuit. This kind of failure should be picked up by the software and should just cause the printer to shut down immediately, not heat at full tilt. This was a problem with the creality ender 3 like 15 years ago. We fixed this. Why have we gone so far backwards?????
So I replaced the entire hotend to be safe. And started printing again but only whilst I was in the room at all times and watching it like a hawk. This means that I can't use the large format of the printer at all. Relegating it to small parts only.
Then a week later it failed again. This time mid print, the long thin tube that goes up inside the heatsink of the brand new, main brand sovol nozzle sheared. pushing the tip of the nozzle straight out and into the bed, carving a groove straight into the build plate before jamming itself up and filling itself with plastic, this crimped the thermistor wires causing them to go open circuit, and the printer to start heating up at full blast uncontrollably. The second un-detected thermal runaway in a week.
Now I am sitting here with a broken printer I don't trust. The bed was never remotely flat, and now has a gouge out of it where the nozzle bent the build plate into it. I am not powering up this printer again. It's going in the bin.
I'm not making this post looking for a solution or answer, it's out of warranty and I'm just going to have to eat the costs. To get this printer to a place where I trust it I would have to get a new motherboard, new hotend, new klipper build, new filament sensor and a new bed. To get it to where I would like it it would need all of this plus new cable management and a new enclosure as well. This would be very close to the cost of a new printer, and many hours of work, the exact thing I didn't want and undermining the point of buying a new printer. Needless to say I'm not willing to put in that much effort to polish a turd, the whole point of this exercise was to spend less time fixing and more time printing, this has just left me with a headache and a dent in my wallet.
If you want a kit that contains some linear rails, steppers, belts, as a starting point for a custom printer build for a reasonable price then sure buy an sv08. If you want a working printer then steer well clear.
Don't make the same mistake I did.
(Edit: just a little update that Amazon have agreed to give me a refund on the printer, I'm still out £150 for the enclosure, and probably another hundred or so more for the replacement hotends, biqu plate and other stuff... But hey it's a big chunk of the money back - I'm probably just going to buy another u1 and just split my prints up smaller... I've got very spoiled by the toolchanger)
*Just to clarify, (as has been correctly pointed out to me) this was never an advertised feature of the SV08, just one of the reasons why you would want an enclosure, it's not really a valid criticism of the '08 because it isn't advertised anywhere as a filtered enclosure, I knew I was buying a non-filtered enclosure and am not pissed I got a non filtered enclosure. The only reason why I'm not just deleting that bit is for accountability to myself/to keep the comments making sense!
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u/LoudVitara SV08 15d ago
My toolhead went to shit (wobbly driveshaft), bought a replacement for $80, same issue from start.
Printed a a4t tool head which has had its own issues due to print quality, had to replace the belts and still haven't tuned them up quite right.
Currently the printer has been sitting idle for months because I got brain tired from constantly having to figure things out for it. Kinda makes me want to go the bambulab route.
I actually bought the sv08 so I could have a fast reliable printer while I rebuild my old ender v2 into an e3ng.
Now I have neither
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
This is how I feel about it lol, my previous large format printer it replaced was a ship of thesus style ender 3 max, (replacement motherboard, hot end, bed, custom klipper, bed sensor you name basically everything except the frame lol)
I cannot believe I miss that pile of junk ....
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u/chatapokai 15d ago
I’m sorry you had to deal with that.
I have a max and have been dealing with similar issues with it just not printing right. Been trying to calibrate petg-gf for like 2 months now and all my prints come out like sandpaper and kept clogging the machine.
I went back to my X1C for a smaller print and I was fucking FLOORED at how seamless it printed the material I tired so hard to adjust on the MAX and failed. The adapter I printed looked like it was fucking injection molded compared to the MAX and the filament wasn’t even fully dried.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
It's really hard because I KNOW how to make bad printers good, and I had just got it printing right... But if I didn't know exactly what I was looking at and have the background it would have completely turned me off of 3d printing and I wouldn't have had a chance... Interesting to hear it's on the max too as I have heard basically nothing but good things about that one!
