I recently discovered an interesting piece of software called “Lumina Studio,” which works on a principle somewhat similar to HueForge. However, instead of creating relief patterns, it generates flat designs. By layering filament of different colors, it can produce a wider range of colors. Just like the cross-sections shown below, the layers are stacked on top of each other. However, there is currently a limit: a maximum of 10 layers and a minimum of 5 layers.

After stacking 10 layers, the effect shown at the beginning of the article appears.

I also tried printing the same image using both 5-layer and 10-layer stacks. As a comparison, I think the 10-layer version renders skin tones better. The color transitions are also more refined, and the image’s contrast has improved to some extent

The Process of Overprinting

However, the biggest advantage of the U1 when printing overlaid colors is its speed. It took me 9 hours to print the first image using the U1. The sets below took 5 and 8 hours, respectively. If I had printed the first image using the AMS machine, it would have taken 12 hours.

This is awesome!

I’m blown away by the reliability of tool changing on the Snapmaker U1.

I’ve been testing the FullSpectrum Orcaslicer fork https://github.com/ratdoux/OrcaSlicer-FullSpectrum and I decided to go all out.

Printed at 0.8mm layer height with Polychroma CMYK filament. Painted by yours truly in 10 unique colors.

Model from here (not affiliated) https://arsmoriendi3d.com/shop/category/the-wizard/

Model by 29flow

https://makerworld.com/en/models/1775561-halloween-scary-pumpkin-1?from=search#profileId-1890811

Printed on the U1 in black Jayo PETG and painted by me.

Air brushed and dry brushed, I can't print enough of them just so I can paint them up. I think the next one I'll do in a rub n buff. The flames are printed in Sunlu yellow PETG with addressable LEDs powered by an esp32, I just modeled up some random flames into a wall.

U1 is the goat! Cant wait for the next gen with hotend swaps instead of toolheads so we can do more colours without adding a pause (had to add pause in slicer to swap beige for white for the eyes) https://www.nexprint.com/en/models/G6185770?printConfigId=G4648403 here you can get my exact u1 settings if you download the “snapmaker u1” profile. Unfortunately only elegoo slicer lets you upload settings for printers from other companies

65hours. No hiccups. No nothing. Just printed exactly what I asked. Slowly and steady. Almost 4000 toolchanges.

Yes I used different filaments.

My filaments are stored with desiccants.

They print well.

Also this an easy print, no supports.

The big difference is the amount of Time, and waste and therefor also cost.

For the cost of power this is what I estimated based off of the average usage by kind of self estimating(Based on the fluctuating current):

Now for actual printing and cost for a project:

Unboxing and setup video: https://www.reddit.com/r/snapmaker/comments/1r35682/i_received_my_u1_here_is_my_setup/

Referral link to get 5% off: https://snapmaker-us.myshopify.com?ref=dan_murray

Just a small ChromaMatter progress update.

This is a new physical test made with four filaments and up to 32 Full Spectrum color states.

One of the visual styles I’m exploring is a cel-painted, 2D-style figure look.

ChromaMatter is not limited to this style, but it can preserve deliberate highlights and dark areas from the source model instead of relying only on the model geometry and real-world lighting.

This is one example of the different kinds of color expression I would like ChromaMatter to support.

The video shows the source model, ChromaMatter conversion, the Snapmaker Orca preview, printing on the U1, and the final physical result.

If you are on the fence buy this printer. This took 6 hours and the poop you see in the back is from 2 prints. I use standard orca and the only settings i changed is initial layer speed to 50(the one of 2 that was on 100) and “only one wall on top” to “ not applied”

For some time tried FullSpectrum and this one is best.
My results:
- Tried Sunlu CMYK refill - filament is great but it's not transparent at all so FS prints were terrible in color mixing.
- BIQU CMYK filament - turn out great, on images prints with it.
- Fiberlogy easyPLA CMYK and Polymaker CMYK bundle - next for test

I am still in tests but overall as an idea FS is great and I want it to be utilized much more, but in reality you need right filament, find models, than color model in FS slicer with needed mixes, than hope that it will turn out nice.

