Printer Choice
This section will focus on printers from each budget range that could be useful for FTC teams. There will be many features listed and drawbacks listed for every budget range, but there is one feature that we would like to note that teams should not buy a printer without note of it being included.
Thermal Runaway Protection: This is a feature where if a thermistor on the printer disagrees with the heater input and temperature trends don’t make sense, the 3D printer will shut itself down. This is essential to prevent possible fires and teams should not buy 3D printers without this feature. Most 3D printers you buy today will have this due to firmware updates, despite the age of the printer, but it should still be checked.
Please search up whether the printer model you intend on buying has this feature. If you search up Ender 3s, you will find some results that say it does not, but this is dated information and not true, as Ender 3s are now shipped with that enabled in the firmware by default. All other printers that we list in our sections below are modern enough to have this feature as well.