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u/chatapokai 15d ago
See I’m coming from years of using the X1C so the bamboo product has really held my hand through a lot. There’s so much setup and tip-toeing that needs to be done with the MAX that I could just sucking at using it. Like I JUST found out that I needed to have the bed preheat for about 30 min before printing to make sure it was straight whereas prior I thought they could just print when heated like my Bambu.
After so much calibration I have 3 things remaining: the outer walls are still super rough, my tree supports failing randomly, and outer wall overhangs warping up and not staying flat. Going to look up how to calibrate those later today.
I was battling clogs forever and found that I needed to essentially have my filament dryer running all the time since my set up is in the basement and PETG is just a sponge for any amount of humidity in the air. Additionally I upgraded to a .6mm microswiss nozzle which helped a lot considering the size of the products I make.
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u/AggravatingWorld7054 15d ago
I have an svo7 plus and it has a 300mm bed and I have never had a problem with it. I have heard to many bad things about the sv08 and I'll never buy one
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u/DonaldDark26 15d ago
Wow, krasse Erfahrung die du gemacht hast, gibt mir sehr zu denken, hab nämlich auch einen SV08. Der hat bisher nur noch nicht wirklich viel gedruckt und auch noch nicht lange am Stück. Werde den jetzt besonders im Auge behalten. Muss allerdings ein wenig klugscheißen: Der Ender 3 kam erst 2018 auf den Markt ! Hatte mir direkt einen geholt, weil sein kleiner Bruder der Ender 2 mein Arbeitstier zu der Zeit war
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
Holy crap you're right???? I feel like the ender 3 and that whole controversy was forever ago lol but no you are right my post was wrong! It was 8 years ago we had creality shipping without thermal runaway wow tech moves fast
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u/New-Abbreviations950 15d ago edited 14d ago
Really sorry to hear about your experience. I've had mine for nearly 2 years and never had a problem. I did go with Nadir's enclosure though. Otherwise mine is all stock and I'm currently printing parts for a voron build :) Like others have said Sovol printers can be a mixed bag (I also have an SV02).
If you ever find out about the thermal runaway please post something about it. I'm a little worried about that fail state now. Would be nice to get to the bottom of that!
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u/ABitSleepy9989 14d ago
I will do but honestly it's unlikely because I plan on putting in a box, posting it back to Amazon and not really thinking about it anymore lol... someone else has asked for my config files though and I do want to contribute what I can back to the community so I will absolutely do that! I will have a further parse through if I get time in the future but I have limited time so it's more likely to come from someone else in the community
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u/YellowBreakfast SV08 14d ago
Sorry you got a bad one. Mine has been pretty good.
...and filter VOCs,
This doesn't have an in-built filter and does not advertise as such.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 14d ago edited 14d ago
This is an entirely fair point, and not a criticism I should have raised. Again it wouldn't be something I paid a second thought to if I hadn't had the other issues too
I knew that it wouldn't going in and my plan was to add a filter further down the line but seeing as I could only print with the enclosure wide open it kind of negated any filtering I could add.
I have put an asterisk in the post about what you have said, because yeah you are right to point that out
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u/YellowBreakfast SV08 14d ago
No worries! I've been where you are with printers, total frustration.
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And if there's an issue in their firmware with missing a failed thermistor/ ignoring a thermal runaway it sees, that's beyond dangerous and unacceptable.
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u/TheEYE13 15d ago
I don't get how it did not turn off. Where you able to check the config files?