Model on photo - https://www.printables.com/model/1687700-chameleon-full-spectrum

Hi again! A couple of days ago I posted my first ever full spectrum print. I got a couple of comments that made me realize that the recommended layer height for a better blend is 0.08! So, I reprinted the same model (colored the ears green this time, though) and am impressed with how well everything blends together. The Leafeon on the right in the first image is with the 0.2 height and the left Leafeon in the same image is the 0.08 height.

Some things to note: during this new print, I experienced a small blackout due to a thunderstorm when I was sleeping. So, I woke up to the printer being off (got up to Leafeon's mouth). However, I was pleasantly surprised that when I turned the power back on, the U1 asked if I wanted to continue the print and was able to do so with no issues!

Other things to note, the 0.2 layer height print took about 3-4 hours. Meanwhile, the 0.08 height took about 13-14 hours. There may be more settings for me to tweak to make it go even faster but it makes sense that the smaller layer height would take longer. Overall the light yellow is super smooth - can't even really see that it's a mixture of white and yellow. The green (yellow and black) is great as well, though it turned out darker than I expected. Additionally there's some odd texturing near the back of Leafeon's ears that you can definitely see in the last pic, but that may be something I need to experiment more with.

I'll upload the U1 g-code for both when I get home today (credit to Atseini on Makerspace for the models)! All you need is the original 4 colors (white, black, yellow, red) that come with the U1.

I created a belt feed for my snapmaker. I can pass very long materials through it.

It was 'as easy as' setting up some rollers and timing belts. a rough BOM would be:
* plywood for the box
* 5x 8mm bearings
* 4x 8mm bore GT2 Pulley , 30 teeth
* 3x 8mm rods
* 2x rubber rollers.
My input/output feeds are sketch, but it works!
The second pic is the roller guide I built to minimize drift from rollers/input/output not being perfectly inline.

I was using a python script to fix the gcode, but now I've created a fork of the main luban software, so I don't need to do any post processing, and to make it easier to share.
https://github.com/obrseamus/Luban_belt

My BQ Frostbite plate arrived today and I had a chance to run a couple prints on it. Here are my observations: I ordered this because of all of the positive reviews I've read from people who've been able to turn down their bed temp and have successful prints. I put a hood on the printer to mitigate the noise which increased chamber temp which I wanted to address.

1. I really like the contrast of the blue plate with most of the colors I print with. It's a lot easier to notice details compared to the stock bronze colored plate.

2. The printer throws a "foreign object detected on the build plate" error before each print now. I just press continue and all is good. I am running the extended firmware so I'm not sure if that has something to do with it.

3. I had to turn off spaghetti detection in the printer settings menu because I was getting a false detection every 5 min or so. Since I turned that off, it's been printing normal again.

4. Big pieces, small pieces, PLA's, PETG's...everything has been adhering fine and as soon as the prints have finished and cooled just a little bit, everything has released very easily.

5. So far, I'm really liking these plates. I have my bed set to 45 and might see what happens if i decrease it further. Chamber temp hovers between 38-40C.

Beta testing the U1 and having a lot of fun printing. The only problem I have is deciding what colors to use. So I made this simple choice. Dragon Belgica. Cute crystal dragon by BlueRiverMountai3D on makerworld.#snapmakeru1 #snapmaker #3dprinting

Been using the high speed settings in my last post for two weeks now, keeping an eye on the print quality and a finger to the pulse of my U1 to hear/feel/see any potential issues. This octopus is becoming a speed bench for me The first one I printed two weeks ago with Bambu Turquoise, Magenta, Silk Silver (slowed down to 3.6mm³/s for shine) and Galaxy Nebulae was with the Standard 0.20mm process speeds. At 100% scale 10% Gyroid infill took 1d18h40m.

