KOKONI SOTA 3D printer with an inverted design (the printing head is under the hotbed) that supports printing speeds of up to 600mm/s, as well as 7-color printing through a filament tower adding support for 5 extra filament rolls.
The upside-down design was made to move motors and rails to the bottom base of the printer to lower the center of gravity and help improve stability, reduce the vibration to virtually nothing, and enable the faster printing speed. KOKONI also says the SOTA 3D printer offers 0.1mm accuracy thanks to AI radar detection and error compensation and operates relatively silently at 30dB one meter from the 3D printer.
KOKONI SOTA specifications:
- Printing size – 200 x 200 x 200 mm
- XY axis – Linear rail
- Z-axis
- SOTA Lite – Lead screw
- SOTA – High-precision ball screws
- Drive motor
- SOTA Lite – high-speed stepper motor
- SOTA – Closed-loop motor with magnetic encoder
- Print surface
- SOTA Lite – Glass (heated)
- SOTA – Glass (coated and heated)
- Auto-bed leveling support
- Printing speed
- Max movement speed – 600mm/s
- Max acceleration – 21000mm/s2
- Filament
- 2x filament rolls by default, up to 7x filament rolls with additional filament tower (SOTA only)
- Diameter – 1.75mm
- Supported materials – PLA, PETG, TPU (not at high-speed); Supported, but not recommended: ABS, ASA, PET, PA, PC, PVA
- Smart features
- SOTA only – Optical radar
- Built-in LED
- Filament detection
- 1080p timelapse and remove the monitoring camera; The SOTA model also supports AI recognition
- Display – Included in the SOTA model only
- Host interfaces – WiFi, Bluetooth, USB
- Input format – STL, OBJ, G-code
- Cooling and filtering (SOTA only) – Chamber cooling fan and filter
- SOTA only – Plastic full enclosure (the SOTA Lite does not come with an enclosure)
The SOTA 3D printer can be controlled from a PC through software such as Prusaslicer, Supercliser, and Cura with a KOKONI plugin provided for the Smart features, as well as the KOKONI3D mobile app available for Android and iOS. The mobile app comes with a model gallery, supports remote monitoring of the 3D printer, as well as some more advanced features like the ability to create a 3D avatar from your photos or even create 3D objects from 2D photos. A Facebook group has also been set up to provide support.
I could not find any video showcasing color printing yet (except the promo video), but the company has uploaded a real-life test showing the popular Benchy sample printed in 20 minutes using 300mm/s printing, 0.25mm layer height, and PLA filament. For reference, I recently printed the Benchy sample on the Creality Ender-3 S1 Pro with default settings (50mm/s, 0.15mm layer height) and it took around 3 hours, while Karl’s tested speed printing on the Longer LK5 Pro using the same Benchy sample and managed to get the print completed in about 50 minutes with a 0.2mm layer or 37 minutes with 0.3mm layer.
KOKONI SOTA 3D printer has recently launched on Kickstarter and raised close to $650,000 US so far with 46 days to go. Rewards start at $550 SOTA Lite 3D printer, but you may be disappointed with his model, as it lacks some of the features of the SOTA 3D printer that goes for $700, or $900 with the filament tower as part of the “KOKONI SOTA Combo” reward. Shipping is free to several countries but adds $30 to some others. Deliveries are expected to start in August 2023.
Note that crowdfunded 3D printers have a mixed history with outright scams or projects that fails during manufacturing due to unexpected costs. At least KOKONI has some real-life demos for their 3D printer, but as usual, bear in mind you are taking a risk and you may never receive your printer. A few more details may also be found on the product page.
Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011.
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If you’re interested, first look at the feedback on their previous printer:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/kokoni-1st-3d-printer-with-instant-ai-3d-modeling#/discussion
My guess is that they’ll deliver something that works, but it won’t deliver on all the promises
Did I miss where they discuss how they make prints stick to the print bed upside-down? I can see it working for certain models and filaments, but it can be tricky at times when the model is not having to resist gravity.
I’m also curious how they plan to deal with sags in bridging, which is going to sag in the way of the printhead in an upside-down configuration.
I bet it won’t be an issue at all, especially for parts that aren’t huge. Print warping exerts MUCH higher forces all around, plus this isn’t a bed slinger so it won’t move the part fast. would be fun to find the part on the floor after the bed cooled and it popped off though, lol.
One thing that would be horrible to clear is failed first layers, it looks really uncomfortable to reach there