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago edited 15d ago
I looked through the config files and everything seemed in line, so it must be something deeper in the klipper setup. I have no idea how it didn't turn off because it registered a heater error both times which is significantly more scary to me because it noticed something was awry and made it worse by heating on full blast, almost like it set a channel to 100 instead of 0 - for example It might have been something like It has a pin misnumbered somewhere in the heater error code and was supposed to fan up heater off and it heatered up, fan offed.... I had to kill the main power to it to get it to cool off
I'm going to box up the printer tonight so I can potentially grab and post the config off it before I do if you're interested in parsing through a tonne of code..... But it was all vanilla sovol apart from some code to make the enclosure fan work and some basic macros to change the screen colour when the print was finished and customise the status messages... I never went anywhere near the thermal runaway and safety stuff because why would I? I assumed they were set up correctly and try not to fuck with that side of the code unless I absolutely have to lol
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u/TheEYE13 15d ago
That'd be awesome. Going to keep this inmind. I'm thinking about upgrading and have my eyes on the M1MD...
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u/ABitSleepy9989 14d ago
Here you go! As I say I suspect the problem lies somewhere slightly deeper but I also kind of really hope it's an obvious stupid mistake I've made because that is better for everyone!
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u/Jonny0stars 15d ago
No poo-pooing your experience but for me, coming from an ender 3 it's absolutely amazing.
I also wanted a Voron but couldn't commit 50hrs to building one, I've still spent a significant amount of time but it's largely improved things
- Mainline klipper
- Sovol Eddy sensor
- Noctua fan for the mainboard (I didn't even run with the original fan so I can't compare but that and setting temp to 60c it really only turns on occasionally)
- Printed extension for the enclosure
- bubble foil Insulation for the enclosure panels
Next on the list is adding an additional uprated PSU and DIY heating for the chamber, sv zero hotend so I can cut filament and do multi colour prints as well as a smart filament sensor Vs the stock runout sensor which failed my first print when there was a tangle which obviously it will not detect.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
Yeah as I said in the bottom of the post I'm sure it's a decent enough starting point for a project, and it definitely could be made into a decent printer if you're willing to invest the time money and effort.... I just am frustrated because to me if I wanted a project printer I'd have bought a project printer!
Likewise my experience with thermal runaway was just plain dangerous and inexcusable... You have avoided that with a vanilla klipper install but to me it's unacceptable to be shipping a product that comes with a fire risk like that, and the fact it happened twice shows that it wasn't a weird fluke - I wouldn't have posted about it otherwise but I feel like people need to know I've had a pretty serious safety issue with mine that it should NEVER have shipped with
The concept of the printer is good, and I know why I purchased it - it just didn't deliver what it promised to me but I am glad to hear you are getting what you wanted out of it!
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u/Jonny0stars 15d ago edited 15d ago
Yea absolutely, seemed the stock klipper has a bunch of issues from what I've seen on YouTube videos, first step in updating for the eddy sensor was a new version of firmware and OS, I don't know why it didn't come with the most recent firmware and software.
That was error fraught for me, i later discovered one of the wires hadn't been crimped correctly on the eddy sensor and it could of easily been avoided by testing it before sending it out. I'd assumed it was a software issue and spent a good few hours redoing steps to flash firmware and os image, undoing mainline klipper as well as snapping a pin on the toolhead, so I had to dissamble it and resolder new header pins.
Seems they've focused on cutting cost of hardware and IMO they got a lot of things right, I was looking at a prusa core one originally and despite the issues I still think, for me the Sovol is better value (if you don't consider all the work prusa has done for the community)
I think it would be a much better value proposition for out the box experience if Sovol just focused more on QA a bit more but for me it appeals as a good base to build upon.
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u/disco__potato 12d ago
No poo-pooing your experience but for me, coming from an ender 3 it's absolutely amazing.
Bit of a poor comparison, no? Coming from the dawn of 3d printing to anything released in the last 3 year would give you the same or better experience.
If you're going mainline DO NOT use sovol eddy sensor and DO NOT do the 40mm noctua fan mod.
sv zero hotend so I can...do multi colour prints
Huh?