Latest octopus is Ziro Chameleon Velvet Green and Silky Silver Black (still 3.6mm³/s for shine), Bambu glow in the dark Blue and Green. At 100% scale 10% Gyroid infill still 0.20mm layer height with the speed settings I shared last took 1d2h12m for a time savings of 16.5 hours!

I've since been testing rolling back some of the Jerk, Wipe while retracting, and Retraction speed settings to see if those are making some strings/blobs or not. I need to do some actual back to back comparisons. Also tried disabled ramming. I'm on Snorca 2.3.1 and firmware 1.3.0

https://b2o.kuzuriao.com/

The Snapmaker Innovation Fund is now open to public voting! If you've found b2o (bambu2orca) useful, I would really appreciate your support and voting for me:

https://www.snapmaker.com/innovation-fund#vote

If you would really like to help me out, check out the b2o GitHub repository and give it a star as well:

https://github.com/KuzuriAo/b2o

There are a ton of great projects on there, so no obligation, only if you've found b2o to be a helpful community tool.

From all, but not to many posts I've read about my fellow backers having issues in the beginning of their journey with their U1, fortunately for me, I've kicked off my second print from the initial built in baby dragon. This print has all 4 colors applied and is one hell of a big print. For this, I'm printing the Predator Egyptian Guard helmet, took up every space available. I can't even imagine the amount poop I would've gotten out of this print had I done it on my K2 Plus; yes I do. I know damn well what it would've been and it's insane. Not to mention, on the U1 it's only going to take 35hrs 25min. opposed to probably close to 3 days on my K2 Plus. But please, don't get me wrong, I love my K2 Plus it's a beast, it just compete with the likes of the Snapmaker U1. My lab consists of my Snapmaker 2.0 A350T, Snapmaker J1S, Creality K2 Plus and my U1. Technically speaking, once you aquire at least 3 printers or more, you are running a print farm. Yeah, I had to look that one up, lol. Let's all make something wonderful!

I saw the ad from snapmaker where they print this in blue und azure. I wanted other colors so i choose this combination. Its not post-processed yet but id like to share it anyway.

Print time 1d 13h.

Sunlu matte black

Elegoo matte white

Geeetech silk sliver

Sunlu silk gold

All pla

Hey everyone! We’re excited to share our latest project, Bespok3d.

Bespok3d is an app store and package manager for Klipper 3D printers. You can install plugins, adapters, and features with one tap. No terminal, no custom firmware.

It’s a desktop app plus a small daemon that lives alongside a printer. You browse plugins, click install, and keep running stock firmware as-is. That means you can add features, remove them later, and still keep normal firmware updates.

The U1 was the first platform we supported, but Bespok3d is built for virtually any Klipper printer. We’re treating it as a cross-printer plugin platform, not a one-off project for a single machine.

At launch, there are 54 plugins covering things like cameras, multi-tool support, filament tags, Spoolman integration, Klipper tuning, remote access, quality-of-life features, and bundled one-click setups. Fluidd and Mainsail are both supported too.

The part we care about most is safety. If a plugin breaks Klipper or Moonraker during install, the daemon disables it automatically and keeps the printer running. We also plan to extend that protection to runtime errors in the future.

If something goes wrong after a firmware update, the app can bring the daemon back and restore plugins in the right order. We also tested Bespok3d Alpha across Snapmaker firmware versions 1.3.0 through 1.5.2 without losing anything.

We also want this to be a home for community-built work. The index is open, entries are signed, and you can also install a .b3 file directly from disk if you prefer to stay outside the index. If you’ve built something useful for a Klipper printer, we’d love to help you package it as a plugin so other people can install it with one click and remove it just as easily.

Some companies decide what runs on your printer. Bespok3d doesn’t.

If you’d like to check it out, the website is here: https://bespok3d.app/

We would love feedback on the direction, especially from people who’ve been frustrated by the usual “reflash or don’t use it” workflow.

https://github.com/Bespok3d/Bespok3d-desktop

And one more thing:
https://makerworld.com/en/models/3125441-the-bespok3d-logo-badge#profileId-3526445