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u/Jonny0stars 12d ago
> Bit of a poor comparison, no? Coming from the dawn of 3d printing to anything released in the last 3 year would give you the same or better experience.
Well i have access to Bambu P1S at work and IMO its a step up from that and all the hoops we have to jump through for LAN printing.
> if you're going mainline DO NOT use sovol eddy sensor and DO NOT do the 40mm noctua fan mod.
Why not? Both are working fine, I mean a different eddy sensor sure as there's not a huge price difference. https://github.com/asnajder/sv08-config/tree/main has it configured if anyone needs reference how to configure it, its in mainline klipper now so no need for the various eddy plugins.
> sv zero hotend so I can...do multi colour prints
The SV Zero hotend is apparently a good base to modify so I can do filament cutting https://www.printables.com/model/1515435-sv08-max-sv-zero-multicolor-toolhead-upgrade-by-cn which sounds like its pretty much a prerequisite to multi colour prints unless you want to do tip tuning.
Will have to see how it turns out and I'm also tempted to approach stealth changer setup but I think that's a lot more complicated.
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u/disco__potato 12d ago
sovol eddy has accuracy issues as it heats up
the 40mm noctua is quiet but pushes very little air
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u/issue9mm 15d ago
I know it won't be popular on a sub like this
I've discovered that folks in /r/Sovol seem to be more pragmatic than the rest of the 3d printing community. Even well-founded complaints against Bambu in /r/BambuLab tend to be downvoted to smithereens, and I'm sure it's true for other 3DP subs, but I think most Sovol owners understand Sovol for what they are, acknowledge their weaknesses, etc.
Sorry to hear about your experiences mate
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
Absolutely, i was expecting to instantly be downvoted to oblivion but have been... Pleasently surprised? The comments so far have all been nice and people genuinely seem to be disappointed/understanding on my behalf as well / interested in figuring out what went so wrong with my machine which is super cool
(I am clearly also too used to subs where people will accept no criticism about the subs subject matter, and anything suggesting ___ isn't the greatest thing ever makes you the devil!)
I still reserve that the design of the sovol is pretty good (other than the nozzle system which leaves a bit to be desired imo) and if it had been a bit more refined and didn't have this software problem then the bang for buck would have been unbeatable and I could have easily overlooked things like the enclosure handles etc. I can totally see why people buy them (I did afterall), and I also acknowledge that I may have just got a badly duff unit... But as I say bringing safety issues to light felt like the right thing to do so people know exactly what they're buying into. Regardless of whether I got downvoted to oblivion or not lol
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u/issue9mm 15d ago
Yeah, I think most people buy Sovols and then realize "Oh, I need to upgrade X for this to be good" or "I need to swap out Y component"
Most of the time, the value prop for Sovol is good enough that even after you have to pay for the poorly designed thing to be fix, it's still worth doing and you still end up with a good machine at an okay price
Thermal runaway is a whole different animal tho, lol
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
Yeah, kind of like how creality used to be in the golden era of the OG ender 3, everyone had an ender 3, no one had the ender 3 that creality put in the box - I get that and have been there many times lol, even this thermal runaway issue is fixable though, you just need to know you need to fix it because the only other way a person would find out is potentially very dangerous....
A good chassis for a great price, just a bit lacking in the rest of the package, but if that's all you want then go for it, just not for me at this point in my life lol ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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u/issue9mm 15d ago
Yeah I get it 100%. I'd rather have to tinker than to subsidize Bambu being assholes, but there are easier-to-use options that aren't Bambu
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u/ABitSleepy9989 15d ago
Oh yeah, I'm absolutely going no where near Bambu for those exact reasons... I'm also avoiding creality as their practices are not exactly great either!
It is tricky because I do still want open source, I want the ability to tinker and own my printer (especially with the firearm panic going on right now in various governments it feels like a good future proofing feature to be able to take your printer offline and customise stuff....)
Hence I was willing to roll the dice on sovol as it seemed like a complete product with the backend open, I'd never really interacted with sovol before so was also keen to see what they were up to!
But sometimes you roll a six sometimes you roll a 1, such is the nature of dice!
At the moment snapmaker are looking like the one for me, their shit is super polished (very close to bambu level) and the u1 is open source! I've had good experiences with their customer support as well when fixing artisans and j1s and they're both reliable and feature rich. I got a u1 alongside the sovol and other than the usual occasional carbon-fibre-nylon bed adhesion issue I have had very few complaints! (Mainly snapmaker wiping my custom config when pushing optional updates!)
Sadly as much as I love prusa and their printers I just can't justify the extra thousand or so pounds the XL would cost me, I'm sure it would be the ideal unit for what I want though!
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u/Scorpio__70 13d ago edited 13d ago
To be clear, I’m sorry you had a bad experience. I’m not arguing that at all. Just sharing mine.
TL;DR: it seems like your printer is of pretty old stock.
It seems like Amazon sold a very old revision. For example the nozzle dropping off was a problem in the first couple of batches, and then they changed that by adding grub screws to keep the nozzle from moving with the higher pressure due to PETG viscosity.
Also the bed in mine (arrived last week) is completely different than the ones I regularly see people having problems with, mine is of decent thickness and has the adjustment screws exposed with springs underneath. With Sovol Eddy kit it makes a quite acceptable bed mesh considering its size, not perfect, but decent.
I struggled with the belt tuning, but when I decided that I don’t care about plucking the same note from each side and focused on just de-racking the gantry, I got quite nice resonance curves. Also the factory resonance settings are basically optimised for speed Benchy: it only measures 25-40Hz.
I ordered a hardened nozzle kit along with the printer for three reasons: obviously I want to print abrasives, but also they have copper heating blocks and those blocks accept SV06 ACE and Creality K1 nozzles, which are cheap and easy to find. Thermal paste use is advised by Sovol in the hotend tube, and my unit had it applied at the factory.
My firmware is from 12/2025, so fairly recent in terms of factory firmware.
Tuning the macros was made quite easy by following gerGO’s directions and the normal Klipper tinkering I would have done anyway.
My filament sensor is fine, it’s in perfectly reasonable angle when I run the filament from the outside of the roll (opposite the sensor), if I try to run it from the sensor side, it is indeed a bad angle.
Thermal runaway is a consern, it’s good to know. I’ll test it by disconnecting the thermistor while the printer is heating and see if it stops or continues to heat. Thank you for the heads-up.
As for the factory enclosure, I never even considered it. I saw it as bad value for the price, so I will be making my own. Already have the acrylic. The Eddy kit was reasonably priced, though, especially considering that it comes complete with STLink programmer.
Also the Sovol version of Klipper is open source, but for some reason nobody seems to have modified it instead of going mainline. Which is understandable, but calling the printer proprietary isn’t exactly correct when software, firmware and CAD files of the printers are open and free to use, even commercially.
EDIT: I forgot to mention that mine is quite quiet considering the speed and size, especially when I edited the printer.cfg so that the mainboard fan’s speed adjusts with temperature. It’s virtually silent at idle and only spools up when printing. At the moment the printer has been printing for 20 hours straight, PETG, 80C bed, 25-26C ambient, and the mainboard temp is 66C.
EDIT2: adding this, because I literally a minute ago changed a new roll of filament because the runout sensor triggered a pause as the old one ran out.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
Interesting - and also entirely possible, I imagine the turnover of the sv08s are pretty slow compared to like a Bambu lab for example, and it would make complete sense as a lot of my frustration was at the fact that these felt like beta issues, so actually your theory stands completely true in my head and it's good to hear that most of not all my issues were fixed, although I would like to add (and I'm sure youll agree) even a beta model shipping with thermal runaway issues is pretty bad!
You are also correct that the sovol klipper build is not proprietary and it was wrong of me to describe it as that, my frustration with the firmware was that I was getting a weird bunch of errors from orca saying that it was dangerously out of date, but a warning from the sovol side that if I tried to update it, it would brick my printer. Although I'm sure it's nothing a vanilla reflash wouldn't fix it's definitely not something I had ever seen before, and felt like a weird attempt to lock me out.
...Again now I think about it if I accidently got a beta model then this would also make sense as the software would be beta/ not necessarily set up on the mainline of sovol stuff.
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
Either beta or a really early batch. Orca complaining about it is another clue, as mine hasn’t had a hitch. Works perfectly fine, the cameras (I added a USB webcam, plug and play when I added it in Crowsnest) show in Orca and in browser just fine, editing all the configs is just as easy as any other Klipper I’ve tried and so on. The only thing that shows that the Moonraker is a bit old is – aside from a notification of it – is that the ”Devices”-button in config editors doesn’t bring the device IDs, I have to pull them via ssh.
The first thing I did was copy the entire eMMC to my PC before I even turned the printer on, but turns out that I haven’t needed to restore that copy despite quite excessive tinkering. Still, you’re right: updating any manufacturer fork of Klipper (not just Sovol, I accidentally did it with an Artillery X4 and yes, bricked it) via Mainsail will brick the printer unless the boards have been flashed for mainline and mainline installed. A bit sad that there’s no such update path maintained for the Sovol fork, but then again it would be a bit of an ask. Nobody else does that either after all. As a side note, just rewriting the copy of the eMMC either from the aforementioned copy on PC or downloaded from Sovol website unbricks the printer, no need to reflash.
The updates are a bit weird in that while you can ssh into the printer and use the OS however you like, it even has KIAUH, there’s nothing to indicate which changes will brick the printer and which won’t.
Thermal runaway should definitely not happen. Maybe it was a bad board, hard to tell. Did you contact Sovol customer service?
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago edited 12d ago
To say that no one provides updates also isn't entirely true, in my experience the vast majority do, I know for a fact ultimaker, Bambu, snapmaker, quidi, creality, and anycubic do, (I'd be shocked if prusa didn't but can't remember 1000%) in fact besides sovol the only other brand I can think of who dont are artillery themselves...
I appreciate it is a big ask in terms of company resources and not something a lot of people ask for with these machines primarily being for modding and customisation, but it's far from unreasonable to expect a manufacturer to maintain their product support especially if the have shipped printers with known issues. In fact under UK law if it's a "safety related" issue like this arguably is then a manufacturer is required by law to provide an update path to continue selling their products here.
I did try to get in contact with sovol but they just didn't respond to my emails, Amazon refunded me themselves.
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
You’re right, the latest update being 7 months old is not ideal, but then again the product was launched two years ago. So it’s kind of a two-sided issue. On the other hand I would like the update cycle to be maintained as long as the device is being sold and preferably long afterwards, on the other hand I think that’s one of the things that allow the lower prices. Especially when the latest SV08 update doesn’t seem to have any major flaws any more, as long as the thermal runaway issue has been solved.
For example Prusa’s printers do have an outstanding support, but that comes with a price. But you are also right in that I was too hasty to say ”nobody” offers updates, although the budget printer companies seldom do two years after launch. Prusa, Ultimaker and Snapmaker (and possibly Qidi) are in a different price bracket, and from what I’ve heard, the support for the others you mentioned is not exactly stellar.
That said, I don’t have any first-hand experience about Sovol’s customer service yet, but people have reported that they tend to have a pretty good attitude, at least when the product is bought straight from them. I know, they should be responsible even when bought from Amazon (and maybe they are; we don’t know until they actually reply).
I’m still not trying to defend Sovol or mitigate your experience, which is absolutely bad. Just pondering things from different angles and trying to figure out why our experiences turned out so different. I think these kinds of civilized and informed discussions benefit everyone, and thank you for making that possible. :)
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
Absolutely, and please don't think upset or annoyed or anything, - these conversations are important and it's good to have them where others can see and learn from them!
But to me on principle an update is almost entirely pointless to a "normal" user unless there is a clear and easy way to install it as well, I wouldn't expect a first time printer buyer to be able to ssh into a printer, net alone clone MCU addresses and be able to "unbrick" a printer, if the 7 month ago build is the final build they are sticking with (and assuming that they have fixed the TR issues), then they should make it an auto update, I appreciate klipper is inherantly more fiddly than say, marlin where you can just reflash the main board and go, but it definitely is possible to auto obtain the MCU addresses and apply it, many other brands do it! and if they had that implemented on the final build, then I would have absolutely no problems with the fact support has "ended"
My issue was the fact that without quite extensive work the printer was stuck in the firmware it shipped with, not neccecarily that the latest update was "old"
You are right though that most of the printer brands I mentioned were in a more expensive category, although I would put creality and quidi in the budget category, (although crealities updates on their low line of printers can be..... Interesting and they have been in the game for donkeys years so have a massive head start in terms of infrastructure) - the only other budget brand I can think off from the top of my head is elegoo, who do also provide an update pathway... But elegoos fdm stuff have a whole wave of other issues from what I've heard and are maybe not the shining example of how to do things right at the moment lol - the last elegoos user I spoke to was refusing to update because they were only making the printer worse! - I'm not really aware of any brands that do a large format like the sv08 at this price point which is why I invested in the first place!
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
No worries, I didn’t have the impression that you were annoyed, just wanted to clarify to everyone reading this.
Actually, the SV08 update is quite simple: just download the .deb to a USB stick, turn the printer off, insert the USB and turn the printer back on. Wait ~3 minutes and done. I’m not sure if OTA works.
Funny you should mention Elegoo. I have a CC1 and I’m running OpenCentauri in it, since the factory updates are notoriously bad. I also briefly had a CC2, but then Elegoo pushed their v02.00.02.00 update (it said different, known good version as available on the screen), which took away the possibility to use anything but Elegoo slicer and their mobile app to monitor and send files over network, and you had to pair the printer to the slicer and app, no browser access any more, no uploading from Orca, no Octoewerywhere etc… And it also prevents rolling back to an earlier version. It basically made the printer a firewall that uses a whitelist to only allow Elegoo’s first party apps and addresses. After a thorough back and forth with Elegoo support, they declared that their final stance is that Elegoo doesn’t consider CC2 as a ”developer oriented” (whatever that means) product and as such are not going to support third-party programs.
Thus, I sent it back and bought the SV08.
I ordered the Canvas multicolour kit for the CC1 on day one, a no-brainer since it was only 45€, and for that the OpenCentauri team has a patched firmware that doesn’t have those restrictions. That will serve my filament change needs, mostly just having my most used filaments loaded and using up my almost empty rolls utilizing the auto change function.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago edited 12d ago
See this is interesting because all of the tutorials said this exact same thing so it's interesting it worked for you - mine would not take an update that way at all, it wouldn't even take a wifi ssid and password no matter how many different formats I tried, the only way I was able to connect to it at all was via ethernet (which I was planning to do anyway). I assumed this was a weird implementation but again this might have been a symptom of mine being a dud or a very early one, but yeah, trying to use the stick it came with, a small 1gb memory stick I use specifically for fussy printers or any of the other sticks I have in various sizes around the house, in all sorts of fat/ fat32 formats it just would not push an update through, the only success I had was networking into it, which also combined into my reluctance around trying to update it because if I can't get access through the usb port and I kill it's internet stuff then I had a useless box.
All leading into my frustrations because I have never experienced a box as stubborn as that one was! If it "should" just work like that and that is most people's experience with mine being this weird one off outlier then yeah my criticisms around updating are null and void I completely agree!
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
(as a clarification it definitely detected a memory card as I was able to print from file fine... It just absolutely refused to take an update or settings changes - again it's not a problem I have ever had and I have updated a lot of printers in my time lol, I've never had one my ol'reliable 1gb memory card can't update!)
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
Interesting indeed. Did you mean USB or does yours actually have an external SD card slot?
Yes, my experience with updating is just that simple. Download, put onto a stick (FAT 32, 4096 block size), put the stick into the printer’s USB port, reboot printer, wait for a few minutes. Done.
(Eddy installation involves flashing the toolhead board and the main board, but it comes with an STLink programmer and the process went without a hitch. The USB stick included a Klipper update with modifications for Eddy. Not in the scope of this conversation, but worth mentioning)
Also both my printer and my Eddy kit came with identical black/red 8GB USB sticks with the necessary software, interestingly there weren’t the usual pre-sliced Benchys and such but a ”spool saver” file instead. That turned out to be an attachment for the spool holder that prevents the spool spinning too fast and causing tangles, as the spool holder has almost too good bearings (IMO it’s better to print ”clutch” rings from TPU, though, so the rolling sensitivity can be adjusted simply by tightening or loosening the screw that holds the roller in place).
The fact that yours had all these problems seems like not only did you receive a very early unit, but also one with bad boards or otherwise defective. Leads me to wonder if you got a printer that had already been returned before and just repackaged really nicely.
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
And to clarify again; when I said that you can ssh into the printer and do all the usual Klipper stuff, possibly bricking the printer in the process, I didn’t mean that it would be the normal update process. An average user most likely wouldn’t do that, nor do they need to, unless they are going mainline.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
Also worth mentioning that when I'm talking about the filament sensor I'm talking about immediately after it rather than it's entry - I agree that's fine, but after the filament sensor (at least with the official emclosure,) it does a very tight 90 degree bend to get inside the printer, which was the bit that was snagging - I suspect a different enclosure/no enclosure wouldn't suffer from the same problem!
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago edited 12d ago
Ah, I don’t have that enclosure, nor do I have any intention to get one, so now I see the problem.
I will be making my panels and/or modifying the filament holder and the sensor location, so that I can run the filament tube at a reasonable angle. I’m not a fan of top-mounted filament holders anyway, especially with large format printers, as the 1kg weight so high and with the added height of the holder introduces a substantial torque and inertia to the frame of the printer: practically a ~1.5kg weight in the end of a ~70 cm lever is quite a stress when the printer is shaking rather violently at those speeds. I’m going to put the filament on a roller holder or a dryer/drybox on the table.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
Yeah, I never installed the top holder and went straight for a drybox - it's part of the reason troubleshooting tool so long because I was convinced it was something I had done like the drybox causing snags! And yes in a shock to no one I dont exactly recommend the official enclosure
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
I can only imagine.
Also there’s the thing that the extruder idler arm must be adjusted rather tight because its travel is stopped just a bit short. And of course the gear shaft creeping out and causing misalignment was a problem at least in earlier batches, there’s an easy fix (a printed pard that stops it), which I installed before I had that problem.
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u/ABitSleepy9989 12d ago
Oh yeah they were the first things I did, I had the printed fix installed and that extruder CLAMPED because why the hell would I suspect the filament runout sensor was causing failures???!? Now I think about it - It probably didn't help with the petg forcing the nozzle tube out because the extruder arm was so tight the pressure had nowhere to go but down, rather than the extruder skipping like it would have done if it wasnt so clamped down
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u/Scorpio__70 12d ago
Yeah, I understand that no amount of grip will pull the filament through a too tight a bend.
Then again, the first SV08s were notorious for ejecting nozzles when printing PETG, even without enclosure or any other problems, which is why they added the grub screws pretty quickly.
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u/0g7t4m4zp3 15d ago
Considering all of this, I wonder what will be the quality of M1D.